• It is a different way of saying juggling, but using the term 'juggling' might not convey the full depth and difficulty of the topic
• Juggling quite often evokes the image of a person keeping the ball off the ground for as long as possible. Players take great pride in saying they can do a 1000 juggles, and usually that is all they believe juggling is about. 'But juggling / elevated ball mastery' is so much more than this
• Hopefully this pages get this message across and helps players improve their 'juggling' in ways they may never have thought of.

 

• Some coaches / players do not believe in improving their ability to juggle. They believe that juggling doesn't have an obvious place in the game and so is a waste of time developing.
• They believe that, yes - players need to deal with the ball when it is off the ground in games, but usually dp so with the objective of getting the ball back on to the ground as soon as possible. (Rather than keeping it up in the air for 'x' amount of times). Which is fair enough. It does seem odd to practice something that goes against what most players aim to do when playing in a game.
• So a possibly valid question would be : Why would you spend valuable development time learning to juggle?

 

• It is all to do with 'precision of touch' - with the development of fine motor control.
• Juggling, especially advanced techniques require a precision of touch that is hard to practice in any other way.
• This precision of touch can be transferred to every technique in the game. The more precise a players touch is and the greater their 'fine motor control' is, the better their first touch, passing, ball moving and finishing will be.
• Juggling also allows players to get a massive amount of touch repetition, a key essential ingredient to development and the development of fine motor skills.
• Player who develops good 'elevated ball mastery' from a young age won't ever recognize the benefits of this practice and will probably believe their precision of touch on the ball is natural. However players who learn advanced juggling techniques at a later age, will definitely feel a tangible difference to their touch in every other technical area of the  game.
• In short touch is almost everything - and being able to juggle at an advanced level is an essential tool in the development process.

 

 

• Juggling is hard
• At the beginning young players really struggle to do more than just a handful of 'keeppie uppies', and they often get very frustrated by the process. Some even begin to dread it and avoid it if at all possible.
• So young players should not be forced to learn to juggle if they are not ready for the challenge.
• When players decide they want to juggle and start to practice on their own then that is when the improvement will occur.
• Once serious practice begins, basic juggling becomes easy (it doesnt take long to learn).
• However, this is where most players stop developing there elevated ball mastery ability. They can do 100 or even 1000 basic standing juggles without any real aim or challenge in mind other than keeping it up (in whatever way works) for as long as possible.
• This however only touches the surface of what needs to be done. There is so much more development available to players. The web-book offer a framework for this development.
• But note, it is a long term project. Some of these techniques will take years to be comfortable with.
• So start when your are ready and keep going (regardless of age) until you can do all the challenges laid down in the web-book series.

 

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