Why Juggle?
All of the great players can juggle, Ronaldo, Messi, Ronaldinho, George Best, Zinedine Zidane and the greatest of them all Pele.
In fact Pele used a grapefruit before he could afford a real soccer ball!
“No, I can’t really remember practicing in my spare time. It’s easier to remember the times I didn’t practice, and most of those were when I was watching.” Pele
If you can improve your juggling, you will definitely
* Improve tour first touch on the ball.
* Improve your ball control
* Give you greater confidence when dribbling
* Improve your concentration
* Make you more comfortable and compentent when receiving the ball
Westside United will be starting a juggling club that will be introduced for the Fall 2011 season for ages U8-U14. The purpose is to get kids practicing at home that will lead to better, technical soccer players on the field. The younger ages are the most important ages of a player’s development. Stressing technical ability at these ages is vital.
How does the juggling club work?
A player can juggle in front of their coach or another Westside United coach to be tested. The ball may not hit the ground. If it does, they will restart. They have ten minutes to be tested and get their highest total of consecutive juggles. The preference is to be tested outside of training so that it does not take away training time. However, coaches may still have their players juggle during training (highly recommended) as part of their technical work.
Benchmarks will be set in which players will be awarded bag tags for certain benchmarks that they reach. They will receive a new bag tag to add once they reach a higher benchmark. Below are the benchmarks:
25 juggles
50 juggles
100 juggles
200 juggles
300 juggles
400 juggles
500 juggles
600 juggles
700 juggles
800 juggles
900 juggles
1,000 juggles
Once a player reaches a certain benchmark, their coach needs to contact Josh George, Director of Coaching, to get their bag tag. Good luck and always strive to get to the next level!
