Heading the ball is one of the most important skills within the modern game, however, it is often one of the least developed skills at the youth level. Many coaches find student-athletes arriving at university with little to no experience heading the ball. This is a result of two factors.
1. Wide play and crossing the ball is not emphasized at the youth level,
2. Since the majority of youth players are not prepared to challenge for a ball in the air, the players that they play against do not challenge for the ball.
There are several aspects to heading a ball.
1. Willingness - Players must be willing to head a ball. It is not natural to stick your head in front of something moving toward it. Players must be able to move beyond this as heading is a vital part of the game at all levels and the earlier that you can work on the technique, the better. This can begin with juggling, where the player is in complete control of the height of the ball.
2. Posture - Like all techniques in the game, heading the ball begins with a consistent posture of hips forward and shoulders back. This helps with juggling as well as winning headers while jumping in the air and challenging an opponent.
3. Tracking Ability - Soccer is a difficult game as we are tracking an object over a great distance and getting our body into a position to make contact with it as it drops back to field level. Certainly this is done in sports such as baseball and football, however unlike those sports where a hand(s) can be moved quickly and adjusted over a large area by using the arms, the head's ability to move is limited to the extension of the neck and the flex of the body's hips. Consequently the ability to track a ball through the air, predicting its landing spot, and moving to that spot, is critical and must be very precise.
4. Timing of Movements in the Air - Being able to jump in the air and head a ball requires not only the ability to get underneath a ball by moving your feet but the last step becomes the timing to get in the air and make head contact with the ball. This requires exceptional tracking ability but then the ability to gauge the timing of a jump and the magnitude of the jump.
Heading Progressions
Below you will find several of heading progressions that are used to develop willingness, posture, tracking, and timing in the air.
1. Juggling: The player is in complete control of the exercise. They can throw it as high as they wish inorder to feel safe and comfortable. This can begin with players at any age. Other ideas include using balloons or Nerf balls. Notice the posture. Shoulder are back and hips are forward so that the juggler does not have to bend the neck back as far as if they stood straight up. Consequently, the ball is behind the player's body as they lean backwards. It is better for the juggler to lean back and chase the ball backwards as they develop their heading versus bending at the waist (sitting down) and losing control in front of them. The posture is such that if the juggler did not head the ball, the ball would drop behind their heels.
2. Underhand Alioops Against A Wall: Both helping with posture and timing to make contact with a ball in the air, the underhand toss is a good starting point for many young players. Catch and Toss while in the air, or as we say, "Catch on the Way Up, and Toss on the way Down." (video at bottom of page)
3. Overhead Alioops Against A Wall: Again, like the underhand alioops, this is meant to develop timing in the air. However, we take posture to the next level. Notice that as the player lifts the arms to catch and toss the ball, the shoulders naturally go farther back. This is vital to the next stage of heading the ball while in the air. The player in this exercise should move their feet so they catch the ball as far back as possible (just above the forehead and not out in front of them).
5. Overhead Alioops With Partner: This takes the Overhead Alioops to the next level as tracking a ball that is tossed from a distance becomes critical. The player should focus on catching the ball with a posture of shoulders back and hips forward. Attempt to reach back as far as possible for the catch and toss. The player should have to step backwards after landing because their weight is back.
6. Jumping Headers: The final progression. With the same tracking, timing, and posture used in the Alioops, the player now heads the tossed ball. We call a player standing straight up the 'neutral position'. Notice that the player does not head the ball forward of the neutral position. Like ball striking where the 'power position' of contact with the ball is behind the heel, the power position for heading is behind this neutral position. If the player heads the ball in front of the neutral position, they are heading the ball with a body that is generally decelerating because the body does not want to continue to accelerate too far forward because of the threat of over-stretching muscles. The header is not a movement that is as long as typically coached. The movement itself is really no more than a foot in length (more of a jab of the ball). The greater the movement backwards, the greater the pre-stretch (refer to ball striking blog) and consequently the more efficient recoil forward for a more powerful header.
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