Football/Soccer

[marticlar]

Can someone please explain the stages involved in kicking a ball (Football/soccer)?

10x

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[ramleo]

Hi there ,
Kicking movement in football is a relatively easy series of rotational movements. In this movement, the aim is to produce through the kinematic chain of body segments, high angular velocity to the foot. The length of the body segments or the radius of rotational movements influences the linear velocity of the rotating foot. Thus the body height and lengths of different body segments are an advantageous feature for players, because the linear velocity of rotating levers can be expressed as a product of the radius of rotational movement and angular velocity.

The role of the arms in kicking is primarily to maintain the balance of the body. The arms are usually extended out to the sides of the body during the forward motion of the kicking leg, to help to keep the center of gravity over the support foot, and to increase the moment of inertia of the trunk and increase resistance to rotation around the spine, or the long axis of the body. As the kicking foot contacts the ball, the opposite arm moves forward and upward across the body to help keep the trunk down and the body in balance.

The momentum of the kicking foot and leg is the product of the mass of the leg and the velocity of the foot at impact, plus the velocity of the body as the player approaches the ball. The greater the mass of the leg, and the greater the velocity of the foot at impact, the greater the resultant velocity of the ball at impact.

The instep kick is the most powerful kick in the sport of soccer. Basically, the instep is the region on top of the foot where the shoelaces are tied.

I hope that i wasn't confusing..!!!!!!

Cheers.

[marticlar]

No not at all! You were really helpful 10x

[ramleo]

Hi ,
It was my pleasure.

May i know what you do? Are you a trainer, physio etc?

I am a physiotherapist and a sports trainer from India. And i am a big football fan.

[marticlar]

I'm a physiotherapy student (still in my second year!) so I've still got a lot to learn lol

[Physiobase]

Note also and importantly that the stick force at contact does have a strong relationship to the eccentric strength of the hamstrings. This is because the extension moment created about the knees via the quads etc must first be "checked" or slowed down prior to contract so that the player does not hyperextend the keen and cause injury. I suppose the cruciates are assisting the brain with some angular velocity information during this phase.

Therefore a strong quads group will only be as good as the hamstrings are to slow them down. If the hamstrings are weak then they will break earlier during the knee extension and the contact force will be less. Increase their eccentric strength and they can break later, thus permitting more power at contact. The message is: that without training any quads at all, but doing some "through-range" eccentric hamstring training, you can increase the contact force at you kick the ball. This of course assumes the individual is not already highly trained.

It is not really any different in concept to eccentric rotator cuff (external rotators) strength in a throwing arm. The stronger they are (and the better the trunk follows through) the less likely you are to feel that you threw your humerus out of the shoulder joint along with the ball.

[ramleo]

Very good point physiobase. Therefore to kick with force, and where there is an involvement of trunk rotation also, and to achieve balance throughout the process, one needs to train the core muscles. As the transmission of power from upper limb to lower limb and vice versa occurs through these core muscles.

[Physiobase]

Exactly! and the follow through stability is paramount throughout the body

[alophysio]

A good eccentric hamstrings exercise I use is where you kneel down with your body in the upright position and only your knees bent to 90deg.

Have someone hold your ankles or fix them to/under something very heavy.

Then concentrate on "falling forwards" from the **knees**, not the hips or L/S. You go down as far as you can control then come back up again. Usually only a very small number of reps and sets to start off with!

I am useless at doing this exercise but I have seen people able to go fully prone and then back up again! Amazing hamstring strength.

Be warned - your patients will cramp up. Don't forget to warn them and teach them how to de-activate their hams and stretch them properly!!!!

Enjoy - I will be cramping along with anyone who is willing to try!

BTW, i forget what these exercises are called but I think they have a name...

[Physiobase]

Yep, a nice exercise in itself but this is the body moving on a fixed lower leg. In kicking the leg is moving on a more fixed upper body position so functionally the origin/insertion has been reversed. Your idea is a good starting point though but be careful, the whole body weight on fairly pathetic hamstring tendons could cause some posterior meniscal irritation, so go easy.

[alophysio]

Totally agree with you. It was in my head because I had just used the exercise with a patient that day (not for soccer!).

What exercise would you use to eccentrically strengthen the hams in the kicking position?

Also, there is alot of talk about the quads but my impression was that the adductors and hip flexors were working more than the quads, which seem to work in the last part of the sequence. It would be like getting tiger woods to concentrate more on his wrist rotators than his trunk stabilisers and prime movers...

Thoughts?