- Improve your soccer skills and impress your friends by learning how to juggle a soccer ball and perform other skills like a professional.
Learn How to Juggle a Soccer Ball Like a Professional
Everyone learns physical skills at a different pace. If you are one of the people in your friend group who is struggling to juggle a soccer ball, you may want to learn how to get better.
There is no shame in struggling to juggle when you are first getting acquainted with the sport. Some players can go years playing the sport and still have a hard time with such a skill, as it does require good footwork and coordination.
Even if it takes you some time to become a pro juggler like some tricksters you may see on YouTube, you can develop this skill in a very respectable way.
Below are some tips that will help you juggle a soccer ball as though you are a professional player.
Train Consistently
If there is one way to get better at any skill, it is through hard work and dedication. You must put in the time if you want to improve your soccer juggling skills.
The advantage of trying to improve your ball juggling is that you do not need another person to help you with this process. If you hope to juggle at your next match or in front of your friends, you must put in the work at home when you have some free time.
Juggling is such a skill that you can even practice indoors, provided you are careful. Practice in a spacious part of the house, as you do not want to damage any furniture or electronics.
The best way to practice is by going in your garden. There, you will have a lot more space to make mistakes, which is essential to improving. Keep working at this skill, and you will get better.
Start With a Simple Move
If you are seeking playing soccer tips, one of the best suggestions is to start any skill in the simplest possible way. That is true for anything in life, whether it involves playing soccer, betting on the game, or achieving something in your professional life.
Say you want to improve your juggling of the soccer ball. A lot of people will keep trying the most complex juggling moves and failing. The problem is their underlying technique is not good enough, and trying difficult moves is not getting them anywhere.
What you can do is try something very simple until you are perfect at that particular skill.
Take the ball in your hands, drop it onto your dominant foot, and then kick it back to your hands so that you can catch the ball. Keep doing this simple drill as much as you can manage without failing.
You may think such a skill is too easy to do, but you would be surprised at how many people can only do it one or two times before they fail.
Work on hitting the ball perfectly back up to your hands so that you have an easy catch. The idea is to hone your ability to absorb the pressure and speed of the ball and take it where you want it to go on the first try.
Keep in mind that you are going to make some mistakes, which is why you should not panic if it takes you a few days to figure out this skill.
Use Both Feet
When you are juggling the soccer ball, do not try and perform all the juggles on your dominant foot. Even though you may think that would be easier to manage, it is not the case.
Most jugglers find that if you are hitting the ball a couple of times with one foot and then moving onto the next, you have a much higher chance for success. That is because you have more room for error, as you can flick the ball up to get it with your other foot every time you are losing the juggling momentum on the first foot.
Find the Sweet Spot of Contact
A significant reason why people struggle with juggling a soccer ball is because they are hitting it with the wrong part of the foot. If you are smacking the ball with your toe, you are not going to have any luck juggling. The ball will always balloon up in the air and go in various directions.
Even hitting the ball too close to your ankle is a mistake, as you will not get enough rise each time the ball comes down to your ankle and needs to go back up. After one or two hits, the ball will fall somewhere near the ground, and you will not be able to keep it up.
Try to hit the ball in the sweet spot of your foot. The area between the ankle and toe is perfect, but the exact spot may depend on your foot’s shape. Keep trying different areas within that region until you find one spot that is yielding the most consistent results.
Remember to Have Fun
Playing soccer is not about proving you are better than someone, even if you have a competitive streak. Yes, teams want to win and players should strive to improve.
You must not, however, lose sight of what matters. The reason you play soccer is to have fun and pursue a passion. Keep that at the forefront of your mind as you learn to juggle.
When you commit to having fun, regardless of how long it takes you to learn a particular skill, you will find yourself picking up that move a lot faster. The pressure is off, allowing you to practice without any anxiety bogging you down.
