Drills to Improve Your Weak Foot
A weak foot stays weak for one reason: you never use it when it matters. In training you have the time to choose your good foot, so you do. The drills below take that choice away for a few minutes a session, and the reps add up faster than most players expect.
Watch the session, then commit to the plan below three times a week for six weeks. Weak-foot work is the most boring thing on this site and the one with the biggest return.
Start with contact, not power
Most players try to strike with their weak foot at full power on day one, miss the target, and give up. Don't. The first two weeks are about clean contact: inside of the foot, laces, and the sole, at slow speed, until the ball goes where you looked. Power comes once the contact is honest.
Clean contact starts from a stable base. On your weak side, the plant foot is your strong foot, and it still has to be still inside the boot for the strike to be repeatable. LUX grip socks hold the foot to the boot with Dual Grip™ pads inside and out, so the one thing you're not thinking about during weak-foot reps is the thing that stays constant.
Drill 1: Wall passing, weak foot only
Setup. A wall or rebounder, three to five metres away, and a ball.
How to run it. Pass with the inside of your weak foot, receive with your weak foot, pass again. Fifty passes without using your strong foot. Then move to laces passes for thirty. Then alternate: receive with the strong foot, pass with the weak, twenty times, because that's the pattern that comes up in matches.
What you're training. Volume of touches. Nothing else builds a weak foot like a few hundred passes a week against a wall.
Common mistake. Letting the ankle go soft on contact. Lock it, just as you would on your good side.
Drill 2: Weak-foot-only dribbling
Setup. Six cones in a line, a metre and a half apart.
How to run it. Dribble through the cones using only your weak foot: inside, outside, inside, outside. Slowly at first. At the end, turn with the weak foot and come back. Six lengths, then six lengths at pace, then six with your head up looking at a fixed point rather than the ball.
What you're training. Comfort. The weak foot has to stop feeling like a stranger before it can be trusted under pressure.
Common mistake. Speeding up before the touch is clean. Speed is the last thing you add.
Drill 3: Finishing ladder
Setup. Three balls on the edge of the box, staggered so each one sits a little more on your weak side.
How to run it. Ball one: side-foot the ball into the near corner. Ball two: laces, low, far corner. Ball three: receive a pass from a partner across your body and finish first time with your weak foot. Reset and repeat. Five rounds.
What you're training. Decision-free finishing. The ball is on your weak side, there is no time to switch, you finish. Which is exactly the match situation that made you want a better weak foot.
Common mistake. Trying to blast it. Placement first, power once the placement is reliable.
The six-week plan
Weeks one and two: Drill 1 and Drill 2 only, three sessions a week, fifteen minutes each. Weeks three and four: add Drill 3 at half power. Weeks five and six: full power on Drill 3, and one rule in every training match: any ball on your weak side gets played with your weak foot, no exceptions. That rule is where the training becomes a habit.
Coach's checklist
- Contact before power, always.
- Lock the ankle on every strike, weak side included.
- Head up during the dribbling reps by week two.
- One weak-foot-only rule in every training match.
- Track it: count the passes. Numbers keep you honest.
Questions players ask
How long does it take to improve a weak foot?
With three short sessions a week, most players notice cleaner contact in two to three weeks and start trusting it in matches around week six. The players who don't improve are the ones who only do it once a fortnight.
Should I train my weak foot every day?
Fifteen minutes three times a week is enough and easier to sustain. Daily is fine if it's short; the wall passing drill takes five minutes and can be done anywhere.
What's the best drill for a weak foot?
Wall passing. It gives you more touches per minute than anything else and needs no partner. Everything else on this page builds on it.
Can a kid improve their weak foot?
Juniors improve fastest because the habits aren't set. Same drills, shorter distances, and make the weak-foot rule a game rather than a punishment.
Does the SenseBall help with weak-foot training?
It's built for exactly this: the ball returns to you, so you get a high volume of two-footed touches in a small space. Pair it with the wall passing drill for the highest touch count per session.
Keep training
100 DAYS. ZERO RISK.
LUX lasts 3–5× longer than cheap socks — lower cost per wear, fewer restocks. If you're not satisfied within 100 days, exchange or get a full refund. No questions asked.
