The scissor kick is an airborne side volley: you jump off your kicking foot, tip your body sideways until it is almost flat, and whip the kicking leg through a ball that arrives to your side. It is not the bicycle kick, which is struck overhead with your back to goal. You come down on your side every time, so learn the landing before you ever hit a ball.
Learn the fall
Start on a gym mat or very soft ground, from kneeling. Fall sideways onto your low side (the side opposite your kicking leg) and let the bent forearm, then the shoulder, back and hip take the impact in turn as you roll with it.
Bent arm, then roll.
Keep the elbow bent. Never lock the arm straight to catch yourself.
Soft arm, never a post.
Keep your head up with the neck muscles tight, so your head never snaps into the ground.
Chin up, eyes on the ball.
Raise the height only when every fall is soft and controlled: kneeling, then standing, then a slow-motion walk-through of the whole kick with no ball, always landing on the mat.
Safety before spectacle.
Read and take off
Choose it only when the ball comes to your side too high for a side volley and too low to head, and no opponent is close to you.
Clear space or no kick.
Read the ball's flight early and get side-on to it with a short, half-speed approach. The timing of the jump decides everything.
Read it, then go.
Take off from your kicking foot. Drive the other knee up sharply and out, with the arm on that side, so your body starts to tip sideways.
Knee up, body tips.
Strike
As your body goes almost flat, snap the kicking leg up and forward from the hip while the other leg drops away below it. That switch is the scissor.
Scissor the legs.
Lock the ankle with the toes pointed and strike firmly with the instep at or above the middle of the ball, so it stays down. Keep your eyes on the ball until contact.
Over the top of it.
Land
Come down on your low side the way you practised: the bent low arm and the low leg lower you, then roll through shoulder, back and hip so the impact spreads along your whole side, not one spot.
Spread it, foot to shoulder.
Feel it
It should feel like a sideways jump where your body tips flat, the kicking leg whips through over the top of the ball, and you roll down your low side with your head held up. If the landing scares you, go back to the mat. Confidence in the fall is what frees up the strike.
Fix-its
- You land flat on your back or on a straight arm Stop kicking and go back to falls on the mat. Bent arm first, then roll through shoulder, back and hip on the low side.
- Your head snaps toward the ground Lock the neck muscles and keep your eyes on the ball. Practise the head-up fall from kneeling until it is automatic.
- The ball flies over the bar You are hitting below its middle. Get the foot over the top half of the ball, toes pointed, ankle locked.
- No height, or you meet the ball late Take off from the kicking foot and drive the other knee up sharply. Read the flight earlier and move up from tossed balls before live crosses.
- Dangerous play is called A raised boot near an opponent, or one who pulls out for fear of being hurt, is an offence. Only go for it in clear space.
Drill
- Sideways falls on a gym mat, kneeling then standing, until each one is soft and controlled.
- Walk through the whole kick in slow motion with no ball, landing on the mat.
- Strike a ball set on a tall cone, with a mat on your landing side. Use a hanging or tethered ball if the cone is the wrong height.
- Gentle hand tosses from a partner, then longer, faster serves and a longer approach. Practise taking off on the other side too.
- Shots at goal from about 15 yards off served balls, still on soft ground with no one near you. Keep attempts few: the landing is the biggest risk, so don't overtrain.
Sources
- US Youth Soccer — Skills School Manual: Side Volley, Scissors Side Volley, Bicycle Kick (2017), pp. 44–45
- John C. Harves, Coaching American Soccer — Soccer Flying Side Volley Kicks
- IFAB — Laws of the Game, Law 12 Fouls and Misconduct: playing in a dangerous manner (latest edition)
- Weerdesteyn, Groen, van Swigchem & Duysens — Martial arts fall techniques reduce hip impact forces in naive subjects after a brief period of training, J Electromyogr Kinesiol (2008)
Last checked 2026-10-30.