Glen-Ed Juggling Club

The Glen-Ed Juggling Club is designed to promote, encourage and challenge our players to spend more of their free time juggling. Juggling is an integral part of player development. It is also a known fact that all good jugglers are not necessarily good soccer players, but it is certain that all good soccer players are good jugglers. We want to encourage our players to make juggling a habit because…

• Players develop better overall ball manipulation skills.

• Players develop coordination, balance, reaction speed, learn to use both feet etc.

• Players can set and achieve goals (personal juggling record) and also develop good work/practice habits and determination to reach those goals.

HOW TO JUGGLE:
Juggling is the art of keeping the soccer ball from hitting the ground by bouncing it off of one’s foot, knee/leg, head, chest, back or shoulders (no hands or arms as in a game). Start by holding the ball out in front of you, take a deep breath to relax, and then drop the ball down to the laces on your shoes. Try keeping the ball up for 2 or 3 times before catching it again. Do it this way until you feel comfortable and then start trying to beat your score. It’s that simple! (More experienced jugglers who can juggle more than 10 times should start with the ball on the ground and use their feet to get started). Two rules: no hands/arms and no bounces on the ground!

HOW TO “JOIN THE CLUB”:
All qualifying juggles must be done in front of a parent or before/after practice with your coach/manager WHEN they have extra time. The players are responsible for accurately counting the number of touches on the ball. Qualifying juggles observed by parents should be submitted to your coach. The player’s coach will be responsible for confirming the player’s ability matches their reported touch count and will report your juggling score to the Juggling Club Director. Qualifying players will be added to the club list on our website! Please note that our website is usually updated about once a month so please allow some time for your name to appear.

Levels:
The Juggling Club has multiple levels of membership.

Beginner (6 Juggles)
Getting Good (12 Juggles)
Intermediate (20 Juggles) *
Advanced (40 Juggles) *
Master (100 Juggles) *
Grand Master (250 Juggles)
Hall of Fame (500 Juggles)

PRIZES:
In addition to having your name listed on our website, all players who achieve Master status will receive a Glen-Ed Juggle Club t-shirt. These shirts will be printed in batches about once a month so it may take a little time to get it back to the player.

* Junior Juggling Master = 20 touches for U9 & below
40 touches for U10-U12

* Juggling Master = 100 touches

Tips & Suggestions

Patterns:
It is helpful to establish a pattern with juggling and stick to the pattern. The weaker foot is always one that causes players the most difficulty. The quickest way to become a better juggler and more importantly develop a better touch is to work on the weak foot specifically. A pattern for a right footed player would be two left, one right and continue this pattern. This will be more time-consuming and results are slower INITIALLY, but this method will pay off as the player develops the ability to juggle almost indefinitely. Dedication and discipline are the keys here and these traits will yield greater results

Goal Setting:
Set up goals. The goals can be weekly, monthly and yearly. Try to achieve a certain number of juggles by each period of time. The goals become your target. Start slow and with a reasonable goal and your results will start to improve.