When soccer isn't in season, you need a way to keep your feet nimble and practiced. That's hard to do in cold weather, and your parents aren't about to let you kick a soccer ball around the house. So what's a good way to maintain your skills while keeping things safely inside the house when the weather is cold?
It's easy: Footbags. Also knows as hackies (which stems from “Hacky Sack,” the original trademarked name of the product), footbags can be a great way to keep your feet in shape and ready for soccer season. You might even try buying some soccer hackies — footbags that look like soccer balls — to keep your mind on the game.
I've always had a relatively high success rate against penalties, certainly managing to predict the right way even if the pace beat me, and again I fancied my chances. As a goalkeeper I was a natural loner and this situation always suited me to a tee…….me against them. I eyeballed the striker and watched his body language; I was diving to my right. At what height he hit the ball was then down to pure chance but I knew that I was playing the percentages in my favour and all I had to do was get in the way. With the eyes of my new teammates piercing the tension, not to mention the sub keeper in the dugout who's place I'd pinched upon my arrival at the club; I knew I was under pressure. The striker placed the ball after I'd eventually given it back to him and started to pace out his run up. I was in no doubt which side he was shooting and as he struck the ball I took my initial step into the dive. BOOM! The ball cannoned off my knee, in fact the same knee as earlier, and rebounded to the relative safety of their full back on the touchline where he was dispossessed by our striker with a well timed sliding tackle. It is always a buzz when your team mates crowd round for the obligatory high fives and pats on the back, but even more so when you've just clawed yourself out the hole in which you dropped yourself in the first place. We subsequently went on to win the game 2-0 and as a direct result topped the table of which we would eventually finish second after a long arduous season.
Stall. Again, this is precisely what it sound like: You're “stalling” the footbag with various parts of your body, in order to exert more control over it. Think of it as catching the bag with the inside or outside of your foot, or your toe. There's also a move called a “clipper stall,” which is an inside stall made while your foot is behind the opposite leg.
Arm Stall. You might think this move is a bit odd, since it involves arms instead of feet and legs. But many of the best footbag artists use whatever body parts make for the best maneuvers. To initiate this move, it's important to kick the footbag high enough that you can reach it with your elbow. Then catch the bag in the crook of your elbow, and immediately straighten your arm to “bump” the footbag back into the game.
Knee Bump. Think of this as a kick/stall hybrid. It involves catching the footbag on your knee, then bouncing it back into play. Or it's simply a “kick” using your knee. It's one of the simplest moves to master, but it's a crucial component to many other complicated tricks.
You need to be able to perform a lot of high intensity runs and recover quickly, and maintain you mental state and make good decisions when you are tired!
So by doing a lot of small-sided games where you play for instance 4 vs 4, you can make the drill more intense and demanding by having the players play man-to-man defense, meaning when they lose the ball, they have one player they should mark and follow all over the field, no matter what!
That's a great conditioning drill, and best of all – it's fun!
To sum it up – conditioning should be done on the soccer field (at the end of the practice) and it should be maintained all year round, even during in-season you can be published without charge. You can to republish this article in your website or blog. Please provide links Active.
