Soccer is a very cool sport. But, as a sport, it takes up a large amount of space to play. That doesn’t mean you can’t practice inside your home though. Practicing soccer inside your home is actually pretty easy if you take caution. But you have to be good enough too. If you feel you are not that good and think you will more than likely break something, then you should probably practice more in the park until you get the hang of passing and shooting. If you do not know what you are doing, you could end up breaking something in your house and getting yourself grounded for life. In this article, I will explain how to safely practice soccer at home in very unique ways. I guarantee that if you practice the way I instruct you, you will be beating Ronaldo 50-0 in no time!
To begin with, the first way you can practice at home is not really practicing with your own feet, but practicing with your mind. You can begin by watching people take penalties on YouTube. A penalty is a shot from inside the small box. This is important because it can teach you how to kick a ball very skillfully. If you cannot kick a ball skillfully, you cannot score a goal. Free kicks are also important to watch. Free kicks can show you how to kick a ball in the hardest places to reach by the goalie from a far distance. The next thing you can do is to pass a ball against the wall, that of course without hitting your mom or any of your other family members. When you do this, you have to be careful on how hard you kick the ball. If you kick it too hard, you will break something. If you kick it too soft, the ball will not come back to you. For agility, you have to juggle the ball. By juggling I mean repeatedly hitting the ball in the air with your feet and not letting it come down. You have to do this very quickly. If you do not do it quickly, you will fail to resume your task and you will end up breaking your television.
Here is what you do if you want to be a goalie; throw a tennis ball at a wall and try to block it. This gets you into the practice of being a goalie because you need to know not only where the ball is going, but also how to block it. If you practice blocking it with your feet, then you would be learning how to be a defender. A defender is the player who helps the goalie by trying not to let the ball go any further, so that the goalie does not have to block it himself. Passing the ball in between tight spaces is also important to learn in soccer. It is like there are two defenders and you have to pass the ball in between them to score. To practice this, using the space between a doorway is best. If you use two objects in a tight space, such as vases or your mom’s favorite ornaments, you will end up breaking them.
The next step is to learn how to make a long pass to yourself and then shoot against something that would serve as a goal. To do this you need about fifteen to twenty feet. To perform this step you will have to pass the ball about half way across the space. Then you shoot. Make sure that the area you shoot in is clear. Also, make sure you are at a short distance to the goal at first. If you get too excited, you will think you are in the finals of the world cup, and you and the ball will go wild. As you do this more and more,
increase the distance to the “goal.” This type of practice will definitely come handy in a game.
Another thing that is important, is practice control. If you do not do this, you will not be
able to control a ball in motion after being kicked in the air. You will also not be able to control a pass. This technique requires throwing a ball in the air and then try to not let it bounce when it hits the ground. You can use different parts of the body, such as the knees, chest, and even your head. To learn how to control a pass, you have to pass the ball at a wall using your body to control where it is going. The ball cannot go far when you are in control of it. If you do not learn this, the defenders you go up against will steal the ball from you every time it is in your possession. If you do not get it right away, do not get frustrated. It took me about two weeks to master this technique.
The last step to becoming an amazing soccer player is to dribble out your furniture. What I mean by dribble out furniture is to pretend that the furniture is a defender and you have to dribble the defender out. The best way to do this, is to put a chair out in the middle of the hallway. Then run towards the chair and dribble the chair out in the coolest way possible. I usually like to pass the ball in between the legs of the chair from weird angles. I like to do this because it improves my skills. I also do it so I can dribble out lots of people and score in my actual games.
In conclusion, these are just some of the ways you can practice soccer at home. Remember, soccer is first and foremost a mental activity, a physical one second. If you are not confident you will not achieve very much. If you believe in yourself, you will most likely achieve anything you desire. If you do not get it right away, do not get stressed out. Just keep practicing. If you practice a lot, you will become very good at this. Guaranteed! Author Joyce Meyer once said “Patience is not simply the ability to wait—it’s how we behave while we are waiting.“ Learning is a process that takes time. Remember, have patience with yourself … And remember no matter what you do, DO NOT BREAK ANYTHING!
Adrian Sanchez is a fourth grader from Aventura, Florida.