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My parents have always taken pride in teaching me the game of soccer. Both of them have played it for their whole lives and it is a part of who they are. While teaching me the game, my dad specifically uses his background and culture to help me learn. The most important thing he taught me when I was younger is the concept of “badre”. My dad is from Iraq and in Arabic culture, “badre” means to outplay or “school” someone. In soccer, this translates to doing moves while dribbling with the ball.

For as long as I can remember playing soccer, my dad loved to show me how to dribble and beat players. When I was a beginner, his feedback was extremely important in helping me improve as a dribbler. However, I reached a point where I became dependent on his feedback in order to know whether I was doing the moves correctly. This is a great example of the concept of augmented feedback, which is supplemental information provided about a skill that was performed. In certain situations, augmented feedback can be beneficial to the learning process, but when it is given too much; it can hinder the learning process. Early on in my learning process for dribbling, my dad was giving me too much augmented feedback which was affecting my ability to learn the skill. Luckily, I was able to recognize the issue and ask my dad to pick and choose his moments to give me feedback instead of critiquing every trial I performed. This allowed me to continue making progress while still gaining important feedback from my dad at a reasonable frequency.

Below is an image that perfectly illustrates my dad teaching me to dribble. He was always very supportive even when he originally criticized me after every attempt.

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After learning the basics of dribbling and how to execute different moves, the next step was to learn how to read the defender. While dribbling the soccer ball, the most important thing is to control the ball; however, this is directly affected by the defender’s behavior. You must always take the defender into account when attempting to execute move. But, where do you look? There are so many aspects of a defender to focus on. When I first attempted the moves I had learned in games, I would often exit the move in the same direction as the defender and run into him. This occurred because I was looking at the defender’s feet. Frustrated with the outcome of my moves, I complained to my dad and asked why they weren’t working. I explained to him that I looked at the defender’s feet before doing the move and he quickly interjected. He told me that instead of looking at the defender’s feet, I should always focus on his hips.

When performing any skill, it’s important to process visual information in an efficient manner. To do this efficiently, you have to decide what visual cues are important. In my case, I wasn’t originally able to do this consistently; therefore, I couldn’t perform the moves effectively. Once my dad identified what visual cue I should focus on, I fixated on this each time I attempted to perform a move. This process of identifying the most relevant visual cues is called visual search. It is what guides the performance of any task, from driving to walking down the street. In my situation, it is what helped me focus on only the defender’s hips when executing a move on the ball.

Below is a video of Shakira singing "Hips Don't Lie" which is always true when dribbling a defender. Once you focus on the hips as an attacker, you will always know where the defender is going. This allows you to exit the move in the opposite direction and completely fool the defender.

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Shakira - Hips Don't Lie (featuring Wyclef Jean) (Official 4K Video) ft. Wyclef Jean

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Reading the defender’s hips is only part of the process of executing a move. Immediately after identifying which direction the defender is leaning towards, you have to decide which move to do. There are several different dribbling moves that exit in every direction so knowing where the defender is going is only part of the story.

My dad always emphasized the importance of having multiple moves in my arsenal. Early in my soccer development, he chose to introduce me to two moves in particular; the hesitation and the scissors. Each move can be exited to the right or left; however, there is always a correct move to use in certain situations. Beyond focusing on the defender’s hips, I had to identify his strengths. If he is a fast and strong player, the correct move is the hesitation to put him off balance and give me the advantage. But if he is a smart and quick player, I need to use the scissors to fake him out and exit the other direction. Once I mastered the ability to choose the correct move, my ability to beat the defender improved immensely.

Choosing the correct move in different situations emphasizes the importance of response selection. The information processing model states that there are three stages to information processing; stimulus identification, response selection, and response programming. Response selection refers to the period after a stimulus has been identified, when you decide how to respond. In terms of dribbling, response selection is the process of deciding which move to perform based on the defender’s strengths and hips. This ability to decide the correct move relies heavily on choice reaction time. For every stimulus presented, there is a correct response and the time in between the stimulus and the response is called the choice reaction time. From the beginning, my dad always emphasized that each situation has a correct move and if I can make that decision quickly, the move becomes more effective because the defender has less time to react.

Below is a tutorial on how to perform the scissors move. There are different variations to allow you to exit the move in either direction. Its versatility as a move also helps in fooling the defender.

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Learn how to do the Scissors Move - Football Soccer 1v1 Tutorial

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Please Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/FootballSkillsCoach TALK TO ME Twitter: https://twitter.com/BallMastery @BallMastery Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FootballSkillsCoach Step by step guide for the scissors and double scissors beat the man moves. 1v1 moves taught by elite football / soccer clubs around the world. This tutorial includes: - The scissors - The double scissors - Improve your scissors speed Video by professional skills coach Joe Flurry.

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I have always been someone to over-analyze and play things in my mind over and over again. This used to drive me crazy in social contexts and made communicating difficult when I was younger. Not until I started playing soccer and learning to do moves did I realize that this could be an advantage. Once I honed my skills and could execute hesitations and scissors on the field, I could imagine them in my head as well. Before every game, I would go over every possible situation that could be thrown my way and imagined how I would respond to it. At first, it was merely comforting to think about myself executing these moves on real defenders; however, I eventually found myself executing the same moves on the field as I had imagined in my head before the game. It was like Deja-vu: an identical projection of what was in my head straight onto the field.

My imagination was translating to in-game success which provides support for the concept of mental practice. This concept refers to the mental rehearsal of a physical skill without any physical movement. There are two fields of mental practice: internal imagery and external imagery. I used the latter in my case, and it refers to mental practice in which the person imagines seeing the themselves from an observer’s point of view. When I mentally practiced executing moves before each game, I would imagine watching myself from above, as if someone was in a helicopter observing from the sky. It makes sense that this pregame habit aided in my performance on the field because mental practice aids the performance of a learned skill. Since I had already become an expert on performing the hesitation and scissors, my mental practice benefited my execution of them during the game.

Below is an excellent representation of how I felt when I mentally practiced the soccer moves I had learned. Once I knew the power of mental practice and how it benefited me during games, I made a habit of it and performed it before each game. I would play each possible scenario over and over again in my head so that I was ready to perform any move necessary during the game.

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After learning about the importance of response selection from my dad, extensive practice followed. My initial practice structure was a strict regimen that I followed every day. It mandated that I practice each move – hesitation and scissors – a total of 30 times in each direction. I decided that the quickest and easiest way to get through the practice session was to clump the variations together and perform them on a cone. I performed 30 hesitations to the left, followed by 30 hesitations to the right, and then moved on to the scissors which I practiced the same way. I structured the practice sessions in this way for the first few months; however, this pattern quickly ended when my dad found out what I was doing. He explained to me that by separating each move, I wasn’t practicing efficiently. I was frustrated and confused why that would make a difference, but I tried to hear him out. He suggested that I randomize the practice, that way I practice the moves while also improving my ability to choose the correct move. Following this suggestion, I began to practice the moves with a friend and explained to him that he should approach me as the defender in a different manner each time. Because I never knew how he’d approach me, I couldn’t prepare the move in my head each time. This forced me to improve my choice reaction time along with my ability to execute the move.

This is an excellent example of the concept of practice variability. My initial structure of practice is referred to as blocked practice, while my dad’s suggestion is referred to as random practice. Before and after his suggestion, I performed the same number of moves; however, the random practice added an element of contextual interference which immensely supports the learning process. Contextual interference is the memory disruption that occurs as a result of practicing a variety of skills in a practice session. Because random practice includes contextual interference, you’re forced to actively learn the skills each time you perform them. Random practice also shows greater benefits than blocked practice in both retention and transfer conditions; therefore, improving your ability to perform in the future. In terms of practicing moves with the soccer ball, I had to perform a different move each trial and had no way of preparing before the trial had begun. This was extremely difficult at first; however, it benefited me in the long run because I was very proficient in choosing the correct move and executing it in game situations.

Below is an illustration of how satisfying blocked practice is. I initially chose blocked practice because it was easiest, but it was also satisfying to finish each move and move on to the next. I'm a very orderly person and blocked practice fit that characteristic; however, I needed to realize that it's not about satisfaction during practice. Once my dad showed me this and I transferred to random practice, my improvement in executing moves during practice and games was astonishing.