a couple of juggling Questions.

[AABestor]

First off, I coach all age groups from U11s to U18 HS. I know players that are great that can't juggle the ball more than a few times. (myslef included)
On the other hand though The greatest soccer players in the world can't seem to take a mistouch if they wanted to.
I've started to juggle recently just to improve my game to show the kids.


I was wondering what kind of importance you do and think that coaches should put on juggling?

secondly, the standardat my club is how many times can you juggle the ball in a 10min period.

I was wondering based on an average soccer player (competitive)
What kind of expectations should I have.

How long do you think it would take for me to see a reasonable improvement in juggling skills if I were to start my players on a three times a week for 15minutes regiment?

IS it worth my practice time to teach them to do it?

[nsamsarmy]

First off, I coach all age groups from U11s to U18 HS. I know players that are great that can't juggle the ball more than a few times. (myslef included)
On the other hand though The greatest soccer players in the world can't seem to take a mistouch if they wanted to.
I've started to juggle recently just to improve my game to show the kids.


I was wondering what kind of importance you do and think that coaches should put on juggling?

secondly, the standardat my club is how many times can you juggle the ball in a 10min period.

I was wondering based on an average soccer player (competitive)
What kind of expectations should I have.

How long do you think it would take for me to see a reasonable improvement in juggling skills if I were to start my players on a three times a week for 15minutes regiment?

IS it worth my practice time to teach them to do it?

Honestly, it's good to improve touch somewhat, but then you have Lothar that played brilliantly for Germany that admitted he couldn't juggle to save his life.

I do teach them how to juggle, and what I do instead of spending time in practice dedicated to juggling is that I give a reward at the end of the week for the player that can juggle the most consecutive times.

From a development standpoint, I've come up with a pretty good method for encouraging creativity and good touch.

I give a fairly substantial reward each week to the two (sometimes 3) players that pull of the "sickest" moves in a scrimmage game. I think it's important that they do it in a game environment, but I still reward the winning team so that they don't overdo it. They want to win the game, but they still try to pull off some good stuff when taking on defenders. It seems to work pretty well. They have even asked me for dvds to watch of moves of professional players so that they can practice them. I put together a dvd for them, and it has gone over very well. I gave away all my copies to the players, or I would offer you a copy of it.

Anyway, I hope this has helped somewhat.

Cheers,

DJ

[BigGuy]

First off, I coach all age groups from U11s to U18 HS. I know players that are great that can't juggle the ball more than a few times. (myslef included)
On the other hand though The greatest soccer players in the world can't seem to take a mistouch if they wanted to.
I've started to juggle recently just to improve my game to show the kids.


I was wondering what kind of importance you do and think that coaches should put on juggling?

secondly, the standardat my club is how many times can you juggle the ball in a 10min period.

I was wondering based on an average soccer player (competitive)
What kind of expectations should I have.

How long do you think it would take for me to see a reasonable improvement in juggling skills if I were to start my players on a three times a week for 15minutes regiment?

IS it worth my practice time to teach them to do it?

Juggling is all about touch.

I am 60 yrs old and I still touch a ball juggle every day.

I can juggle just fooling around a couple of hundred juggles at a clip and I do it a few times a day. Can sit on the floor and do it. I do it for fun and fitness.

Once they can do over 8 just have to keep doing it to get more same with you. Don't do it during practice time. Have them do it in the warm up as they get to the field it's fun. Tell them to juggle at home.

Then as they get to the field before other practices tell them let's see you guys juggle. Juggle with them.

Go to You tube and watch Maradona warm up. All he did was juggle.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bbaa2oTazMU

Have a juggling race see how far they can run while juggling. Ball does not hit the floor. That can be a usable skill in games taking on players and beating them moving to your attacking goal.

[loden]

juggling is hugely important. 70% of juggling should be done with the inside of the foot as it is the most commonly used surface, 20% done with the instep, and 10% with the outside of the boot.


So if you do a hundred touches in during your practice, you should break them down accordingly...

[rca2]

+1 for what Big Guy said.

Juggling is a great spare time activity. I am not a fan of juggling for juggling's sake, but it helps your soft touch. In a game this helps with your second, etc, touches. It is like dribbling without the ball touching the ground. It adds a 3rd dimension to dribbling options. In adult games at any level you can often see players doing this for one or two touches at a time. It is something that I would expect any experienced player to be able to do. And you don't have to be able to juggle a thousand times in a row to succeed. Four or five effective touches in a game is a very rare thing.

With beginners at the first practice, I will use juggling to judge eye-foot coordination but after that its strictly a warm up/do-at-home activity.