Reflection 14

This week has not been as productive as the weeks in the past. I have watched a few more videos for tips on how to do the around the world but I still have not been able to do it once. It gets a bit frustrating but I know soon I will be able to do it considering that I have recently improved a lot on my control of the ball when juggling, causing me to be able to juggle it 70 times(my new PR). I really have to start recording my skills and tricks as well considering I probably wont have much time later with all these end of the year projects and finals coming up. I will be sure to practice as much as I can this next week and hopefully do the around the world at least once even if I can not catch it on video I will feel somewhat accomplished. Hopefully, I can manage my time very wisely these next few weeks and perform the around the world.

Reflection 13

This week I managed to practice and freshen up on all of my skills and tricks. I am still rusty with some but for the most part I have got them all down and ready for recording. I also practiced the around the world trick. Unfortunately, I still have not been able to do it once but I was very close a few times. I also practiced my basic juggling of the ball because practicing this is what is going to help me with this more advanced trick. I will continue to practice this trick all of this upcoming week so that I can record my final video soon. Hopefully I can make this video better than my last 20%.

Reflection 12

This week was about the same as last week. I have not been able to do the around the world yet but I have improved on my overall juggling of the ball. It is getting frustrating not being able to do it but I know I cannot give up on this trick. I also practiced my juggling and other skill moves over the weekend and I recorded them. Soon enough I will begin setting up the final video. Hopefully by next week I can at least do the trick once.

Reflection 11

This week was not as successful as I had hoped. I practiced the around the world however I still can barely get my foot over the ball while it is in the air. I have watched many different tutorials to see how else I can improve but I think this trick is just going to take patience and persistence. Also I am going to try practicing the move with cleats rather than regular sneakers so that hopefully it will become a little easier when juggling the ball. I hope to at least get my foot over the ball in the air this next week.

Reflection 10

This week I practiced the double-heel kick with my friend but I have concluded that I will not continue to practice this move because it will take me too much time to get down. The new trick that I will begin practicing is the around the world. This trick will probably take me the longest to get down because of the amount of skill and precision it takes. I have prepared myself pretty well by practicing juggling the ball with my feet these past few weeks so it may not take more than 2 weeks. This trick will not be helpful at all during a game however, it does improve my overall skill and control of the ball. I have also watched a few tutorials but they all said this move takes a lot of concentration and practice so I am going to try to do that a lot during this upcoming week. Overall, this week was not nearly as successful as the weeks I have had in the past with this project.

Reflection 9

This week I practiced my ronaldo chop and I have successfully got it down. This skill move is great for my position as midfielder because a lot of times you have to change the direction of the ball in an instance so that you can pass to an open player and this move makes this possible. I also practiced more on my juggling of the ball and I have been improving. The next skill/trick I will be learning is the double-heel kick/pass. This move is going to take a lot more practice because of how difficult it can be, especially in games where pressure affects your accuracy. I have not watched any tutorial videos for this move but a friend of mine who knows how to do this will be showing me some time this upcoming week. I am getting the hang of these skills pretty quickly so I am not too worried for this move.

Reflection 8

This week I practiced my skill moves and juggling of the ball with my feet. I think I have made a great amount of improvent overall. My control of the ball while dribbling has improved and I have practiced all of the skill moves I have learned. I also practiced the step over and got that one down pretty easily however I only do it going towards the right and have not practiced on my left yet. The next skill move I will begin practicing that I have seen a few videos of is the ronaldo chop. This move will help me quickly change the direction that I am dribbling the ball in. I hope after this to learn the double-heel pass/kick and then move on to just tricks with the ball which will take a lot more time and effort.

Reflection 6&7

I forgot to post last weeks so again I am combining two posts.

This week I performed the elastico in game against one of my friends. It was pretty hilarious the move tripped him up and he ended up falling over to the side. This was really important because if I can do it in a friendly game that means soon I will be able to do it in a real game under pressure. I have decided my next skill move will be the Zidane roulette. I have also watched a few videos on how to perform the skill. Hopefully by next week because of spring break I can practice this move.

This week was pretty good I went out multiple times with friends to practice my skills. After hundreds of trials and slipping on the ball I think I finally got the move down however I have not yet used it in a friendly game so I am not sure how well I would do with pressure. This is very good tho because I almost got an entire skill move down in a week. I also practiced my juggling with the ball and it has also improved a lot since the beginning of this project. My juggling will be important for learning other tricks in the future. For next week I am going to hopefully perform the zidane roulette in a game and look for a new skill move to begin.

Reflection 4&5

 I forgot to post for last week so I am going to do the one for last week and this week in one post.

For this week I didnt get much done overall towards my final goal. I was really busy throughout the week and didnt plan well so I didn't really find the time to practice any of my skills. This also worried me because I know if you dont practice for a week you could lose some of the skill you learned so I hope I still have it by next week. However, I did watch some videos of some drills to do in order to improve my juggling of the ball. Hopefully this next week I will do some more practice and maybe these videos will improve me.

For this week I got to practice my juggling and got my rainbow down. Juggling will help me with learning other tricks in the future so I really have to work on that more. The elastico which I believe I said I would start is somewhat difficult I really cannot do it unless I am standing still and only after a bunch of trys. I also watched videos this week to help me with everything except the rainbow because I don't really need to learn the other variations now when I can be practicing other skills and tricks. Also I was wrong I thought I would have lost my skill I still have it but it did take a bit of warming up before I was able to do it like before. Hopefully this next week I improve even more.

Reflection 3

This week has been pretty productive. I actually got to go out because of the warm weather and I tried some the rainbow in a game with my friends. Unfortunately, it didn't work and I gave the ball away but I practiced more afterwards and I can now do the rainbow in a stationary position. I will continue to work on it but I'm glad that even though I still need more work I picked up the technique pretty fast. I also noticed while playing that I got tired sooner than I usually would so I am going to incorporate a little bit of cardio with my training in order to improve. I am doing track again this year so this will definitely take care of the cardio I want to be doing. Next week I will make sure to continue practice the rainbow and practice a new skill move. Once I get comfortable with the skill move I will start to incorporate it in games that I have with friends. Hopefully I can get this new skill down easily.

Reflection 2

This week I didn't make much progress towards my final goal. I did however watch videos on how to perform the rainbow. The importance of this is that I now don't have to worry about any of the details because I am ready to begin performing it. I also decided I will begin practicing the step over next week along with the rainbow since I have watched just as many videos for that class. If I continue with this rate I will without a doubt accomplish my final goal because this is a nice and steady pace. I cannot wait to begin putting my new knowledge to work and practice these new skills and tricks. I also might record my practice to show the progression of my work.

Semester 2 Reflection 1

This past week I watched a couple of videos on different skills and tricks I think I am still getting a feel for what kind of skills I will start with and what trick I will try. I have chosen to learn a skill first. I think I will start off practicing the elastico or just the simple cross-over so I can get started and see where I am at skill wise. I also have my eyes on picking the rainbow as my first trick for the future. This was really important because I am preparing properly to achieve my goals. I think I have done a good amount of research and this will definitely help. Next week I will watch more videos but i will also start practicing on one skill move. Hopefully it is one somewhat easy so I can get it down quickly and see how long a skill will take me.

Twenty Percent Proposal

My 20 Time Project is going to be to practice my soccer skills and tricks in order to improve myself in soccer. My final goal will be to learn at least 3 tricks and 3 skill moves before the end of this project. To be successful for my topic there is not much research needed but I have to watch tutorials on YouTube and understand it will take a lot of time so patience is needed. Finding a place to practice would be fairly simple for this project since all I need is a soccer ball and a small amount of open space. Perfecting any of these tricks will be the most difficult since they take the most time and skill. Most of this project will be done outside of class since I cannot practice with a soccer a ball in school but I during class time I can still watch videos on YouTube or go online to learn and find any tips that may help. I am really looking forward to this 20 percent time project because just like my last one it will help me to become an overall better soccer player.

Reflection 15

This week I mostly focused on working on my final video. Sadly something terrible happened and one of my clips got deleted. The worst part is this one clip was showed one of my best examples of the knuckleball and showed the most progress. I am currently just focusing on the clips I have to put together a nice video but this definitely will impact my final video. I hope that maybe I can either go out later tonight or sometime during this week to record a couple more clips and maybe catch a really nice example on camera. I am pretty proud of my overall progress with this knuckleball and I definetly got the technique down but of course I will always need to continue to practice it because there is always room for improvement.

Reflection 14

This week I practiced a lot on my knuckle ball at the new soccer field I found nearby my home. I still cannot make the knuckle ball dip the way professionals or really experienced players do but my free kick still does have the standard effect. I hope maybe I get really lucky and I catch one of those really nice ones on camera so I can put it in my final video. Currently the video shows the progress that I have had but it doesn't show any "major" improvement in my opinion. Hopefully I can make time for recording some more clips so that I can get a really nice example on video.

Reflection 13

This past week has been way better than the recently passed weeks. I went out multiple times to practice on my freekicks with some friends. I also found a new field to go practice on that is fairly close to my house. I noticed that I can perform the kick pretty well the only thing is the ball does not dip as dramatically as others who perform the kick in videos. I will continue to practice but from now on I will only record the kicks because my final video still lacks clips showing how to do it correctly. Next week I should have at least 3 good kicks on video,

Reflection 12

This week was not as good as last week because I barely had a chance to practice my knuckle ball. Now that the temperatures are getting colder and soccer season for highschools is done there are not as many fields to practice on anymore. Also the temperatures are getting a whole lot colder. I know what I need to practice with my kicks I just need to apply it so I can get a few more good clips for my final video. The ones I currently have are not a great representation of the knuckle ball's dip so I hope this next week I can find a nice net to practice with before its starts to snow. During my class time as always I watched some videos but at this point I think I am going to start to edit my videos during this time.This next week should be better hopefully since I will have the break.

Reflection 11

I cannot this week was a success in terms of getting closer to my goal but it was way better than last week. I recorded some more clips for my final presentation but they were not as good as the ones I had before. This could have been just that the field was very muddy from the day before but it could also mean that I am still doing something wrong. I tried out doing this kick with a different part of my foot today and it worked way better but I still need to practice it so that I can perfect it and get a nice shot on camera. Hopefully this next week the weather is not as bad as it has been lately and I can go out again to practice my knuckle ball.

Reflection 10

This week I did not get as much progress as I expected to. It rained a lot this week so the field was unavailable to practice on. I did however watch many videos to help me improve my technique and getting the ball to dip. One thing I did learn is that there are actually two different parts of your foot that you can hit the ball with and will still knuckle. Hopefully this next week with weather permitting I can try out this new technique and record some more clips for my video. I also have to start working on editing the video soon.

Reflection 9

This week I did not get much done towards my 20% goal but I did get a few clips for my final video. In the clips I noticed a few mistakes that I was making with my follow-through. I would usually twist my hips too much so the ball would go off to the side and miss the goal. Not only that but it also makes the ball get a spin and curve instead of giving the ball the knuckle effect, with no spin. I have to make sure I fix that and continue working on making the ball dip next week. Hopefully, I can fix this big mistake I have by next week and maybe even complete my twenty percent project.