Jon Weiss & the Ball

Next time you're at your favorite indoor soccer facility, pull out your tape measure and see how long the field is. I'm guessing you'll find that it is about 160 feet long - around 53 yards.

From the top of one penalty area to the top of the other penalty area is probably around 142 feet.

During the course of one of our 48 minute long games, Jon Weiss will probably dribble the ball from one penalty area to the other 4 or 5 times. He'll probably dribble half the length of the field 6 or 8 times, and dribble in short 10 to 12 foot long runs a dozen times or so. If I'm doing the math right, that means Jon is covering around 1,588 feet while dribbling the ball in one of our games.

Jon runs with the ball pretty close to his feet, so he touches the ball once every 3 to 4 feet. While dribbling those 1,588 feet, Jon probably touches the ball about 500 times.

I picked Jon for this comparison for two reasons. First, he's a heck of a nice guy and said I could use him as an example. And second, he gets more touches dribbling the ball in a game than just about anyone else on our teams. I'll bet I don't dribble the ball more than 100 to 150 touches in a game, and most folks on our teams won't ever dribble the ball more than 25 to 50 touches in a game.

Race Track

During Fish Soccer, we'll play a game that I call "Race Track." I set two cones about 15 feet apart, and we dribble the ball in a "figure 8" around the cones. We'll do one "race" of 10 laps to get warmed up, a second "race" of 10 laps for practice, and then a third "race" of ten laps to see who wins the washer, the dryer and the trip to the Bahamas.

Extensive scientific studies by an independent research firm might well have determined that most of us will take around 24 steps to make one lap during the "Race Track" game. We'll all touch the ball about 11 times per lap, so you would touch the ball over 100 times while dribbling through the 10-lap "race."

It takes around 3 minutes to dribble through the ten laps, so in one 3 minute segment of Fish Soccer, you'll get twice as many touches while dribbling as most folks get in a whole indoor game. By the time the third "race" is over, you'll have over 300 touches while dribbling - more than some folks get in an entire season of games.

To learn to dribble effortlessly (Doug Henning's 5,000 touches), you can practice your dribbling during 100 or more soccer games - or participate in a couple dozen sessions of Fish Soccer.

And the same sort of thing holds true for other soccer skills - trapping, shooting, heading, passing, etc. Practice to develop you skills during hundreds and hundreds of soccer games, or join us for a couple dozen sessions of Fish Soccer.

Welp, that's the "Doug Henning Argument" in favor of improving your skills through Fish Soccer. Please Click Here to read the "Team Advantage" page.