How to Shield the Soccer Ball

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Mark Wilson with United Soccer Academy. We are here today with Expert Village and we are talking about dribbling. Now we are going to focus on shielding the soccer ball. There is a few things to remember when we shield the soccer ball. The first thing to remember is we have to get our body between the ball and our opponent. Now we are under pressure. The second thing we have to remember is that the ball has to be controlled on the outside of the foot so it is further away from the side the defender is approaching from. Let's take a look. Always played in, and Mark receives the ball with the outside of the foot, away from the pressure and defender, as the defender comes around we keep it on the opposite side, shielding away from the defender. We use the other side of the foot so the defender does not have access to the ball. Our weight is placed on our back foot, so right now Mark is shielding the ball with his right foot, using the other side of the foot, and he has his weight on the back foot to try to shield the ball away from the defender. So once again shooting the ball, we have to receive the ball on the outside of the foot, our body must be positioned between our opponent and the ball, and we must use the other side of our foot to keep the ball away from the defender. Defender comes around from a different angle, then we switch our body and we take on the opposite foot, always remembering that we have to get our body between ball and defender. "