thigh control

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It’s important for you to learn how to thigh control as this can benefit you during a match situation. There may be times during a game when you have no choice but to use your thigh to control the ball, this is why it’s very useful to have the technique locked down. Let’s take you through our steps:

Practicing the thigh control can lead to bruising on your thigh, with this in mind, we recommend you stop when pain in your thigh occurs.

Step 1

Throw the ball in the air to head height or above. You want the ball to be dropping in front of your eyes so you can see it all the way to your thigh.

  • Keep your upper body straight.

Step 2

As the ball is dropping, raise your thigh so it is at an angle like so, then using the middle part of your thigh, cushion the ball and let it drop at your feet.

  • To help cushion, try to bring your thigh down at the moment the ball is about to connect.
  • After the ball has hit your thigh, you should be bringing your leg down to meet the ball.

 

Try not to be pushing your thigh into the ball, think about a game situation, if a defender is near you and you push your thigh into the ball, it will either go up and allow time for the defender to intercept or if you push forward it’s more likely to go out of your control and into the defenders.

  • The key is to take pace off the ball by cushioning the ball with your thigh.
  • The only exception to pushing your thigh into the ball is if you want to set yourself up for a volley, this should be done if there’s space around you.
  • Try the thigh control by throwing the ball at different heights and whilst on the run.
  • If you’re with a friend then you can get them to throw or kick the ball to you or you could rebound off a wall.
  • A good way to use your thigh control is with shooting or passing exercises. You should practice this controlling technique because it will improve your on-field capabilities in a game. Most of the top players are comfortable with controlling on their thigh, this is because they know it can benefit them in certain situations. Let’s take the example of if you jumped up to control with your feet, you could save seconds and be set for the next move if you’d have controlled with your thigh. Also if the ball is coming in the air, players might use their thigh instead of their foot because there’s a bigger surface area for the ball to hit, which lessens the risk of miss control.