There are many soccer players that question the reason behind learning the juggling skill. However, what they might not know is that even though you don’t always use juggling during a soccer match, you’ll still benefit a lot if you learn it. One of these benefits is improving your dribbling skills.
Juggling can help you improve your dribbling skills in soccer. When you juggle, you learn how to control the ball in all sorts of ways. Since dribbling is all about ball control, it means that being a pro soccer juggler can come in handy when you’re dribbling.
Before we proceed, if you don’t know a lot about dribbling, then you can check this article out for more detailed information about it.
Now back to juggling. Here are some reasons why juggling can help you improve your dribbling skills.
Juggling teaches you how to control the ball.
If you are a good ball juggler, then you are definitely good at controlling the ball. As you may already know, dribbling is all about ball control.
If you are good at juggling the ball then you can do the following:
- Control how low/high the ball goes by knowing how much force you should use to hit it
- Seamlessly transition the ball from one part of your body to the other (eg. from one feet to another)
- Accurately move the ball to the direction that you want by hitting it on the right spot from the right angle
The combination of these 3 abilities can be put into an excellent use when it comes to dribbling.
For example when dribbling, you’ll need to be able to move the ball accurately in the direction that prevents your opponent from reaching the ball. Your juggling skills can help you with that because you know precisely where to hit the ball to move it in any direction you want.
You might also want to lift the ball off the ground if your opponent’s feet are very close to the ball. Being able to know how much force you’ll need to lift the ball the right amount will come in handy in this situation.
Juggling helps you move faster with the ball.
This one might sound a little bit weird but hear me out.
Usually when you run without a ball, you’re going to be faster than running while having to control the ball with your feet too.
For example, if you’re running with the ball, and you hit the ball too slow while running forward, then you’ll have to slow down in order not to surpass the ball while running.
If you are a good juggler however, then you know exactly how much force you should use in order to move the ball in a way that doesn’t interfere with your running speed.
Thus, juggling skills can help you run faster with the ball.
Running fast with the ball is one of the most important skills if you want to be a good soccer dribbler. So learn juggling in order to run faster with the ball while dribbling.
You can juggle the ball while dribbling.
Dribbling isn’t just about moving the ball left and right while keeping it on the ground. If you want to become a professional soccer dribbler, then you need to learn how to lift the ball in the air and juggle it a few times while passing through defenders.
Dribbling through your opponent’s defenders by juggling the ball isn’t very uncommon in soccer and is one of the most entertaining soccer dribbles to watch.
Juggling skills can give you the chance to focus on your opponent when dribbling.
Most of the dribbling experts in soccer tell you that when you dribble, you need to keep your eyes up instead of looking down at the ball. This will give you a much better vision and will make your next decision much more accurate.
But to do that, you’ll have to have an excellent sense of where the ball is at all the time without looking at it very often. What better way to learn how to do that other than learning how to juggle?
If you’re good at juggling, then you can predict where the ball is going to be after you hit it because you know how much force you hit it with. This gives you the ability to focus on your opponent’s positions rather than worry about where the ball is at all the time.
To summarize
Juggling can help improve your dribbling skills by a lot. The excellent control that you gain over the ball when you learn how to juggle like a pro is a perfect skill when it comes to taking your dribbling capabilities to the next level.
Go learn juggling the ball right now if you haven’t already. Learning to juggle the ball shouldn’t take a lot of time and it is totally worth it in order to improve your dribbling skills and many other skills too. Good luck.