Some football skills are all about showboating, letting the opposition know what you’re able to do even if the skill in question doesn’t actually have much of a real-world application. Others are all about what you’re able to do thanks to the skill, often putting your opponent into a difficult position that you’re then able to take advantage of.
It is the latter category that the hesitation step fits into, but you shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that just because it is a reasonably easy skill to perform, that means that it isn’t worth learning or that you shouldn’t spend time perfecting it.
Hesitation Move – Deliberately Misleading
In simple terms, the hesitation step is a move pulled off by a player who looks as if they don’t know what they want to do with the ball, performing it moments before they do something very specific. In spite of its name, you aren’t actually hesitating but are instead deliberately giving off that impression. This will almost certainly lead your opponent to do one of two things: try to take the ball off you or stand off you in a way that allows you to take advantage. Either way, you will be ready for their action and that means that you can move to get the best out of the situation that you’re in.
In order to ‘sell’ the move, you need to slow the ball down and give off body language that suggests that you’re not sure what to do next. Whilst that might be the story that the body is telling, the brain should be looking through all of the actions that you have open to you. If the opposition player moves in to get the ball from you, thinking that you’re actually hesitating, you can shift the ball in the other direction and break away from them. This will give you a wealth of space in which to operate, whether that be putting a cross in, getting a shot off or finding a pass to a teammate.
If, on the other hand, the player isn’t sure what it is that you’re going to do next, you can take advantage of the hesitation that you’ve forced from them by pushing the ball out and taking your choice of follow-up options. This is a skill that is all about doing what works the best for you, pushing the opponent into a position that they don’t want to be in by slowing them down or getting them to try to tackle you. The key thing that makes this such a key skill to master is the idea that you don’t switch off, constantly evaluating the numerous options that you can turn to next.