Soccer Juggling Skills
For Young Players

Soccer juggling is fun and I personally consider it as the foundation of all soccer tricks. Where two or three players gather together, they always show up their skill. This is a soccer skill young players will enjoy learning. It is one of the best soccer tricks.

Even though this skill is not the most recommended trick, coaches are still teaching it. Juggling the ball helps young and professionals players with: ball control in the air, food coordination, eyes contact with the ball, and moving place to place in the pitch with the ball.

My view on this move is that young players should start with this skill before learning any other soccer move. When they master it and feel confident to roll the ball with both feet, the rest of soccer moves are therefore easy to perform.

Step-by-Step

There are different ways you can learn how to juggle a soccer ball. This is how I have been doing it since as a young player.

1. I flip the ball with one of my feet to send it to the air at the level of my knees and tights.

2. I start using my dominant foot to juggle the ball one or two times. Then I catch the ball with my hands to break for few seconds.

3. Then next move is to juggle the ball with my other foot, the less dominant one. I will juggle the ball with that foot until I feel confident to move on.

4. After trying each foot individually, I will then include juggling with both feet for a couple of times. I can set up juggling three to five times, and then I catch the ball for a short break. When I feel reassured, I will increase the number of juggling the ball.

5. Afterwards I will add juggling with my tights, chest, and head. The goal here is to start low, with both feet and then move up your body with the ball. This requires a lot of practices to juggle with the full body.

Tips

The key to this move is to keep control of your ball. I advise you to maintain the ball in the lower part of your body. The more you do so, the better your ball controlling will be. You can therefore add the upper level parts of your body (chest, head, and shoulder).

Remember that there are two types of soccer juggling. A stall trick is keeping the ball on the body of the player. An air trick is hitting the ball and sending it to the air with a part of the body. Combining these two types will help you to perform an outstanding juggling than the average soccer player.

This skill requires from the player: ball control in the air, player balance, and eye contact with the ball, and timing of each hitting of the ball, player softness and flexibility.

My own experience

I used to perform this move over and over in the pitch. After warming up with a set of jogging around the pitch, I will take the ball and start juggling it with both feet. It allowed me to get acquainted with the ball before I try other complicated skills. This is the reason I consider soccer juggling the basic of all soccer tricks.

I also perform it while training alone and with my teammates before or after the training sessions. We formed a circle of three or four players, then you receive the ball, juggling it one or two times before passing the ball to the teammate of your choice. It is fun to perform but at the same time, it builds the team spirit and indirectly involves the controlling, passing, balance skills.

I advise young soccer players to work on soccer juggling alone or during soccer training. It allows you to gain confidence of controlling the ball.

You are invited to visit the home page of Youth Soccer