This is definitely my best soccer take. It’s an idea I believe in so strongly that I will gear both my kids soccer development around the idea. I’ve also never really heard it anywhere explicity stated so maybe I’m the one that’s crazy.
The epiphany hit me when I was watching high school girl soccer a few years ago. There were two players that were both in consideration for Gatorade National Player of the Year – the most prestigious state and national level award. These girls were strong soccer players, but the “best in the state?” was a question on my mind. One was normal height, the other was a little taller, they were fast and skilled but nothing that separated them from other good players. UNTIL, they got space in the midfield and just hit the gas with the ball.
(Notice what happens from the 20 yard line to 50 yard line)
That is the secret. The girls could dribble vertically as fast as they could run with their head up after every touch. They went from midfield into the box in a flash creating danger opportunities 2-3 times a game. One one occasion the run was 50 yards vertical. Once they were at full speed, the defenders had no chance, they were blown pass with pace alone. When the girls would get cooking, they were not panicked – they did not look for the nearest pass as 95% of other good players do, they were going to score themselves or put someone else in 1v1. Get flying vertically as often as you can – don’t panic or pass until you score. This type of dribbling is not to be confused with 1v1. The goal is to either blow by a defender standing still and mostly avoid them all together. We are not nutmegging players, stepovers. No Tricks! Speed through space.
The problem with this is most coaches don’t let you do it and actively discourage it. They confuse “too much dribbling” aka dribbling a lot and going nowhere with vertical daggers. Also trainers will take you through 20 minutes of cone work but never teach speed with the ball for long distances. If you have and elite player, have him dribble 50 yards as fast as he can. I bet its really terrible. I’ve actually NEVER seen it taught although I’ve heard they teach it in Europe more.
It’s very hard to dribble at full speed and hit the precise heavy (or sometimes light) touches without losing the ball. But it’s not harder than anything else, you just have to practice. The other thing you have to overcome is the fear that you’ve held the ball too long. I see this all the time from players. They break the line with a fake pass or get a lucky bounce and hit the midfield with great speed but than they panic and pass before they do any damage. Once you hit the turbo it’s neck-slicing time.
Once you know about the secret, you put on any high school game or college women’s game and you will see girls have the opportunity to carry the ball UNABATED 40+ yards all the time. I recently watched MSU vs OSU and you might think two top programs the game would be a chess match of tiki-taka soccer. Wrong. These girls are dribbling the ball through oceans of space all game – no single teams, let alone double teams.
In the men’s top leagues it much less of thing – however, many of the game breaks still start with a long vertical dribble, but it’s much harder to do it without beating someone and taking big risk. However at every level below men’s top league. The best players flying through space. There is more to be said about the obsession with “pretty soccer” but that is for another blog.
justinsadauskas 