#29 - Stop Counting Juggles & Start Watching the Body. How Good Is Your Kid?

Paul Spacey: Welcome to the Paul Spacey podcast. Today I'm talking about why juggling is beneficial for your kids' and why you can tell if someone is a good player just by watching them juggle a ball. And we'll look at a viral video with millions of views and I'll react to some of the crazy and the angry comments in there. Anyway, no fluff or musical intros. Let's get straight to it. All right, here's the video of a guy doing some, what looks like fancy tricks, juggling the ball. And I posted this a couple of days ago, went viral pretty quickly. I think it's got like four and a half million views or something in a couple of days. And I basically said, you can tell if someone's a good player when they juggle. And that opened a can of worms straight away. I'll talk a little bit while we're watching this and then we'll learn. we'll scroll down to the comments and see what people said. But the can of worms it opened obviously is, there's twofold really. Firstly, what is good? Immediately some people are thinking that this means a pro player. Generally speaking, you don't describe pro players as good. They're way beyond that. Like if you start off as crap, or if you start off at the bottom of the scale, crap. shit, whatever you want to say, and go to the top of the scale, absolute world class players, you'd probably find good somewhere in the middle. And professional players are not in the middle, obviously. By their nature, the few percent in the world, they're not good. They're way beyond that. So that caused a problem straight away, and you'll see that in the comments. And then the other thing was, people are not exactly sure what they're looking at. A lot of people will watch this video and see the guy juggling and just watch the actual physical act of juggling, right? A couple of touches of the ball around the world, flipping your foot around it, balancing it on your head. They're watching the actual juggling. and they're watching the wrong thing if they're trying to assess where they think that player is in terms of is he likely to be a good player when he gets into a game or not. When you're watching here, what you need to be watching is his body mechanics, his fluidity. the comfort with which not only he moves as an individual, but with how he moves the ball. The panic, or lack of panic, I should say, when you watch him. And this particular video, it came up on my Instagram, and I watched it for, obviously I watched the whole video, 20 odd seconds, whatever it is, but 15 seconds in, I'm watching it thinking, he's definitely a good player, good, and he's probably a higher level player. And so I clicked on his... After I'd posted this actually, I posted this and then clicked on his profile in Instagram and yeah, he's a professional player. And you could argue, yes, he's only a professional player in USL League One here in America. Some people will say that's, well, some people do argue in the comments, that's not professional, it doesn't count. But he's obviously a high level player. So you get the point. Anyway, I've rambled on enough. Let's go through the comments and what people said and I can react to it. Yeah, I included the comment straight away saying, good. So try that before. The initial comments, when it first absolutely blasted off immediately after posting it, people going mad straight away saying, whatever, he's not good or good players are pro players, so they're not as good as Dem. Dembele can't juggle. So how does this apply? Dembele can juggle actually. He had a little bit of an issue with his Barcelona presentation when he joined Barcelona and Dembele dropped the ball a couple of times while he was juggling. I think at the time it went viral and people were like, well he can't juggle. Watch that presentation again. Google it and watch it again. Watch the comfort that Dembele's got with the ball. He uses both feet and he's really comfortable with both. You can see how fluid he is and how he just moves really comfortably. People just watched it and saw that he dropped the ball a couple of times from juggling and took it the wrong way. Anyway, then there was a load of posts actually about the F2 Freestylers, Jeremy and Billy. Everybody knows them obviously, right? They became famous from being F2 Freestylers on YouTube and people seeing all the tricks and things that they did. And a lot of people don't realise that Billy and Jeremy are both Jezza, I think people call him. They're both good football players. They're both good football players, independent of being able to do all of these tricks and good juggling and controlling the ball, touching it out of the air, all of that stuff. It kind of all blends in, right? And so if you watch somebody with... a certain level of body mechanics, fluidity with how they move, fluidity with how they move the ball between their feet and around their body. And if you watch that, if you... someone that's experienced in football, soccer, and you've been in the game for some time and you've watched literally thousands and thousands of players and their body mechanics and their fluidity and their movement from the professional level all the way down to the lowest grassroots level. If you've watched thousands of those players over decades, you can watch somebody juggling. and get a good idea of where they're likely to be at when they get on the field, before they get on the field. You can watch them juggling and predict that to a decent level of accuracy. Yeah, there's always gonna be outliers and the odd player that looks a little bit clunky, obviously. But for the most part, the fluidity, the comfort, the body mechanics, the control, how they move the ball, how they don't panic. All of that stuff, for the most part, that fits and it carries across. Again, I mentioned again, pros are not good. They're way beyond that. Just to remind you before we go through the comments, professionals are not good players. They're far better than that. By default, by definition, they're far better than that because they're in a very small percentage of the worldwide population that plays at the pro level, which automatically puts them way above good. Bold influence comments often. says, bold influence says, a soccer commercial years ago for Frosted Flakes. Lucky you, good commercial mate. One of my buddies did it too. They brought in a circus juggler who had done tons of commercials. He could do all the tricks, but looked clunky. My buddy was smooth and every single person that watched him would say he juggles and looks like Maradona. And he says, world of difference, absolute comfort and mastery of the ball. done smoothly, everyone preferred him 10 times more than the pro juggler or circus juggler, whatever. And there's the distinction to be made, right? Somebody that's a circus juggler or just a freestyler, you can spot them fairly quickly because they don't have that same level of, and it's not 100%, again, there are always gonna be outliers, but you can spot them in terms of they can be slightly clunky. They don't quite have the fluidity. And again, it's a thing of experience and people get angry in the comments and we had some banter. I like that. Like I've told you before, I enjoy the feedback, I enjoy the abuse, good banter. lot of the confusion comes about because we're watching this stuff with different eyes or should I say we're watching it with a different perspective and so through a different lens and that lens that you're watching this video and other videos and players in real life when you watch them in person, what you're looking at even though we're watching the same person or the same team or the same game, In reality, we're watching something very different, right? Because we all have a really different lens and that is a combination of many things, including your experience, whether that be playing, watching the game, coaching, and the things that you've experienced over time, right? And your level of understanding of player development, of what different levels and what ages, what different ages of players look like. And the more experience you have, you'll understand that in a different way to somebody than that just maybe watches some games on TV. And that's why a lot of the time we end up talking past each other with this stuff, because we're literally looking at different things, even though we're watching the same video. All right, Kevin Middleton. Kevin said, some of these comments, geez, this guy is clearly good. He's manipulating the ball with ease. To be great or elite requires much more than technique. And obviously Kevin is spot on. My position here of saying somebody's a good player, you can judge if somebody's a good player by watching them juggle because of all the things I talked about, the fluidity, the comfort, the mechanics, all of those things. That only predicts whether someone's probably a good player on the field. Good being decent, average, solid player, good player. It doesn't predict all of the other stuff that's required to be a really good player, to be an exceptional player, to be a top semi-pro, to be a top professional player. It doesn't cover all of those things, obviously. Because that stuffs game IQ, decision making. You first touch when someone pings the ball at you from 10 yards away. your first touch when someone smashes a ball at you from 60 yards away, in the air and it drops out of the air and you've got to take a touch and land it and dribble. So to be elite, right, or top level requires way more, should I say, than watching somebody juggle. Anyway, let's move through some of these comments a little bit quicker now, and we'll go through and pick up some of the things that people said, and I'll keep reacting to them. This guy comments, great call, Malvin Pierre-Louis, or Malvin Pierre-Louis, found a state league in New York City. This is the... This is the guy in the video that he's talking about. I assume this guy's a coach or maybe he's coached him or he knows him. Played at FC Motown and then signed professionally at Richmond in the USL. That's Richmond Kickers. Electric 1v1 player, which makes complete sense, right? You watch this guy in the video, you see how comfortable he is, you see how fluid he is, you look at his body mechanics. You see how confident he is with the ball. It makes sense that he would be a good attacking 1v1 player. Technically very competent and it turns out that's exactly what he is. Again, it's just about experience and being able to see that. Manolo, we had a kid on our high school team. All he did was juggle. He got real good at it. On the field, he was clueless. I get skeptical when I see a guy like this doing lots of tricks. Those tricks take lots of time and repetition. Seems like that could be better used developing other parts of his game. I replied to say, the comfort and willingness to develop it is an indicator of many things. Somebody that wants to spend a lot of time on their own doing this work to develop their touch, their fluidity, their movement, their body mechanics. That's an indicator of somebody that has a good chance of being a good player, right? Because they're committed. It means they're willing to work on their own. And again, I reminded the guy that noticed I said, good player, nothing more. It's an indication of whether someone's a good player. That's it. It's just an indication. It doesn't tell you whether someone's a top level player. And again, I mentioned that this guy is a pro. And so, Yeah, there's that. Anyway, next comment. Chap says, not entirely true. I thought the same once watching kids warm up before games and I'm gonna say a large majority of the people that were good at juggling were either middle of the pack or below average during actual gameplay. Actual gameplay, he meant to put. It definitely can't hurt to be a good juggler and it cannot hurt to be a good juggler. If you're a parent listening, it's not gonna hurt your kid. to spend time with the ball on their own, juggling, manipulating the ball, becoming more comfortable and confident with it. Absolutely not gonna hurt them. The opposite is true. It's gonna help them in so many ways. Look, if you have the choice of going out to a field with a friend and pinging a ball to each other from 10 yards away, testing each other's touch, pinging the ball from 20, 30 yards, and you can do that for a couple of hours, or juggle on your own for an hour, What would I suggest is the best thing? Going out and playing with someone else. Obviously, you can do more and it's more realistic to what you're going to do in the game. But for a lot of people, don't always have a friend or a parent or a teammate to go and meet at the field or the pitch and practice with. And so the work on your own is... is something that you can do way more often, right? And that has a massive impact on your player development as a young player. So again, if you're a parent, yes, get your kid juggling. Have them using, by the way, different size balls. I'll talk about this, I think I've talked about it on previous podcasts and some of my free products and programs and some of the stuff that I sell that's a bit more in depth. I talk about the importance of juggling and using different sized balls, whether it be a size five, a size four, a three, even a two, or using a tennis ball. Different size and weights of balls, using a futsal ball, doing it barefoot, all of these things are really helpful in terms of... your development, particularly as a young player. Can you get benefit from it as an older player, an older youth or an adult doing this stuff? Absolutely. Of course you can. It's always beneficial, but it's more beneficial and more impactful the younger you can do it or the younger you can start. And so yeah, again, going back to this guy, Chap, wrong actually, completely wrong. that the large majority of people that were good at juggling are either middle of the pack or below average during gameplay. Not at all. Not at all. You watch people warming up before a game even. Again, I do that as a coach every time we play a game. And I'll watch players manipulating the ball and handling the ball, juggling on their own. You even look at their posture, right, and how they stand and then how they move, how they walk. the swagger, the confidence, all of these things help you predict whether someone's likely to be a good player or not. And invariably, it turns out to be an accurate predictor if all of those things come together. And again, it's about experience and your eyes and how you're watching it. People are obviously watching something very different, as I said, even though we're watching the same player or the same teams. We're just seeing something very different. So yeah, if... Don't let anyone discourage you from juggling and doing that individual work on your own. Absolutely crucial for young players and players of all ages. I'll say here, you need IQ and all the other stuff to be a great player or an exceptional player. Mechanics, fluidity, comfort indicates or can indicate a good player. Usually indicates a good player actually. Tom Parry, have a bit of back and forth with Tom. constraints led approach. He's a good guy, Tommy. He does know his stuff. Tom says, you should see the guys in cirque de Soleil. Best jugglers I have ever seen. Tom's having a bit of fun there, yeah, and there's a fluidity, comfort and movement to those jugglers. But again, you can spot a circus juggler in comparison to somebody that's an actual football player. Fairly easy to spot. Uncle Shaka here says absolutely not. Just because they do that doesn't mean they are good players. It usually does mean that they're good players. That's the point. Again, I'm asking him like I'm asking hundreds of people in the comments. There are literally hundreds of comments here over the last 48 hours. And I ask most people, or more people, because some of them get it. Some of the people watching that are experienced and understand it, they get it straight away. They know what they're looking for. But for a lot of people, I'm replying to say, watch closely. As I do here, watch the video more closely. Look at the mechanics. Look at the fluidity. Look at the comfort. of the player. Try to look beyond the actual act of the juggle, right? The touch in the ball with the foot, knee, head, whatever it is. The juggling act, look past that and look how comfortable the player is. Look how they move, how confident they are. That comes together as a picture so you can watch something for 20, 30 seconds and go, very good chance. This guy is a good player or girl is a good player when they get on the pitch. Emanuella Bande says, all of you saying the obvious. Yes, we know some people are just ball jugglers, but from this clip, question mark, this boy is good. And that's obviously an accurate take as I respond. He obviously, this is a guy that watched the video, read the words that I wrote, which is, you can see whether a player is good, not whether a player is great, not whether a player is a pro. You can see whether a player is good based on watching them juggling. And it's obvious from this clip of this particular guy. There are some times that you'll watch clips and it's a bit more difficult to tell. But for the most part, it's relatively easy to tell if somebody's gonna be a good player on the field based on watching them juggling. So yeah, respect to this guy. Alberto Macquilani, think this is. Yeah, the same way you can tell when they're a professional juggler and not a footballer. Exactly as I said, right? You can tell when someone's just a juggler or they're an actual footballer. Fairly easy to tell when you're experienced and you've watched enough players at different ages and different levels. Leo Marino says, wrong, I know some jugglers like my man here, they wouldn't play D3. They aren't terrible, just not particularly good at the actual game. And this is a good example of he obviously watched the video and thought, yeah, this guy's just a juggler. He's not a good player. I reminded him that this guy plays pro. And when, I'll read out what I said. When you watch someone juggling, you see the fluidity control mechanics comfort that gives you an idea if they are good. Definitely not telling you if they are anything more than that. Again, there's so much more to player development and the game, right? If you're a parent for your kid, they have to do so much. It's great first touch, great body mechanics, great fluidity, comfort dribbling with the ball. Fantastic at being able to control the ball out of the air, on the ground, smashed at them, floated towards them. Being able to beat players 1 v 1, being able to defend, being able to tackle, being able to head the ball, being cool enough to finish, being able to cross, having good pattern recognition to see gaps and see players making movements for you. Look, football's a simple game, soccer's a simple game, but there's so much to it. There's so many things that you need to do and learn and be good at to be an outstanding player. So. Yeah, all right, let's move through some more of these comments. This guy says M-E-N-N-L, I think this guy's from Holland, Netherlands. He says, delusional take. The likes of Pedro Monzon, Matarazzi, Ruggeri, Walter Samuel, Terry Butcher and Stuart Pearce couldn't juggle if their lives depended on it. Yet they all made careers at the highest level. All of those players would be able to comfortably juggle a football. All of them. No exceptions. Show me a pro player, a professional player that's unable to juggle. You won't find one. And look, if you can find one, in fact, find me a professional player with a video of him or her. not being able to juggle at all, like being completely clueless in terms of being able to juggle a ball. Do that, send me a DM with the video, I'll Venmo you $50. And I just said here, it's an experience thing, This guy, next comment from this guy Dev. Kid at my high school was the craziest juggler ever, but spent three years on JV because he wasn't that good of a player. Senior year, he didn't touch the pitch on varsity. And I say fair enough, but he was good, like you just said. That was the tweet. He literally said it in his reply here. He wasn't that good, which means he must have been good. Whatever, anyway, next comment. Poldi I had a good back and forth with this guy and he was actually honest. He says, what? Nah, so wrong, you'll be shocked. And again, I reminded him like so many others. you're watching the juggling itself. Look beyond the juggling and tell me what you see. This is what I asked so many people. That's the test for them. Tell me what you see beyond the actual, just the juggling part. What else are you looking at? And then he says, it tells nothing really. I know people who are excellent and skillful jugglers of the ball, but in the field of play, people who can't juggle, clean 20 bullies them off the team. I told him to answer because he didn't, so I asked him again what he sees and what the football traits are in this video. And if at this point, rewind this and in fact, while we're on it, let's go back and watch the video quickly again and then I'll scroll back down to the comments. Watch the guy. Look at the touches. Look at the comfort. I mean this bit. The fluidity with which he moves his feet, with which he moves his legs, with how he touches the ball. There's no panic. He's completely relaxed. He's really confident. He's using both feet comfortably. Just a comfort and fluidity here that makes it obvious. Anyway, back to the comments. Yeah, the poldi guy and he says he can jog the ball all right. He obviously means juggle the ball all right. That's all I see and I told him I respected his honesty. Look at the player's fluidity, his mechanics, the ease with which he moves the ball, his comfort. It paints a picture that invariably transfers to the pitch. And that's true. It does. The picture transfers to the pitch most of the time. Quick break here to remind you about my programs and guides for parents, players, and coaches. Check them out at pauljspacey.com. Now back to the show. This guy says, I disagree as well. I'll see if we can find some of the comments in a minute. They're a bit more, a bit more abusive. I disagree as well. I agree it builds relationship with the ball, but that doesn't make you a good player. I've seen some insane jugglers be terrible at soccer. because they spent all their time juggling instead of other fundamentals. Again, I talked about this obviously five, 10 minutes ago earlier in the podcast. Juggling is a fundamental foundational skill that you can help to improve you as a player. It's never gonna hurt you as a football player. Yes, if, as this guy kind of mentions, if you're just juggling all the time, right? And you're a, if you're a freestyler. you're obviously not going to be good on the pitch in an actual game where you need to make decisions all the time. And if you spend all your time juggling and only a small amount of time on the pitch, yeah, you're not going to be great. You won't be great. You'll be really good at juggling and you won't be great when you get on the pitch. But again, when you watch somebody juggling the ball for 20, 30 seconds, you can, you have a good idea of whether they're likely to be a good player on the pitch. But again, again, again, Beyond good, beyond good, very good, great, exceptional, semi-pro, pro, world class, all of those other levels, way above good. Needs so much more, obviously, it needs so much more. All right, alcoholic. Juggling a ball does not mean you are good at soccer, dumbass, lol. The best juggler I knew was the worst soccer player I ever played with. I think that's very unlikely, right? Very unlikely that if it was the best juggler that he knew, unless it was literally a freestyler that just juggles and never plays on the pitch. Yeah, I think he made this one up just to get a bit of attention on his comment. yeah, his experience with one guy obviously doesn't change my perspective in terms of being able to see whether a player is a good player on the pitch just by watching them juggle. Mango Jenkins says, this is utter bullshit. One of my friends growing up was great at keep ups, had more skill with the ball alone than any of us. He was shit at proper football. Football is a team game. Thanks for telling us that, To be a good player, you need physicality, bravery, and an innate understanding of real time physics. There we go, Mango. That's a good comment, incredible reply. It's not utter bullshit, is it, for the reasons I've explained so far in this podcast. I don't need to go through that again, but entertaining comment from you. Thanks, mate. This guy, Ike or Ikey says, you can tell if someone knows nothing about football when they say something like this. I mean, fairly easy just to click on my profile, Ike or Ikey. See if I know anything about football. Have a quick look through my tweets. Have a quick look through my videos and see if I can play. See if I can coach. See if I understand the game. Nice try, mate. Have a sit down. Just a person says, if this were true, all the top freestylers would be great players too. This is not at all the case. And again, it's nothing to do with freestylers. It's not about freestylers. Again, freestylers are not automatically great football players on the field because they've spent all of their time just doing freestyle juggling and tricks, you need to spend a significant amount of time on the field, whether it be 1v1, in groups, in full teams, to be a really good football player. the confusion between... Freestylers here in the comments and what we're watching with this guy, again, comes down to your eyes, the lens that you're watching this through and your experience or lack thereof of how you're watching this. If you're an experienced player, an experienced coach that's seen someone over lots of levels over a long period of time, you can tell if someone's a freestyler. You can tell if they're likely to be a good player when they step on the pitch. Dismass, this guy says, yeah, a hard no. A good juggler is no indication of a good player. Sorry, guy. A lot of the comments are like this, and again, it just shows a lack of understanding of what they're actually watching. And I don't blame people for that. Like, it's not their fault. You're just watching someone going, for a lot of people, their reference is a professional player on TV. Like, a lot of these... comments on Twitter, social media are people that don't really go and watch much football in real life. They won't have watched different levels of football, right? So their indication of, or their perspective on what a good player is, is based on what they see on TV. And if somebody's not a top professional, for them that doesn't equate to a good player. Yeah, I mean, I told the guy it way over his head. It was way over his head. Adam Bell says, top players would be good jugglers because it helps touch and skill. One of the fundamentals you get told to develop as a kid. Like I said earlier in the podcast, and my reply is absolutely. Top players can all juggle and all have a very high technical level. I talked about this on a previous podcast. Might be the last one or the one before that. The last one I think, it was Lauren koscielny the Arsenal player, showing him doing a rebona into the bin. The level of technical quality for top players, for professionals, is ridiculous. It's ridiculous and so all top players, all pros, so comfortable with the ball, so technically good, juggle with their eyes closed. They could juggle with their eyes closed. Including Dembele, yes, Dembele could juggle with his eyes closed. Next one, this Popcourt Express. This is the only answer you need. And then he gives a quote from Johan Cruyff about juggling and joining the circus. And I mentioned, look, don't count the juggles. Cruyff says about juggling the ball a thousand times and don't count the juggles. Look deeper at the fluidity, the control, the mechanics. The answer is there. And then... He might be English, might be British, sounds like he is. says, mate, I played professional football for 15 years and played when I could walk. And this is always really interesting on when it's people that don't have their name, right? They're hiding behind a... a profile, not a photo, just some sort of icon or image, and then a name, PopCult Express. So many people are so frightened to use their own names online. And then you can ask them, write a question. People will often say to me, look, you do all this talking online. Who are you? Whatever. You're not good player. You're not this. You're not that. I mean, my work is right there online for anyone to see and for anyone to criticize. So you can do a quick Google search and see whether Paul Spacey is a good football player or a good coach or not. It's right there. All my stuff's online across social media. And so sometimes I'll challenge other people and say, okay, you were a pro for 15 years. Show us. Show us you were a pro. The amount of times that I've done that and the amount of times anyone's come back with anything or shows you a good play up, the amount of times someone's come back with anything, one time it's happened. Massive, massive respect to that guy. One time it's happened in years where someone posted a video within minutes of them juggling a ball. Now look, this particular guy was clunky, he wasn't great, he was all right. But massive respect to him, posted a video of him juggling and said, look, I am decent. Big respect to anyone that does that. All right, next comment. This guy, Avatar, Jagaban, whatever. Bullshit, he says. On my way to play intramurally right now and there's a dude that can juggle and walk at the same time, but when it's game time, he gets cooked faster than eggs on asphalt in Arizona during the summer. I know what that's like, because I spend summers in Arizona. But... Is the, and I ask if the guy is a good player, not whether he's an exceptional player or not, but is he a good player? Which means is he decent? Because again, experienced eyes look beyond the juggling. You're not looking necessarily at the act of the juggling itself. Touch, touch, touch as the ball goes up. You're looking at so much else. So many other things within that. Whatever, Avatar, whatever, mate, sit down. This guy, NGISTO, whatever, says, I have an old friend who could juggle like a Brazilian but with absolute garbage in the field. Bro had a superb first touch but that was it. Bro was an awful player. It doesn't always translate. And it doesn't always translate, obviously. It doesn't always translate but the general level of technical quality and fluidity from juggling, that translates the general level of technical quality does. And obviously in the case of this video, the fluidity, the comfort, again, the mechanics, I've said it a hundred times because that's what you should be looking for. And hopefully if you're listening to this, you're learning. When you're watching someone juggling or watching someone play around with the ball, mess around with the ball, these are the things that you should be looking for. Look to see how fluid they are, how comfortable they are, how easily they move. And again, I could see in 20 seconds that this guy was a good player. Monkey D. Dragon says, you almost not have seen that kid who mastered juggling in like 24 hours. This was a viral one actually. I wonder if many of you have seen that or seen this. I saw it online. A guy, he says juggling is a great skill, but I guarantee he's not using any of these moves on 11v11 Well, obviously you're not juggling past people. in 11 v game, obviously. Again, we've talked about this in the podcast. That guy that did the, that mastered juggling in 24 hours, it looked real. I don't know if it was fake, but it looked real. I think he was either a young, either American football or a podcast or a YouTuber or something like that. Not a soccer player anyway. And he spent an entire day working on juggling the ball. And by the end of the 24 hours, he videoed it. And he could juggle. He could juggle by the end of the 24 hours, but massive respect to him for doing it. It was horrendous. His body mechanics, his fluidity. He was completely uncomfortable. The ball was over all over the place. Obviously, right? Big respect to the kid for achieving that in 24 hours, but obviously he looked, well, he looked ridiculous. He looked like he's never played football in his life. Anyway, next comment. This guy says you really can't. Juggling a ball, one very minor thing that translates to playing football. Decent touch, but not even completely that. A decent touch is knowing where to put the ball with your first touch to put yourself into space. And that's true. A good touch is knowing where to control the ball, where to put your touch into space, whether it be to go past someone, to open yourself up, to rifle a pass out to the wing, whatever it may be. That part's true, but the first part about you really can't judge someone from the video, you can. I did it for this video, I've done it for many others, and anybody can do it. once you've spent enough time playing, coaching, watching kids, youths, adults of all levels, once you've spent enough time, I'll tell you what it is, it's the same process as pattern recognition on the pitch as a player, which most players never get to a high level of. The more games you play, the more five-a-side you play, the more indoor... 5v5, the more futsal games, the more outside 11v11 games, the more pick-up games you play, the more games, competition against other people. it might be, I mean 2v2 doesn't really work, there's not a huge amount of pattern recognition there, but probably 4v4 upwards, up to 11v11, the more of that you do, the more... that pattern recognition system builds in your brain to a point where you can be dribbling with the ball. Technical comfort is a different thing. Obviously, technical comfort is when you can dribble with the ball, you don't need to look at it, so you look up. Your pattern recognition is you are seeing so many players on your team and the opposing team move in front of you, to the side of you. Clearly, you've not got eyes in the back of your head, you can't see behind you, but you can scan. You can see players all over moving and pattern recognition and having a great understanding of pattern recognition and being effective in that is... The more you do it, you're able to see things and spot a pass. Spot someone that's about to move, spot someone before they've even moved based on their body position or their angle. And recognise the patterns ahead of you to see where a ball might be able to be passed through. I'm actually moving my leg here, doing a passing action here just to show you, but you can't see it. Pattern recognition is a massive part of football. It blends into the IQ and game understanding. And somebody with fantastic pattern recognition, I'll say it, you know I'm a bit of a prick, my pattern recognition was and is incredible. One of the best things about my game. I would see things. Why is that? Well, I started playing five a side indoor when I was about six years old and carried on playing five a side indoor for 20 odd years, even when I was playing semi-pro. I would still play five a side indoors sometimes the night before a game. Looking back wasn't the best idea, but whatever, I loved playing so much. My pattern recognition came from thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of playing 5v5, 6v6 and up to 11v11. And it just makes the game easy for you. because you're seeing stuff. You're seeing it way before it happens. You already know where you're going to pass, the angle you're going to pass, the weight that you're going to pass it at, and the height that you're going to pass the ball at a second or two before you get the ball. You've already decided because you can see those patterns shaping up in front of you in real time as it's happening. And for people that don't have that, football, soccer is... that just looks like chaos ahead of them. And watch youth games, watch a grassroots game, whether you're a parent, a coach, or just somebody that watches games, a fan, whatever. Watch games at a lower level, and you can see, almost see the players inside their head, the chaos and struggle, right? They get the ball and you see them look down at the ball, an absolute panic. because the five, six, 10, 12 players ahead of them, it just looks like pure chaos. It looks like chaos to them. And for somebody that has incredible pattern recognition, it's the opposite of that. It's not chaos. It looks poetic almost, like an orchestra. You can see it all in front of you. You know what's gonna happen. You know where everybody's going to move. You can see gaps. out the corner of your eye that a less experienced player wouldn't even think to look at. Anyway, I'm rambling there, I'm rambling. So we're gonna go through some more comments. This guy says, he is talented and this is only a taste. I'd like to see the same moves with both feet and not just the left as a supporting actor. you can only go so far in soccer with one foot. And I say, look, few players are completely two-footed in the game. Dembele is a really good example. Completely two-footed. I think Dembele might be a bit stronger with his left. Maybe I'm wrong, but he's almost completely two-footed, which isn't actually that common. Even at the top level, the pro level, even world-class players, being completely two-footed. It isn't that common. again, for parents and young players, this is why it's so crucial when you're young, that you spend time working with both feet. It doesn't have to be working both feet equally, but if you're doing private training or you're working on your own, if you can make it roughly equal in terms of what you're doing with both feet, That foundation, building the foundation of both feet when you're a young player, pays off in spades when you get older. Because if you don't build the foundation with both feet and you're not comfortable with both and you get into your teens and you're heavily one-footed, getting your weaker foot to catch up is really, really difficult. And look, you can get away with it if you are incredible with one foot. Messi scored loads of goals actually with his right foot, his weaker foot. People don't always realise that, but he's so good with his left, obviously he's so good and so talented with his left that he doesn't need to use his right often. But for most people, being able to use both is massively beneficial. And I did another post about that earlier today. When your kid starts playing football, encourage them to use their left foot. Because I'm sure there's some nature, the nature versus nurture debate. I'm sure there's some nurture and some nature involved in somebody being a left footed player. But if you can really encourage your kid to use their left foot a lot when they're young, if they become a left footed player, It gives them an advantage in terms of numbers, right? Because there are less lefties, and so that's less competition. But equally, for some reason, I don't know what it is, for some reason, left footers, left footed players just, they have this balance, an exceptional fluidity about them that righties, generally speaking, don't tend to have. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm sure you know what I mean. Lefties just... They just look better. They seem to look more fluid, more balanced. Whatever. Anyway, moving on. Thomas Fleming says, skill. was at Old Trafford once for a friendly. They brought out this ginger lad who was really good at keepy-upys, better than Ronaldo who had a go. The lad played in the second division of the National League, earning like 80 pounds a week. All right, so, literally just proved the point of my video. If he was in the National League, which is a very competitive level in England, earning 80 quid a week, yeah, fair bit of time ago, that was still probably all right, a bit of pocket money. If he was playing at that level, by definition, that guy was a good player. And that was my tweet. You can see if somebody's a good player or not. So Thomas Fleming, thank you, mate, you just proved my point. Red Devil Wazzaf says, no, you can't. You could be one to ball juggle, but have no vision or awareness at all. And again, I reminded the guy to look deeper, watch it beyond the surface level of just juggling. And this is interesting. And I'll read out what he replied, because I think this gives a good insight for most of this audience tends to be American. And this gives you a good insight into how Europeans I'm English, obviously, but I'm a US citizen. This gives you insight into how Europeans can sometimes view Americans. Not all Europeans are like this, but some are. Look at Americans as though they can't have an opinion about football or soccer because they're American. And so this guy's reply to me just reflects that. I get this a lot online because obviously my Twitter account, this account shows that I'm... I'm located in the United States. So people naturally assume I'm American. This guy says, I don't think some yank in a suit, talking about me obviously, I don't think some yank in a suit is ever about to tell me how to analyze football. I've played it and watched it all my life, mate. I reminded him that I'm English and grew up in Coventry in England. played for Stoke City and then played semi-professionally for 15 years. And I asked the kid or the guy, whoever it is, who did you play for? And like many of the people online, when you ask them to back it up, no worries, you're telling me you were a player, who did you play for then? No reply. That's the normal process, right? They're not able to reply because they've made it up. But yeah, again, just to mention the American thing, this shows the bias, I guess, against Americans online. People will look and criticize you. For saying soccer, for example, even saying the word soccer, people get mad and go, you're American, it's soccer. What are you even talking about? Well, the English invented the word soccer. We invented it. It's down to us. And the word soccer is used in so many countries. Yes, football or futbol whatever country it that you're in, is used more often. Football is probably the most used term for the game around the world. But soccer is used in so many places and this, yeah, the snobbery around that word. Actually ridiculous, ridiculous. All right, next guy. Kiki Keki says, you can see he wouldn't even succeed in the field. Good example of someone watching that juggling and going, yeah, he wouldn't be a good 11 aside player. I reminded him, the guy's a pro player. So another one that read it wrong. Philly fan says, I disagree. They are a talented individual with a ball. It does not indicate the ability to move with and more importantly, without the ball. Game intelligence or 1v1 ability. Obviously, state in the obvious, right? I mean, you can't show all of those things just by juggling with the ball. So obviously it doesn't indicate those things. Again, that's why I said. In the tweets, it can indicate a good player, not a great player, not an exceptional player, not a pro player. It can indicate a good player. Oli says the F2 freestylers must be like Neymar. And I've reminded Oli that Billy and Jezza from the F2 are both good players. And then Oli replies, no, they're good jugglers. yeah. Billy and Jezza are good jugglers, but they're also good football players. He wouldn't have it. He wouldn't have it. He just said, no, they're good jugglers. I told him that football wasn't for him. watching the game my entire life, but because someone juggling the ball is on my timeline, Big Paul Spacey on X decided football isn't for me. Incredible stuff. Your definition of a good player is cooked. Again, there's a good example of when we're talking about a good player. we're talking about completely different things. This guy's perspective on what a good player is, is based purely on pros. Pros are way beyond good, way beyond good like I already said. So anyway, let's move on. This guy, Milkman, being good with the ball without pressure is a skill in itself. I know players who are simple jugglers, but were very good and great jugglers who were poor by footballing standards of even collegiate level. And I reminded him, again, it's more than jug bin, it's all the other stuff, the fluidity mechanics, comfort, all things that experience gives you a better eye for. And again, that's the key. Being experienced, knowing what you're looking at and looking deeper beyond the surface level. Something many people can't do. Not a criticism. That's just because of your experience or lack of it. Not unusual, completely normal. Fury Maker says wrong. Great input. wonderful. Someone replies with wrong or no. Always makes me laugh. Great input, really worth it. You can tell if someone's American by their footballing opinions. Again, this is another one. The... obviously looks at my location and dismisses what I'm saying just by virtue of the fact that he thinks I'm American. Again, it happens a lot online. People will dismiss your thought or opinion just because you're American when it relates to football, soccer. I remind the guy that I'm English, born and raised in England and played a decent level. Don't judge a book by its cover. This guy, Coach Toby says, the two kids that were the best jugglers on my son's team at nine and 10 are the two weakest players on the team now at 13. Actually didn't make the team this year. Both didn't make the team this year. And I find that very hard to believe, that kids who were the best jugglers on the team at nine and 10 then become the weakest players. The only way that's happening is if they stop practising, stop going to team practise, because like I said earlier, the other part about kids that are good at juggling. I'm not talking about older youths and adults here, but kids that are good at juggling. It shows that they're willing to spend time on their own, developing and improving. And if kids are willing to do that, it means they've got a good mindset, they're committed. And if they're willing to practice and juggle on their own often, the chances are... they're going to end up being a good player because they're willing to put in that additional time that most of the players, I would argue, don't put in outside of the team practices. So for somebody to go from being the best jugglers on the team at nine and 10 and then the weakest on the team at 13, no, find that very hard to believe. Jose says that this just means you have a really good feel for the ball and your touch. Nothing to do with football IQ. And I reminded him, this is why I said good player, not great or exceptional player or not pro player. You can't see football IQ when someone's juggling. Juggling, manipulating the ball on your own is just, you're getting a snapshot of somebody. a snapshot of their technical competence, their fluidity and capability and confidence with the ball. That's what you're getting. An experience allows you to, from that snapshot, determine whether there's a good chance that they're going to be a good player on the field or not. That's it. This guy, Brendan, says, guys who did this in the park probably played for Yeovil. The real skill is doing one thing better than average every week of the season. Not exactly sure what he's on about there, but he obviously, I'm not sure why he would use Yeovil. By the way, Yeovil, Yeovil Town, as they're called, is a really good semi-professional. They've been in, I think they've been in the pro game. I think they've been in League Two at some point, and the National League. Really good team. If you're on Yeovil's team, basically, you're either a good or a very good player. And not too far away, not far away from being a pro. So using yoevil as an example, this guy, again, thanks mate, you made my point. AJ, this guy AJ says, surely you don't know football. I tell him, try again internet guy, AC says, I wouldn't assume someone who is good technically is automatically good tactically. And look, that's right. Nobody said anything. I reply, nobody said anything about tactical acumen. Many good players are not good tactically. I watch youth players, older youth players, college players, high school players, professional players even. You watch pros and you can listen to interviews from coaches about pros. They can be incredible technically. They can be very good football players, exceptional technical ability, but actually not have a very good tactical understanding of the game. That's not unusual at the top level and it's certainly not unusual the lower down you come. Right, you can be a technically good footballer, but not have a really good tactical understanding of the game. So yeah, you need those two things. You need so much more. You need the psychological part. You need the physical part. We've talked about this in previous podcasts. Jamie says, well, that's a good comment from Jamie. Jamie just says, he shite. And I posted another video, which you can see here. This is another video of the same player. from this original tweet, right? This is just him, again, working on his own, prepared to work on his own and do the work. And look at the comfort and fluidity with which, yes, he's playing against a cone. He's doing it on his own. He's got no one to play against. Look at the comfort and fluidity and his mechanics as he moves past the cone and then whips two balls straight into the top bin. Obviously, obviously a good player. Healthy Energy says, this is far from the truth. I've been doing tricks for years and didn't know how to really play the game until I was 20 something. In my high school, everyone used to call me Robinho. He's talking shit, I'm not even gonna reply to that. Albert says, completely wrong, juggling is for the circus. Again, it's not the actual act of just juggling the ball, it's look past that, right? Look at the fluidity, the comfort and the body mechanics of the player. You're looking at much more than just the juggling. And another one here that gives you another reminder of the anti-American bias online, this guy, Q-Dolg, or whatever his name is, says, you can't, you can't. Another American take on football? And I remind him, I'm English, big dog. An experienced pair of eyes can see it. You're right, not everyone can see it. This guy, Alejandro, asks a good question. Can you define what you mean by good? And I'll read this out because it's important. I say good has different applications at every level from grassroots upwards, but the word good is not really applicable to professional players. This is what I said earlier. They're way beyond that, obviously. So this, posting this and saying... analyzing players and whether they're good or not from juggling is not about pros. When you see a player who's very comfortable with the ball and fluid in their movement and control, they're usually good. They're usually good on the field. But good question, Alejandro. Good stuff, mate. Thank you. Lance says no correlation whatsoever. Yeah, for an inexperienced football going, no, there's no correlation at all. Another anti-American one here from Spider Devil. Spacey is the reason the US is shit at football. I remind him, Spacey is English. And I mention Greece because he's based in Greece. Greece don't really have a say right now. They don't really have a say in world football, so yeah. One more here from Serial Spiller again. Shows you the bias against Americans. Almost took this seriously till I saw the location. Obviously thought I was from America. I am in America, but I'm not American. I'm English from Coventry. This guy, says, have you seen Jude Bellingham juggle? And I replied that I played against his dad, Mark, and Jude, I'm sure, juggled as a kid. yeah, Jude would have no problem juggling. But clearly pros are not juggling in a game. It's a ridiculous comment. Pros are not juggling the ball in a game. This guy's comment shows the perspective a fair number of people have on this. He says, why is he not top 50 Ballon d'Or then? As if being able to juggle the ball has some link to be in the top 50 in terms of the Ballon d'Or. Just 10 year old, 10 year old comments. Again, key, whoever this is, this shows you know very little about football. posted by somebody who probably knows very little about football blessing. All right, we'll do one more comment and then we'll, I'll finish up this podcast and finish off by talking a little bit about this technical ability for parents of young players. This guy Pedri says, yep, and this one is not a good player. He is good at freestyle, maybe, but on an 11v11, he will not do shit, probably. I posted the video just to remind him that. this guy's a pro. So yeah, your reading and assessment of the video is pretty far off, which again, in this four and a half million impressions, whatever it's gotten, hundreds of comments, was fairly common for people to say, yeah, this guy's not good or this guy's shit. And yet he's a professional. It says more about the way you're reading him than what he actually is. Anyway, look, the technical ability that you get from juggling, we'll finish off here, the technical ability that comes from juggling and spending time with a ball on your own, a ball and a wall, the benefits are absolutely massive. Those things you don't need anyone else for. That's why it's so good, right? Whether you're a youth, whether you're an adult player, whether you're a little kid. A ball in a wall, can just be you, that ball in the wall. You don't need anyone else. You don't need anyone else to help you. Juggling, manipulating the ball, you don't need anyone else to help you. It's just you. You don't need to ask anyone else. You don't need to rely on anyone else. You've got a 20 minutes, half an hour spare in the afternoon. Go outside with the ball. Manipulate the ball with the sole of your feet. Juggle. Move the ball around different parts of your body. Just get comfortable with it. Get confident with it. The more comfortable and confident you are with the ball and the more that it becomes an extension of your feet, right? The more times you touch it, play barefoot by the way, as much as possible for that. It really helps to develop your touch and feel for the ball. The more you touch it, more fluid you become with it. The more comfortable you look with the ball and that does transfer directly onto the pitch. Like having a great touch. Being able to manipulate the ball with both feet. Being able to control it with different parts of your body. That does transfer directly onto the pitch and using a ball and a wall obviously, you can ping the ball at the wall to simulate either an opponent or your teammate passing the ball or the ball deflecting to you so that you can practice your touch. The more that you can have your kid do that on their own and encourage them to do that to a point that they get to the stage that it's just intrinsic motivation from them. They don't need you to ask them to do it. I've talked about this process many times. You help your young player by pushing them to practice initially. And by pushing them to practice, they get lots of practice. From getting lots of practice, they become competent. When they get that competence, What happens then? It makes them feel more confident. When they feel confident, they go out and practise and play and enjoy it more. So... The practice a lot needs to be driven often by parents of young players in the first place until they get into this cycle, which once you're in it, it continues. But you kind of need to push your kid a little bit into this cycle in the first place by having them practice a lot on their own, in groups, whatever it is, but pushing them to practice a lot. And by doing that, they gain competence. They become competent. And once they have that competence, automatically that instills them with confidence. they feel confident because they know they're competent. They know that they can do things with the ball, which fills them with confidence. And when they're confident, they go out and play much better and enjoy the game more. push your kid to practice a lot. Help them be competent. From that, they'll be confident. when they play confident, they enjoy it more. And that cycle just continues. You go back to the practice part again, you practice more, you get competence, it gives you confidence, you enjoy the game. Once you're in that cycle and you're intrinsically motivated as a player to keep practicing, you're on your way. You're on your way to being a really good player and fulfilling whatever your genetic potential is in terms of where you're get to with the ceiling of your game and your development. Alright, that'll do. Thanks a lot everyone. One last thing for parents, coaches, and players. I've got programs and guides to help you navigate the entire youth development landscape, including a full college recruitment guide and a detailed coaching program. It's all been developed over two decades and most of it's free. Check it out at pauljspacey.com. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.