The inside-foot pass (also called the side-foot or push pass) is usually the first pass players learn, and the most accurate way to move the ball along the ground. You turn your kicking leg out from the hip so the flat inside of your foot meets the middle of the ball. It comes off slower than a laces kick, but you trade that speed for control and aim.
Set up
Pick your target first. Look up and find your teammate's feet before you step in. Once you start the kick, your eyes go back to the ball.
Come in with a short, controlled approach. A slight angle tends to work better than running dead straight at the ball. In a study of elite players, kicks from about a 30° approach were more accurate than straight-on ones, which drifted to the side away from the kicking foot.
Plant your standing foot beside the ball, about 6 inches (15 cm) away, toes pointing where you want the pass to go. Keep the standing knee bent and your hips facing the target.
your weight is on the standing leg and you're balanced over it, not reaching for the ball.
Turn your kicking leg out from the hip so the toes point out and the sole of your foot is parallel to the ground. The inside of your foot, near the arch, now faces the target.
Lock your ankle with the toes pulled up slightly. Lean a little forward at the waist, put your arms out for balance, and take a medium backswing.
the foot feels like a solid block, not a loose flap.
Push it
Swing from the hip and push through the middle of the ball with the area near your arch. Hit at the ball's equator, not underneath it. At contact, keep the knee and ankle of the kicking leg firm.
a push through the ball toward your target, not a stab at it.
Keep your head and kicking knee over the ball. Your eyes stay on the ball through contact. Leaning back is what lifts the ball off the ground.
Follow through
Follow through toward the target with the foot still turned out. The kicking knee comes up until the thigh is about parallel to the ground, and your upper body gets more upright. Keep your head down until the kicking foot lands.
Set the pace with the size and speed of your swing, not by letting the ankle go loose. Pass to your teammate's feet at a pace they can control. When you push for maximum speed, accuracy drops, so pass only as hard as the situation needs.
Feel it
Firm, square contact with the inside of your foot, your body balanced over the standing leg, and the ball rolling flat along the ground on the line your standing foot pointed. If it bobbles, lifts or bends off line, check the ankle, the contact point and whether you leaned back.
Fix-its
- Pass pops up off the ground You leaned back or hit below the middle of the ball. Keep your head and kicking knee over the ball and strike at its equator.
- Pass slices off to the side Your ankle went floppy or the foot wasn't square at contact. Lock the ankle, toes slightly up, sole parallel to the ground, and point the standing foot at the target.
- Misses wide when you run straight at the ball Straight-on approaches tend to drift away from the kicking-foot side. Come in from a slight angle, about 30°, and test what works for you.
- Hitting it hard and missing Accuracy drops as ball speed goes up. Use a pace your teammate can control, then build speed only once you're hitting the target.
- Head comes up before contact Look at the target before the kick, then keep your eyes on the ball until the kicking foot lands again.
Drill
- Gate passing: you and a partner stand 10 m apart and pass between two cones 2 m apart. Start with a still ball, then move to two touches (control, then pass). 5 minutes, then 1 minute rest. Use both feet.
- Corridor passing: one-touch passing inside a corridor about 1.5 m wide, starting 2 m apart. Step back 1 m after every 10 clean passes. If the ball leaves the corridor, start again. 5 minutes.
- Cone knock-off: put four small cones 2 m apart on a line 10 m away and knock each one over in as few passes as you can. First from a still ball, then dribble in from 5 m and pass the moving ball.
- Cliffhanger: mark a line across the far end of a grid and pass so the ball stops as close to the line as possible without rolling over it. This trains the weight of the pass.
- Moving relay: pass on the move to a teammate running in a straight line, and switch direction halfway through so both feet get reps. In one study, 9 sessions of drills like these (30 minutes each over 4.5 weeks) improved youth players' side-foot accuracy more than small-sided games did.
By position
Every position uses it. Defenders use it to move the ball along the back line, and attackers use it for quick, short passes in the final third. Because most players are less accurate with their weaker foot, practise with both.
Sources
- US Youth Soccer Coaching Education Dept (Sam Snow) — Skills School: Key Coaching Points of Each Major Technique in Soccer, Push Pass and Cliffhanger activity (2017)
- England Football Learning — Different passing techniques in football (2023)
- Special Olympics — Football Coaching Guide, Fundamentals of Football: Passing (2021)
- Levanon & Dapena — Comparison of the kinematics of the full-instep and pass kicks in soccer, Med Sci Sports Exerc (1998), abstract via Europe PMC
- Nunome, Asai, Ikegami & Sakurai — Three-dimensional kinetic analysis of side-foot and instep soccer kicks, Med Sci Sports Exerc (2002), abstract via Europe PMC
- Nunome, Inoue, Watanabe & Akima — Dynamic adjustment of submaximal effort soccer side-foot kicks, Sports Biomechanics (2025), abstract via Europe PMC
- Carlsson, Isberg, Nilsson & Carlsson — The influence of task conditions on side foot-kick accuracy among Swedish first league women's soccer players, J Sports Sci Med (2018)
- Carlsson, Broman, Isberg & Carlsson — Passing-skill training vs. small-sided games for improvement of side-foot kick accuracy among youth female soccer players, Front Sports Act Living (2025)
Last checked 2026-10-26.