Xavi Hernandez's First Touch

 Modern football is all about pressure. Whenever you receive the ball, there are always defenders charging you to snatch the ball away. Therefore, first touch is extremely important in football. A bad first touch will slow down the attack or even lose possession of the ball. A good first touch will keep the momentum of the attack while keeping possession of the ball.

 First touch is one of the hardest skills to master in football. It is not just about controlling the ball, but it is also about awareness. A good first touch means that you are aware of the situation going around you and be able to move the ball a few seconds earlier than the defenders. Since football nowadays is mostly about pressure, it is important to get rid of the pressure and move to space quickly as possible. This is why the importance of first touch is getting bigger than before.

 Xavi Hernandez is the master of first touch. He can control the ball very well even in a tight situation. Xavi is not the best dribbler nor the fastest player, because he does not need to be those kind of players. Just one or two touch, and he has the free space to look for a pass (his passes are extremely accurate as well). His awareness is amazing, and it is because he always looks around before receiving the pass. Therefore, he knows what to do before receiving the ball. This is extremely important as well, because most players(amateurs) panic after receiving the ball, and just lose the ball. If you know what you are going to do, than there is no reason to panic. Therefore, practicing your first touch and awareness can also increase your confidence in a match.

 Lastly, this is a video of some great touches and skills of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.

Play Simple Football. Part 1 : Control

 Just an year ago, playing football made me very stressful. I thought I was a decent player, but when I started to play in the league, I did not know when to dribble, pass, and shoot. It felt like as if I was betrayed by my best friend. My favourite sport and hobby turned out to be very stressful for me. So after a few months, I stopped playing in the league, and just played with my friends, trying to get rid of the pressure. While I was away from football, I asked for some advice from my friend, who was playing in the top league in Singapore. His advice was simple. "Control the ball and then pass it to your teammate." When I heard this advice, I was very confused. I did not know what he meant, so I tried to watch how professional footballers play. I focused especially on Andres Iniesta, because he is not the strongest or the fastest player, but he is considered as the best midfielder in the world. Watching him play was so fun and astonishing at the same time. His play was very intelligent, but also very simple. Just like the advice from my friend. From there, I started to understand how to play football 'properly', and realised that I was playing like a complete beginner who only knows how to dribble past defenders. After the enlightenment in my mind, I felt pretty confident to play football. 

 However, simple does not equal easy. It is never easy to control the ball and pass it at the right time. To master control, I practiced juggling everyday, which also helped me find my sweet spot to shoot the ball with power and accuracy. (read this article about juggling) After a lot of practicing, I am now able to juggle over 300 times, and I feel totally confident with the ball. Now that I almost mastered control, it makes me easier to look up and give the right pass at the right timing. Most of my friends do not know the importance of control, and never practice juggling. Therefore, they find it hard to control high balls or balls with speed. This is the reason why simple does not mean easy.

 Playing simple football is important, and the first step is to master control.

How to become a better Footballer

 If you want to be a better footballer than you are now, the first thing to do is to get more control of the ball. The best way to master control is juggling. Juggling needs to practiced everyday, and try not to be interested in fancy skills that players like Neymar use. It is important to use both foot and try to stay in the same position when you are juggling. Here is a good video for you to learn how to juggle the ball in the correct way.

  If you juggle the ball with the 'sweet spot', your juggling will be stable and it will help you get more control of the ball. Everybody has their own sweet spot when they juggle, and you should find your own sweet spot. If you can at least juggle 100 times without letting the ball bounce on the ground, it means you gained almost perfect control of the ball and at this point it can also help you with other skills in football. First, when you dribble the ball, the ball would be much closer to your feet and you would be able to change directions quickly. Secondly, since you have found your sweet spot while juggling, shooting will be a lot more powerful and accurate. It is not easy to juggle the ball over 100 times, and you need to practice everyday. It is definitely very difficult, but if you practice hard enough, you will find yourself juggling over 300 times. I hope you could develop your skills by juggling, and become a better footballer.  :)