Skills Special MOTD Kickabout

We've got a very special show lined up for you today on Kickabout.

I'm talking skills, tricks and flicks.

John Farnworth's going to show you how to do

it with a little help from this lot.

CHEERING.

I'd best get my goalie gloves.

Hello, hello, Kickabout fans.

And welcome to the Powerleague Trafford Sportsdome where we're

going to be showing you some top footy tricks, freestyler skills

and as well as that, all of this lot coming up.

We meet female footballing maestro Liv Cooke.

Find out who's made our top five most skilful players list.

And it wouldn't be a skills special without your brilliant videos, too.

Loads and loads to look forward to there.

Now, on with the footy tricks.

There is only one man I could have called upon for this

situation right here.

He's a world-class football freestyler, and holds not only one,

but five world records.

It's John Farnworth, everybody!

How's it going, Taylor?

I'm good, and good.

So, what skills are we going to be learning today?

Well, freestyle's all about creativity, but we're

going to be showing these lot how we put the tricks

into a game situation.

So the first one is flick-ups, ways to get the ball

from the floor into the air.

Once you've done it, just see how many kick-ups you can do.

All right?

So it starts here.

Roll.

Into the air like that.

If you feel you've got that, if you feel you've mastered it,

we're going to go on to the second one, which is, I think,

a lot harder, and looks pretty cool.

It's called the slam down.

OK?

So, the ball is here.

Foot here, foot below.

Straight up like that.

So you may notice that I'm using the floor to get

the ball in the air.

It's actually what we call a bounce moving freestyle,

so you're going to flick the ball up, hit it straight back down

with the sole, and then that bounce gets the ball straight back up

into the air.

So basically you're going to flick it up with one, down

with the other foot.

So I'll maybe show you one more time.

Is that all right?

And then you guys have got to have a try.

So it goes here, down, and off you go.

Amazing.

Make sense?

Yes.

Let's give it a go.

Let's go.

Off you go, guys.

That was good, that was good.

You're getting it now.

While these guys go and practise their skills,

Lesley can look back to earlier in the year when we met

the UK's first female professional freestyler,

Liv Cooke.

Hi, I'm Liv Cooke.

I'm the UK's first professional female football freestyler.

And you're watching Match Of The Day Kickabout.

I started football freestyle when I was 15, and now

I'm 16 going on 17.

With football freestyle, it took me around two years to get

to the level I'm at now, but I always had the fundamentals

of control, because my brothers would stick me in a football net

on the weekend and just fire balls at me again and again,

so my control developed from there.

And then being a footballer, I had the simple tricks

like around the world.

And then two years of freestyle, it seemed to progress really quickly,

because I practised a lot.

When I was really young, in my primary school, infant school,

I'd play in the playground with the boys all day,

like playing football.

My favourite player is by far Ronaldinho.

When I was just starting freestyle, I actually did watch a lot

of Ronaldinho's videos just to learn flick-ups and tricks

that I could show off at training to my friends.

If you want to start freestyle, I suggest you start by learning

kick-ups, and also neck stall, which is like balancing the ball

on your back with your head up so it stays there.

The feeling you get when you land a new trick or get

a new combo, it's amazing.

One of the best things about football freestyle is it's

for absolutely anybody of any age, and it can be done anywhere.

All you need is a ball.

Amazing skills there by Liv.

John, what do we have next?

Well, next up, we're going to do ways to get

the ball around an opponent, so moves to beat players, OK?

The first one was quite a famous move that Pele used to do.

He used to step inside and then take the ball the other way.

And there was one time he did it where there was like a goalkeeper,

and the ball was played in, and he stepped and the goalkeeper

went down, and he went past him, and I just thought that was genius.

So that's our first one.

Second one is taking the Pele stepover to the next level.

When I was your age, Ronaldo used to do this,

but not Cristiano Ronaldo.

There was a player before him who played for Brazil, another Ronaldo.

Memphis Depay has done this recently.

You may have seen it.

So you're going to bring the ball across, then I'm

going to touch it here, then I'm going to go

off into the space.

OK?

Now, this has been done as a nutmeg, too, so if I'm here, go over,

you can actually put it through your opponent's legs.

So there's lots of ways you can do this.

You can also do it as a pass, getting round, as a shot,

and once your round him, you've got all that space,

you can do whatever you want.

So we've got the Pele stepover and the Depay roll stepover.

Shall we go and practise?

Yes!

Let's give it a go.

Let's go!

You know, the best players, when they dribble, they don't kick

it too far, because why?

Because they get tackled?

Get tackled?

If I've got the ball under control, at any time, I can move.

Good lad, that's awesome.

These guys have some serious skills, but so do you all at home.

Let's take a look.

You are seriously a talented bunch.

Now, I'm joined now by two more talented Kickabout viewers

whose videos we loved when they were sent in.

It's Sam and Helen.

Right, Sam, first up.

Your basketball trick shot was absolutely unbelievable.

How much practice did that take?

It took me a whole afternoon to actually get all three in.

And how many balls were kicked in that process,

or was it a one take wonder?

Loads!

Loads!

Loads.

No broken windows, we hope.

But we also saw that you did it in no trainers.

Why was that?

It's because I could feel the ball more instead of using shoes.

Fantastic, adapting.

Right, Helen, we loved your freestyle skills showcase

in that video you sent in.

How long have you been practising?

I've been practising for awhile now.

I do it as often as I can.

And is there any say inspirations that you look up to?

John is one of my inspirations.

I've watched him since I was younger.

That's brilliant.

Right, so I've got to ask you guys.

What are your favourite skills?

Mine is a 360 kneecap.

How cool that sounds.

Mine's round the world.

OK, living up to expectations, do you guys reckon you

could show us it, live?

OK, let's do this!

What?!

Yes, my man!

Right, let's go again.

Absolutely love it.

So, here's our top pick of players that are best

showcasing their skills.

COMMENTATOR: Henry, outrageous skill from Thierry Henry.

Ronaldo backing them up.

Oh!

Explosive.

On his day, arguably the best, most effective and certainly

the most exciting player in the premiership.

Oh, that's a wondrous goal!

From a wonderful player.

Coutinho, clever, very clever.

And again, very clever from Coutinho.

He's got his own way of doing that.

Might go for goal, oh, he's scored!

Out of the blue.

Imagine all of that lot in one team.

I don't fancy my chances.

I reckon you could give them a run for their money, though, John.

Maybe.

What's our third and final skill?

Accuracy.

So to do this, we're going to use a bin, right?

I love doing bin shots.

I love doing my freestyle, but I love mixing the two together.

So we're going to start off with the bin on the floor,

so for the viewers at home, if you're not used to doing a bin

shot, you can just put the bin down.

And you can be, like, nearly ten metres, kick it in.

Once you've done it, go a bit further back,

a bit further back.

Then eventually, you can put the bin up.

Which is much harder, and then try and kick it in.

So, as I'm here, and as I'm a freestyler, I've prepared my own

very special freestyle bin shot.

Shall we try it?

Yeah.

OK, let's go.

Now, you saw how difficult it was.

It even took this genius a few times to get in.

So let's see you guys give it a go.

OK?

Oh, so close.

Do not go anywhere, because up next, we'll be combining all the skills

from today in a very special challenge right here on this pitch.

But for the meantime, while we set up, take a look

at Frankie Vu's dream 5-a-side team.

I'm Frankie Vu, and this is my skilful dream 5-a-side team.

So, starting off in goal, I have Rene Higuita,

who you may not be familiar with, but he was the goalkeeper who made

that famous scorpion kick known worldwide.

And he's also a pretty good outfield player as well.

So I put myself in defence, because not many people know this,

but in primary school, I actually played in defence.

So, after Higuita does his scorpion kick out of goal,

I can do one of these.

Actually, you know what?

That's probably over head height, isn't it?

In midfield, I'd go for Ronaldinho.

When you think of skills, Ronaldinho is pretty much the first

name that springs to mind.

He would just bamboozle people all over the pitch and just create

magic every time he gets the ball.

Also in midfield, I'd have Dutch legend Johan Cruyff.

Not many players have got an actual move named after them,

but Johan Cruyff has got the Cruyff turn, one of the most

famous moves known to man.

Up front, I'd have the one and only Diego Maradona.

He's got all the skills to take everyone on the pitch on,

just like he did against England.

And if that doesn't work, he'll just use his hands!

Some top choices there, Frankie, and some nice moves, too.

But now it's time to put everything we've learned into action.

First up, we've got the freestyle flick-up.

That's right, two of the best tricks put together.

And then these guys over here are going to be beating a man.

That's it, stepovers, dragbacks, turns, it's all in there.

Moving on to the final challenge, where these guys are going to be

doing that accuracy challenge.

This is interesting.

If they get it into the bin, they win.

So, guys, are we ready?

Yes!

Let's do this.

OK, so in three, two, one...

Off you go!

That's two.

Well done, off you go.

The yellow team seems to be storming ahead.

CHEERING.

Yellow in the bin.

What techniques there was there.

We've had an absolute fantastic time here today,

and we hope you've learned loads at home to try, too.

If you want to head onto the Kickabout website,

you can see John doing the skills over and over again.

And indeed, get involved - send in your videos,

we love seeing them.

But until next time, guys, see you.