After a long day of fixing up the website it’s time I got back to doing what I do best, giving helpful advice about football. Keeping balance on the football is one of the most important things you could ever possess when playing football. It is the ability to keep your centre of gravity in any situation you might find yourself in. This means when you go off on a run down the sideline and you need to switch the ball back on the inside, your balance on the ball begins to kick in. This is what allows you to keep on your feet and adjust your body to the direction of the ball.

Ronaldinho Shows Us An Example

By watching the video above you can see how Ronaldinho realises the need to bring the ball down into the corner to attract the defenders and then send it back into the middle of the park. What I want you to take notice of here is how Ronaldinho makes a constant effort to keep his body over the ball and in control. Running where the ball goes and changes the direction of his body in conjunction with the direction the ball goes. He makes around four different changes in his stride and direction, which he quickly adapts to and then sends the ball back into the centre.

So How Can You Improve Your Balance On The Ball?

The best way to improve your balance on the ball is to dribble it on an open field. Yes it seems simple but it is very effective and can also help your ball control at the same time. The following are steps you need to take:

1. Start by dribbling around the field at a comfortable speed, where you are in complete balance and control. Later on when you get better you will need to increase your speed.
2. Immediately push the ball in a different direction and then sprint after the ball, making sure your body gets behind the ball and once you do this repeat. Try and mix it up, keep yourself guessing and your body will need to adapt each time to a different direction.
3. Another great way to improve your balance on the ball is to constantly try step overs and swipes at the ball. These techniques tend to make good use of your balance. Once again you can put this into the routine outlines in Step 2 to really mix things up.

Practice This Because It’s Important

Much like all different techniques, this is fundamental to help you become a great player like Ronaldinho. The great man can really keep his balance given any situation, with a trick to constitute with every change in direction. It goes to say that this is an hard skill to develop because there aren’t many different exercises to help you practice, but hopefully, by following the routines I’ve outlined above you will be hard to knock over when your dribbling the ball to the goal.