In football, not as much of the play that you’ll get to do involves running and dribbling with the ball in an entirely unbothered manner as you might like. Instead, you have to be constantly aware of the opposition, who will be doing anything within their power to take the ball off you and try to score. As a result, you are going to benefit as much from learning how to defend the ball as you are from doing some awesome skills with it, which is where the shield and spin comes in.
This is all about keeping the ball away from your opponent, then getting yourself some time and space in order to do with it what you want.
Protecting The Ball While Creating Space
When you break it down, the shield and spin is really a combination of two of the fundamentals that we’ve looked at elsewhere on this site, creating one move that gives you more space to do with the ball whatever you so wish. On the one hand, there is the shielding of the ball, in which a player uses their body in order to keep the ball away from their opponent for as long as possible. On the other, there is the quick change of direction of said body in order to open up space and make a decision about what comes next. When you put those two things together, you get the shield and spin, which is a move that everyone should have in their arsenal.
The move isn’t one that you need to pull out if you find yourself with plenty of time and space, but if you’re under pressure when the ball comes in to you, it could be just the thing you need. As you receive the ball, you want to put yourself in a position whereby your back is to the defensive player, stopping them from being able to get access to the ball. You will be aided in this skill by bending your knees a little, even going so far as to lean into the player and extend your arm to keep your opponent away. This is a delicate balance, of course, because you don’t want to put yourself in a position whereby you end up giving away a foul.
The next part of the skill is all about timing. You want to wait until you feel the other player begin to commit their body to make some sort of lunge or move to try to get the ball. When that happens, you can then initiate your spin, turning in the opposite direction for them and taking the ball with you. You then need to complete your turn and, once you’re in space, accelerate away from them. Once again, circumstances will dictate the right thing to do from that point. If, say, there is another opposition player waiting for you, then you might want to look for a pass to a teammate. If you are in open space, you can dribble with the ball and look for options from there.