A bicycle kick (or “overhead kick”) is a technique where you throw your body up in the air and make a scissor-like movement with your legs so you can kick one leg high to reach the ball (your kicking foot will be at roughly head height), which gets kicked straight back over your head (as you see in the picture over there on the left). I would like to note that Pelé once described the bicycle
| kick as “not easy to do”, so if he says it’s not easy to do, then I think you can assure yourself that this is not going to be easy to do 😀 . Now, I’ve got some tips and warnings for you about performing the bicycle kick and then a video by a pro showing you just how it’s done, stick around. |
When to execute the bicycle kick
It’s best to save this move for special occasions, the two most common being:
- If you’re a striker and you’ve got your back to the other team’s goal and you’re in their penalty area or nearby, plus the ball is conveniently bouncing at around head height.
- If you’re a defender and you’re desperate to get the ball away from your own goal, but you’re facing the goal, and the ball is bouncing around making it very difficult to control.
How to break your own neck
By forgetting to brace yourself with your arms before hitting the ground. You may not necessarily break your neck if you don’t do this, but it’s still possible and regardless still a great way to get injured (and look stupid) if you don’t do it.
Precisely what to do and how
Pay attention, watch it half a dozen times, then take a ball outside and try it a few times (carefully), then if you don’t get it the first time out (likely) come back and watch it a couple more times, maybe take some notes, go back outside, etc., etc., etc. You get the idea. Here you go:
Additional Resources and Further Reading
If you want some additional top-notch instruction I highly recommend Soccer Tricks
If you need more help with the bicycle kick, check out eHow.com’s article on how to do the bicycle kick in soccer.
For more soccer tricks, tutorials, videos, plus advice and community help in the form of active forums, definitely check out Soccer-Showoff.com. Also, there’s a really cool blog I found with a bunch of stuff on it entirely about soccer tricks called ‘Freestyle Soccer Tricks’ that looks good and has been around forever.