Juggling the Ball

Not unlike the juggling you see at the circus, juggling the ball is a skill that is equally dazzling and just as tricky to master. It takes practise, patience, balance and above all concentration, but when it is mastered, it can elevate your game to the higher realms.

Juggling is unlikely to feature in actual match-play all that often, but as a discipline, juggling can drastically improve your ball control skills, as well as give you more confidence in all situations on the ball.

Juggling the Football

Juggling simply involves keeping the ball off the ground using different parts of your body. This can be, both feet, both knees, both thighs, both shoulders (not arms), chest, head, or even back. The ball is gently tapped into the air and then back down again, onto either the same or another one of the listed body parts, all the time keeping it under your own control and off the ground.

The possibility to juggle can come to a player either via another player or from their own doing. ie the player could choose to control an oncoming ball by juggling with it before releasing it again, or they could have the ball on the ground and choose to bring it off the ground and start juggling as a way of beating their opponent or getting the ball into the air.

Juggling can often be used as a threat to the opposing team, to make them see how skillful you can be and also how relaxed you are with the game, but can also be used to beat a player. The South Americans are the most famous users of juggling and they use it in their game more than other nations.

The video is a street-juggling clip that shows the comparison between football juggling and circus juggling.