“Juggling is one of the easier skills to learn,” said Ryan Limb, Brentwood’s girls soccer coach. Limb has been coaching in the U.S. since 2018 but has also been working in the Brentwood School District as McGrath Elementary School’s P.E. teacher since 2023. Juggling, as Limb calls it, is also commonly called kickups – the art of keeping a soccer ball in the air with your feet. While Coach Limb might think it’s an easy skill, if you’ve ever tried it, it’s actually quite hard. “It’s

like anything though,” he said. “If you spend enough time practicing, you’ll improve.”

“I used to play soccer all the time, even on my own so I would spend time practicing different skills, including juggling,” said Limb. Limb grew up in England and has been playing soccer for as long as he can remember. His dad was the one who taught him how to play and also made him a Liverpool fan. Limb played on soccer teams from the time he was 5 years old through the end of high school. He stopped playing when he got to college and started to teach P.E. and soccer in his spare time.

Limb believes that being able to do kickups helps a player improve their control on the ball, which helps them become a better player. It also helps players learn to better control the ball with their nondominant feet.

One of the first steps to learning how to do kickups is to start with the ball in your hands and then practice dropping it and kicking it straight back to your hands. Then try two kicks before catching. You can also add a bounce in between each kick. “It’s easier to use your strong foot, but if you want to improve as a soccer player, you should use both,” Limb said. One of the techniques Limb uses to make this skill easier is not kicking the ball too high up and keeping it closer together.

“If you have any trouble or if you’re not making much progress, it is ok,” he said. “It takes some time learning this skill, and all you have to do is be consistent and practice.”