Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Soccer Practice Wall


When my middle son started soccer last fall, a friend of mine suggested the boys use a soccer wall to practice kicks against. She has a wonderful permanent wall constructed in her back yard.

Sinking posts in cement and screwing a more formidably built wall to the posts would have been ideal. But to be honest, I didn't have the money for the supplies, and wasn't sure how much the boys would use it.

For now, I simply used what we had on hand to try out the idea. Here was my plan.

  • First, find a good spot that can take stray balls sailing through.
  • Use a string line to make sure the posts will be aligned enough to attach the wall.
  • Drive three or four large metal fence posts into the ground, spaced around 4 feet apart, along the line.
  • Attach an eight foot by six foot section of privacy fence using large wire ties at top and bottom. A wall with thicker slats will take more aggressive play, but I simply used a section we had taken down from another place in the yard. We used a few upright logs to help return wide kicks.

I'm delighted to say, they love it! It gets used constantly. They use it like a soccer goal to practice their skills, but they also found it works great as a backstop for their wiffle ball games! Maybe someday we'll put in a permanent wall, but this works fine for now!

Thanks, Daree, for a great idea!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea! I can see how this would be a great investment!

K Magill said...

Hi! I really like this idea, and was wondering if I might have permission to link to it on my blog and use the picture you have on this post to accompany the link?
Could you email me to let me know?
kmagill1212 (at) gmail (dot) com
havingfunathomeblog.blogspot.com
If not, that's fine too. Thanks for the good idea!