 In today's video I'm going to show you five different ways to cross the ball and we'll start with a curled cross with the inside of your foot. However, in this video I'm not actually going to go into detailed descriptions on how to produce each crossing technique. I'll do that in a different video. In this video I want to give you a few principles that will make you a better crosser of the ball and allow you to get more assists. If you don't know about me I used to be a huge underachiever but through obsessive self-improvement I've found my success. I earned a college scholarship, played for my national futsal 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. What are these principles? Well number one, I want you to really focus on being more composed when it matters most. That final pass, the final cross, the final ball is so important and a lot of us are really good at keeping possession, completing our passes in the defensive third or the middle third of the field but when it comes time to produce that killer pass, that perfect cross that will produce a goal, that's where we really lack our quality and focus. So how do you stay composed? Well number one, I want you to take a deep breath, okay? Don't rush your cross. Yes, you need to get it in before the defender closes you down but it's really important that you take time to compose yourself. So taking a nice deep breath before you whip that ball into the box is a great idea. The other thing I want you to think about is not just hitting it into the box and hoping. A lot of us we get into these really good dangerous areas but instead of picking out a teammate, we just whip the ball into a quote-unquote good area and expect our teammates to be there. Well guess what? They're not always going to be there and you're going to create more assists for yourself, you're going to create better goal scoring opportunities for your teammate if you get your head up and you actually try to hit a teammate rather than just whipping a good ball into the box. So when you have a chance to put a cross, remember take a deep breath, get your head up, find a teammate, give him a chance to attack the ball rather than just hitting and hoping. So that's the first principle being composed when it really matters most when it's time to produce that final ball. The next thing I want you to think about is putting your cross into the space for your teammate to attack. So don't cross the ball where your teammate is unless you're really pinging it at him with a lot of pace and there's not too much flight or height on the ball. But if you're putting a cross into him that you want him to attack, put it into the space for him to attack. Don't hit it right at him because especially with an out swing cross like this with the outside of your foot or with the inside of your foot, if you're hitting it right at him, it's going to take him further away from goal than he wants to be. If you want to give him a good opportunity to score, think about putting the ball into the space that he's going to run into rather than hitting it directly at him. The third principle I want you to think about when you're crossing a ball is keeping it away from the goalkeeper. You can deliver a really great cross into the box, but if it's too close to the keeper, he's just going to grab it and start a counterattack for his team. So think about keeping it away from the keeper. It obviously always varies depending on where you are on the field, but a good general rule of thumb is trying to hit areas in the second six. So between the penalty spot and the six yard box is kind of where you want to put it. As you can see in this video, I'm hitting some good crosses, but some of them are probably too close to the goalkeeper. And I just wanted to demonstrate this as well. Sometimes you don't have to put the ball in the air. If you can pick out a teammate and put it on the ground for him, it's almost a better and usually is a better alternative. So instead of always thinking that you have to whip the ball in the box, if you can get your head up and put it on your teammate's foot, you're going to give him better opportunities to score and create more assists for yourself. The final cross I wanted to show you guys in this video, and it's a great thing to think about is you don't always have to be by the end line to cross the ball into the box. Just think about sometimes you see a winger or a fullback whip, a nice bending ball across the back line for the opposing winger or striker to attack. So you can put balls in on the ground. You can put them in the air, but you don't always have to be by the end line to cross the ball. Sometimes putting an early ball into the box is a better alternative because it will catch defenders and it will catch the goalkeeper off guard. Just make sure if you are doing this, you're getting that ball over the first line of the defense because it's very easy for them to win a header and again, create a counter attack for their team. If you like this content, check out the Soccer Success Planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below and for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy. If you like this content, check out the Soccer Success Planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below and for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy.