- Messi!
Oh, my!
- The fade.
It's Messi.
- Messi.
- It's Messi!
It's magnificent!
- It's Messi's free kick.
Oh, it's a brilliant little Messi goal.
- That is world class.
- That is Messi class. That's above world class, Jerry.
(upbeat dubstep music)
- And Rulli stands and can only admire.
Rooted to the spot.
- Messi, Messi, Messi!
- What's up guys, Matt from the Football Boots team,
and today is all about learning how to shoot
like, arguably, the greatest ever footballer
to play the beautiful game.
I'm wearing his boots right now.
Of course, we're talking about Lionel Messi.
Wha-pa!
- It's Messi!
It's magnificent!
- The three best free kick takes in my era,
were, of course, David Beckham, Ronaldihno, and Juninho.
And the thing is, they all had
completely different angles of approach to the ball.
Now, what I will say is, it doesn't actually matter,
it's what you feel comfortable with,
but the difference in angle is gonna affect
how much curl you generally get on the ball.
If you're behind the ball like this, like Ronaldinho,
shooting that way, you're gonna get excessive curve.
But if you stand a bit more side on, like Beckham,
you'll still get a lot of curve, but maybe not as much.
And then you've got Juninho, who was a lot more straight on,
so, generally, there won't be as much curve or spin
on the ball, compared to David Beckham's or Ronaldinho's.
So they're the three run up techniques
that you guys can actually practise,
until you've found the one which is perfect for you.
- Messi!
Messi with a record breaking goal!
- How many steps do you guys need to take for your run-up?
Well, there's no perfect number.
It's not three, it's not five, it's not seven.
It's whatever you feel most comfortable with.
But what I will say is, the amount of steps can have
a difference in power and control.
If you want more control, like Messi, he takes three steps,
but if you want a little bit more power,
you can take five, which is what I personally take.
Now this is a very good training tip
for practising your free kick consistency.
Now, like I said already, there's no right and wrong way
to do your run-up and approach.
Once you're happy, you can then use your cone
to mark out your precise movements.
If you want to take three steps back, five steps back,
and also the angle, you can use this cone to place it
and then take your free kick, 'cause you know every time
your run-up is going to be exactly the same.
- And it's Messi!
- Oh, it's a beauty!
- So a really good way of practising
the amount of curl you can put on the ball,
is by using an object as a obstacle to bend the ball around.
As you can see, we've got a blue pole on the blue line,
and the right-hand post also on that same line,
so this one is quite difficult to bend the ball around.
You can pretty much use anything on a football pitch,
if there's a spare goal, you can use that to bend the ball.
Or you could also ask your teammate to stand in front of you
to add the curl, to get it into the goal.
- Messi!
- Oh what a goal. - Magnificent!
- The way the ball actually travels in the air
is completely up to you and the way you strike the ball.
A great free kick, which I recently saw,
was Ashley Young from Man. United,
which went quite high and whipped into the top corner,
but Messi usually likes his to dip a little bit quicker.
So the way you strike the ball is very important.
If you want that more up-and-down shape,
you need to hit up onto the ball,
and give it a lot of rotations.
Or if you want to strike it a little bit more like Messi,
which gets that dip, you need to strike it
through the middle a little bit more,
and not strike too much up,
but a little bit flatter and around the ball.
- Messi!
- Wow!
- So when I started learning how to put spin on the ball,
one thing I used to love doing was watching Rafael Nadal.
Now you might find it a little bit strange
that playing football, whipping the ball,
is similar to tennis, but it really is.
When you look at Nadal's forehand and he really whips it,
he gets so much spin on the ball,
and that's exactly how I hit my free kicks.
When I strike it, it's a real whippy action.
I flick across the ball
and then finish on the other side of my foot,
very similar to Nadal's forehand.
If you guys are lucky enough,
the very best way to see how much spin
and curl you're getting on the ball,
is by using a Smart Ball and the Smart Ball app.
You kick it and it analyses exactly how much spin
and how much curve you get on the ball.
And now we're downloading the actual result.
So, as you guys can see, we had 242 revolutions per minute,
that's actually quite a lot of spin.
And, as you can see, it says "Around the wall".
We spin it around to the next slide,
and it actually shows how much curve you get on the ball.
So the first time was the spin,
but this second time is the actual flight path.
- It's Leo Messi!
Magnificent goal!
- Or the best thing to do is use a marker on the ball
where you know where to strike it.
Now, this FIFA stamp here, is perfect.
So just say we're shooting the big goal behind us,
we place the ball just like that.
So, as you can see, it's on the opposite side of the ball,
almost at a downward angle.
Now, because the ball is in this position,
and that's where you're gonna hit it,
it's gonna mean as that foot whips across the ball,
it's gonna exceed that high level spin and rotation.
- From 25.
Messi!
- So we've got our marker on the ball,
so now it's all about the strike action.
We've got our run-up sorted, take our steps back,
and then we would go to strike the ball, we hit that marker,
and then follow through across your planting foot,
and then scrape your left foot across the front.
- And it's Messi!
And it's goal!
- Spectacle!
- Alright, guys, so the idea for today's video
is how to shoot like Lionel Messi.
Hands up, who loves Messi?
What a football player he is.
So what I'm gonna say is, all of you guys
get one strike at our goalkeeper.
Now the three best ones, in terms of top being curve,
are gonna feature in the video this weekend.
Oh, yes.
Strike.
Mesut Oezil, curve on lockdown.
Oh, that is top bins.
Oh, wow. That's different level.
Great strike.
- Guys, it is so important to understand, that is no right
or wrong way of shooting the ball.
I remember when Cristiano Ronaldo
was coming through at Man. United as a young football player
and people thought he ran weird,
and also struck the ball very strangely, too.
But look at him now, breaking records for fun,
and you could also say that about Harry Kane.
Smashing records in the Premier League,
and soon to be the Premier League's
greatest ever goalscorer.
Both strike the ball in their own certain way,
so when it comes down to you, you don't have to mimic
Messi, Ronaldo, Cavani, Lewandowski, it is all down to how
you feel comfortable striking the ball.
- Messi!
Oh, my word!
At the end of the day,
if you guys want to improve your shooting,
if that's free kicks or finishing,
it all comes down to practise and repetitions.
Now, something which I like to do,
after training just by myself,
is having five balls lined up
and trying to go in the same position in the goal
every single time, with those five balls.
Remembering every part of the shot
that we've gone through in this video.
So that's the run-up, the angle of the run-up,
how you strike the ball, where you strike the ball,
and also the follow through.
So with these five, I'm gonna try and go top left
to see how many times I can get it near that area.
So guys, there it is, our video on how to shoot like Messi.
As you can see, we've got a few future Messis
with us here today, but what I want to know is now
who should we do next?
Shoot like Ronaldo, skills like Neymar,
you guys get to choose whatever you want.
Let us know in the comments section below,
but today that's a complete wrap.
So guys, thanks for watching.
Cheers.