Football

Develop Dribbling Skills In You

A. Watch the following things for your dribbling skills.

Scout your options

Dribbling begins before you receive the ball. The first thing you do is look at your closest team-mate to see if he’s being marked. Secondly, you look to see how close my opponent is and how far you are from the penalty box. This helps you decide if you can collect the ball and head for goal or pass it to your team-mate immediately. Once the ball arrives at your feet and you’ve decided there’s space to dribble you face up to your opponent and focus on leaving him behind.

Read your opponent

Very often you don’t know much about your opponent, so you don’t know his characteristics. You need to read the situation and use your creativity to dribble. His body position influences yours actions a lot, as his reaction time will depend on his body shape. If he comes at you with his body slightly turned to one side, I know it will take him longer to react if you take the ball on the opposite side. 

Ooze confidence

The essence of dribbling is personality, confidence and having a feel for the moment. If you feel you have some ability, you should improve your skills, but also embrace your personality to use them. When you face an opponent you always must think that you are able to leave him behind. It’s also absolutely essential to alter what you do. Always change the way you play; do something different. You may pass once and dribble next time, so you won’t become predictable.

There's a time and place

The best advice on dribbling is to assess when it’s the right moment to dribble and the right moment to play a quick one-two. If you’re in your own half, always touch the ball twice. If you go past the halfway line, head for goal. Put your opponent on the back foot. Always dribble with the aim of attacking goal, never just to humiliate an opponent or to show off. Even if you have no choice but to dribble in your own half, make sure you’re always going forward.

B. Five Basic Steps For Your Dribbling Expertisation:

Even the smallest child can run forward and dribble a soccer ball with some success, just by kicking the ball forward. The key to improving your soccer or football dribbling is achieving better control so the ball does not go in a random direction or too far forward. Improved football dribbling can bring you and your team to greater success in your league, or even the pinnacle of the sport if you can master dribbling to the extent of a football magician such as FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

Step 1

Practice juggling the ball, keeping it in the air by a series of taps off the top of one foot. Alternate feet as you improve, recommends University of North Carolina Greensboro coach Michael Parker in "Premier Soccer." Work as you juggle on improving your touch or feel for the ball, which increases your confidence in handling the ball.

Step 2

Push the ball, rather than kick it, and use the inside and outside of the feet for these pushes. Experiment with using the sole of your foot, the top of your shoe and your heel as well as the inside and outside of the foot to control the ball, pro coach Michael J. Matkovich advises.

Step 3

Run straight at the defender to create good, attacking dribbling, Parker states. As you do so, tap the ball close to the defender, in a move called "showing" the ball, to tempt him into stabbing at it with his foot to tackle the ball away from your feet. This stabbing motion move can place the defender off balance, unable to turn and follow your next move.

Step 4

Knock the ball past the defender after showing it and accelerate toward the goal. Time your tap of the ball when the defender seems most off-balance and use your speed to leave him behind. The closer you are to the defender for this move, ideally a yard or less, the easier it will be for you to recover the ball after this tap. If you are 3 yards or more away, the defender may have the speed to get to the ball before you do.

Step 5

Play a small-sided game, such as 2v2 or 3v3, to obtain a concentrated practice of your dribbling skills. Keep the ball close to your feet at all times, recommends Jim Drewett in "How to Improve in Soccer." Drop your shoulder and swerve your upper body to confuse your defender, and move the ball from one foot to the other. Jab your feet or jerk your head to confuse your opponent as to your intentions.