 In today's video I want to talk about how to dribble like Messi. Now if you saw a video I recently released, it was called How to Dribble a Soccer Bowl. And a lot of the same principles apply because I would use Messi as probably the number one example or one of the best examples of how you should be dribbling. So if you go and watch that video, How to Dribble a Soccer Bowl, I'll put a link in the description of this video. Watch that video because it's got a lot of great ideas and some of the same ideas I'm going to share in this video, but it's just great to review, give you more information, give you more ideas to use the next time you're on the field when you're practicing. Okay, so let's go through a couple things. First of all, I want you to look at Messi and I want you to ask yourself, is he using fancy tricks? Is he using rainbows and elastocos and triple backflip, step overs, no, okay? He's a dribbler in the world, but he doesn't use any tricks. Why are we teaching kids to use tricks? Yes, use some tricks, use a step over here and there, okay? But if you look at Messi, what is it? It's all cuts and it's body faints, okay? So before we get to cuts and body faints, first we got to talk about the basic dribbling and that is very little touches, okay? Close to your body. Let's look at dribbling forward, okay? So it's with the outside of the foot or the laces or the toe, okay? These little touches, head's always up, head's always up, scanning the field, looking for passes, okay? Let me come again, okay? Head's always up, always looking around, okay? Remember, if your head's like this, right here, you can't see your passes. You're going to get closed down, you're going to have to beat all these guys, your teammates are going to get pissed at you because you're not making decisions quickly enough, okay? So that's another point that I should touch on. Yes, I want you to be a great dribbler and I know you're watching this video because you want to be a better dribbler, but you have to know that dribbling isn't as important as receiving, passing, moving the ball quickly, okay? There will be spots when you need to dribble and I want you to dribble, especially when there's space in front of you, there's space to attack. You have no help, you have to get out of trouble. That's when you dribble, okay? But when you have teammates in better positions, where you're getting closed down quickly, pass that ball, move, get into space and get the ball back, okay? So now that you know that, you're going to play smart, you're not going to dribble yourself into trouble, let's get back to the dribbling, okay? So it's those little touches, this head's always up, okay? And I'm going to use my left foot. I shouldn't have my Portugal jersey on, doing messy, okay? But little touches and little cuts, just like that, okay? I'll go all left-footed today for it, okay? Little cuts, little cuts. So little touches and then little cuts. So inside cut, outside, just these little changes of direction, okay? So now let's look at when he is coming up against players. So first of all, if no one's closing you down, don't just jog, don't just wait for people to close you down. Messi will sprint with that ball, okay? He'll sprint into the open space until someone closes him down. If no one closes him down, guys are trying to catch him, you just keep going straight towards the net, okay? So think about that being very direct. So when you receive the ball, can you get that first touch? Say a pass comes, can you get that first touch out of your feet? And then just sprint straight to the net. If no one's going to close you down, just take that space and then make your pass or get your shot on net. If they're not going to close you down, you don't have to do anything more advanced than that or more difficult than that. Just be very direct, sprint straight to the net, okay? Then when there are guys in the way, what does he do? Let's set up a couple of defenders here. Okay, so when there are guys in the way, it's just really one way, cutting the other way. Cut inside, okay? Bad cut. But I might cut one way, skip the other way, okay? And if you look at that touch, it's like a skip out of the way, okay? Skip and forward. If you watch some of the other videos I did about basic moves to beat people, one of them is the skip and the other one's just a cut inside or a left, right, like that, okay? But dribble at him, cut away from him, cut away from him. And just think about when Messi picks the ball up on the right side of the field, say he's playing out on the wing, and he gets the ball and he just coasts inside. It's like, you know he's going left, you know he's going left, but you still can't stop him, okay? He's coming at you and then away from you, coming at you, away from you, okay? So when you get the ball out on the wing, yes, sometimes you want to go down the side and cut those crosses in, but come inside for that shot, okay? And that's going to allow space for your winger. So say the middle of the field is here, you receive the ball on the sideline, come at him, come inside, come inside, and then you get your shot off or you play your pass. And like I was saying, that releases a space, opens up space for your full back, okay? So if you do come inside and there's all this space, boom, you can just play that ball for your full back, coming down the side like that, okay? So little touches, be very direct with speed. If no one's going to close you down, just take that space. When guys do come at you, just cut, just cut out of the way, jump out of the way, keep going with speed. Very important, once you beat the guy, you're not just jogging now, you're sprinting into that space. He's lunged for you, he's off balance. Now there's opportunity to take that space, okay? The other thing I'll say about Messi is, he will use some feints, some body feints, okay? So again, let's say he's coming on the wing and you know he's going to go left, so he'll faint there and then he'll come on the other side, okay? So if you beat the guy a couple of times, going on the inside, he thinks you're going to go inside again, you faint like you're going to go inside and then you come on the outside, okay? Or he will faint like he's going to go this way and that way or then a little step and then a right, left. There's that famous one where he embarrasses Nanny, okay, he's like on the spot, fake like I'm going there, touch left, go right and then accelerate away with speed, okay? Also if there's a guy in your back, he might fake this way, fake that, okay? So it's not crazy moves, it's not crazy tricks, okay? It's just faint this way, faint that way and go the other way, cut or faint, okay? Especially when there's a guy on his back, he does that a lot, he'll faint like this and then come down, not going to the defender, let's do that again, have him on his back, faint that way, oh I missed it again. Let's get this right for the kids, fake that way, good. Okay, so those little touches with speed, very direct, cuts, just go at him, cut away, make it simple on yourself. If you go with speed, you're in control. If you're jogging at the guy, then the defender's in control but if you're going with speed, he's like, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Where's the guy going, okay? So go at him with speed, make him defend you, just cut to the side, be very direct. If you want to use those feints, fake like you're going that way and then come the other way but be very direct, make it very simple and really the best thing you can do is learn from the master, go on YouTube, watch those messy dribbling compilations, study him, okay, what does he do? I can give you my advice, the best thing for you to do is find out what you think works for him and then try it when you're on the field. All right guys, I hope you liked this video. Please like, give me a thumbs up, please comment below if you have any advice, if you want to make fun of my dribbling skills, comment below, please share this video on social media, share it with your friends, share it with your teammates and thank you for watching this video on how to dribble like messy.