Freestyle Soccer

The freestyle soccer hanged about for quite some time now. Many players from Maradona to Rohnaldhino involved themselves in the performing these tricks for their own fun sake. Even when you will go online you will find thousands of video clips of the freestyle tricks performed by many street soccer players. However it was not before the start of the 21st century that the freestyle soccer reached to the masses of the world in large. It was Nike which started the freestyle soccer promotion campaign in the beginning of the 21st century by bringing in new ads and organizing freestyle soccer competitions around the globe. Not only they can find new talent for the sport by doing so but the world went mad after seeing the likes of Ronaldinho, Edgar Davids, Christiano Ronaldo and Francesco Totti performing these astounding tricks in front of the whole world.

The freestyle footballers carry out intricate chain or ‘combos’ of tricks and skills. They perform these skills in different ways. They can use their lower body where merely the feet and legs are involved to dribble the ball, or their upper body which involves the use of head and shoulders to control the ball, or the sitting position (which is considered as the most difficult one, as the footballer can not go after the ball). In it the players sit down keeping their legs up in the air and maneuver the ball with the help of their feet. The freestyle tricks are mainly invented by those who have a creative mind for the game of soccer. Sometimes people even bring new things like moving the ball with their neck while riding a bike etc. These tricks really require a lot of practice and patience along with a heart for adventurism.

The techniques like juggling and dribbling of the ball pave the path for a player to learn coordination, balancing and ball control. To gain control of an intricate set of juggling tricks the player requires a huge amount of time, dedication and patience. Soon after sending their freestyle soccer ads on air, Nike launched a freestyle soccer competition on internet. In this competition the participants were asked to provide with their videos performing the tricks and the audience from all around the world were asked to vote on it. “Masters of the Game”, the name of the freestyle competition which held in Amsterdam in December, 2006 was won by John Farnworth.

Although the freestyle footballers possess a lot of ball control and dribbling skills, however, merely having these skills is not enough for them to come in the category great soccer players. The soccer players require much more than purely the dribbling skills. The players playing soccer on the international level require a lot of physical (in terms of stamina, strength, speed and agility), mental (hostility, eagerness, courage, originality, judgment, fortitude, poise, power, off the ball, positioning, team work and work rate), and technical strength (Ball control (technique), crossing, dribbling, finishing (shooting), heading, long shots, long throws, marking, passing, taking penalties, set pieces (free kicks, corner kicks, throw-ins and tackling). The training of the freestyle tricks and skills require a lot of patience and stamina. The sport, although not really a sport, is gaining a lot of momentum lately and is hoped to become very popular, especially among the teenagers very soon.