#KICK IT LIKE BECKHAM FREE#

Volleyballs, baseballs, cricket balls, tennis balls-all can be given a spin that will result in them following a curved trajectory that a non-spinning ball would not. It can be seen across the whole sporting spectrum. The subsequent swerve was so dramatic that a ball boy standing 33 feet to the side of the goal jumped out of the way because he thought the ball was heading straight for him before it swerved suddenly away from him and beat the goalkeeper.Д¬arlos hit the ball so hard that gravity never had a chance to damp down the aerodynamic motion. He struck the ball initially from a spot 115 feet from the goal, close to the corner of the D on the edge of the penalty area, at a velocity of about 80 mph.

#KICK IT LIKE BECKHAM FREE#

The most famous example of this skill was a free kick taken by Roberto Carlos for Brazil in a 1997 match against France.

The greater the spin you can put on the ball, the more it will swerve. If you kick the right-hand side of the ball with the inside of your right foot, then it will spin in a counterclockwise direction, but kick it on the left-hand side with the outside of your right foot and it will spin clockwise. When you kick a soccer ball off-center it will spin. Alas, the poor goalkeeper finds that his wall of defenders does nothing more than block his view of the ball until it is too late to respond.

The attacking team may well have a prized player like David Beckham, who can bend the ball around or over this defensive wall so that the initial trajectory of the ball heads past the edge, or over the top of the wall of defenders, only for it to swing back in, or down, and end up in the goal. The defending team will set up a wall of players at the requisite 10 yards from the ball (closer if they can get away with it) to block a direct shot at their goal.

Kick it like beckham