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TST : Buidling good footwork
Footwork starts with foot shapes
Footwork is a lot easier to do well if you have the fundamentals nailed, and the fundamentals start with foot shapes.
How neat would your handwriting be if you could not write the letters? What if you could write them, but they were barely legible? What if you could write them perfectly every time?
This is the same with footwork. Your foot-shapes need to be neat to ensure your footwork is neat.
Get to the next level
To continue the analogy, this is like using letters (foot shapes) to write simple words (footwork patterns). Most players have messy foot shapes, and then wonder why they have poor footwork, and why other players are better than them.
That gap disappears over time with only five minutes a day of practice.It is a simple fix.
The ultimate footwork goals
- Get Smooth. Get Fast.
- Develop the ability to improvise in the moment.
- Develop the ability to pause and go.
- Develop the ability to fake one thing but do another.
- Develop the ability to react to what the defender does.
- Develop the ability to do all of this without looking at the ball.
- And to do it all subconsciously.
Good players don't think about footwork. They let their subconscious solve whatever problem is in front of them, and footwork is a simple tool in that process. Getting to that level takes hours and hours of practice.
Touches, touches, touches. It's not a secret. It is just a function of time and effort.
Some practice ideas
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01. FOOT SHAPES — THE ALPHABET
Foot shapes are like learning to write the letters of the alphabet with the goal of having neat handwriting. Your ability to make — and change between — perfect foot shapes at speed has exactly the same impact on your ability to play the game.
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02. FUNDAMENTAL FOOTWORK PATTERNS
Foot shapes on their own are not game functional. Patterns use foot shape combinations to move the ball between two spaces — even in this simple exercise there are four patterns being practised.
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03. THE ULTIMATE FOOTWORK GOALS
Smooth and fast, able to improvise in the moment, pause and go, fake one thing and do another, react to the defender — all without looking at the ball, and all subconsciously.
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04. TOUCHES, TOUCHES, TOUCHES
Getting to that level takes hours and hours of practice. It is not a secret — it is just a function of time and effort.
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