Bi-lateral Symmetry: Juggling Misunderstood

For those that have worked with APG, a topic that comes up somewhere along the lines is juggling. I have heard arguments for and against from many people around the world and have never quite heard anyone's take match our own perspective here at APG.

I am a huge fan of juggling.

WHY I'm a fan is more important however than my opinion. Let's start with a few observations from my standpoint. 

Those against it typically point out that there are several "circus performers" who can juggle but cannot play. I 100% agree with this statement.

Those for it, usually point out the main reason is to improve touch on the ball. I 100% disagree with this statement.

So what is my opinion on juggling you may ask? Let's look at these two arguments first and expand. 

The argument against...

I agree those that can juggle cannot necessarily play. If you have played high enough or often enough, you have all come across this player. 

This is not surprising because juggling is a psycho-motor sequencing task, and playing the game is a more global multi-tasking of technical, tactical and competitive isolation tasks. Different tasks. What I have found interesting though is that I have never met a player (high level) who could not juggle. There may exist one, but I have never met one, and I've played with, coached or been around several. All could juggle. I have visualized it as a venn diagram where the circle of "those who can play" is contained inside the circle of "those who can juggle". Not all jugglers are players. All players are jugglers.

The argument for...

I do not believe the primary benefit of juggling is increased touch on the ball, although I do believe that can be a by-product. For me, the primary benefit of juggling is increased 1v1 capacity. Let me explain.

Beating a player 1v1 involves a range of moves that provide some type of false information (fake/feint/etc), with a course correction to move past the player. 

Inside the brain, at the base levels, the brain must send differing potential signals to the right and left leg. This goes against a natural mandate for the brain of bi-lateral symmetry (a mechanism designed to achieve and maintain balance for the body). One leg must support the weight and momentum of the body (large force) while the other leg must manipulate the ball with finite precision (small force). The body is not naturally good at this. 

I see it in every student we work with when learning 1v1s. The body, untrained, naturally provides the same or similar force to both. That means a player either gives a hard fake, but a hard (long) touch, or they compensate to keep the ball close by giving a soft fake, to produce the soft touch. Neither really works. Both are the same problem. The brain is incapable of motor-signal differentiation to the level required. The correct combination is hard fake, soft touch.

The 1st benefit of Juggling then is simply teaching the brain to become acquainted with this concept and apply it. One leg is holding the weight of the player, while the other leg is making calculated finite adjustments. 

The skill, in the brain, is the same or similar. The forces will magnify but the mechanisms are the same from a balance perspective. Juggling, when advanced specifically can replicate even closer to these forces and sequencing tasks in the brain. In the end, the primary benefit of juggling for me is simply that it prepares the body more effectively to produce a similar differential when working on 1v1 abilities. 

The 2nd benefit of juggling to young athletes for me, is that it is a self-measuring progressive goal that gets them out playing with the ball outside of practice. Coaches work tirelessly around the world to get their players to work with the ball outside of training. Juggling is one of the easiest ways to do that. 

The third benefit of juggling is increased touch on the ball.

I recently took over 2 young teams of players who have been playing multiple years. After taking them through a 1v1 evaluation, I told both teams that I had very specific goals in terms of juggling for them. I (will) have them do it every water break and one of the 1st questions I (will) ask them every practice is "does anyone have a new record", so they learn it's coming, and obviously it's important because I keep asking about it. 

On just their 2nd practice I had 12 players with new juggling records. My point here is it took multiple years to get to what they had at the beginning of the week, and it took 2 days to have 12 with new records. 

I have not provided any guidance or tips yet on HOW to do it better. I simply asked and made it a priority. I say this because I see this same mistake with coaches on many more topics than just juggling.

Juggling is not a cure-all. It is a potential magnifier (or revealer depending on your philosophy). At APG we are very scholastic in our approach and track a lot of data-points with players to both support and challenge our theories of the game. There is a higher correlation between juggling records and 1v1 abilities, and there is a further correlation between 1v1 production and passing accuracy. So juggling potentially is effecting, indirectly:

• Dribbling ability
• Passing ability
• Work outside of training

Yes, I think juggling is very important.