dribble

To become a good dribbler, you need to spend time with the ball and take to heart these five key fundamentals.

Use all the surfaces of your foot. Most often you will be using the front portion of your instep, especially when you are dribbling at speed. However, to become a good dribbler of the ball make sure you are adept at using the outside and inside of both feet. This way you can cut the ball away from pressure and keep control of the ball no matter where the defensive of pressure comes from.

Touch the ball with each step you take with the ball. In very quick succession touch the ball a little bit ahead of you when you dribble. This will create both good control and increase your dribbling speed with the ball. With this kind of control you can elude defenders when they try to reach in and steal the ball, you can just cut the ball away since it is always so close to you. It is almost like you are trying to get as many touches in as you dribble forward with the ball. Go slow and exaggerate this at the beginning when you are practicing to ensure you are getting a touch on the ball with each step.

Change of pace is the key to going by a player on the dribble. You don't necessarily need to be extremely fast to beat someone on the dribble, you need to lull the defender to sleep for a second and then break past the opponent with a burst of speed.

Lift Your Eyes. Subtly be aware of your surroundings while you still maintain focus on the ball while dribbling, lift your eyes slightly so you know if someone is making a run, another defender is approaching, or there is space to attack.

Improve Your Weak Foot. The best advice is just to use it. If you continue to strike the ball against a wall with your bad foot, slowly but steadily you will see improvement, have patience. However, there are always exceptions, if you look at one of the best players in the world 'Rivaldo', he only uses his left foot, simply because his left foot is so incredible and he positions his body so well to protect the ball. He is a player that is so experienced and so skilled with his left that he can get a away it.

Use Your Body to Protect the Ball. Shield the ball with your body when a defender gets close. Try to keep the ball on the foot that is furthest from the defender and your body protects the ball.

Tips/Drills: A great drill is simply weaving in and out of a set of cones, and you can of course get creative, as I was saying before I used to dribble in and out of a field of weeds, you can make variations in the drill and put rules on yourself to make it more difficult. Put about 8 to 10 cones in a line about three yards apart and dribble in and out of the row of cones without touching or knocking over the cones. Also, try not to touch the ball too far away from the line of cones, keep the ball close to you and don't dribble out away from the row of the cones. When you have this down you can then vary the way that you dribble through the cones and set rules on yourself: just with the right foot and then just with the left foot, and then alternating feet, where you touch the ball to the left and then to the right as you weave through the cones, just with the inside of the feet, and so on, you can make up restrictions to put on yourself to try to improve a specific part of your dribbling technique.