Juggling—The Most Underrated, Game-Changing Skill in Soccer

Learning to juggle helped me fall in love with the game of soccer, but it also taught me a host of other life lessons. Developing a juggling routine that you can consistently execute is one of the most underrated ways to improve your game. From a playing perspective, it develops several key skills.

First is balance. Watch a player dribble before they learn to juggle—they’re often off-balance. As their juggling record improves, so does their stability while dribbling.

Second is touch. When players first start juggling, they usually rely on their toes. With practice, they begin using different parts of the foot and controlling the ball at varying heights. It’s like putting in golf—you have to learn the right weight to put on the shot, and that only comes with repetition. Similarly, a player who can juggle at different heights can better control their first touch and deliver more accurate, well-weighted passes.

Third is winning balls in tight spaces. Players who have mastered juggling are more likely to come away with possession when the ball is bouncing around in the middle of the field. Many athletes spend hours in the gym working on acceleration—doing power cleans, squats, and deadlifts—but the juggler is often quicker to react to a loose ball because juggling builds fast, instinctive footwork.

This effect is even stronger with wall juggling. If you put in effort, you’re constantly adjusting to the rebound. Eventually, you’ll get so precise that the ball comes right back to you, and all you have to do is step back to create a new challenge.

The Other Side of Juggling

The other side of juggling—one that people don’t pay nearly enough attention to—is the immediate credibility it creates when you attend an ID camp, combine, or guest play for a different team. If you show up half an hour early and start juggling a tennis ball while others are standing around, coaches, players, and scouts will notice you—and they’ll be watching when you step into a game.

Why Don’t Players Learn to Juggle?

There are several reasons. One is that coaches often don’t explain the benefits. Learning to juggle is difficult, and there’s a period in which players see little or no progress. Without immediate results, many—especially kids—lose interest. In today’s world of instant gratification, why juggle when you can get a dopamine hit on TikTok?

Another reason is time. Juggling takes practice, and when a club only trains twice a week for 90 minutes, coaches often don’t feel they can spend 15 minutes on it. Instead, they skip one of the most valuable exercises in favor of an overcomplicated drill.

The last reason is that some coaches don’t understand its importance. They see it as a “circus trick” and would rather have kids running—often because they don’t have a soccer background themselves or never built the habit.

The Benefits Go Beyond Soccer

Juggling undeniably improves a player’s game, but it also teaches lessons that carry into life. It shows players how to learn a skill, build a routine, and practice something daily. It teaches them how to deal with the frustration of slow progress, and it gets them addicted to improvement—striving to be better than they were the day before and going to bed each night with a sense of accomplishment.

-Joey Musto