Soccer. Um, Football. No, Futbol. Something, Dammit.

I want to start playing soccer again once I get in shape, so I have decided to do some of the work that we used to do before soccer practice back in the stone ages.  I am not sure what most of the exercises are called, but they wear you out very quickly.

The first is called the Mexican Hat Dance (at least that's what Coach Jeff used to call 'em).  You put one foot on top of the ball, and then jump in the air. As you are doing this, you take your foot off of the ball and bring the other on top.  As soon as you touch the ball with the second foot, you switch back.  You wind up jumping up and down switching feet very fast (once you figure out the motion).  This will wear you out quicker than you realize, and the ball is usually rolling around the floor, so you have to chase it while jumping.  This is a very good exercise for building your touch skills on the ball, and of course it is a great aerobic workout.

I call the second exercise the triangle, but I'm not sure what the actual name is.  You kick the ball a little ways out in front of you with one foot, then bring it back with the other foot.  You then kick it laterally back to the first foot, where you proceed to kick it out in front of you again.  When you do this correctly, the ball goes in the shape of a triangle, hence the name.

The third exercise has no name as far as I'm concerned (except maybe "The Crazy Ass-Kicking Exercise").  It is very simple, yet very effective.  You spread your legs out a little, and kick the ball back and forth between them.  It sounds simple, but when you go as fast as I do, it kicks your ass.

All three of these exercises are meant to increase your ball control skills, but I am using them to get back into shape right now.  As stated before, I want to start playing soccer again, so of course these exercises will help with that.

I can't wait.  I haven't played soccer in years, and it will be great to get out on the field again.

Do you know about soccer?  If not, go here.  They've got all the information you could ever want, and then some.