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Soccer Edition 56 The ability to take a play on and beat them is one of the most important things a soccer player can do. However, it seems to be a lost art and because of this, at the request of some subscribers, I am going to show 9 moves (or fakes or feints or anything you might want to call them) to try to encourage players to take a chance and take on an opponent. If you haven't already, I would strongly urge you read the newsletter on risk taking by clicking here. Also, to understand a little bit more about the whole 1 v 1 situation, check out the newsletter on 1 v 1 play by clicking here Before I introduce the moves, there are a couple of things to understand. It is NOT important for a player to be able to do all 9 of these moves. Instead, I like to expose the to all 9 and let them choose the couple that they want to really work on and master. Secondly, some of these moves are interchangeable, I will group them together to make it easier to choose which one to choose in a given situation. Thirdly, once a player has been beaten, it's important to do two things which are accelerate and also cut off the defender so that when she turns and tries to chase you down, you have your body between them and the ball. The fourth thing is that while each of these moves can and should be done with either foot, to make things easier, I will be explaining them as if they are all being done starting with the right foot. Lastly, I apologize for the graphics. I couldn't think of anyway to demonstrate this short of with a video so I am simply going to be drawing the path of the ball and where the cut is made and hopefully you will be able to understand from that. The first move I teach is called the cut-catch. While dribbling at the defenders front foot (assuming this front foot is her right foot and is forcing you to YOUR right) you are trying to force a stab by the defender. The faster you attack this front foot the easier it is to force this stab. When the stab comes with her left foot, cut the ball with the inside of your right foot so that it goes across your body to your left foot and then catch the ball with the inside of your left foot and go forward. The key here is that there must be a stab and the cut must be across the body and SLIGHTLY BACKWARDS. See the path of the ball on the cut in the diagram below. The cut-catch is a very easy move to execute and is great because you are always balanced while doing this move. The sharper you cut the ball the more effective it will be.
The next move is the roll-catch. This is an identical move to the cut catch in that it's done at the same time as a cut-catch and for the same reason. When the opponent stabs at the ball, instead of cutting the ball with the inside of the right foot, you are going to start with the ball on the inside of the foot and roll your foot over the ball so it takes the same path as in the cut-catch. There is no advantage of disadvantage to the roll-catch over the cut-catch except that some people are more comfortable with one and some people are more comfortable with the others The next move I want to introduce is the V move (also called a pull-pivot-push). From a stationary position, start with the ball in front of your left foot and player right foot on the ball on an angel so that your toes are pointed toward 10 O'clock. Pull the ball back so that it is almost directly underneath where your right foot would be if you were standing normally, then pivot your hips so that you can push the ball back out in an angle toward 2 o'clock. As you can see in the diagram below, the ball will follow the path of a V. The keys for this move is that there must be a stab for the ball and also you must come to a complete stop (you can't be moving forward and pull a ball backwards). That is the main difference between this move and the two mentioned earlier.
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