Helpful hints, tips and tricks to take your game to the next level !

Look over your shoulder: As you wait to receive the ball, instead of letting it simply come to you take a quick glance over your shoulder. This will give you an idea of which way you may need to turn to escape an oncoming defender.
Dip your shoulder: Whether exaggerated or subtle, a dropping of the shoulder gives the defender something to look at. With play moving at the speed of light, most defenders (the lesser knowledgeable variety) tend to focus on the body of an attacker instead of the realizing where the ball may be headed. This is where an attacker can capitalize. If the defender tends to lock on, a shoulder drop may give the defender a false idea of the attacking direction. From there, take it the opposite direction and carry on.
Let it roll: In continuing with the idea of a defender focusing on the opposition and not necessarily the ball, there is the notion of letting the "ball do the work". It should be noted that this move is high risk, high reward but if you are bold enough give this a try. With a defender trailing and closing down on you, go to receive the ball. Before fully doing so, either open your legs to let it roll or explosively turn without the ball and let both the ball and defender bypass you. If you are to successfully lose your defender and recover the ball, this is surely a move to get the crowd going as well as your confidence for the rest of the match.

Juggling- A timeless classic. Simple in nature, yet immensely effective. Juggling the ball forces you to adapt to the numerous changes in flight a ball takes during a match, while pushing you to control those changes it may take. For added challenges you may try things like juggling within a confined space. Setting a high score in terms of touches, and then beating said score. If you are just starting out and the process of kicking the ball up and keeping it up is difficult a wonderfully helpful variation is kicking a ball against a wall. Either start by kicking or tossing a ball against a wall or flat surface and from there kick it back, continually sending the ball from your foot to the surface and back.
Tossing a ball in the air: Fairly simple here yet still helpful. Toss a ball in the air, at a comfortable height of your choosing, and focus upon bringing the ball down. Emphasize bringing the ball down closely to your body, mimicking a game situation in which you would need to collect the ball out of mid-air and set yourself up for the next passage of play.

Body positioning: Making sure you are in the right shape to defend is key. More times then not when defending one on one, if you are standing straight up, waiting for an attacker to arrive, you have done yourself a great disservice. The advantage an attacker has when dribbling is that they are aware of where on the field they would like to go, so to counteract that, as a defender take them where you want them to go. When defending drop your body weight, and turn your body to close off the side of the field you would not like the attacker to go to. The idea behind this is that you have denied a clear lane to the area of the field the attacker can do the most damage. In order to reach said area, the attacker physically has to go through you. It is at this point, if defender successfully the player or the ball may get past you, but not both.
Use your friends: Although traditional soccer is 11 vs 11, when defending you have

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