P1.b.6.c : Lateral little toe touch

Lateral little toe touch

An explosive lateral little toe is one of the most important touches in the game;

Not only does the ball have to pushed powerfully away from the body, it must be done with precision and control.

A touch that is under hit means that acceleration cant accompany the touch
A touch that is hit too hard, means the ball maybe separates from the player too much
A touch without accuracy makes it harder to play when time and space constraints are applied.

Before looking at an explosive lateral little toe touch, first take a quick look at other ways a little toe touch can be used.

The little toe touch in context

This video shows some examples of how the little toe can used to get an advantage.

As we move down this page, the main focus will be on an explosive lateral little toe touch in a face on pressure problem, but as with all things once learned they can be tweaked to fit a wide variety of problems.

Develop a basic lateral little toe touch

Below are progressive footwork exercise that can used to develop the lateral little toe touch.

Exercise 1

A simple Ball Mastery exercise (where there is no movement from a to b).

Outside (push) step Inside (chop) shuffle

Progression 1

Progression 2

Progression 3

Step it Up

Exercise 2

The cones aren't necessary initially but when they are used they place a criteria time and space constraint on the exercise. As players develop the cones can be moved to make the exercise to be even more challenging.

Make the distance between cones wider length ways (so the little to touch needs to be even more explosive).
Make the distance between cones narrower width ways so that the little toe touch needs to be more accurate.
Zig Zag they cones so that each little toe touch is at a slightly different angle

Add in an outside Fake....

Exercise 3

It is a ' 1 Touch 1 step ' Combo.

1 step because you are only allowed 1 step (with the foot that is not touching the ball) between each touch of the ball
Combo - because it incorporates a number of fundamental foot work patterns

If this is too challenging then see below for details on how this can be broken down

This combo can be broken down into this Patterns

Outside step Inside

Roll Across Step

Same foot V

How to develop to more complicated patterns

Practice the fundamental footwork patterns separately as follows

Then link a couple of the patterns

Then do the pattern with out cones

Then add the cones

Then play with the width and length of the gaps between cones.