I decided that it’d be best to start off the Skills section of my passion blog with something everyone can try out the next time they end up with a soccer ball at their feet. I’ve listed two moves below along with a mini-tutorial on how and when to execute them to help make it easier to understand how they work.
These moves, while being rather basic, should help most casual players take their first step forward into a more intense and complex level of play.
Unfortunately, while this blog won’t have any video tutorials, I plan to make videos or short clips to help demonstrate skill moves in the future for the advanced skill moves blog.
The Chop:
This skill move is the very first thing you’ll probably need to learn if you want to be able to move the ball past defenders, and the best part about it is that it’s super easy.
Let’s say you dribbling the ball forward towards a defender. All you need to do for this move is a sudden change in direction. First, pick a direction left or right depending on where you want to go after passing the defender. After you pick a side, start to dribble towards the defender on the opposite side. So if you picked to go left, dribble to the right of the defender but still moving towards them.
When you’re about one step away from them, take the foot that is furthest away from the defender and use the inside part of your foot to tap the ball to the side. Hit the ball on the part that would send it around 45 degrees to the left or right towards the side of the defender that you are not on. Hit it with enough force to make sure it goes past them, and then chase after the ball as you move past the defender yourself.
This move is really simple but very effective. It essentially tricks the defender that you are going to approach from one side, but you end up suddenly “chopping” your path and moving the ball to the opposite side.
Figure 1: Messi’s chop leaving Boateng on the ground
The Drag-back
This move requires a bit more situational-thinking than the “Chop”, but it’s equally as useful! Rather than directly approaching a defender like before, let’s say you are put in the situation that the defender is actually chasing you down and pressuring you from the side as you dribble away from them.
The first thing you want to do is figure out whether you are capable of outpacing the defender. If you can, don’t even bother with this move and just run out of their reach, but if you know you can’t, this move can save you.
The first thing to do is to put the ball on the side of your body that’s furthest away from the defender. This helps keep the ball out of their reach if things get out of hand and you mess up.
Second, you would have to move the bottom part of your foot that usually touches the ground to the top of the ball. After you’re at this position, quickly roll the ball back in the completely opposite direction of where you were dribbling.
As you roll the ball back, use the motion of your foot over the ball to pivot yourself towards the new direction of your dribble. The key aspect of this move is the suddenness and the speed in which you execute it. You have to keep the entire motion very fluid. The rollback has to be rather sudden and the shift to dribbling again has to be quick. This would be the ideal way to throw the defender off the most.
It’d be ideal to do this move when you know that dribbling in the reverse direction is a valid option. Make sure there isn’t another defender straight ahead or even the boundary of the field when you end up turning around. If everything is in the right place, the sudden reversal of movement should force the defender to slow down and change direction as well which should give you ample open space and time in the meanwhile. If you’re lucky, you might even nutmeg the defender in the process.
Figure 2: Ronaldinho’s sudden drag-back nutmegging a defender
If you try these moves out even when you’re just messing around with friends, they should make a surprisingly big difference in how well you’ll be able to keep possession of the ball. Let me know if you have any questions about the moves or if you have any suggestions for future topics that you’d like me to cover!