Anyone can control the ball incredibly once or twice, but to do it consistently, that requires training. Training that is best done with someone else. But what if you don’t have anyone else? In this guide, we are covering how to improve ball control when training alone with simple drills because regardless of what you have or where you are, you can improve all aspects of your football with some right knowledge and commitment, even if you are in a high level football academy.
Here’s what you are going to learn as you read:
How to improve ball control in the air.
Sounds good? Then so will our other content about becoming a better football player that you can read about on our blog.
LEARNING HOW TO IMPROVE BALL CONTROL IN THE AIR
Ideally, if you can get a friend to help you out, playing and receiving all types of high passes will help you improve ball control in the air like no other individual drill, but if you are training alone, juggling is the next best thing.
You might be thinking to yourself that you are already great at juggling a ball and that it’s a pointless drill, but with some adjustments, juggling the ball will become a very useful drill for improving ball control in the air.
Here’s what you can do so that juggling can improve ball control when training alone:
Don’t juggle with one foot. It won’t benefit your ball control as much as constant switching between both feet. Juggling with one foot also won’t help you improve your weaker foot which is very important to do to grow as a player.
Don’t be random. This is a post about how to improve ball control, with “control” being the keyword. When doing juggles, work on making the ball go up at the same height, without having to move left and right, consistently. That’s what matters the most.
Change it up. In a match, the ball can get to you in so many different ways. That’s why it’s important that you control it with different parts of your body, whether that’s your chest, knee, the front part of your foot, or the side of your foot. Switching up your juggling between different parts of your body will allow you to overtime improve ball control in the air, from every single angle.
Have a plan. Doing random things will bring you random results. That’s why you need to have a plan in action when doing these. Depending on where you are in your ball controlling training, that plan will differ, but it should consist of changes between what part of your body you are juggling with, while at the same time not being too complicated.
Here’s a sample plan that you can apply:
20 juggles with any part of your body to get focused.
50 juggles with each foot, switching between every juggle. Keep those not going higher than your knee.
80 juggles, switching between your two feet under your knees, going up to juggling with both knees, followed by high juggles with your feet going over your chest, with you chesting the ball, with once again high juggles, with you heading the ball instead of chesting it. Repeat 10 times.
40 juggles with just your knees switching between them every juggle.
40 juggles switching between your foot every juggle, but also switching between juggling with front foot and side of your foot, every time you complete 2 juggles.
It’s a relatively simple plan that you can adjust in any way that you find beneficial. What’s important here is repetition. Whatever way you want to do this, do. As long as you are working all parts of your body that could be used for ball control in the air, then whatever works for you, works, and will help you improve ball control.
If this wasn’t a post about how to improve ball control when training alone, we would mention a lot more useful techniques that you can apply. But when it comes to training alone, juggling is the best practice that you can apply for air control practice. It’s also a practice that will only take around 10-15 minutes of your day but will improve your ball control tremendously if you are consistent and do these daily.