How Do You Curl a Soccer Ball Around a Wall With the Inside of Your Foot?

To curl a soccer ball around a wall with the inside of your foot, approach at an angle, plant beside the ball, and strike it near your big toe while your foot wraps around the ball and finishes toward the target. Aim your starting line outside the edge of the wall, so the spin brings the ball back in toward goal. The basics behind this strike are covered in our guide to how to strike a soccer ball.

Where Should Your Foot Contact the Ball?

The ball should meet the inside of your foot near the big toe, and the contact should be off the center of the ball rather than straight through the middle. A strike through the center sends the ball in a straighter line, while contact that brushes across the surface gives it the spin that makes it bend, which is the idea behind the Magnus effect. In my opinion, the clearest picture is your foot wrapping around the ball, so that your toe finishes pointing at the target instead of stopping beside the ball. Perhaps that sounds like a lot to think about, but it turns into one smooth motion with repetition.

To lift the ball over a wall you need to strike the lower half of the ball, because contact below center adds height while the sideways brush still adds spin. If you dig too far under the ball, the shot may climb past the goal's crossbar, so aim for a small amount of lift rather than a large one. Finesse matters more than power here, since a controlled swing that carries the ball toward the target will bend more reliably than a hard, rushed kick. That being said, the swing should still be positive and continue through the ball.

How Should You Approach and Place Your Plant Foot?

Approach the soccer ball diagonally and set your plant foot beside the ball, leaving room for your kicking leg to swing across it. The angle of your run is what lets the inside of your foot travel across the ball instead of straight through it, and a run that comes straight on tends to squeeze the swing into a push. Point your plant foot slightly toward the target, and place it close enough that you can reach the ball comfortably but far enough away that your leg does not feel crowded.

As you strike an inside of the foot curl, let your body and weight move toward the target rather than leaning away from it. Your kicking foot should keep traveling after contact, sweeping around the ball so that the toe ends up pointing toward the target. Many players stop the swing the moment they touch the ball, which removes the follow-through that carries the spin. A useful habit is to finish each attempt with your foot already pointing where you wanted the ball to end up.

Where Should You Aim to Clear the Wall?

Aim your starting line just outside the practice wall's edge, then let the spin bring the ball back in toward your finishing target. These are two different points, and keeping them separate is what makes a curl work, because the ball needs room to bend between them. If you aim straight at the corner of the goal, the wall is directly in the way and the ball has no space to travel around it. Pick a visible gap beside the edge of the wall and treat sending the ball through that gap as your first job.

Going around the wall and going over it ask for slightly different strikes. For the route around, you mostly need a clean starting line and a manageable height. For the route over, you add lift by striking the lower half of the ball, while keeping the sideways brush that creates the curl. In my opinion, most players should learn the route around first, since it is easier to judge, and then add height once the starting line is reliable. It could be argued that this order saves a great deal of frustration.

What Should You Change When the Shot Misses?

When a curling soccer shot misses, check the starting line if it hits the wall, the contact point and sweeping motion if it stays wide, and the contact height if it sails over the bar. Adjust only the part that matches the miss, rather than adding power straight away. If the ball hits the wall, the spin may be fine and the starting line may simply be too close to the defenders, so move your aim a little farther outside the edge before changing anything else.

If the ball starts outside the wall but stays wide, look at where your foot met the ball and whether it swept across the surface or pushed through it. If your curling soccer shot sails over the bar, you have probably struck too far under the ball, so bring your contact closer to center while keeping the sideways brush. Begin with a comfortable swing and add pace only when you can recognize the flight you intended. Finesse is the skill you are building, and power can come afterward.

How Can You Practice Between Coaching Sessions?

Practice the inside of the foot curl between coaching sessions from a short, comfortable distance, using cones to mark the wall's edge and an open starting window beside it. Send the ball through that window first, and only then ask it to bend toward a finishing target. Cones show you the outside route, although they do not reproduce the height of real defenders, so treat them as a way to learn the starting line. Move farther from goal only when the flight still makes sense to you.

A good coach can read your technique in a way that a set of cones cannot, which is why I like to bring one specific observation to each session, such as a ball that starts correctly but finishes wide. The hours between sessions are where that feedback turns into habit, and they only count if you can repeat the strike often and notice what changed. Short, regular practice at home does more for your contact than one long, loose afternoon, and it gives your coach something concrete to build on.

Why Should You Get Curl Master One?

For practice between sessions and at home, Curl Master One from The Giro X spins a standard ball at controlled speeds, so you feel straight away whether the strike was right. It trains the contact and spin control that free kicks, penalties and crosses all depend on. Your coach shapes your wider technique, and the machine makes the hours between sessions count. In my opinion, that pairing is the strongest way to improve, so my advice is to get one and put it to work.

The product card, in brief:

• Price: $119 once, with no app and no subscription (The Giro X product page, Nov 2026).
• Six speed settings, so players from around age 8 up to adult can start at the top speed and turn it down as technique grows.
• A 30 day money back guarantee and a 1 year warranty.
• Three sessions a week of twenty minutes each is the suggested routine.