Soccer Dribbling Issues

by Reigo
(lasnamäe,tallinn,estonia)

Hey Mirsad

Sometimes when I play outside with a small ball I see that I am good with it and have fast movement and good control. But a small non soccer ball is completely different then a real and big soccer ball.

How can I play with a real soccer ball like I play whit just a small ball? Also, maybe I should stop getting my hopes up of being a good tall dribbler in soccer? I mean, I started right now, the age of 14.

I would also like to know what I can do in order to keep my head up while dribbling. It’s kind a hard to do, can I keep my head down a little and look at the pitch and dribbling when I am going to dribble?

THE ANSWER
Hello Reigo

My advices to you would be to play as much as possible with the regular soccer ball and only use the small ball for juggling. However, I do find it little strange that you have hard to play well with a regular soccer ball as you are stating that you are really good with a small ball.

I know by experience that if I can perform various skills with a small ball then doing the same with a regular one should be a piece of cake. But, this can be psychologically as well. You may feel that you should be able to perform the same skills with a regular ball and when you can’t get it right you may feel discouraged and angry. Is that correct?

However, the only way to overcome this obstacle is to keep on practicing. That may sound little cliché but in soccer nothing comes for free. The more effort you put into your training the more you’ll get back. Of course, there will be moments when you will feel that nothing goes your way and that you want to quit. But, in these moments it is important to keep on practicing no matter how hard it feels.

If you do that I can ensure you that you’ll soon discover an improvement in your dribbling skills (even if you started at the age of 14). I wish I could give you a secret formula to becoming a dribbling master. However the truth is that there is no one, just hard work and a lot of sweat.

You are also asking how to keep your head up while dribbling. Well, I believe that you have already answered to that question as you are saying that you are already keeping your head down a little while dribbling.

However, you also need to keep an eye on the opponent as well. If you are just looking at the ball then you are doing things wrong. But if you can manage to keep an eye on the ball and your opponent at the same time then you know that you are doing this right. I hope that helped, wish you all the best.

/Mirsad