Many football players I know are stuck playing club level football and they have great potential to go out into the world and really make a name for themselves. The problem here is that they don’t play their natural game on the field, because they will either tense up and get really nervous, or be extremely casual towards the events that occur during the game. This comes about from a little bit of arrogance, laziness and even lack of fitness. The main point of this post is to hit home that when you go out onto the pitch, play your natural game, no fancy stuff when it’s not needed and definitely don’t act casual when you go after the ball.

Have Hunger When You Run

Hunger for the ball, not in the stomach sense. It is rather underrated and not drilled into kids these days, but the best players in the world have an undefined hunger for the ball which lasts even after the game is done. I personally can’t stand to sit there while I watch someone else playing with a football, I just always want to get up and join them. I know that many times during high school I have really made myself uncomfortable by playing football and then sweating like a hog in class, all because I had a hunger to play and essentially score goals. A good way to see if you really have hunger for the ball, is when the opponent takes the ball off you, do you run after him to get the ball back or do you leave it up to the defenders? If you are the latter, work on it and make sure that the ball is yours again, because where would you rather see it? At your feet or your opponents feet?

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.

What many football players don’t realise is that fitness is the fundamental aspect of their game that defines whether or not they can perform at their best for the entire match. Think about what I have just said. They need to perform at their best for the entire match. Now many players I know are very good technically, they are just great on the ball. However, when it comes to the game and putting in the hard yards, they will slack off and tire out much quickly than others on the team. This all due to fitness, lack of stamina and the slow decline of speed bursts that are required to get past defenders.

What Else Does Lack Of Fitness Mean?

It means lazy actions towards the game. This happens to be one of my most hated things about not being fit. Let me give you an example of lazy actions. Let’s say in the game that you are absolutely smashed and it’s only half-time. When you come out onto that field for the second half, I’ve got some bad news for you, your game will suffer, not only your running. Being unfit means that every touch that you do will be one that you have put a lot of effort into, when really, you don’t want to be putting much effort into the pass, and more effort on attacks made against the opposition. If you lack any effort for the pass, the chances are that you are so tired that it will come off your foot in a way that you don’t want it to, which can lead to loss of possession and even worse a counter-attack against you.

My Own Personal Experience

I can testify as to the mentally breaking feeling you get when you are unfit. Fortunately that isn’t the case right now, but when I first started, 15 minutes into a game I would be puffing and panting, unable to concentrate on the game, but rather on my breathing and what I needed to do to stop from falling over. Every single pass would take a lot out of me and half of them wouldn’t even be accurate, which resulted in a lot of frustration and clouded my thinking. When I think about those days, I really get distressed because that is not the way we play football and shouldn’t be played. Something like fitness that you can do something about needs to be addressed. If you don’t work on your own fitness then you immediately put yourself at a disadvantage to your opponent.

Fitness Plays A 75% Part In Terms Of How Well You Do

Maybe even more. If you don’t have your fitness down packed, then don’t even think about having a technically sound game for the entire 90 minutes. The following is a quote that I want to leave you with and will help put this in perspective for you.

Fit English players will always win against unfit Brazillian players