An Insight a Day

Lessons on Learning How to Kick a Ball

You might be a bit embarrassed to search "how to kick a ball" on the internet. I mean, surely, you know how to kick a ball. How hard can it be, right? Well, you know what's more embarrassing than letting others know you searched "how to kick a ball" on the internet? Actually trying to kick a ball and missed.

Picture this, a group of kids is playing football (soccer) nearby and one of them accidentally kicks the ball towards you. Of course, you want to return the ball, so as the ball approaches you, you walk forward to meet it and kick. Except, you miss and the ball rolls past you. Well, that was embarrassing! How hard can it be trying to kick a ball that's rolling towards you? Don't you have basic hand-eye (foot-eye) coordination?

It turns out, kicking a ball is actually pretty complicated. Think about it, how exactly do you kick a ball? If you kick with your right foot, where should your left foot be standing so your right foot can hit the ball? Which part of your foot is supposed to hit which part of the ball? Assuming you managed to kick it, how do you control where the ball actually goes? Imagine the same scene as before, but instead of missing, you managed to kick it. Except now, the ball flies to your left and hits a bystander in the face. Well, isn't that embarrassing?

Everything is harder than it seems, especially if you've never done it before. Driving is hard, remember when you just got your driver's permit and struggling with parallel parking? Riding a bike is hard, remember when you had to use training wheels? Walking is hard, remember when you were still one year old and kept falling?

One of the best things about the internet is that there are tutorials out there on how to do virtually everything. How to brush your teeth, how to socialize and make friends, how to drink water, and so on. While it isn't enough to solely rely on those tutorials (you still need to practice and internalize it), at the very least, you would know better the next time you try to kick a ball.