teaching my 8 year old daughter to juggle. she is up to 5. although, she will get frustrated, so i try to keep it to 5-10 mins. My older one now can juggle (U13) around 500. She is most technically sound on her team also.

I think it’s very rare that a kid will solely practice juggling without practicing other soccer skills unless they are thinking of joining a circus. They practice juggling so that they would be better soccer players.

Long time coach here.

Very simple...juggling shows you're willing to work on your game away from practice. When I see a good juggler, I know they care enough to put in the effort.

A great juggler doesn't mean a great player, but I've never seen a great player that wasn't also a good juggler.

Anonymous wrote:Juggling might be one of the true indicators of future success in soccer. It’s directly related to ones first touch, balance, ability to focus and general comfort level with the ball. If it wasn’t truly important, than why do the Brazilians spend so much time on practicing it. Or any other South American country for that matter. Too many standouts at the younger ages rely heavily on their size, physicality or athleticism but will be “found” in the later years when technical ability matters most.

Agree. But there are juggling champs that can't play the game.

Juggling might be one of the true indicators of future success in soccer. It’s directly related to ones first touch, balance, ability to focus and general comfort level with the ball. If it wasn’t truly important, than why do the Brazilians spend so much time on practicing it. Or any other South American country for that matter. Too many standouts at the younger ages rely heavily on their size, physicality or athleticism but will be “found” in the later years when technical ability matters most.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got a D1 scholarship without good juggling skills. I had excellent skills with the ball in actual situations, however. The more touches you get, the better but I always hated juggling and was still good.

Some positions have less of a demand on the technical skill vs other positions. A fullback does not have to be technical or have a great touch(it would help) but you better be physical and fast.

"Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate."

Johan Cruyff

Give it a rest will you? I understand your kid can’t juggle and has little technical skill so you devalue the skill. The kids who can juggle and are playing on a top teams are technical. There are a lot of kid who are not technical and can not juggle who are on the top team but they are not the top kids. They have horrible first touch, can not one touch a ball for shit and their passes under pressure are inaccurate....ie turn over machines.

They get replaced. A good juggler doesn't make you a great player but every great player is a good juggler. There is an indirect connection between the two. Juggle works on balance(very important in soccer), touch, ball control in tight spaces in the air and the ability to focus over a period of time. If you have a great first touch you can juggle.

We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You’ll get it back in no time.
Johan Cruyff

My 9-year-old did about 500 and just after he is now 10 and up to about 1,200. He's done this though as a bit of a challenge as his older brother is in the 1,000s as well and they like to compete with each other. But as others mentioned with Cruyff's comment, it's really just repetitive motion of the same thing after you get into the groove.

He's now working on making some tricks and moving it around a bit while juggling. It has improved his first touch a bit but he's learned more valuable skills playing pickup with his older brother and their friends.

While it is good for your touch and feel of the ball, it's also pretty effective as an introduction or psycho-out technique. When he goes and plays with some new kids at the playground that he doesn't know, he often starts by juggling off in the corner and after about 50-100 taps the kids are like "hey, why don't you play on our team". He also did it once in a 3x3 tournament where the other team was really trash talking his team before the game while they waited for the referee. He didn't say anything but just took the ball and started juggling. After about 50 touches the other kids just shut up and by about 200 I think they were pretty nervous.

My take on this is that there are some feats which are brag worthy. This seems like one of those. Nice job kid!

To the previous quote I would only say that most 9 year olds are probably not capable of this. Obviously there is more to the game than juggling but that is still kind of amazing.

Anonymous wrote:Well said

you 2 still going on about it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got a D1 scholarship without good juggling skills. I had excellent skills with the ball in actual situations, however. The more touches you get, the better but I always hated juggling and was still good.

Some positions have less of a demand on the technical skill vs other positions. A fullback does not have to be technical or have a great touch(it would help) but you better be physical and fast.

"Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate."

Johan Cruyff

Well said

If I wanted to brag, I would do so to friends and family. No need to seek validation from an anonymous source. I was simply looking to place his accomplishment in some sort of context. The Messi thing was indeed a goal and a motivator for him. And congratulations to him for applying himself and reaching that goal. What a loser you must be to make light of a nine year old. If jealousy is your motivation for your ridiculous post, thats too bad for you. Your life must be miserable. And no need to post a response, because I will not be checking this thread moving forward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the trolls. No one who can read thinks you were bragging or trying to compare your kid to Messi. You just shared that he was inspired by a great player, set a goal, and worked hard to reach that goal. All kids count juggles at those numbers. Over 5000 some will switch to time - such as setting a goal of an hour or something like that.

Breaking the 1000 mark at 9 years old is good accomplishment. No one is naturally a good juggler at that age. No one reaches that number without putting in a ton of work on their own, struggling at times, getting frustrated at times, but showing dedication and the ability to keep on pushing. He'll remember what it felt like when he couldn't even get 3 in a row, and then 10 seemed impossible, and all the other times he was frustrated and wanted to quit, but didn't. The life lesson there is way more important than soccer.

As for what it means. He's probably in the top 2% locally for his age at juggling. More important is the work that went into it. If he applies that to other areas of his game, he'll be a good player.

If you read that and didn’t think it was bragging and then comparing to messi, lol, you 2 must be married to each other.

I’m not either of the two PP.

And what if she was bragging. Every parent is proud of their child. Reaching almost 1200 juggles is not an easy feat, not to mention that it is a 9 year old boy. I can guarantee that you can’t do it. My 10 year old DD can only do 35 juggles so seeing a 9 year old boy do it is very impressive.

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the trolls. No one who can read thinks you were bragging or trying to compare your kid to Messi. You just shared that he was inspired by a great player, set a goal, and worked hard to reach that goal. All kids count juggles at those numbers. Over 5000 some will switch to time - such as setting a goal of an hour or something like that.

Breaking the 1000 mark at 9 years old is good accomplishment. No one is naturally a good juggler at that age. No one reaches that number without putting in a ton of work on their own, struggling at times, getting frustrated at times, but showing dedication and the ability to keep on pushing. He'll remember what it felt like when he couldn't even get 3 in a row, and then 10 seemed impossible, and all the other times he was frustrated and wanted to quit, but didn't. The life lesson there is way more important than soccer.

As for what it means. He's probably in the top 2% locally for his age at juggling. More important is the work that went into it. If he applies that to other areas of his game, he'll be a good player.

If you read that and didn’t think it was bragging and then comparing to messi, lol, you 2 must be married to each other.

Anonymous wrote:I got a D1 scholarship without good juggling skills. I had excellent skills with the ball in actual situations, however. The more touches you get, the better but I always hated juggling and was still good.

Some positions have less of a demand on the technical skill vs other positions. A fullback does not have to be technical or have a great touch(it would help) but you better be physical and fast.