Buzz
Have you ever seen the incredible freestyle moves performed by top football players? With consistent practice and a lot of patience, you can steal the spotlight and impress everyone with your skills!
Instructions
Becoming a skilled freestyler takes immense dedication and a great deal of patience, so ensure you're committed to the journey.
Yoga is incredibly beneficial. Stretching your legs and shoulders will increase your flexibility and make performing tricks much easier.
Consistency is key! Practice all the tricks every day for a month, and you'll see a noticeable improvement within that time frame.
Grab a soccer ball (not too inflated) and start practicing juggling. The trick is to keep the ball beneath your waist while giving it a backward spin. Juggling will improve both your ball control and leg speed. Practice for an hour daily for a month, and you'll likely become an expert, capable of performing 100 keep-ups with ease (if you commit to practicing consistently).
Once you've mastered juggling, move on to basic freestyle tricks like stalling the ball by balancing it on your foot. To do this, pull the ball back as if preparing for juggling, but instead balance it on your foot. This fundamental freestyle trick is a stepping stone to more advanced moves. Once you’ve nailed it, you can begin tackling more challenging tricks.
Another essential trick is Around the World (ATW), where you flick the ball up, circle around it, and then continue juggling after. It’s more challenging than it sounds, requiring speed and patience. Start by mastering the motion, practicing as quickly as possible. Once you’re confident, introduce the ball into the mix. Practice for an hour a day for about two months to perfect this move. It’s harder than juggling, so expect to need extra patience. (*You can start ATW from either juggling or a stall; if you're doing ATW from juggling, hit the ball from the right side if you're right-footed, or the left side if you're left-footed.)
Another impressive trick is the neck stall, which will surely get you plenty of oohs and aahs. Like the foot stall, you balance the ball on your neck. To do this, flick the ball up from a foot stall about half a meter higher than your head. Then, cushion the ball on your neck while keeping your back straight at a 90-degree angle and your arms behind you with elbows straight. The key is to absorb the ball's momentum by lowering your body at the same pace, but slightly slower than the ball's fall, so that the power is absorbed by your back and neck. Practice for about 30 minutes every day for two weeks to perfect it. This trick is easier than ATW.
Once you've mastered these three tricks, take your skills to the next level by chaining them together. For instance, start with juggling, then transition into a foot stall, followed by an ATW, then another foot stall, and finish with a neck stall. If you can seamlessly perform all these moves while keeping the ball off the ground, you'll earn the respect of fellow freestylers.
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Choose the lightest shoes available for freestyle practice.
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Many professional freestylers use special balls designed for better trick performance.
Important Tips
- Always stretch before you start to avoid muscle strains.
- Perform all your tricks on a non-slippery surface for safety and stability.
