Week 27 Ball Handling – Kicking






Ball Handling – Kicking


Equipment Needed

Chalk or tape, Control Cones, spots, Soccer Balls, Hoops, Hoop Clips, buckets, bean bags, yarnballs

Content Standard Benchmarks or Common Core Standards

Learning Goals, Objectives, Expected Outcomes


  1. Demonstrate a controlled dribble while dribbling the ball around the various shapes.
  2. Demonstrate an accurate kick to a target.


  1. Verbally describe the steps to dribbling with feet.
  2. Verbally discuss the steps to kicking a ball.


  1. Have Fun
  2. Work safely with other classmates.
  3. Play cooperatively with the other partners who are playing on the same field.




Entrance Routine
Welcome!  Get a bean bag and stand in an own space.
Part 1


10 Minutes


With the class seated, we will go over the questions, quickly, that we covered in the last lesson pertaining to dribbling. While you are moving the ball around with your feet, what do you look at? While you are moving the ball around with your feet, if you want to keep it close to you, how do you have to kick it, soft or hard? What part of the foot worked the best for stopping the ball? The bottom. Be sure when you stop the ball with your foot that you keep the weight of your body standing on the foot that is on the ground and not on the ball! When I say go you will get a soccer ball and find an own space.

Dribble in Geometric Shapes

As you look around the space you will see I have drawn some big shapes on the ground, When I say go, I want you to dribble to a shape and practice dribbling around following the shape you have found. Remember the different parts of the foot that you can use to move the ball into different directions. When I say freeze, trap your soccer ball and look at me. (I will allow the class enough time to practice at least one time around a shape before I say freeze.) Freeze. Find another shape to dribble around. Can you dribble using a backward or sideward direction? Each time you go around, or make a turn, change the direction you are traveling as you dribble.

I will have already drawn large shapes on the ground with chalk. If a gym is the only space available I will place markers out on the ground to make the shapes. In this case I will tell the class to dribble on the outside of the cones, but as close to them as possible. Shapes can include: Square Circle Diamond or Triangle Figure 8 Zig Zag Lines Squiggle Lines Remember, don’t touch your own ball with your hands or arms, and watch out for other people’s ball and body, you can’t touch them either!
Keep your soccer ball and get a cone that matches your ball.  Put your cone in an own space inside the boundaries.

[AT] Stand at least 10 steps away from your cone.  Be sure that no one is set up between you and your cone.  Kick the ball so that it hits your cone.  After you kick it, safely retrieve it and try it again!

As you are going through these points, have the students kicking toward something. You can clip hoops to a fence, one for each student (clip them so that the bottom of the hoop can easily touch the ground.) You can have them kick to a control cone, or a marker. Be sure to give them something to focus on other than a partner.
Part 2

New skill or concept

10 Minutes


Discuss the difference between kicking as opposed to dribbling. Kicking sends the ball to an intended target. You want the ball to go away from you, unlike dribbling where you are trying to move the ball around the space while keeping it close to your body.

After you have given the class a chance to try kicking to their cone:

Discuss the parts of the foot you can use to kick the ball: Instep or top of foot, inside or arch of foot, Outside, Toes, Heel and Bottom of the foot.

Q1: When you are kicking to a target, what do you look at as you kick the ball? (The ball)

Q2: When you are kicking to a target what parts of the foot should you kick the ball with for the most accuracy? (The instep, top of foot or laces, the inside and the outside).

Q3: Where should the part of your foot that contacts the ball be facing, beside the ball? (Your target.)

Q4: If you want to kick the ball to your target, what should your non-kicking foot step toward? (Your partner)

Q5: Where should your non-kicking foot be placed in relation to the ball, as you get ready to kick it? (On the side of the ball, slightly behind it.)

If you are using a guided discovery approach (questions that lead the students to find or discover the most efficient way to do the skill), be sure to allow the students time to explore the possibility of answers physically, before asking them to answer the question. Ask only one question at a time, beginning with the easiest and progressing to the more difficult. Understand that concepts you are introducing to these students are difficult for them but they will seem obvious to you. If you are going to use a command style approach, tell the student the point that you want them to focus on, (As you kick your ball  toward your target, I want you to look at the ball when you kick it.) and allow them to practice that point before moving on to the next part of kicking
Keep your soccer ball and stand at one of the stations.  There should be 6 people at each station.  If you choose a station that already has six people, choose a different station.
Part 3


12 minutes

Set up a circuit of targets that the class can practice kicking at. You can use any of the workout tracks, since they give you a 1-minute time limit, and you can set up the control cones to show what should be done at each station. Using the music will free you up to move around the stations, reinforcing the points you have brought up in part 2.
  • shapes drawn on a wall.
  • 6 Cones to aim at, worth different points.
  • Buckets upside down, stacked up in threes! (fun to knock down!)
  • Two bean bags on the ground to kick between.
  • Bowling (10 pins set up like bowling.  Two kicks to knock them all down.)
  • Hoops taped to the wall.
Put away your soccer ball.
Part 4

Stretching & closure

Taking it Home

5 Minutes

Choose 3 stretches to do with the class.


When you are kicking the ball; what do you look at? the ball

How do you direct the ball toward the target if you are looking at the ball? swing your leg toward the target. 

Taking it home: Practice kicking with someone at home!

Additional Part 1 Activities

Red Light Green Light

  • Red light = Stop
  • Yellow light = Slow dribble
  • Green light = Quick dribble

Start with the three commands working on speed (fast v slow!) and stopping.  After the class has the three commands down add additional lights.

  • Purple light = change of direction; change the path that you are taking.  Example: Trap and pivot to go in a different pathway.

Dribble Maze

Using chalk or tape create a maze for the students to dribble through.  You can create 6 different mazes to have stations or different challenges for the students.

Spot Dribble

Begin the lesson with everyone trapping their soccer ball on a spot inside the boundaries.  Play any travel stop song.  When the music plays the students will dribble the ball.  When the music stops the students will trap the ball and bring it to rest on a spot.

Steal the Treasure

Begin with the balls in hoops around the boundaries of the game space.  Have 1 ball for each student.  The hoop is the home base for the team.  The object is to steal the balls from other teams and dribble it back to their home base.  You may steal one ball at a time.  You may only take a ball from a home base.  Everyone must play the game, stealing the ball from the other team.  There is NO goalie or guarding.  Each player must dribble the ball back to their home base before they can get another team’s ball.  You must steal one ball from each team before you can go back for seconds! If you accidently knock more than one ball out of home base as you steal the ball, your job is to return the balls back to home base, using your feet, before stealing the ball.

Additional Part 3 Activities

Pin Galore  

Similar to clean up your yard.  The teams are divided up into two teams.  Each team will try to knock down the pins in the other team’s yard, by kicking the balls across the middle line to the other team’s side.  If a player knocks a pin down in the other team’s yard, that player can pick up one of the pins that were knocked down on their side.  If there are no pins to pick up, then the game goes on.  Play with 1 ball for each player if you have a big outdoor space.  If you are inside, it will play safer with one ball per two players.  Remind the class to look as they kick to make sure the space is clear between them and the cone they are kicking at.  There should be no guarding the pins at this point.  Game is over when you say, or one team has all the pins on the ground.

Knock it Off

Begin with one cone and a small ball; tennis, whiffle, yarn, balancing on the top of the cone.  Have the students get in partners (because it’s easier to kick back and forth than kick and retrieve). The students will kick the ball at the cone trying to knock the small ball off without knocking over the cone!)  The student who knocks the ball off will follow the kick and put the ball back up for their partner.

Knock Out

soccer kicking game set upWhen I say go, bring your ball and sit with a partner back to back. You have 5 seconds to get your partner. Decide which partner will stand, and which partner will stay sitting. The standing partner should go stand behind the row of red, blue and yellow markers. The sitting partner goes to the other side. Go. The object of the game is to kick the control cones from the other team. The team with their control cones standing the longest wins. You may only use your feet and legs to kick and  the ball.  You must stay behind the row of markers when you kick as well as when you retrieve the ball. The only time you can go in front of the markers is to get a ball that has stopped rolling. • Watch out for the balls flying around the space. • Watch out for others as you kick the ball. Don’t kick the ball if there is a player standing between you and the place you are going to kick the ball. The main reason for the markers is to establish a safe place or the players to kick from. This distance should be enough so that a ball being kicked will not have a lot of force when it reaches the second set of markers.