High pressure is very popular and an important part of modern football tactics. You see it a lot in youth football and futsal. A physically stronger and faster youth team can sometimes be “overly succesful” and completely suffocate their opponent with well agressively executed high pressure. The team that’s unable to get out of high…
What’s the most important thing in a soccer match? You might think it’s scoring goals, but that’s not it. The most important thing in a soccer match is the next action. As a player, before you receive a pass, you should already know what you’re going to do with it before the ball arrives at…
I can imagine that not too many parents would be happy with a kid running around the house kicking a (soft) soccer ball. The phenomenon I talk about here is known as “houseball“, a term that comes from the book about the life of Neymar da Silva Santor Junior (https://www.bol.com/nl/p/het-geweldige-verhaal-van-neymar/9200000085027643/). As a kid, Neymar Jr.…
3 out of 4 youth soccer players stop playing their sport before the age of 16. Do you know why? Because it stopped being fun. Adults are the main cause of sucking the fun out of it, because they take the game way too seriously. Let’s not forget why young people play soccer in the…
The Iniesta Test consists of 5 different juggling exercises: Juggle on the foot, then the thigh of the other foot, then let the ball bounce & repeat A small round robin: right foot – right thigh – left thigh – left foot – then let the ball bounce & repeat A big round robin: right…
The “Messi Test” is a series of 5 juggling exercises: Juggle left foot only Juggle right foot only Juggle alternating between left & right foot Thigh balls: keep the ball high with your thighs Headers: keep the ball high with your head Every juggling exercise is executed during 30 seconds. You count the number of…