Dribbling, juggling, passing, and trapping - these are some of the basic skills all soccer players need to know in order to play well.
Here are simple tips if you want to learn these techniques yourself.
Juggling
Juggling is an important basic skill to learn in soccer because it helps you perform other essential skills during a game. It is also a good way to gauge if you can control a soccer ball. This doesn’t mean you have to perform juggling tricks during the game but doing so while practicing can help you become more comfortable in your ball handling skills when you’re actually playing.
When you practice juggling, aim to manipulate the ball in various ways, such as juggling with sidespin, topspin, backspin, and even without spin. Learning these tricks will also help improve your passing skills.
To improve your juggling abilities, make sure to keep your toe down and your ankle locked while hitting the ball with the laces of your shoe. Then, from your hands, drop the ball to your dominant foot and hit it back to your hands. Keep practicing until you're able to hit the ball twice with your dominant foot. The next step is to do the same with your other foot. Increase the hits without using your hands and alternate between your feet. Keep improving by setting an increased goal at the beginning of each week.
Trapping
Once you've mastered juggling, the next skill you should work on is trapping. To begin, kick the ball as high as you can under control. As the ball is coming down, use the top of your foot to settle the ball to the ground. Make sure not to let the ball bounce high on your foot or away from you as you're settling it. Trapping is an important skill to learn because it helps keep the ball close to you and away from the players of the other team. It also allows you to play fast.
Dribbling
Dribbling is essential in making strategic plays as it requires you to think a couple of plays in advance, Lionel Messi is one of the best ones. It helps you visualize where you're going to push the ball so the defender cannot get to it. To develop your dribbling skills, keep your eyes trained in front of you and not on the ball while you run with it.
Passing
Proper ball passing takes more than just moving the ball away from you and towards your teammate. You need to be able to direct the ball towards your teammate with minimal effort on his or her part when receiving it.
You can work on some passing drills even while practicing on your own by using a target, such as another soccer ball or a cone. To start, place the target about 10 yards away. Move the ball on the ground with both feet and pass it by hitting the target. Keep doing this until you can hit the target repeatedly. Then, start increasing the distance between you and the target to further develop your passing skills.
When you can expertly pass the ball on the ground, work on passing the ball in the air. Begin with a distance of 20 yards. Practice hitting the target in the air but keep in mind that when you pass the ball in the air, your teammate should be able to easily trap it. This means the ball should be low enough so your teammate will only have to lift his or her foot slightly off the ground in order to trap and play the ball.
These skills may be basic but executing them properly during matches requires having the right equipment, especially the best soccer cleats as well as hours and hours of practice. Fortunately, practice pays off so if you put in the work you’re sure to reap the rewards.