Although firstly invented by Sergio Echigo in the 1960s this skill was popularised by many Brazilians, but leading the charge was ballon d’Or winner Ronaldinho. Ronaldo was renowned for his samba-like dribbling skills, he made football a more visually pleasing form of entertainment. Ronaldinho exploded to the scene after he joined Paris Saint Germain from Gremio, however it was Barcelona’s objective to buy Ronaldinho in a €30 million deal, and from then on the rest was history, as he started to win all major trophies earlier on in his career. Words can do him no justice, see for yourself how he would glide past defenders on the elastico video montage below.
We broke down the skill into three parts that will make teaching your kids the skill easy! Firstly, it’s best to practise this skill first when stationary, we can progress it to a moving skill later.
Once this is mastered, there’s a bonus skill you could try to teach your kid, that uses the fundamentals above and that’s the Reverse Elastico.
To do this skill is just the opposite, instead of taking the ball from your outside to your inside quickly, instead you are taking it from your inside to the outside. The ball should be underneath your centre of gravity. You then use the inside of your big toe and as you push the ball towards the inside. After you do that you quickly tap the ball with your outside foot onto the opposite direction.
This skill is more technically difficult than the previous ones so far, so keep practising, learning this will surely take your football handling to another level. If you’re enjoying these skills and want to learn further and spend some more time with your kids, have a look at our courses on our website.
