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01 July 2008

Soccer Ball Tricks: How to do an "Around the World"


Folks, I’m getting old. And back in my day – I can use that phrase because I’m getting old – the only soccer “tricks” I knew about were juggling and the rainbow.

I long ago mastered juggling and the rainbow but for some reason, this “around the world” ball trick was something I’d never seen before! So I set out to try and learn this nifty trick and, believe or not, my old legs have had marginal success.

I’m happy to share the steps with you here:

Step 1. Get your best ball control shoes – if these are your boots or your sneakers or your flips flops…doesn’t matter, you don’t want your shoes getting in the way. I like the Diadora Maracana but you can also never go wrong with classic Adidas Sambas.

Step 2. Get a size 5 ball – I tried it with a basketball (a la Steve Nash) and with a micro ball, but the size 5 is much easier

Step 3. Balance the ball on your dominant foot. If you can’t balance a ball on your foot for thirty seconds, then you need to work on this skill before you move on to the “around the world”

Step 4. Lift your foot up so that your thigh is slightly less than parallel to the ground. If you remember your trigonometry, your leg should basically form an obtuse angle. I've taken the liberty to hire a world famous artist to illustrate the leg position for you as follows:
around the world stick man

Step 5. THE MOVE - Slightly lift your foot and let the ball roll off the outside edge of your shoe. If you’re right footed, in the same motion, bring your foot up the left side of the ball, over, around, and down the right side of the ball, and back under. It’s important that you move your foot in one motion and make no mistake, it has to be quick…you’re trying to beat gravity you know. If you’re left footed, just reverse the direction your foot travels over and around the ball.

Step 6. Practice, practice, practice

Once I set my mind to it, it took me about four weeks to finally get the mechanics sorted out.

Here’s a link to a great video that I studied to help me isolate exactly what was going on. Good luck!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tips - nice picture by the way ;-)

Anonymous said...

this is really good, thanks. i'm a girl and at first i didnt manage it :)
i kept on getting it right to the end but then ended up trapping the ball . :( oh well .

Anonymous said...

Good tips! I'm getting closer...but I don't quite have it yet.

Anonymous said...

It took me 11 minutes because I have been tring to do "Around the World" trick without knowing the steps. Thanks to you I know know how to do it but I still need a bit more practice. Also, using Nike balls are really good but the Adidas balls make it so easy to master. Thanks a lot :D

Soccer tricks said...

Great tutorial!

Try to lift your knee in Step 5. While doing this, try to put some spin on the ball. This gives you just a little more time to go around the ball. Practice is still key.

Nice tip on the shoes. I just bought some Diadoras as well.