What leg muscle is most important for kicking strength (in Football)?

I always thought that I have quite strong legs for my age/size; I usually can do leg press with about 180kg - 200kg, and I was a 100meter runner for my school.

I was also pretty good at Football (soccer), but the one thing I never seemed to be able to do was kick the ball hard or far. Does anybody know what muscle would be most useful to train for leg power based on the movement you make when kicking the ball? Is it the hamstring? Quad? Calf? Or will all of them affect your power by the same amount?

Cheers :)

I think it may be the Hamstring that provides the power for kicking. Though i am not sure, so see what everyone else says first. Overall iff strong in all aspects of legs than your strength and power should be good for kicking.

Hip flexors for kickng, but train all the muscles acting on the hip and knee anyway. Being strong won't make the ball go farther, being strong and fast will.

all legs muscles

[QUOTE=syntaxle;409897621]I always thought that I have quite strong legs for my age/size; I usually can do leg press with about 180kg - 200kg, and I was a 100meter runner for my school.

I was also pretty good at Football (soccer), but the one thing I never seemed to be able to do was kick the ball hard or far. Does anybody know what muscle would be most useful to train for leg power based on the movement you make when kicking the ball? Is it the hamstring? Quad? Calf? Or will all of them affect your power by the same amount?

Cheers :)[/QUOTE]

I'd first forget about the leg press. That teaches your body to work on rails ("smart like train"). Do lower body work that challenges "all" your muscles and core stability. ( I'm surprised this wasn't taught to you while in sprinting)

A strong kick comes from the co-ordinated effort of your core, glutes, hams and quads. In other words, the whole enchilada. In particular, though, the core. If your core is weak you'll lose most of the power behind the kick. No matter how big your legs are.

[QUOTE=tonester;410267961]I'd first forget about the leg press. That teaches your body to work on rails ("smart like train"). Do lower body work that challenges "all" your muscles and core stability. ( I'm surprised this wasn't taught to you while in sprinting)

A strong kick comes from the co-ordinated effort of your core, glutes, hams and quads. In other words, the whole enchilada. In particular, though, the core. If your core is weak you'll lose most of the power behind the kick. No matter how big your legs are.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. Your core is just as important as your legs in the kicking motion.

CORE. Without it you're back will be a mess when you kick. There isn't really a more important muscle in your leg for kicking; they're all equal and need to be conditioned, strong, but more importantly FAST.

Get intimate with cleans, squats, single leg work, core stability work and plyometrics (jumps) and watch your kicking and all around athleticism improve over 3-6 months.

By the way please get some good coaching where explosive/olympic type exercises are concerned. If done incorrectly they can do serious injury.

Core (including hips), leg adductors, quads, ankle extensors.

If you'd like I can pass any questions you have along to 2 former DI kickers who are friends of mine.

like stated core and quads and really all the muscles in the lower body

and get REALLY flexible, being able to bring your leg all the way back and through will help u the most

All leg muscles with a strong core (including back).

Using exercises like squats, front squats, lunges, bulgarian split squats, RDL"s etc. will build strength.

Using exercises like the olympic lifts including db snatches and box jumps, single leg bounds etc will convert the strength to power.

Using exercises such as dynamic stretching (leg swings side to side, forward back ward etc) will develop the central nervous system to perform the kicking movement naturally.

Not to mention.. going out on the field and kicking a lot of Fing balls will help!

Strength Athletes
[url]http://www.strengthathletes.com[/url]

Be it that I was a former kicker at the beginning of my high school career and soccer player in my youth for about 7 years, I have found that specifically my Vastus Medialis and Vastus Medialis Oblique of my dominant leg are considerably more developed in comparison to the other muscles of my right leg, with respect to the relative size of the same muscles of my left leg.

I am unaware if there is any real correlation for a majority of athletes in this information, but this asymmetry is very prominent to palpation and observation.

Also question for Studlete, was it through your company that Coach X & the Thinker gave a seminar at a high school in New Jersey?

hip flexors, obliques, and quads

do a lot of wide squats, front squats, narrow high bar squats, weighted russian twists, and some glute-ham sit ups. Forget the leg press cause that only really work the quads and only through a short ROM

while having stronger core/lower body in general may help. Technique will always prevail. the majority of footie players are not particually strong, nor powerful. yet can hit the ball with such force.

Cheers for the comments.

I've been playing Football (soccer) for a football team's A-Team for 10 years now so my technique and mentality in the game is incredibly advanced; I'm also ambidextrous; literally, I measured my level of precision with both feet and I could hit a target on the same spot with my right leg as my left could about 99% of the time (I was naturally left-footed.) But yeah, I was the fastest player on the team and could play both left midfield and right midfield, but like I said I always had one of the weakest kicks despite alot of training on technique.

It must have had something to do with my core then.


Regarding 100meter running; School sports really arn't that competitive in England. I was a 100meter runner for the school because I was fast, and whenever there was a local athletics event I would come representing my school as the 100meter runner, but I wasn't trained by my school teachers or did any gym excercising or anything; I just happened to be fast. I'm hoping now that I've started going to the gym I can get even faster. It's been a while since I last had a race, but I think I averaged about 100meters in 12 - 13seconds.

Kicking a football far is about technique above all. I've always been able to kick far as hell, even when I was a fatass kid - I'm sure I had **** core strength then ahaha. Don't get me wrong, get your overall body stronger and it'll help, but improving technique will help the most. I have big legs and always have. My friend kicks far harder than me and he's a rail.

Look at van Persie - thin as hell but those shots...like cannons.

[QUOTE=qb0708;410836251]Be it that I was a former kicker at the beginning of my high school career and soccer player in my youth for about 7 years, I have found that specifically my Vastus Medialis and Vastus Medialis Oblique of my dominant leg are considerably more developed in comparison to the other muscles of my right leg, with respect to the relative size of the same muscles of my left leg.

I am unaware if there is any real correlation for a majority of athletes in this information, but this asymmetry is very prominent to palpation and observation.

Also question for Studlete, was it through your company that Coach X & the Thinker gave a seminar at a high school in New Jersey?[/QUOTE]


No, I do live in NJ but I never done a seminar at a high school. WHat makes you think that? Ps... good observation of your dominant leg muscles... we can see an actual visual of what muslces are used. Good stuff.

[QUOTE=studlete;411668681]No, I do live in NJ but I never done a seminar at a high school. WHat makes you think that? Ps... good observation of your dominant leg muscles... we can see an actual visual of what muslces are used. Good stuff.[/QUOTE]

I inquired via James Smith on obtaining Coach X's presentation that took place at a seminar in New Jersey. He gave me the name of the company which I believe had the word part "lete" in it but the full name of the company escapes me.

Upon seeing studlete I thought that possibly you had some sort of involvement in the seminar.

Sorry for the mix up.

Thanks for the words, My disproportion is prominent aesthetically, and often becomes a topic of discussion when I am lifting with shorts above the knee.