I've never been a good juggler. I made it my goal this summer to juggle the ball one hundred times in a row. Or, alternatively, fifty times on four consecutive attempts. (Which is harder do you think?) Right now I am mostly practicing with this little training ball size 2 and I think it is really improving my skills since it is so damn difficult. I am up to fourteen touches in a row. http://www.discountfootballkits.co.uk/balls/fdstraining.htm Do you guys have any tips on how to get better? Did anybody impart any specific wisdom? Did you watch any videos to help? Or is it just practice practice practice? Any advice or stories of hours of long practicing would be greatly appreciated!
I was not very good at juggling, (still not to great). I got a stress fracture in my foot and was unable to use a soccer ball for about 2 weeks. In those two weeks I just practiced juggling with this little purple dodgeball-like ball. It is a little bit bigger than a softball and way bouncier than a soccer ball. When I got back to using a soccer ball my skill had jumped significantly without even touching a soccer ball for weeks. Some say use a bigger heavier ball, because it's easier, and work your way up. I think a little of smaller, a little of bigger, and alot of normal sized balls is great. I also just observed videos of people juggling, and studied their movements. I've also heard getting a hackysack and getting good with that helps alot.
Back spin is your friend when it comes to juggling Don't go crazy hitting the ball up 4 or 5 foot in the air, just try and keep the ball at a nice height. What's good is you can alternate between each foot, so essentially your weaker foot is getting some touches on the ball as well, and hopefully that'll over all improve how your weaker foot performs! Erm, I can't actually remember how long I used to practice doing kick ups, I used to set myself targets, so for instance I wouldn't stop practicing until I'd reached a certain number, so on a bad day I could be there for hours, but it installs discipline and you feel pretty relieved when you finally do it, I now do kick ups just to get myself into a drill or what ever and get some touches on the ball. I try to do say ten kick ups then boot the ball high up, control it again and carry on doing the kick ups. Once you get the hang of kick ups that's another little exercise you can do to improve your touch etc. Hope that helps a bit.
The best tip on juggling I can give is to focus on the center of the ball. Pretend like you can see through the ball to a small BB sized center and try to juggle the BB. You will be amazed at how well it makes you concentrate. Also, we used to play a game of horse with a soccer ball on a basketball goal. Games could last quite a while (the more you play-the shorter the games get as you progress) but you will get a lot of touches in to a specific target.
when I was young I had a hard time juggling 30+ times....years after I started doing free styling; I notice that as I got the hang of foot stalling a ball and doing tricks like ATW I can juggle a lot better. Right now I can juggle about 60 times with out moving my supporting foot (ie. standing stiff in one position and juggling with one foot); also I notice that if you do small hops with your supporting foot you can get into a rhythm which can help you keep the ball in air longer.
Does it really matter if you can juggle the ball 100 times or 1000+ times? Personally, I don't think so. What you should concentrate on while juggling is using every surface of your foot (not only instep, but also inside and outside); also the quality of your touches is much more important than the their number. Good luck.
Watch this guy juggle in these 2 videos...it's AMAZING. Advice: Come to Argentina and train with Angel? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRfxH9vLOL8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDC3T7TS-jQ
Do 30 on your weak foot, 30 on your strong foot, then 30 alternating, all while keeping the ball below your kneecaps. I've finally gotten this one and moved onto another challenge. You start with one juggle on ur right, then two with your left, three with your right, so on and so forth. It's really hard, I've gotten up to the set of 14, which equals 105 juggles, but its really hard, you will be challenged more mentally than physically doing this (oh yeah, the ball doesn't hit the ground when you switch from foot to foot).