 Let me start by saying that long passing is one of the more difficult skills to master, especially to be consistent with both feet. However, it is one of the most gratifying. It's a really great feeling when you can get that ball out of your feet and ping it across the field over everyone's head, making it land on your teammate's foot. It's also a great skill to have for any player, especially players who play in the defensive and midfielder positions. So as you can see here, I'm pinging some long balls with my friend Luke. We're at the field and I thought, hey, let's put up the tripod. And we just played long balls for about 10 minutes. But this is a great opportunity to analyze our technique to help you guys improve. So the first thing I want you to notice is that we are switching feet every single time. The first time the ball comes to me, I'll try to take a touch with my left foot and set my left side. The next time the ball comes to me, I will take a touch with my right foot and set my right side. A lot of you are complaining that your technique or your skills aren't good enough with your weak foot. Honestly, I don't believe in a weak foot. Both of your feet should be the same if you are using them the same amount, especially in practice. So if you really want to improve your weak foot, it's all about those repetitions. If you don't know about me, I used to be a huge underachiever. But through obsessive self-improvement, I found my success. Earned a college scholarship, played for my national foot-salt team, a YouTube channel with over 100 million views. I've helped players worldwide, and I'd love to help you improve faster and achieve more. So let's look at technique number one, first touch. You need to get that ball out of your feet. If it's too close to you, it's going to be really hard to hit a nice long ball. So you want a first touch that's going to allow you to take a couple strides into the ball. The second thing I want you to think about is your point of address. As you can notice, I'm attacking the ball from about a 45 degree angle. I'm not running at it straight on. If I'm running on it straight on, it's going to be really difficult for me to make the ball go straight just because of the natural tendency or the natural kicking motion of my leg. So you want to think about attacking the ball from a bit of an angle, from the side almost. After that, I want you to think about a nice flowing kicking motion. If you're just having a really short backswing, it's going to be difficult to generate that power and get that distance. So you want a backswing that's almost touching your butt and a follow through. It doesn't have to be really long. In fact, you almost want a short follow through that kind of chops through the ball. So think about a nice flowing backswing. I'm kicking my butt and my follow through. I want to make sure that my foot is flexed pointing towards my target at the point that it makes contact with the ball. So the final point I want you to think about is your foot contact, really flexing your foot. Now, before I get to that, I just wanted to highlight this clip here. As you can see, I pinged the ball with my left foot. My touch came a bit in front of me on my right side, but I wanted to hit it with my left. So look at how I adjusted my body to come from the side. If I didn't come to the side like that and I just tried to strike it with my left foot, it would have been all the way to the right. So the point of address is very important. Now let's get back to what I was talking about on foot technique. You really want a nice flexed foot. Same thing you would do when you're shooting. However, your foot is opened up more. So yes, my toes are still pointed down. My foot is flexed. It's very firm, but I'm striking under the ball rather than through the ball. And I'm really making sure that my toes and my foot stays firm and flexed at the point of contact. If you're flexing your foot, but when you're hitting the ball, your foot is going weak and limp, you won't have a very straight or long, long pass. So I hope these tips help you out. If you want to improve faster and achieve more this season, use the Soccer Success Planner. It's 100% free. Players all around the world have already used it to improve. You can download it right now. There's a link in the description below. Now I want you to actually look at my friend Luke's technique because he's really good with long ball. He's actually probably more consistent than I am, especially with both feet. And he definitely gets more distance. So just take a little look at his technique. He's really nice and relaxed. There's nothing tense about his movement, especially on his right foot. He hits a really nice long ball as you should see here. Nice swinging, flowing motion. He's got a nice flex foot and he's hitting on the bottom of the ball. Now when you're hitting this ball, you probably want to hit on the center, but on the bottom of the ball, forcing it to go upwards. Like when you're shooting, you're pushing through the ball. Here you're almost chopping under the ball or brushing under the ball. So you should be able to grasp. Look at this technique right here. It's a great example. Feeling the grass coming off your toes and then you're making contact with the ball underneath the ball on the bottom of the ball in the center of the ball, striking through the ball, nice flex feet. And as he releases that point where he makes contact, his toes are pointing towards the target. Yes, your foot will come across your body on your right and come across your body with your left, but at that point of contact, you want your toes pointing towards your target. So I hope you found this video helpful. It might be a good idea to watch this video a couple of times, especially the slow motion to get a better idea. And most importantly, you need to learn to analyze your technique. You need to look at your bad strikes or your bad passes and you need to ask yourself, okay, why did it go right? Why did it go left? Why didn't it go far enough? Why did it go too far? And when you learn to analyze yourself, you will become a better player instantly. So don't just get frustrated when you have a bad pass, actually analyze your technique in an effort to make yourself better. From moving up divisions to making national teams, players who use the Online Soccer Academy get results, access elite level coaching and training, become a complete player, make a difference on the field and get noticed when you play limited spots available, apply today, start improving tomorrow, link in the description below.