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Home/Training Drills/Set Pieces Drills/Direct Free Kick over the Wall
Set PiecesAdvanced

Direct Free Kick over the Wall

Beat the wall and the keeper from a dead ball. Strike the lower half of the ball with sidespin to lift it over the wall and bend it into the top corner, or drive it low into the gap the keeper cannot cover.

Create your own drill
Live animationSET
Duration
15 min
Total drill time
Players
2
Recommended
Pitch
44 × 36 m
Setup space
Level
Advanced
Skill required
Intensity
Low
Physical demand
Age band
U13-U14
Any format

Setup & instructions

Place the ball around nineteen metres out with a mannequin wall 9.15m away (the shooting lane starts there). Pick one solution at a time: over the wall into the top corner with sidespin, or low and driven around the wall. Approach at an angle, plant foot beside the ball, and strike through it. Add keeper pressure once the strike is stable.

Setup time: 3 min

Tactical breakdown

The direct free kick is the most practised skill in football and the worst practised. Players spend an hour hitting the same ball from the same spot and improve almost nothing, because they change the solution every attempt: one curled, one driven, one over, one round. Nothing gets grooved.

Pick one strike and stay on it for the whole session. From around nineteen metres with a four-player wall there are only two real answers, and they are opposites. The curled ball is struck across the lower half with the instep coming around the ball, lifting it over the wall and bending it back down into the top corner. Sidespin does the work, not power, and players who try to hit it hard flatten the flight and put it into the stand.

The driven ball is the other answer, and it is underrated at youth level because it looks less impressive. Struck low and hard through the gap the wall leaves, or at the side the keeper has vacated because he is covering the curl, it arrives before the keeper can move. Against a wall that jumps, the ball under it is often more available than the ball over it.

The detail that decides both is the plant foot. It points where the ball starts, not where it finishes. Players who aim the standing foot at the target square the hips and lose the ability to bring the foot across, which is what produces the spin in the first place.

How to run this drill

  1. Set a realistic distance and wall. Place the ball around nineteen metres out with a four-player wall and a keeper. Practising without a wall trains the strike but removes the problem the strike exists to solve.
  2. Pick one solution for the whole session. Curled over, or driven low. Alternating between them each attempt is why free-kick practice so often produces no improvement. Groove one, then come back for the other.
  3. Approach at an angle and plant behind the ball. The plant foot points where the ball starts, not where it should finish. Aiming the standing foot at the target squares the hips and kills the spin before contact.
  4. Strike the lower half and come across it. For the curled ball, contact the lower half with the instep travelling across and around it. Sidespin lifts and bends it. Power flattens the flight and sends it high.
  5. Pick a window and commit. Choose a target window above the wall or a gap beside it before the run-up. Reading the keeper is worth doing, but do it before you move, not during the approach.
  6. Add the keeper's lean as a live cue. Once the strike is repeatable, let the keeper cheat one way. The taker reads it while standing over the ball and takes the opposite corner, but still decides before running.

Coaching focus

FROM SESSION PLAN

Coaching points

  • Strike the lower half of the ball to lift it over the wall
  • Sidespin, not power: bring the foot across and around the ball
  • Approach at an angle, plant foot pointing where the ball starts, not ends
  • Read the keeper: if they lean, strike to the opposite corner
  • Pick a target window over the wall and commit to it
  • Groove one strike type before mixing them

Common mistakes

  • Leaning back and ballooning the strike over the bar
  • Hitting through the middle of the ball, so it does not clear the wall
  • No spin, so the ball cannot bend back into the corner
  • Telegraphing the side and letting the keeper set early

Progressions & regressions

VARIATIONS

Progressions

  • Add a full defensive wall and a keeper commanding the goal
  • Vary the ball position and angle to the goal
  • Add a rehearsed indirect routine: roll and strike, or a dummy runner

Regressions

  • Lower the wall height or reduce it to two mannequins
  • Move the ball central and closer to shorten the strike
  • Strike without a keeper to groove the flight first
Equipment
Full Goals×1
Mannequins×4
Markers×1
Tactical principles
direct free kickfree kick over the wallhow to bend a free kickfree kick techniquecurling free kickdead ball strikeset piece drillfree kick practicesidespinadvanced set piece
Audience
U13-U14

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