Juggling

How to Improve Your Foot Skills in Soccer

As coaches we always say that just about any type of person–tall, short, muscular, skinny, etc.–can play soccer and learn to do it well. That’s one of the best parts of this game we love.

But if there’s one common thread across just about all proficient soccer players, it’s that they all have mastered their foot skills.

This is an area where the United States has long lagged behind South American and European countries. By emphasizing attributes like speed and strength over foot skills at young ages, too many kids ultimately fail to develop their technical abilities sufficiently.

Recently, however, there have been some major shifts to correct this historical shortcoming, and foot skills are starting to be emphasized much more at all levels.

If you’re a player hoping to reach your full potential, then there are some specific things you can start doing today to improve your foot skills.

Drills and Exercises for Improving Foot Skills

As a general principle, to improve your footwork, you need to be getting as many touches as you can. Fortunately this is easy to do! It doesn’t require a lot of space, and all you need is a ball. Soccer cones can help, but it’s easy enough to throw some shoes or other small objects down and use them.

Also, to truly improve your foot skills, make sure you are training both of your feet equally, not just your stronger one. And with that, make sure you are using all surfaces of your feet including the inside, outside, laces, and sole.

Here are some specific exercises you can work on for improving your foot skills.

Juggling

Working on your juggling is one of the best ways you can get lots of touches in a small area, significantly improving your foot skills.

Specifically, it helps with everything from touch and control to balance and prepares you for game situations where the ball comes at you from all directions and heights and forces you to adjust quickly.

Cone Dribbling

In addition to juggling you want to make sure to practice some good dribbling drills to help you get more touches at game speed. Here are a few ideas with cones:

Set up a line of cones and dribble through them. Try a pattern of cutting across with the inside of one foot, and pushing the ball out with the inside of your other foot. With this type of drill, make sure to start slowly to get the technique and pattern down, then increase your speed as you are able.

Also, set up a few cones around in a medium-sized area and work on performing dribbling moves. Don’t go overboard with extra fancy footwork, but rather repeat and master the simpler moves like feinting one way and cutting the other way. Another go-to is performing a step-over and then cutting away with the outside of your other foot.

When you do a dribbling move, make sure you explode away with a change of speed. This is what helps you gain separation from your defender in a game situation, and learning how to keep the ball under control as you accelerate is an important part of developing your foot skills.

Toe Touches/Toe Taps

Another great way to get a lot of touches quickly in a small space is toe touches (also known as toe taps). This is a familiar exercise for many players, and it’s very simple.

Start with the ball in front of you and lift one of your knees so you can touch (or tap) the ball with your toes/sole of your foot. Then lower that leg and raise your other leg to do the same thing.

As with the other drills, you want to start slow, but when you start to feel comfortable with the movement, increase your speed. When you do, you’ll see that the repeated shifting of feet is also great for your improving your fitness!

Sole Rolls/Lateral Rolls

Think of the sole roll exercise as a kind of extension of toe touches where you take the same kind of touches alternating feet, but instead of standing still, you move with the ball.

For one variation, you can roll the ball forward with your sole, alternating feet, and then backward to where you started.

You can also do “lateral” sole rolls where you start with the ball on the outside of your body, roll it with your sole to one side, and continue using that same foot’s sole for each touch to continue in the same direction. Then reverse the movement and use the sole of your other foot to roll the ball back to your starting point.

We hope these ideas help get you started with improving your soccer foot skills!

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How to Get Better at Juggling at Home in your Backyard

By Parker & Walsh Leave a Comment

Little to no time is spent on this soccer skill at soccer practice even though it will make you a better player. What skill am I talking about? Juggling, of course.

Working on your juggling skills at home will make you a better soccer player. And the other great thing is that the exercise requires very little space and the only thing you need a soccer ball.

In our previous article Why Practicing Juggling Will Make You a Better Soccer Player, we explained that juggling improves one’s touch and their balance and agility.

In another article on juggling tips and drills, we explained that you don’t have to lift the ball up with your foot. You can simply start with the ball in your hands.

In those earlier posts we give you some juggling variations and challenges. Now to take that a touch further, in this article we are going to break down specific juggling drills for you to complete in order to better your touch.

Remember, the best soccer players work on their touch and skill outside of soccer practice, like juggling at home. So what type of player do you want to be?

Juggling Performance Levels:

Beginner: 1,000 – 3,000 touches per day

Proficient: 5,000 touches per day

Elite: 10,000 touches per day

Below are specific juggling drills for you to complete to get 2,000 touches. You’ll see that the variations include the height of each juggle, as well as varying up the spin which is a somewhat more advanced skill that you develop through regular practice.

Of course you can set higher touch goals for each section to get more touches. And you don’t have to get consecutive touches, just cumulative touches for each drill. So don’t fret if you lose control, you don’t need to start the count over.

Additionally, if you accidentally kick the ball above your knee when juggling below your knee, then it still counts as a touch. Furthermore, if you are working on No Spin Juggling and you accidentally put backspin on the ball, it still counts as a touch.

For one more tip, when you are working on No Spin Juggling, you should be able to read the words on the ball or see the images clearly on the ball.

As you juggle more, you will get more consecutive touches in a row and fewer drops. Hopefully, you will be able to get 100 to 200 touches in a row for each drill. Eventually, you may be able to complete a whole juggling section without any drops.

Home Juggling Drills (to get 2000 touches a day)

Juggling Below the Knee (400 total touches for this section)
- Right (100 touches)
- Left (100 touches)
- Alternate (200 touches)
Juggling Between your Knees and Head (400 total touches for this section)
- Right (100 touches)
- Left (100 touches)
- Alternate (200 touches)
Juggling Above Your Head (400 total touches for this section)
- Right (100 touches)
- Left (100 touches)
- Alternate (200 touches)
Juggling with Backspin (400 total touches for this section)
- Right (100 touches)
- Left (100 touches)
- Alternate (200 touches)
Jugging with No Spin (400 total touches for this section)
- Right (100 touches)
- Left (100 touches)
- Alternate (200 touches)

This article is part of our 10,000 touch series, which helps you find easy ways to achieve the number of touches that may seem daunting but can really skyrocket your skill levels. Check out the Zig Zag Dribbling Soccer Drill article for ideas on how to get more touches.

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Soccer Juggling: Tips and Drills for Improving Your Game

By Parker & Walsh Leave a Comment

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When you’re looking for the best ways to practice your soccer skills by yourself, there’s one exercise you can do that’s very simple but also does wonders for your touch and control.

I’m talking, of course, about juggling.

Juggling can be difficult to master, but you don’t need to do anything super advanced in order to reap the benefits.

Benefits of Practicing Juggling

We’ve already written about how juggling can make you a better soccer player.

For one, it helps greatly with your touch improving your ability to control the ball when it comes at you at all speeds and from all angles.

An improved touch will also see you better able to make passes with the proper weight as well as keep the ball closer to you when dribbling.

Additionally, juggling helps you improve your balance and coordination since it forces you to make quick adjustments in order to keep the ball in the air.

A Great Backyard Exercise

Another of the biggest benefits of juggling is that you don’t need any special equipment aside from a ball; not even a wall or teammate that you typically need to practice passing or receiving.

This makes juggling a great exercise to do anywhere you have even a little patch of space: your backyard, a playground, even a local street or sidewalk.

Practicing juggling just a few minutes a day is enough to see real improvements when you are consistent with your training.

So how can you maximize your juggling practice as a beginner so that you can ensure it’s worth your while?

The Basics: Tips for How to Juggle a Soccer Ball for Beginners

The basic move of juggling needs no real introduction: just keep the ball in the air!

But if you’re just getting started and juggling a ball dozens of times seems intimidating, there are easy ways that you can start more slowly.

First, practice by holding the ball in your hands and dropping it. Let it bounce once, then kick it back up with your laces and catch the ball again.

Keep working at it until you have enough control with your kick that the ball easily comes up to chest height and you don’t have to reach out far to catch it.

Next you want to slowly increase the number of juggles: 2, 3, 4, and more as you are able to. (Depending on the surface and ball that you’re using, you can also drop the ball, let it bounce, kick it up, let it bounce, and then kick it again.)

Don’t forget to work with your non-dominant foot too! Practice alternating juggling with your left and right foot.

Some other general juggling tips include to keep your ankle locked so you avoid weak contact with the ball. You also always want to make sure you keep your eye on the ball when you’re just getting comfortable.

Finally, stay on your toes so that you can more quickly anticipate and react to the ball’s movements. This has an added benefit of building a great habit that you can carry forward to the team practice and game environments too.

Juggling with All Parts of the Body

To get the maximum benefit from your juggling you don’t want to stop with your feet; juggling is an exercise that can involve just about all body parts.

So work in some juggles with your thighs, your head, even your chest and shoulders when you feel confident enough to do so.

With your feet, you can also very up how you strike the ball. When you’re just learning you usually kick the ball so it has backspin; but when you’re more advanced you can work on juggles with no spin or even topspin, which is more difficult.

Best Soccer Juggling Drills and Challenges

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The following are a few different drills and juggling challenges that you can try:

Juggle uninterrupted until you can get up to a chosen number (you might start with 50 or 100). After you achieve the challenge, increase the number and get it again.
Juggle with only your non-dominant foot for as many reps as possible.
Juggle in a pattern around your body, by going right foot, right thigh, head, left thigh, left foot, and repeat.
Juggle with no spin for as many reps as you can (then try doing the same with topspin).
Juggle while slowly jogging forward (then try jogging backward too).
Juggle with your feet while avoiding letting the ball get above your waist

If you have a partner or teammate with you, you can also work on a variety of juggling drills together, like juggling a set number of times and then volleying it to the other person who chest traps and then juggles the same amount before passing it back.

We hope this article gives you some good tips and pointers for good juggling technique as well as some ideas for what you can do to practice. If you have any other comments or questions or some other good juggling exercises that you like, let us know below.

How to Boost Confidence When Playing Soccer

By Parker & Walsh 3 Comments

soccer dribbling confidence skill

Confidence is an important ingredient of becoming a better soccer player. Without believing in yourself and your abilities, it will be much more difficult to achieve your potential on the pitch.

But what does that mean in a practical sense? What can you actually do to improve your confidence in your own game?

This article will focus on four things to work on that we’ve found to most significantly improve your confidence in soccer: improving fitness, completing passes, juggling, and building the habit of dribbling a soccer ball everywhere.

One of the best ways to boost your confidence in being fit in soccer. Fitness improves your touch, your communication skills, and your overall enjoyment of the game. First, fitness improves your touch because when you are fit you are better able to move your feet to get yourself in the correct position to receive the soccer ball, which is across your body. Receiving the ball across your body means that if the pass is coming from your left, you receive the ball with your right foot facing the direction you are attacking. Receiving the ball across your body allows for you to see the entire field and pick out the right pass to complete every time, which in turn will give you confidence.

Fitness improves your communication because you will have the energy to communicate with your teammates. Talking on the soccer field takes a lot of work and energy. You and your teammates should be communicating the entire match because the game is free-flowing and the ball is constantly moving. When you are tired, your energy is spent on running and trying to focus on your touch instead of communicating with your teammates to break down the opposing team or stop the other team from scoring.

Fitness also improves your overall enjoyment of the game. The average professional soccer player runs between 7 and 9 1/2 miles in a single, 90 minutes match. This a lot of running, so if you are not fit to complete this amount of running, soccer is going to be hard and not as fun for you. Struggling make runs late in games or keep up with your mark can be extremely frustrating.

Another way to boost your confidence is to complete your passes, especially your first pass. The secret to completing your first pass to play a simple pass the way you are facing. A simple pass is a short pass on the ground where there are no defenders between the ball and your teammate. If you play the way you face, you will not have to turn and find a pass: you should already have a passing option in your line of sight. Completing passes is a big confidence-booster and allows your team to keep possession. Trying to force a difficult pass right off the bat can lead to a lost ball and frustration among you and your teammates.

Juggling can boost your confidence because it’s another tried and true way to improve your touch. Juggling helps you concentrate on each touch and make sure it’s a good one because you need to keep your ankle locked and kick the ball appropriately. Also, juggling helps put a little pressure on you with each touch as you reach a goal or personal record, and dealing with that pressure in a casual situation will help once you’re out in the pitch. Being comfortable manipulating the ball is very important and juggling helps that greatly.

Lastly, working on dribbling a soccer ball everywhere you can will also boost your confidence. Building a habit of dribbling in your backyard, around the local park, or even in your house will help you learn to manipulate the ball in tighter spaces without having to think about it. The more you are comfortable with the ball at your feet without having to look down and stare at it, the better you will be. Your head will be up allowing you to find your open teammates and see defenders coming. This is advice that goes beyond your formal soccer practices and games: by dedicating yourself to working on your dribbling when you have a few spare minutes can help take you to the next level, and after the habit is ingrained in you you’ll see a significant improvement in your confidence level.

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Why Practicing Juggling Will Make You a Better Soccer Player

By Parker & Walsh 2 Comments

Juggling the soccer ball is a good way to kill a few free minutes or challenge your friend to a quick competition.

But since you don’t juggle in a game, can it really make you a significantly better player on the field?

Yes, and in more ways than you might realize. Specifically, it helps improve your touch and balance, which both have tremendous impacts on your performance. Let’s dig a little deeper into why this is the case.

1. Touch

Sure, you won’t be bounding down the field evading defenders in a game all while keeping a juggle going, but the skill does come into play frequently. For example, think of an airball that comes to you at an odd angle, or a cross that bounces just in front of you.

Practicing juggling helps you perfect your touch so you can better control balls coming at you from all heights and in all situations. And in addition, you’ll notice that your improved touch makes it far easier to do things like weigh your passes properly and keep control of the ball while dribbling.

Overall, getting in as many touches as possible is one of the best things you can do to improve your play, and it’s hard to imagine an exercise that will get more touches in quickly than juggling.

2. Balance and Agility

Another major benefit of juggling is improving your balance and agility. To succeed in soccer you need to be able to keep your body in control and make quick adjustments and changes of direction. You need to be able to pull of a move seamlessly without losing speed or stumbling.

Juggling regularly, in particular switching quickly from left to right foot, helps greatly in this regard. Improved rhythm is another benefit: juggling will improve your “foot-eye” coordination so your movements will be more in-sync.

In addition, practicing juggling also helps you hone your focus, concentration and discipline, all important attributes for soccer players.

Best Ways to Practice Juggling

Juggling at its core is about as simple an exercise as you can imagine–just kick the ball up and don’t let it hit the ground–but there are endless variations and plenty of ways to keep it fresh and challenging.

Here are a few ideas if you’re ready to move past the basic juggle.

Juggling with only your non-dominant foot for as long as you can
Juggling in a set sequence (for example, right foot, right thigh, head, left thigh, left foot, repeat)
Juggling with no spin (or topspin, or sidespin)
With a partner, juggling for a set number of touches before sending a ball chest-high to your teammate who does the same
Juggle while you are jogging forward
Challenging yourself to reach a certain number of juggles, such as 100
Juggling a set number of times, then catching the ball on the top of your foot and holding it there for a couple of seconds before resuming juggling
Juggling while keeping the ball below your waist at all times (or above your head, or some other height)

Do you know of any other techniques for practicing juggling? If so, let us know in the comments.