Learning to Juggle and using Juggling to learn Ball Control

        These lessons are from  http://www.strongsoccer.com/Kingdrills/homeplay.htm

Keys:

• Initially practice juggling on pavement so that you can play the bounce and keep the ball moving. Learning to softly touch a bouncing ball is almost as important as a juggle touch and teaches the same movements.
   
• Use the shoelace or instep part of the foot for most foot touches. Use the soft, fleshy part of the thigh for thigh juggles. Stay away from the knee.

        Learning to juggle is not easy!
        There are not many "shortcuts". It can be very frustrating to new players and they just want to quit trying. Take it slow with lots of encouragement for everything. Many times they will begin to show significant gains but seem to lose all of those gains the following practice. Go slow. The time and effort it takes a player to progress from 2 touches to 4 touches may well be the same as from 20 to 40 juggles later on. Work in games like "juggle-horse" to keep it interesting.

• Start with a decent but expendable ball that you can use on pavement and not mind the scuffs. You may find that if you under-inflate it just a tiny bit, it will allow for more control. Repeat all the skills with both feet.
   
• Hold the ball out in front of you with both hands and drop it onto the pavement for a bounce. After the bounce, tap the ball back up to your hands with the shoelace or instep part your foot. Catch the ball and repeat several times with each foot. We need to learn how to describe these movements so the teacher can lead some beginning jugglers through these skills. (I would call this a "bounce-foot-catch".)
   
• Now, drop the ball for a bounce, tap it softly up towards your hands but let it fall back to the pavement for another bounce. Then tap it up to your hands for a catch. (I would call this a "bounce-foot-bounce-foot-catch".) Repeat this several times, again with both feet.
   
• Next we will drop the ball directly to the foot for a tap back to the hands for a catch. (This is a "foot-catch")
   
• Now drop the ball to the foot for a tap but let it bounce, then use the foot to tap it up to the hands for a catch. (This is a "foot-bounce-foot-catch".)
   
• Keep adding on touches and bounces alternating a foot touch with a bounce and ending with a catch. It's important to end with a catch to maintain control.
   
• Finally drop the ball for a bounce and tap it up with the foot but before it bounces try to tap it up again for a catch. ( This is a "bounce-foot-foot-catch".) This is the beginning of "real" juggling! This is a big step. If it seems too difficult for the player, do not hesitate to back up and work on the 1 touch exercises again with bounces in between.
   
• Continue to try different variations of bouncing and 2 foot touches. Don't try to go to 3 consecutive foot juggles too soon. Getting from 2 juggles to 3 is a very big step as well. Instead try to link lots of 2 juggles together with bounces. Try a bounce-foot-foot-bounce-foot-foot-catch. Later on link together a several of these 2 touch juggles with a bounce between each one. In fact, see how long you can keep it going with 2 touches and then a bounce. Have a contest.
   
• It may not be the first day, but eventually you are ready to go for 3 juggles. Warm-up with single touches and work up to 2 touches linked together with bounces, just as I have described above. Then try a bounce followed by 3 foot juggles and a catch. (This is a bounce-foot-foot-foot-catch.) Encourage alternating feet during the 3 touch juggle. Once they get the hang of this, start using bounces to link together more 3 and 2 touch.
   
• You can drop the ball directly to the foot without a bounce, to start the juggle, once they begin to develop some control.
   
• Approach thigh touches and head touches the same way, but wait until they have some control with their feet so they can "dig" it up for a catch at the end. Also they will often find the thigh touches easier and tend to overwork them thus neglecting the feet. Start with a thigh-bounce-foot-catch combo and then keep adding on. Try a thigh-thigh-bounce-foot-catch and then a thigh-thigh-foot-foot-catch and now

Personal Experience with Juggling - Ken Gamble

       It's been some time since I coached U10s, but the only real homework I had them do was juggling. This was part of a regimen of the Decatur Revolution Soccer Club that Coach Patrick Fitzgerald and Kenny Knable started. 

      They were supposed to juggle for a minimum of 15 minutes each day. Once a week at practice, each player paired off with a partner and juggled. One player juggled and the other counted the juggles. Only foot juggles counted. They could use their head and thighs but we only counted the foot juggles since the whole purpose of juggling is to learn ball control (touch) and get the ball to the foot as quickly as possible.

      After about ten minutes, we counted their best record number of juggles and recorded it on paper. Any player who got more than 50 juggles at one try without the ball touching the ground was given three tries in front of their teammates to make the "Century Club". If they got over 100 on one of their three tries they were awarded a Century Club Patch in a ceremony in front of their team. They were able to wear the patch on their practice jerseys/t-shirts. A copy of the patch I designed is shown at left.

      This was unbelievably successful. In fact, it was so successful that other clubs asked to use the program with their younger teams. We did the program for about 7 years and some of the teams in that club (Decatur Revolution) still use it. Even now, I see lots of those same kids playing high school ball and they always have better touch than the other players.

Notes:

      Juggling has a very steep learning curve. For several frustrating weeks they will struggle to get 6 or 7 juggles. Then they'll get to 10 and then 20 and 40, et. al. You have to really encourage competition and keep them at it those first few weeks as they'll be easily discouraged.

      I also encouraged them to do "wall passes" to themselves (varying power and right/left feet) against a picnic bench or table turned on it's side. I learned to tell them not to use the side of the house or garage door since parents complained.

      Patrick and Kenny always discouraged the use of those "Soccer Pal" soccer-ball-on-a-string things. The thought was that they learned to juggle better when the penalty for bad juggling meant they had to chase the ball. It also meant they tried real hard to save a bad juggle by moving quickly to/under the ball to recover their touch which is exactly what we wanted in game situations.

Ken Gamble 2004

Bruce Brownlee Soccer Coaching Notes

From Bruce Brownlee's Website at http://www.brucebrownlee.com/coaching/technical/juggling.htm
Development of juggling skill in training provides four important benefits that money can't buy, these being

• touch
• balance
• agility
• soccer specific fitness

Touch

top level players feel the ball through the shoe, and know at every moment what part of the ball and what parts of the foot are in contact. The player learns to project, mentally, down to the surface touching the ball, foot, thigh, chest, or head, and learns to feel where the ball will go next based on the last touch. For example, it's easy for you to toss a basketball back and forth between your right and left hands, even with your eyes closed. Your mind is in your fingertips. Why shouldn't practice make it easy for a player to "toss" a soccer ball between feet ?

You must encourage juggling in order to develop touch, because touch translates into better results in matches. With good touch, players will weight their passes more accurately, have an easier time beating opponents with attacking moves, and be more successful at holding the ball against pressure, all because of improved touch gained by juggling.

Balance

 When you juggle, touch on the ball is half the battle, the other is in controlling your body. Being able to make rapid, quick, micro adjustments with all the large and small muscles is a requirement for successful juggling, and players with better balance are the ones who can move to their right but keep their balance to shoot the ball to the left, just inside the post. (There's no kidding about the value of balance. I have a player this year who trains 4-5 hours a day as a competitive figure skater, and she's finished in the top ten nationally the last two years. She has incredible balance and agility, and in this year's state cup final, she took on two defenders and beat each with a quick lateral move to the right, then finished with a goal to the left post. The keeper had no
chance to go back the other way.)

Agility

Balance's natural partner, like balance in motion. The ability to change directions quickly. As juggling increases balance, it does improve agility somewhat, especially for those players who work in group juggling exercises where movement and control mix together. Like this one:

Groups of two, juggle four touches, loft a pass half height (chest high) to partner and move to new location 6 feet away and prepare to get ball back. Partner does likewise.

Soccer Specific Fitness

Sure your players can run a long way in the Cooper test, but do they have the leg development, balance, abdominal and lower back development to check back to the ball, kill a hard pass, turn and make an attacking move to goal, and repeat this 50 times a match ? After they do this 20 times, do they still have both the fitness and the touch to be successful ? Juggling is fairly aerobic, especially if you do it in a group with movement, and helps accomplish development of those little muscles that wear out quickly in matches if not conditioned, like hip flexors and lower back muscles. Kids with underdeveloped hip flexors have absolutely no speed at all late in a game.

Improving Juggling Skills

A daily home program is the basis for success. There's no one best program, and variety helps make it fun. One example:

Individual

1. 100 touches, right foot
2. 100 touches, left foot
3. 100 touches, both feet working together
4. 100 touches, thighs working together
5. 100 touches, head
6. 100 touches, all surfaces
7. Run juggle 44 yards, repeat. Keep the ball up as you jog, then run.

With a Partner

1. Partners with ball, keep it up with heads
2. Partners with ball, keep it up, all surfaces
3. 4 or 5 touches, loft pass to partner at 6 feet, check away 10 yards,return.
4. 4 or 5 touches, loft pass to partner at 6 feet, do a push-up (press up in UK)

With Groups of 3 to 5

1. Keep it up with heads
2. Keep it up, all surfaces
3. 4 or 5 touches, loft pass, sprint lap around group, return to position
4. Line of players face 1 solo player. Player at front of line starts underhanded serve to the head of solo player facing line, sprints to become new solo player. First solo player heads back to front of line, sprints to end of line. Keep it up with heads continues.

Coaching Points

1. For all exercises, don't count a touch if control is lost before a second touch is accomplished. It can't be 1, drop, 2, drop. It has to be 1, 2, 3, 4, drop, 5, 6, 7...
2. Ask players to read the ball through their boot, and to know, with every touch, which toe touched the ball and what part of the ball it touched, and how hard.
3. Players will have more success in a relaxed attention posture with slightly bent knees, head up, arms at a comfortable distance to provide balance.
4. To get in more touches in time available, ask players to recognize when they are just about to lose control of the ball, and to let the ball drop beside them, instead of getting in just that one extra touch that knocks the ball away 5 yards. In the time it takes for them to walk 5 yards, another player can get 10 or 20 more touches accomplished.
5. With groups, keep the numbers small so everyone gets lots of touches.
6. Keep records, have competitions, have tests, and give small awards to recognize accomplishment.

Fun Anecdote

There is a soccer book that describes the author's visit to a NY Cosmos game in the 70's.  The author wrote that Carlos Alberto stood in the penalty area, and Franz Beckenbauer stood in the center circle (restraining arcs for purists). Beckenbauer juggled the ball for 10 or 20 touches, and then made a 40 yard lofted pass to Alberto, who took the ball out of the air and began juggling it at the penalty spot. After a while, he returned it to Beckenbauer, who continued as before. This went on for a long time, showing great skill in an amazing display. If only all players could do this.

The Amazing Mr. Woo and his soccer ball juggling skills

Incredible juggling video (Windows Media Player)
http://video.premiumtv.co.uk/rangersfc/video/mrwoo_hi.wmv
 

       World Records For Ball Juggling with Feet, Legs and Head.

• Soccer ball control
  Nikolai Kutsenko (UKR) juggled a regulation soccer ball for 24:30 hrs nonstop with feet, legs and head, without the ball ever touching the ground.
  RECORD STATISTICS
   
• Soccer ball control, female
  Milene Domingues (BRA), 55,187 times in 9:06 hrs, in 1997
   
• Soccer ball control in a sitting position
  Tomas Lundman (SWE): 1:27:48 on 1 Feb 2001
   
• Walking while keeping up a soccer ball
  Ricardo Silva Neves (BRA) covered 721 km (448 mi) in June 1992. He arrived in Brasilia after travelling for 12 days.
   
• Walking while keeping up a soccer ball, team record
  A team from Aubigny (FRA) covered 113 km (70 mi 400 yd) in 11:32 hrs.
   
• Walking while heading a soccer ball
  Agim Agushi (Kosovo) covered 15.356 km (9 mi 857 yd) in 3:12:39 hrs on 27 Oct 2002 in Munich (Germany)
   
• Running marathon while keeping up a soccer ball
  Dr. Jan Skorkovský (TCH) covered 42.195 km 26 mi 385 yd for the Prague City Marathon on 8 July 1990 in 7:18:55 hrs.
   
• Running half marathon while keeping up a soccer ball
  Uno Lindström (SWE): 2:55:49 hrs on 10 August 1985.
   
• Running 100 m while keeping up a soccer ball
  Manfred Wagner (SUI): 15.9 sec on 14 July 1996 at the 2nd Rekord-Klub SAXONIA record festival in Flensburg
   
• Running 200 m while keeping up a soccer ball: ABrahan Munoz (USA) 40.26 sec on 29 Oct 2000 in Wheaton College, Illinois, USA
   
• Running 1000 m while keeping up a soccer ball
  Josef Lochman (TCH): 5:03 min in 1986 in Valasské Mezirící
   
• Running 1 hour while keeping up a soccer ball
  Josef Lochman (TCH): 8680 m (5 mi 693 yd) in 1986 in Valasské Mezirící
   
• Speed juggling
  Ferdie Adoboe (USA): 136 touches (kicks) in 30 seconds and 262 touches in one minute, both achieved on 22 Jan 1999 in Tucson (USA). In 2002, Kurt Rothenfluh (SUI) demonstrated speed juggling for two minutes in a TV show. He was offically measured with 615 touches in two minutes, but the counting method was not accurate. However, the supposed correct result (about 570) would still surpass the records mentioned above.
   
• Speed juggling, female
  123 by Tasha-Nicole Terani (USA) on 22 Febr 2003
  DETAILS
   
• Heading a soccer ball
  Goderdzi Makharadze (GEO): 8:12:25 hrs, at the Boris Paichadze National Stadium Tbilisi, on 26 May 1996
   
• Heading a soccer ball, doubles passing
  P. Kubecka and M. Vítek (TCH): 3455 times, in 1972 in Brno
   
• Heading a soccer ball, 30 sec speed record
  Jacek Roszkowski (POL): 173 times, on 23 July 1993 in Gdansk
   
• Keeping a soccer ball airborne while climbing up a ladder
  Paul Sahli (SUI): 109 steps, 25 May 2002 in Aarau
   
• Running up and down stairs while juggling a soccer ball with feet and head
  ABrahan Munoz (USA) 2754 steps walking upstairs as well as downstairs in 1:19 hrs on 28 December 2002 in Morelia, Mich.
   
• Running up and down stairs while heading a soccer ball
  Agim Agushi (Kosovo) 1920 steps walking upstairs,1860 steps walking downstairs in 1:12:41 hrs on 2 August 2002 in the PTK Building in Prishtina
   
• Balancing, not juggling, a soccer ball on the head
  Adalberto Sanchez (Mexico): 2:00 hrs, 21 Dec 2002 in Morelia Mich DETAILS
   
• Balancing, not juggling, a soccer ball on a foot
  ABrahan Munoz (USA), 13:36 min, on 3 August 2001 in Carpentersville DETAILS

  Web Administrator    Ken Gamble