Soccer Fitness in Freestyle?

Soccer Fitness in Freestyle?

For the past couple of weeks, I have been rather down on my soccer fitness and I’ve noticed that it’s a bit harder for me to pull of some of the freestyle tricks I could perform previously without much fuss when my fitness level was better. This then has raised a rather strange question, is fitness really important to perform freestyle football tricks. Well, I think certain soccer tricks do require a strong and flexible ankle, knee or hip. For example, to pull off the so called ‘Around the World’ soccer trick, I felt that it actually puts some strain on my hip and without a strong flexible hip, mind you, warming up is just as important, it was quite tedious to perform the trick.

After monitoring my partner’s progress in practicing Ronaldinho’s famous flip-flap, it also came to my mind that the soccer trick requires a quick and flexible ankle with some delicate touches involved, does this require us to actually work out and train our ankle so it reaches a level that’s fit enough for this trick? Well, on most videos of famous freestyle players, I had noticed that almost all of them are quite fit, with really strong calves and flexible joints, it’s not just about being thin, but also being strong I guess.

I’d also like to emphasize on the importance of warming up, before starting a freestyle session. Since from my personal experience, by not warming up, it’s much harder to pull of soccer tricks and sometimes it can do more harm to your muscles. I had noticed once where my ligaments (or tendon, I’m not sure) were twitching each time I bent and twisted my knee to kick up and juggle. Me and my colleague believe that the easiest and most ideal way to warm up for freestyle is by doing a 2-3 minute light jog, then some stretching and a little light juggling. Mind you, this is just for a short and light freestyle trick session, not for a full soccer game. As for now, it’s over and out, I’ll try updating again once my soccer fitness level is much better to see if there is a large noticeable difference.