The finesse shot: in open play you strike one side of the ball with the inside of your foot so it spins and bends, usually starting outside the far post and curling back inside it, away from the keeper. It gives up some pace for bend and placement. We coach the form around the strike (approach, plant foot, follow-through); the curve itself is in the ball, which we don't track.
Set up
Pick the corner before you strike. Choose the far side of the goal, then aim outside the post and let the bend bring the ball back in. Aim left to finish right, aim right to finish left.
you're aiming at a point beside the goal, not at the corner itself.
Approach nearly straight on to the line you want the ball to start on. A short run-up of about three strides is enough. You don't need a wide, looping run to curl it.
Plant your standing foot beside the ball, about 6 in (15 cm) to the side and a little behind it, toes pointing toward your target, standing knee slightly bent. That leaves room for your kicking foot to swing through.
Lean forward a bit at the waist, head down, eyes on the ball. Open your hips toward the target, standing side forward. Hold the arm opposite your kicking leg out for balance.
Swing the heel up toward your backside, then on the way down lock your ankle with your toes up. The bigger the backswing, the more pace you'll get.
Wrap it
Strike the side of the ball away from your standing foot, a little below its middle, with the inside of your foot, from just behind the big toe toward the ankle. Hit the middle and it goes straight; hit lower and it rises more.
a right foot strikes the lower right of the ball to bend it left.
Let the angle of your foot make the spin. At impact your foot faces slightly across the line of your swing. In a lab study that angle produced spin and ball speed similar to rubbing the ball with your toes, and it put less strain on the groin muscles.
one smooth swing through the ball, not a stab and not a long rub.
Hit it firmly enough to beat the keeper. Pace and spin compete: the farther round the side you hit, the more it bends and the slower it goes. Too soft and it barely bends; too hard and it flies over.
Finish
Follow through with your toes still up, the kicking leg carrying across your midline and slightly upward, the opposite arm coming across your chest. Keep your head down and steady until the ball has gone. A higher follow-through lifts the ball; a lower one keeps it down.
Feel it
A smooth, firm contact on the inside of your foot near the big toe, with your body steady and leaning slightly forward. The ball leaves on a line outside the post and bends back in. If it goes dead straight, you hit too close to the middle. If it jumps off your foot with no spin, you stabbed at it.
Fix-its
- Ball won't curve You hit too close to the middle. Strike more to the side of the ball, away from your standing foot.
- Ball flies over the bar You struck too far under it, hit it too hard, or followed through too high. Lean forward a bit, make contact nearer the middle height and keep the follow-through lower.
- Lots of bend, no pace You hit too far round the side. Take a bit more of the ball and strike firmer, still off-centre.
- Little spin, the ball just pops off You stabbed at it. Swing smoothly through the ball and keep the foot on it as long as the swing allows.
- Bends nicely but ends up at the keeper or wide Your aim point is off. Start it outside the far post and let it bend in; the farther out you are, the more bend you need to allow for.
Drill
- Warm up first. Dead ball: stand a cone about 30 ft (9 m) away and curl the ball around it into the goal. Practise both feet. If your groin gets sore, stop for the day.
- Cone or mannequin as a defender 10–15 yd in front of you, target about 10 yd beyond it. Start the ball to the side of the cone and bend it onto the target.
- Move the ball to different spots just outside the penalty area so you learn how much bend each angle needs.
- Moving ball: dribble toward a cone, push the ball beside it from about 6 ft away, then curl it at goal.
- Add a keeper standing in the centre of the goal. Dribble up to the edge of the box and bend the ball away from the keeper, just inside a post. Then add a defender, then play small 2v2 or 3v3 games.
By position
Strikers, wingers and attacking midfielders shooting from around the edge of the box use it most, often after a touch to set the ball. The same technique bends passes and crosses. Curving balls appear to be hard for keepers to judge: in a study of curved free kicks, people's judgements didn't account for the bend. For a dead-ball curler see Curling Free Kick; for a placed shot with no bend see Side-Foot Finish.
Sources
- US Youth Soccer Coaching Education Dept (Sam Snow) — Skills School Manual: Bending (swerve) pass with the inside of the foot (p. 28), Bending (swerving) shots (p. 43), Ball action (pp. 12–13) (2017)
- John C. Harves, Coaching American Soccer — Bending Balls
- England Football Learning — Different finishing techniques in football (2022)
- England Football Learning — How to coach players on finishing in football (2022)
- Ozaki & Aoki — Kinematic and electromyographic analysis of infront curve soccer kick, Football Science (2008)
- Goff — Power and spin in the beautiful game, Physics Today (2010)
- Craig, Berton, Rao, Fernandez & Bootsma — Judging where a ball will go: the case of curved free kicks in football, Naturwissenschaften (2006)
- Alcock, Gilleard, Brown, Baker & Hunter — Initial ball flight characteristics of curve and instep kicks in elite women's football, J Appl Biomech (2012)
Last checked 2026-10-31.