JUGGLING To juggle, tap the soccer ball into the air while using different parts of your body. The goal is to keep the ball from hitting the ground. The body parts used to juggle are the head, shoulder, chest, thigh, and feet. "Balance" is extremely important during juggling so always hold your arms out to steady yourself. Hint: When juggling the ball with your thigh lean your shoulders back and lift your leg so that the top of your thigh is parallel with the ground. Never use the bony part of the knee or the ball will ricochet off. To juggle the ball off the top of your shoulder, make contact with the bony part. The biggest advantage of juggling is that it allows you to develop your balance, timing, strength, and foot and eye coordination. Juggling is a fun activity that encourages kids to practice and work with the ball. Below are a few advanced juggling drills that will enhance a player's skill. TOE HOPS: Juggle the ball using only the toes of one foot. To execute, hold your foot off the ground and point your toes high in the air. Cock and lock your ankle so that your foot is stiff when making contact with the ball. Hop up and down on the non juggling foot while timing each jump to lift the ball with your kicking foot. Contact the ball when it has dropped some so you can lift the ball up in the air as you jump. Do not make contact at the ball’s highest point or you can’t jump any higher to lift the ball up. Switch feet. Hop and lift. JUGGLE ON THE RUN: Jog or run while juggling the ball in the air. Use all parts of your body to keep the ball aloft while moving forward. This drill gives you an advantage in a game because you can run and maintain control of a ball that is airborne, instead of waiting for the ball to settle to the ground. Here you can move the ball in the air and evade the defense or attack the goal. HIGH TRAPPING JUGGLES: Hold the ball in your hands and kick the ball straight up in the air fairly high. Your second kick is a bump of approximately one fourth that height to gain control of it after the high ball. You want to kick it high then kick it low straight up in the air. Keep alternating high then low with each kick. To execute these kicks straight up in the air, lift your foot high off the ground as well as parallel to the ground. Kick High Kick Low Kick High As you begin to master all of these juggling drills inter mix them for fun. It is not critical that you be an expert at juggling the soccer ball to be a good player. Reaching a goal of 100 continuous juggles will not make you a well-rounded player. As a coach with limited time allotted for group practice, don't spend a lot of time on juggling, but rather encourage your players to work on this important skill on their own time. [Written by Karen (Whited) Miller]