PSV Union Football Club

 Liverpool F.C

John Owens is the assistant Academy Director at Liverpool Football Club. John works with 9 year olds to
18 year olds-He also coached Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Steven Warnock, Darren
Potter and others at Liverpool F.C and the likes of Joe Cole, Wes Brown on the England youth team. John
hired Gary Ireland to work with Liverpool F.C youth players at ‘The Academy’ in 2003-2004. Gary is also
a former personal assistant of Wiel Coerver and has worked extensively with Wiel in the Middle East and
in the USA. Gary interviews his mentor and close acquaintance John Owens below on the subject of
juggling.

Gary Ireland: I don’t think that players juggle enough in general. Juggling helped my balance,
coordination, touch, timing and more importantly, timing. I played my best soccer when my juggling was
at my best.  Do you encourage the players at Liverpool FC to juggle?

John Owen’s: Yes we do encourage our players to juggle. It is part of their individual work with the ball. It
is not just about juggling but we encompass the whole area of ball familiarization, using different parts of
the foot, thigh, chest and head. They can progress from individual work to pairs and in larger groups. We
also use the wall in our indoor arena to vary the challenge. Players who show a high ability of individual
skill with the ball are usually the ones who show the best control and the best at weighting their passes.

Gary Ireland: I have spent many years playing foot tennis/soccer tennis, which helped me tremendously
in my development. I also know it helped all of our coaching staff so I absolutely agree with you. It’s one
of the best way to improve touch and timing. How often should players be juggling?

John Owen’s: There should be time in each session to work individually with the ball (juggling is just a
part of that). It can be fitted in well as part of the warm-up linked with the physical element of the presession
routine. Individual ball work is also a useful part of a session to place between two high intensity
sections. Twice a week with the full-time players we have specific sessions for the development of
individual skills. Over the year we will cover the full range of skills with the ball (control, passing,
volleying, heading, etc.) Many sessions include 2 v 2 skills games and larger games of football tennis and
head tennis. (in head-tennis the net is higher and the ball must be sent over the net with a header) In some
games players must take two touches each. This gives them practice with a stress on the quality of their
first touch, like in the real game. Those who are good jugglers usually do well in these types of skills
games.

Gary Ireland: Who is the best juggler at LFC (youth) in your opinion?

John Owen’s: In our team that won the F.A Youth Cup (U/18 men) last season, we had a player, Adam
Hammill, who has exceptional individual skills with the ball. Of course, some of his moves are not directly
applicable to the game situation, but some do unsettle the defenders and can give him the edge in dribbling
situations. When I was manager of England U/15s, Joe Cole (now with Chelsea) was just as adept at
juggling and ball manipulation skills. The real challenge for these highly skilled players is to use their
ability in an effective way that benefits the team, rather than it simply be a show of their skills.

Gary Ireland: Many people, including coaches, often comment that juggling isn’t relevant to the game or
that it’s for 'show offs'. I have 40+ ways of getting the ball off the ground and numerous tricks and flicks,
which, when rehearsed regularly without doubt help me perform better because it helps my balance, touch,
and co-ordination. I’ve heard comments such as 'you should be in a circus' when showing these tricks. I
happen to work on ‘method juggling’ and juggling in motion for a greater and more realistic challenge
rather than ‘hackeysack’ tricks. Hubert Vogelsinger’s instep training which was widely used here in
colleges by people such as former Stanford coach Bobby Clark who I met while coaching together at
Vogelsinger’s camp before he worked at Stanford, is a form of training which incorporates juggling to
some very advanced technical training which I call ‘aerial control’.
How do you explain to these people that the Maradona’s, Zidanes, Ronaldinho's and Henry's have terrific
juggling skills and that the best players in the world tend to have fantastic tricks.

John Owen’s: My earlier answers cover this question. Overall, those who do not see the relevance of ball
manipulation activities like juggling do not realize the concept of transference of skills. A very important
point here is for the coach to accept the responsibility of helping the player to transfer these skills to the
real game situations. If no transfer is made then the juggling skills will remain in isolation and will not
benefit the player in his overall game. I think this is the point that the critics of juggling are making when
they claim that it is just a circus act.

Gary Ireland: A famous phrase often said to anyone juggling is "why do you bother doing that when you
cannot do it on the pitch". Many coaches or lower level players who were never able to juggle or people
who have never or rarely played the game seem to say this. How would you answer that one.

John Owen’s: Juggling is not practiced to be a move that is copied exactly in the actual game. When you
watch ballerinas warming up, they perform different moves to help them to execute the actual moves on
stage. Nobody expects a footballer to juggle in a real game but the players who are good jugglers do show
the best control ( first touch ) in the game – whether that be a touch to control the ball for themselves or to
lay a ball with one-touch perfectly into the path of a colleague. All footballers should seek to master the
football, like the precision shown by golfers, snooker players, etc

Gary Ireland: In all the places you have coached football have you ever been anywhere were juggling is
given the same importance as in South America.

John Owen’s: I have not coached in South America, but by all accounts they take their individual skills
very seriously. In the past in Europe we focused so much on game play, rather than individual
development. The guiding principle for our Academy system is to practice three times for every one game
session, so that the time for work on individual skills is available. Although we aim to emulate the
individual ability of the South American players, we have to seek to do it in the framework of our own
culture. This culture will be shaped by the style of play in games and the physical and psychological makeup
of the players of that country. With the movement of players from all over the world to our Premier
League, our young players are influenced by many foreign players which lessens the idea of a typical
stereotype.

Gary Ireland: What are the benefits of juggling?

John Owen’s: The main benefit of juggling is to encourage a good touch and mastery of the ball. It will
also improve a player’s physical co-ordination and suppleness. As a player improves their repertoire of
skills, they will be able to be less predictable and more creative in their play. Young children thrive on
competition and contests of these skills can enthuse young players to want to learn and improve.

John Owen’s ….the coach should not leave the players to practice juggling in isolation. To get the
transference to specific football skills, like touch, control, feel for the ball, etc. the coach should help to
make this link with practices for control to follow sessions on juggling. So juggling for the sake of juggling
is what annoys some coaches. In lots of skills practices we overdo the skills to emphasize the practice of it.
For instance with shielding – we can get 1 v 1 for a minute in a small area to test the players ability to use
his body to protect the ball. In the real game we do not want a player shielding it for a minute or more. The
player must choose firstly whether he needs to shield it. Then he should shield it for as short a time as
possible to get out of a tight position and safely pass, shoot or continue a dribble. So our practices are not
always perfect replicas of the game situation. We do not practice shielding for the sake of shielding the ball
as an end. Shielding the ball is a means to an end – getting free with the ball away from a defender. It then
depends on the ability of the coach to lead the player from the practice situation through to the real game,
i.e. through the transfer of skills. Also, with regard to the fact that we do not see juggling in the actual
game, we also do not see players getting into the type of stretch positions (e.g. hamstring, groin,..) during
play but we still feel OK about our players doing these stretches in preparation. They are not doing them to
replicate exactly in the game.

Gary Ireland: John, thanks for your time and thanks for you sharing your knowledge with me. I agree with
your thoughts which are of course hard to disagree with considering players such as Steven Gerrard are
products of your guidance! You may have just silenced the juggling cynics. Good luck this season at
Liverpool FC.

Courtesy of Gary Ireland.
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