The dummy is a piece of deception in which you deliberately let the ball run past you, rather than taking a touch, in order to deceive the opposition. It is one of the cleverest skills in football precisely because it involves doing nothing at all, at least as far as the ball is concerned. By stepping over tit or opening your legs to let it roll straight through, you can send a defender completely the wrong way and leave a teammate behind you with acres of space to attack with the ball that you let go to them. Although it can be used defensively, it is mostly an attacking move.
The reason it works so well is that everyone watching, defenders included, naturally assumes that a player is going to control a ball that is played to them. When you let it run through instead, you break that expectation entirely, wrong-footing anyone who had committed to closing you down. It is a favourite of intelligent forwards, with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp renowned for the sort of clever disguise and sleight of foot that leaves opponents grasping at thin air. Done at the right moment, a well-sold dummy can carve open a defence without the ball ever touching your boot.
To carry it off, the most important element is the disguise, because a dummy only works if the defender genuinely believes you’re about to play the ball. As it rolls towards you, you shape your body as though you’re going to control it or strike it, perhaps drawing your foot back, before opening your legs or stepping over it at the last second to allow it to continue on its way to a teammate. Your body language is everything here, with an exaggerated look in one direction or a fake swing of the leg all helping to sell the idea that you’re about to do something you have no intention of doing.
As with all of these deception skills, the dummy carries a certain amount of risk, given the fact that letting the ball run through to nobody is a quick way to gift possession to the opposition. That is why awareness is so crucial, because there’s no point in producing a beautiful dummy if there isn’t a teammate in the right place to collect the ball. The best way to practise it is with a friend, working on the timing of the movement and getting used to selling it convincingly. Master it and you’ll have a wonderfully subtle way of unlocking a defence, all the more satisfying because you’ll have done it without even touching the ball.