Soccer has been my biggest passion from about a couple years after I started walking. I really dove into the game as I kept getting older and learned more about it and my desire to be good at it just kept rising. I have played on many teams through my soccer journey and each team had a different look on the game which landed me up in multiple different positions on the field. I was totally fine with that because the knowledge that I got from playing all of those different positions developed me into being such a better all-around player and that experience is a huge factor of the skills I have when I play soccer today. I played goalkeeper for a little over a year, I got moved to center-back as I joined a different club in 2009 and played that for about 3 years, and then I joined my current club, Kent United, and I am a permanent center-midfielder. I really love playing center-mid because it is a combination of attacking and defending and the center-midfielders are most likely the smartest players on the field because the game runs through them as they play through the middle of everything. As a center-mid it is a necessity for you to have a very strong technical game, for example, being able to dribble without looking at the ball so you can have your head up and pick out the strikers attacking goal. Also, the biggest thing for a soccer player, not only a midfielder, but every single player on the field is they should have their touch on the ball mastered. This is very important because soccer is a high-flying game, there are no timeouts its just the first half and the second half so you have to constantly be able to perform during those long span of times. Me being a midfielder, I know how important it is to be able to control the ball with every single part of your body so I decided to pick a soccer book called "Soccer Strategies: The Top 100 Best Ways To Improve Your Soccer Game," by Ace McCloud to blog about and read because I know that touch seems like a very easy thing to master but the easiest things in soccer play the biggest roles. A very well-known midfielder for the Dutch national team, Johan Cruyff, once said, "Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple." The meaning of his words were that soccer is a very simple game because it is played mainly from the basic things but the basics are very hard to perfect. This leads into being able to master your touch because that is one of the most basic things yet many people still struggle a lot with it.
In the book on page 14 it says “All of the best players tend to have a good touch in soccer. The touch is the feel that you have for the ball as well as how you will be able to control the ball when you first touch it,” (McCloud 14). This shows that how touch is such a basic part of soccer that everyone who dribbles a ball feels, it is still a huge portion on determining if you are a great player or an okay soccer player.
THIGH TOUCH
This is what many players that play soccer and don't focus on touch enough get because they don't think about it being such a important factor that influences every single other part of the game and it all starts from the first touch you take on the ball. As you can see, my touch was very wrong here because the ball went such a big distance away from me and I had to chase it down and because of that I was totally unbalanced and the shot that I pulled off after went miles away from the goal. Also, because there were no defenders on me I was able to chase the ball down but in front of the other teams goal there would always be many defenders ready to slam the strikers out of the way. So in a game situation first I would've gotten rammed to the floor by the defenders because of the terrible touch I took and the other team would have a straight counter attack going towards the goal they want to score on in no time which would be very lethal. To prevent those two bad things from happening touch is the first thing that needs to be worked on so that the ball stays in your control and you don't lose it.
This is an example of a good touch taken off of my thigh. This is much improved from the first shot because when the ball came to me I touched it in a place on my thigh that made it land right in front of me and it was a quick shot into the corner of the goal that goalkeepers would have a tough time stopping. As I said before, soccer is a very fast playing game and this shot shows the difference between the speed I was able to put the ball in the net compared to the first shot that took me a very long time to get a shot off and it went way off from goal. This book has really impacted the look I have on touch and how much I value it because I knew it was very important before I read this book but Ace McCloud really put a deeper meaning into it for me and showed me how it was one of the most important things when playing soccer. Also, because of that importance I was determined to work harder on it so I could be a more talented player and that showed by the shot I was able to come out with, after my terrible one in the start. McCloud also gave us helpful tips on how to take a better touch on the ball in his book, for example, watching the ball all the way till it comes to the body part you want to touch it with so you are more focused on it and that leads to a better touch being taken with more control, (McCloud 14). After reading that it paid off because I was able take a nice touch by going off of things like that he described in his book. So, this book has really been a big influence on how I am going to value every single touch I take when I play soccer from now on because I will be a lot more focused and control every touch a lot deeper so every single move after that is better, like McCloud said in the book.
In the book, a great way McCloud explains touch is he shows the importance of it in every position on the field. On page 13 he talks about midfielders and he says “Midfielders should have the skills to receive a ball, pass the ball and control it with their feet and with their thighs and chest. Midfielders play many roles in soccer, so doing all of these skills well can make success much more likely, (McCloud 13). Clearly, we can see that touch is huge for midfielders and they need to be able to control the ball with most parts of their body and if they can master this they will be way better soccer players. Also, on page 17 McCloud talks about the prominence of touch for defenders, he says “A good wingback is able to dribble effectively past the other team. This allows them to get past without the worry of losing the ball,” (McCloud 17). This is very important for defenders especially wingbacks because they are the ones that are pressured the most by the opposing strikers so every touch of theirs has to be on point so they can dribble quick and find their teammates. Finally, the last position McCloud talks about relating touch to is strikers, on page 18 McCloud informs us about the role of touch on strikers and he talks about how strikers are the ones that need to use the most skills or soccer moves on the field to be creative and fool the defense to score a goal, and in order to do all of those moves every touch has to be mastered with the right weight on it, (McCloud 18). This book is written really well for soccer knowledge and is a very good guide to improve your soccer game like it has been for me.
EXTRA- CHEST TOUCH
When I practice touch I always work on chest touches because as a midfielder, on goal kicks, the goalkeeper is always looking for his center-mids so it is very important to work on chest touches. This is a good touch taken by me because the ball stayed in my control and I was able to laser a shot into the corner that goalkeepers wouldn't be able to stop.
QUESTION: HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO JUGGLE A SOCCER BALL? IF YOU HAVE, WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF JUGGLES YOU HAVE GOTTEN BEFORE IT HIT THE GROUND?
McCloud, Ace. Soccer: Soccer Strategies- The Top 100 Best Ways To Improve Your Soccer Game (Soccer Strategies, Soccer Skills, Soccer Nutrition, Soccer Drills). N.p.: n.p., 2015. Print.
