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5 Skills You Must Hone While Playing 5-a-Side
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Football

5 Skills You Must Hone While Playing 5-a-Side

SIPSport I Play Team
3 min read
February 26, 2026

5 Skills You Must Hone While Playing 5-a-Side

There are certain skills which can help you have a better game in a 5-a-side match. Players who play

5 Skills You Must Hone While Playing 5-a-Side

regularly are required to master a few skills that will help you have an edge over your opponent’s team. These skills will help you score more goals.

In this, tap the ball with your strong foot and then at the same time make a stepover.

Take a step with a weak foot making the

think you are heading in that direction, but you end up sprinting the other way. The key is to use the entire body and drop your shoulder when you are making the last step.

Football

In this stepover, the defender will be expecting you to do the regular stepover but you will cut back on the other side.  It is a very effective move to go past the defenders. The faster you do this the better.

This is suitable for a 5-a- side game. In this,

place the weak foot beside the ball and place the stronger foot behind the ball.

Push the ball with the inside of stronger foot diagonally past the standing leg. Transfer the ball to the laces of the stronger foot and then release.

Now let us look at the skills we are talking about:

This can be done to unbalance the defender. It can be really efficient in a 5-a-side match. It should be done with really good speed.

This move is used a lot in a 5-a-side match. This move is done in the air so it could be a bit hard at the start to do it.

Fake Stepover

Flick the ball with the strong foot slightly inside. Move foot around the ball and push the ball with the top of the little toe.

Extend the leg aggressively to catch the ball second time with the top of a big toe. This will complete the full air elastico. This will take a lot of practice to master it. Ronaldhino used to do a lot of air elastico.

Hocus Pocus

This move is done when the ball is bouncing to waist level or get the ball to your waist level when you are dribbling the ball or when you are receiving the pass. To explicitly say, to get this skill right, one has to practice this drill step by step.

The first step being, toss the ball with enough force to ensure that it bounces back above your knee level. The 2

Air Elastico

step is to hit the ball with the outside of the knee and the third step is to extend your leg to catch the ball with your laces, not outside, but inside to complete the skill, Knee Akka.

Place the sole of the stronger foot on top of the ball. Roll the ball back one or two feet towards the other foot. Rotate your body as you roll the ball back to the other foot. Use the sole of the weaker foot to go in the direction where you want to go. These are most effective when the defender is tight on the attacker or when the defender feels he can get the ball from the

Once the defender feels he can get the ball, use the skill to get away in a different direction. Notice the space when you are doing this skill. The attacker must spin into an open area, there is no use spinning right into a defender. Pull the ball far away from a defender so that he can’t get his foot on the ball. These are our tips for you to hone your 5-a-side skills!

SIP

Sport I Play Team

The Sport I Play editorial team — passionate sports enthusiasts covering technique tips, fitness guides, and sports stories.

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Contents

  • 5 Skills You Must Hone While Playing 5-a-Side
  • Football
  • Now let us look at the skills we are talking about:
  • Fake Stepover
  • Hocus Pocus
  • Air Elastico

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