Step 8: How to Improve Your Vision in Soccer

Introduction

Having a great vision is a must if your really want to get very good at soccer. Possessing this ability makes it possible for you to spot teammates and opportunities that mediocre players are unaware of. It lets you make intelligent decisions regarding what to do when you have the ball and when you don’t have it too. Once you know what is happening around you, the decisions like when to pass a ball, to whom to pass it to and positioning yourself when you don;t have the ball, all start coming naturally to you.

Technique

There are two techniques that can really help you develop your vision :

• Keeping Your Head Up - It is really vital that you start learning the habit of keeping your head up straight away. This is not an easy skill to learn as when we start learning soccer, the natural tendency is to always the watch the ball when we are dribbling, so as to not lose the control. But it is a must to learn to keep your head up if you want to improve your vision. The ‘How to Practice‘ section below will describe how you can incorporate this skill in your game.

• The Quick Look Technique – This technique is one that is really essential in not only increasing your vision, but also to make your game much quicker. This involves using quick glances to get see what is around you ALL THE TIME, especially when you do not have the ball. The quick look makes it possible for you to know what to do with the ball BEFORE YOU RECEIVE IT, since you know the position of your teammates and opponents. The trick is to keeping checking around you all the time, even during set pieces.

Here is a Youtube video by OnlineSoccerAcademy that describes how to use the ‘Quick Look Technique‘.