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Warning!! Learning to juggle is not
easy!
There are not many "shortcuts". It can be very frustrating to new
players and they just want to quit trying. Take it slow with lots of
encouragement for everything. Many times they will begin to show
significant gains but seem to lose all of those gains the following
practice. Go slow. The time and effort it takes a player to progress
from 2 touches to 4 touches may well be the same as from 20 to 40
juggles later on. Work in games like soccer
tennis to keep it interesting.
- Start with a decent but expendable
football that you can use on pavement and not mind the scuffs. You may find
that if you under-inflate it just a tiny bit, it will allow for more
control. Repeat all the skills with both feet.
- Some children find ball juggling
easier with a futsal.
- Hold the ball out in front of you with
both hands and drop it onto the pavement for a bounce. After the bounce,
tap the ball back up to your hands with the shoelace or instep part your
foot. Catch the ball and repeat several times with each foot. We need to
learn how to describe these movements so the teacher can lead some
beginning jugglers through these skills. (I would call this a
"bounce-foot-catch".)
- Now, drop the ball for a bounce, tap
it softly up towards your hands but let it fall back to the pavement for
another bounce. Then tap it up to your hands for a catch. (I would call
this a "bounce-foot-bounce-foot-catch".)
Repeat this several times, again with both feet.
- Next we will drop the ball directly to
the foot for a tap back to the hands for a catch. (This is a
"foot-catch")
- Now drop the ball to the foot for a
tap but let it bounce, then use the foot to tap it up to the hands for a
catch. (This is a "foot-bounce-foot-catch".)
- Keep adding on touches and bounces
alternating a foot touch with a bounce and ending with a catch. It's
important to end with a catch to maintain control.
- Finally drop the ball for a bounce and
tap it up with the foot but before it bounces try to tap it up again for
a catch. ( This is a "bounce-foot-foot-catch".)
This is the beginning of "real" juggling! This is a big step. If it
seems too difficult for the player, do not hesitate to back up and work
on the 1 touch exercises again with bounces in between.
- Continue to try different variations
of bouncing and 2 foot touches. Don't try to go to 3 consecutive foot
juggles too soon. Getting from 2 juggles to 3 is a very big step as
well. Instead try to link lots of 2 juggles together with bounces. Try a
bounce-foot-foot-bounce-foot-foot-catch.
Later on link together a several of these 2 touch juggles with a bounce
between each one. In fact, see how long you can keep it going with 2
touches and then a bounce. Have a contest.
- It may not be the first day, but
eventually you are ready to go for 3 juggles. Warm-up with single
touches and work up to 2 touches linked together with bounces, just as I
have described above. Then try a bounce followed by 3 foot juggles and a
catch. (This is a bounce-foot-foot-foot-catch.)
Encourage alternating feet during the 3 touch juggle. Once they get the
hang of this, start using bounces to link together more 3 and 2 touch.
- You can drop the ball directly to the
foot without a bounce, to start the juggle, once they begin to develop
some control.
Approach thigh touches and head
touches the same way, but wait until they have some control with their
feet so they can "dig" it up for a catch at the end. Also they will
often find the thigh touches easier and tend to overwork them thus
neglecting the feet. Start with a
thigh-bounce-foot-catch combo and then keep adding on. Try a
thigh-thigh-bounce-foot-catch and
then a thigh-thigh-foot-foot-catch and now
now they are up to 4 legitimate juggles!
Once you have made it this far you
should encourage less bounces between touches, but I still like to see
players use the bounce to keep the ball moving. I think it is better
that they keep touching it back up even with bounces, as opposed to
getting frustrated and stopping.
Now it will take time and practice to
learn how to keep the ball airborne. Once again, introduce games and
contests to keep it interesting. A great game for juggling skills and
improvement of all first touches is "soccer
tennis"! I highly recommend it.
There will be breakthrough days when
the player finally juggles 3 in a row or much later, gets to 10 for the
first time. These are often followed by frustrating days where nothing
seems to work. Then much later, when they finally get to about 20
juggles, the "lights" seem to come on. Juggling actually becomes a fun
thing to do and they begin to attract attention and compliments from
other players, coaches, and parents. Now if they keep at it, they can
break 50 in "no time".
Good luck!
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