My Learning Story

        I have played soccer ever since my memory kicked in (punny!), but I could never juggle the ball. (For those of you who don’t know… juggling a soccer ball involves bouncing the ball on the top of your feet, into the air and back, consecutively.) It wasn’t until the summer before my freshmen year of high school that I finally learned how to do this. As much as I would have liked to learn how to juggle on my own time, I had some fire under my tail from my club coach. I also had a lot of “friendly reminders” from my upcoming high school coach and my dad to learn how to “improve my touch.” Lots of “friendly” reminders.
 

        So the summer before my freshmen year, I had to put the responsibility on my own shoulders and learn how to juggle. I had already watched my coach juggle before and after practice, so I knew what it was supposed to look like. His suggestion was to just practice for as often I could—whether it be before practice, after practice, or at home in the yard (or the living room, as long as I didn’t break anything!) My dad also suggested I look on Youtube for some videos of people juggling, so maybe I could learn from watching. 

        Okay. In order to juggle, I first had to find the mental preparedness I needed to battle the Georgia heat in the summer (Mom forbid juggling in the house, so it was a no-go in the air conditioning.)   Got my mental preparedness, grabbed my water bottle, and left my doubt at the door. I was going to juggle more than three times in the air today. 

        Ball is at my feet. I can’t pick it up with my hands, so I had to roll the ball back onto my foot and use my toe to flick it up. Ball is no longer at my feet. Chase ball down the driveway. Roll the ball back onto my foot and use my toe to flick it up. Success! Oh, now it is in the air. Shoot. Hit it with my left foot. Ball goes flying. Bummer. Roll. Flick. Chase. Roll. Flick. Chase. Repeat rolling, flicking, and chasing for a while until I can control the ball from the ground to my feet in the air a small distance in front of me.

        Step two. Now that I can successfully get the ball into the air, I have to master the amount of pressure my foot needs to give the ball in order to keep it straight up in the air and spinning toward me. Roll. Flick. Tap. Tap. Drop. Okay, that was too light of a touch. I’ll give it a little more “oomph” next time. Roll. Flick. WHACK. Ball flies toward car. Freak out because it has hit the windshield. Sprint to assess the damage. No damage. Return to rolling and flicking and tapping. Give up because it is just too hot. Once or twice I would go on Youtube and see what other fellow futbol players did, but I think that only discouraged me seeing how good they were and how not good I was…

        … But then again, maybe it did encourage me. After I hit a wall of desperation, I came out to my driveway other day (or as close to that as I could) for fifteen minutes or more. The beginning was a lot of rolling, flicking, and chasing still. Toward the middle of the summer, I was able to bounce it on my foot for about ten times before I lost control. Personal practice sessions went more like: roll, flick, tap, tap, tap, st r e  t   c   h, tap, tap, and drop. Now it was just an issue of practice. Toward the end of summer, I was able to control the ball from my foot into the air onto my other foot with ease for about twenty taps. Then I lost endurance and had to let it drop.

        When I came to high school tryouts in the spring, my coach was thoroughly impressed that I could juggle FIFTY times! No one else had practiced juggling over the summer and fall seasons so he was easily impressed by my commitment. I felt so proud that I had taught myself how to juggle!