How to Juggle a Soccer Ball

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Guillermo Gomez, I coach soccer. And today I'm going to be talking to you about how to juggle a soccer ball. Juggling the ball, you probably want to start on a flat surface. That way you can do a lot of control on the ball as the--a lot of bounces on the ball. It'll make it a lot easier for you to learn as you do it. And when we juggle the ball we actually want to be relaxed, your arms out, bend your knees, and watch the ball as it comes down. Juggling is about timing. Timing the ball as it goes down, and your foot making contact with the ball as your foot comes up. So you want to concentrate on those two together. When the ball comes down you want to point your toes up a little bit, and you want to hit the ball with your shoelaces. Again, juggling the ball can also be done with your thighs. It can also be done with your head. But you want to concentrate to juggle the ball with your lower body, which is your feet and your thighs. So again, timing of the ball is important. Get relaxed. One way that I like to start showing players how to juggle the ball is by letting the ball bounce on the ground once, and then kick it with your foot up and catch it with your hands. And then you would do the same with the other leg. One bounce on the ground, kick the ball up with your leg, and catch it with your hands. Then we start progressing with juggling. Now we do one bounce, leg, leg, hands. If the player's feeling comfortable with that, now we can do one bounce, then we can do three controls, one with--two with your feet, so left and right control, and one with your thigh. And so as the player gets more comfortable with that, we increase the number of juggles that the player can do, and here the emphasis is not on the quantity, but on the quality and control of the ball. Juggling is about controlling the ball. So, watch the player carefully. If he can control the ball while the ball is spinning in a funny way, again the idea is for the player to have good control of that soccer while he plays the game of soccer. And juggling helps that player develop those skills of ball control. So that's how you juggle a soccer ball."