Body Positioning

Body position is not the most glamorous of topics but can really make a difference when it comes to the success of a soccer play. There are a few different situations where body position comes into play. The first one we will cover will be body position when receiving the ball or deflecting the ball. 

A few places on the field where correct body position or incorrect body position are the easiest to see results from are on the backline or on the sideline. Body position is very critical during corner kicks because whether or not your body position is correct or not can determine whether or not the ball is cleared out of a dangerous area or if the attacking team gets another corner kick. 

Poor Body Position 

When the ball is traveling towards the player on a corner kick it can be moving at a high speed and can also be bouncing. This can make it difficult to get a foot on the ball. This can be multiplied with difficulty when players are too young to head the ball out. Because it is difficult to put a foot on these corner kicks, lots of times the ball will hit one to two players bodies before it can be controlled either by the attacking team or the defending team. Good body position can guide the ball where you want it to go (See First Touch). If you body position or is pointing towards the backline then most likely the ball will go out of bounds on the backline giving the attacking team another corner kick. Bad body position could also result in an own goal where the defending team knocks the ball into their own goal. 

Correct Body Position

The correct way would be to position the body so that when the ball bounces off of the player it goes in a direction that is best resulting strategy for the player or the team. If your body is facing towards the field of play then the ball most likely will be kept in bounds. Of course when you don’t have control of the ball anything can happen but at least if you have the correct body position you have a chance to control where the ball bounces off of your body. These little things can make a big difference when we are talking about a critical play on the soccer field. 

Explained

To explain good body position a rule of thumb for keeping the ball in bounds on a corner might be that when the ball hits you your shoulders are angled toward the about half way between the backline and the centerline or even slightly more towards the back line. This should keep the ball close to the back line without letting it travel into a space where the attacking player can find a good angle to take a shot (See Shooting