Mastering Soccer Skills with the Help of Your Coach
A talented soccer player has practiced and honed his soccer skills to be able to control the ball and move, not only himself, but the ball past the defending team. If you have any hope at all of getting past this guy, you will have to learn to control the ball in just the same way he does. It is not magic. It is practice, practice, and coaching drills.
There are many specific skills needed to master controlling the ball, and no one can learn them all at once, so if you follow your coach and learn to perform as he instructs, you will increase in dexterity, proficiency and soccer fitness. He may start you off with the “lunge” or “outside cut” where you advance in a forward direction but suddenly kick the ball to either the left or right, powering the ball past the defender.
Another skill that needs to be mastered is the “double touch” where you tap the ball with one foot and then the other in quick succession, which guides the ball around the defender. The first touch is a fake out move intended to tease the defender into going in one direction and the second touch changes the ball’s angle of motion away from the defender, thereby, powering past him yet again.
The “scissors” is another fake out move that can be used on a defender who is directly in front of you, but not too close. As you move directly towards him you suddenly swing your foot up and over the ball, letting the defender think that is the direction of your move, but when that foot meets the ground, the other foot directs the ball away from the defender in the opposite direction. It is called a “scissors” because that is the kind of motion that appears to happen to your legs as you perform the move crossing one leg in front of the other.
One of the more advanced soccer skills is called the “ice” move where you let the ball come to a stop as you move ahead of it but instead of kicking it with the foot that is farthest forward you tuck the second food (towards the back) and kick the ball from behind your other foot. This will have the effect of “freezing” the defender momentarily, which gives you time to rapidly power past him again. This must be performed rapidly and with a sudden eruption of speed to get the ball past him.
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