Weak-foot weeks: an eight-week plan
Transcript
Give your weaker foot its own eight weeks. Here's the plan. You need a ball, two cones, a solid wall and a pen. Weeks one and two, touches. Three and four, wall passes. Five and six, dribbles and turns. Seven and eight, finishing. Each week, test yourself and write it down. Watch the test. Inside, outside, weaker foot only, thirty seconds. First, small touches, close to you. Not your stronger foot. Then, count every touch and beat last week. In one study, eight weeks of weaker foot training improved both feet. Our target is fifteen minutes a day, six days a week. Then take the free test at footballreach.com.
What it trains
An 8-week block for your weaker foot: 2 weeks each of touches, wall passes, dribbles and turns, then finishing, all weaker foot only, with a 30-second touch test every week so you can track your own score.
Set up
- A ball
- 2 cones
- A solid wall
- A pen and a card
How it works
- Write the plan on a card or a phone note: weeks 1-2 touches, 3-4 wall passes, 5-6 dribbles and turns, 7-8 finishing. Every session is weaker foot only. The video shows a left weaker foot: if you are left-footed, use your right.
- Weeks 1-2: sole rolls, inside-outside touches and pull-push with your weaker foot (the moves from The 100-touch box, episode 7, and Pull-push, episode 17).
- Weeks 3-4: Weak-foot wall passing (episode 5), the 2 cones against a solid wall as your target. Weeks 5-6: dribble out and back through the 2 cones with Cruyff turns (episode 18) and drag-backs (episode 24).
- Weeks 7-8: Weak-foot finishing (episode 9), the 2 cones as a goal, shots along the ground only.
- Every week, before a session: 30 seconds of weaker-foot inside-outside touches, counted out loud. Write down the date, your minutes and the count. In weeks 1 and 8, test your stronger foot too and compare the gap.
Coaching points
- Small touches, close. Small, soft touches with the inside, then the outside, of your weaker foot, the ball never more than a step away. Hop the foot over the ball between touches and stay light on your standing foot.
- Count every touch. Count every touch for 30 seconds and write the number down with the date, then try to beat it next week. In one study of 39 players aged 15-20, the 18 who used only their weaker leg in all team training except full games for 8 weeks improved on tests with both legs, compared with a control group from the same team. This plan is a much smaller home version of that idea, so it cannot promise the same result.
Not this
Letting your stronger foot sneak in when the ball runs awkwardly. Every touch, pass, turn and finish in these 8 weeks is weaker foot only: if it gets too hard, slow down rather than switch feet.
Dose
- Our target: 15 min a day
- 6 days a week, for 8 weeks
Our target: 15 minutes a day, 6 days a week, for 8 weeks, and the 30-second weekly test: Football Reach targets, not FA or research rules.
Harder / Easier
Harder
Finish every session with 5 weaker-foot shots along the ground (episode 9). Or film your test once a week, keep it private, and compare week 8 with week 1.
Easier
Short on time? 10 minutes, 3 times a week. Or, while the touches still feel awkward, alternate 1 minute weaker foot with 30 seconds stronger foot.
Safety
- Warm up first. Flat, dry ground with space around you, never a road, a driveway or a car park.
- Use a solid wall with nothing breakable nearby, never a window or a neighbour's wall. If you use a goal, it must be anchored or weighted down.
- Keep at least one full rest day a week. If anything hurts, stop, and tell a parent or your coach.
Sources
Not sure which skill to work on first? The free Football Reach test gives you a Player Development Score and shows which of the four corners of your game to work on next, in about two minutes.
Take the free test
