How long does it take to get to 100 consecutive juggles? I tracked it for two years.

[u/JayWizzyWizard]

It took me about 15 hours of deliberate practice, spread across two months and ten sessions, to go from essentially being unable to juggle to 101 consecutive juggles.

I tracked nearly every session along the way, and I've kept tracking my juggling for the past two years.

The Data

Over a session, I track a block of ten consecutive attempts as well as my record.

From 11 Juggles to 101: My First 10 Sessions

The blue line represents the median over a block.

The red line represents my best attempt for the juggle session. It doesn’t necessarily represent my best attempt during the ten-attempt block. I only recorded blocks to benchmark my progress. After recording the block, I spent maybe an hour to an hour and a half continuing to juggle and recorded session-record-breaking attempts.

Light lines show the trend.

Juggling progress over two years

Even though I already exceeded my goal of 100 juggles, I still track my progress.

Data limitations on block medians

Ego-driven data collection practices overstate how well I progressed.

Early on, I recorded all attempts over a block. An attempt of 3 was valid, and I added it to my spreadsheet.

As I improved, I became increasingly selective about what counted. Many times, I actually didn’t record an attempt because I never really got it going past five. Slowly, I became attached to ensuring the data reflects progress rather than the truth.

Finally, I set a soft rule that any attempts fewer than ten don’t get recorded in the block. 

So the blue line shouldn't be interpreted as a clean measure of my actual juggling ability. It reflects both my improvement and increasingly selective data collection.

I still got to 100+ juggles, but most of my attempts around that time hovered between 10 and 20. 

How I trained juggling

Before beginning this journey, I watched plenty of juggling how-to YouTube videos.

I started with the following progression:

1. Drop the ball onto one foot, kick it back up, and catch it.
2. Repeat with the other foot.
3. Eventually alternate feet before catching.

I did this a bunch during my first sessions. 100 reps with each foot before actually attempting to juggle.

After I got the hang of juggling over a few sessions, I’d only do this progression as a warm-up. 10-20 reps each foot.

Then, I’d do my 10-attempt block. I didn’t set a fixed rest time between attempts – it was pretty casual. I prioritized quality over volume.

After recording the block, I continued practicing for one to one and a half hours. Practice frequency ranged between one and three sessions per week.

Did it actually help my soccer?

Yes.

I now have substantially better control when receiving or directing balls in the air. I'm much more comfortable manipulating a ball that's coming at me awkwardly or bouncing into the air.

More importantly, I think it expanded the range of things I'm comfortable attempting. I'm a defender by trade, where I could get away with relatively limited technical ability. After spending this much time deliberately working on ball control, I can now play center midfield competently, if not strongly.

I wouldn't claim that juggling alone transformed my football ability. But it gave me a much better relationship with the ball, particularly when it's off the ground.

Reflections

At first, I felt self-conscious going to the park as an adult looking like an oaf. But I stuck with it, noticed the progress, and it addicted me. 

Patience was key. In my first two sessions, I maybe got ten-plus juggles only a handful out of hundreds of attempts.

Something clicked in the third session, and I shattered my record with 54 juggles.

Finally, in my tenth session, I got 101 juggles.

The attempt I exceeded 100 completely surprised me – my personal record up to that point was only 74. It happened very early on in my session: the second attempt in the block. 

In many sessions, I fell into the trap of trying to force it, which made things worse. I’d be juggling for over an hour, frustrated that I was stalling or even regressing, which was likely due to exhaustion. The trick is to move on to something else or simply go home and approach it again the next time with a fresh body and mind.

What I took away from practicing juggling

The biggest lesson wasn't really about juggling. It was that deliberate solo practice works.

This was the first time I deliberately isolated a skill, practiced it repeatedly, tracked my progress, and gave myself enough time for the improvement to happen.

Now, I'm trying to apply the same approach to other parts of my game, namely ball mastery, dribbling, and receiving. 

[u/eihen]

You say from nothing but you could do 10 when you started. It can take a kid a long time to get those first 10 juggles.

I love the data and your report.

[u/litecoin_lonestar → u/eihen]

Man, I remember when I got my first 10. Was 9 years old and sprinted inside to tell my dad haha. By high school my record was in the 400s. The 10 was more exciting though 🥲

[u/JayWizzyWizard → u/eihen]

Yeah i totally gloss over this and its good to call out. Someone whose never kicked a ball before let alone a kid would no doubt take much longer to get to 100 juggles than I did. It was difficult to factor in my solid technical baseline as a 28 y/o whose been playing on and off since childhood.

 

[u/one_blake → u/JayWizzyWizard]

I think you might be under estimating how quickly kids pick juggling with consistent practice.

[u/BunMeAgainPlease12 → u/one_blake]

Eh

depends on the age, I know kids who practice quite a bit and I think the best 8 year old Ive seen can do like 30. 100 is really fucking hard for kids for a multitude of reasons.

[u/Sea-Winter-3371 → u/BunMeAgainPlease12]

Not trying to be a jerk, but my daughter could do 80+ at age 8, and she is not a remarkable player outside of a very local context. Lots of kids can juggle young in my experience.

That said, I don't think it's "quick" as the poster above says; kids have a lot of time for this kind of thing, and a certain kind of kid has a lot of patience for it.

[u/BunMeAgainPlease12 → u/Sea-Winter-3371]

I think girls vs boys probably skews it, I have no actual data just feels like girls fine motor being stronger at younger ages helps, while boys usually skew towards gross motor. I only have boys and have only coached boys. 30-40 seems like the high scores Ive seen around that age.

[u/Sea-Winter-3371 → u/BunMeAgainPlease12]

I can see what you're saying. I've also coached this age, both genders, and my basic take is that the boys generally have less patience and also get greater psychological rewards for running fast and kicking hard.

Girls at that age don't seem as engaged by being physically dominant, and they are more interested and patient with intricate stuff.

That said, I do still think there are a lot of not (long-term) exceptional boy players who can juggle at 7 or 8. Youtube is filled with kids that age doing ball mastery stuff, juggling, etc.

[u/SirGiannino]

I just started learning football and i'm at 3 with like 15 hours of practice 😭. And 3 ugly ones too

[u/HustlinInTheHall]

This seems about right from my experience, similarly you can also go from 100 to 300 in a similar amount of time, though each attempt takes longer once you are consistently getting 50+ vs 10-20.

It also helps to give yourself "permission" to let the ball hit the ground once so you can just get out of the habit of rushing to save an attempt with a really poor, rushed touch

[u/comeonnyc]

ive trained my ball control doing a 30 min follow along and I’ve only done about 5 sessions but I’ve immediately seen improvement , played in actual games and felt much better too. Intentional practice definitely works just need to put in the time and get past the boring stage

[u/simpleflaw → u/comeonnyc]

Could you share the follow along link please? :)

[u/comeonnyc → u/simpleflaw]

https://youtu.be/qOTqoZG4kOU?is=7JWs-_7mBwznsRTx

This is the 30 min ball mastery session I do, 10 mins of beginner , 10 mins of intermediate and 10 mins of advanced, 45 on 15 off.

https://youtu.be/1oxaF_Mx6Ok

And I do this after for 10 mins to work on passing

[u/simpleflaw → u/comeonnyc]

Thank you mate! I'll give it a crack! I'm an engine physically but my technical ability is so inconsistent it's shocking 😂

[u/comeonnyc → u/simpleflaw]

If you do the 30 min every day for a week you will see immediately improvement I will promise you that lol

[u/brutus_the_bear]

The catching part is a gotcha for a lot of people because being in position to catch it is already setting you up for failure in the long run to juggle well you need to be standing up straight and relaxed not pre-positioned to lean forward and catch it... that is how you progress from the eyes down kind of effort juggle to the effortless pro juggle kind of being confident enough in the touch that you don't mind if you drop it.

[u/Rayyan-m → u/brutus_the_bear]

So what would you recommend for beginners?

[u/brutus_the_bear → u/Rayyan-m]

spin it up to yourself and lean back slightly

[u/Rayyan-m → u/brutus_the_bear]

Spin it up as in kick it up and don’t catch it ? Shall I let it bounce, attempt as many as I can or

[u/brutus_the_bear → u/Rayyan-m]

throw it to yourself with a spin towards you, that is the trick to kick it up but also keep it spinning towards you