Football Skills Guide - Scissors
Alternative name(s): Step Over (some people commonly call it this, although in our minds this is a step over), Lollipops (copyright Big Ron).
The Aim: Simple - to fool your opponent into thinking you're going to take the ball one way before you push off in the opposite direction.
The Basics: Scissors are one of the classic football skills, and will probably be one of the first things that you might be taught if you went to any training sessions as a kid nowadays. The idea is that you move your foot around the outside of the ball, making the opponent think (for a split second) you're about to go one way, but instead you then push off in the other direction.
Don't Forget: ...To finish off a scissors move by pushing off quickly. There's no point standing there doing perfect scissors if you don't actually do anything once you've bamboozled your opponent !
Difficulty Rating: 2/5 (achieving a basic scissors isn't too hard, especially the simplest form where the ball is stationary and never actually moves until you push off with it at the end). Doing decent scissors with a moving football is harder.
Watch this Video-clip to get a feel for how to do Scissors...
Step-by-Step Guide on how to do Scissors...
The following steps on how to perform a scissors move are for doing it with your right foot.
- Plant your left foot behind the left hand side of the ball.
- Move your right foot behind the ball and then move it right around the outside of the ball, from the inside of your body to the outside, until it's behind the right hand side of the ball.
- Drop your shoulder and shift your weight over onto your right foot (as if you're going to move to the right) then push the ball away with the outside of your left foot to the left hand side.
- That's it. With any luck your opponent has momentarily thought you're going to the right, allowing you time to go away from him in the opposite direction.
Any Progressions ?
- The other foot - once you've mastered the simple scissors with your strongest foot, do the same with your weaker foot.
- Multiple scissors - once you've mastered it with both feet then you can combine your scissors technique to do multiple scissors, alternating between each foot and then eventually pushing the ball off in one of the directions when you've fooled the defender.
- Scissors with moving ball - when you've mastered scissors completely with a stationary ball then you can move on to doing it with a moving ball. Just start dribbling the ball in a straight line and then do the scissors around the ball as it moves before pushing it off in the opposite direction just as you did when the ball was stationary.