Learn Around the World in football: prerequisites, a clean five-step progression and an honest take on what the trick does for your game – and what it doesn't.
The honest answer up front: Around the World (ATW) is a juggling trick – your foot circles the ball once in the air, then you keep juggling with the same foot. It looks harder than it is, but it demands a good feel for height and timing. Whether it makes you better in the game is open. In a study of 22 adolescent footballers, juggling performance improved after six weeks with four sessions per week, but ball reception against an approaching ball did not [1].
For you that means: ATW makes you better at juggling, is fun and is a gauge of ball feel. For game situations you need something else. How long you need for the first clean circle depends on your practice time – there is no serious weekly number. Plan ten minutes daily.
There are two versions: the circle from outside to inside and the one from inside to outside. Choose the one where your foot swings naturally. You learn the second almost in passing later. More important than the version is a calm ball: if you lift the ball cleanly, you have more time for the circle than you think, and you quickly notice that the difficulty is not in the foot but in the timing.
ATW builds on juggling. If you cannot keep the ball up in control, the circle becomes chance. First check whether you can get about 10 contacts with your stronger foot.
Milestone: 3 series of 10 contacts.
Do the circle without a ball first: your swinging leg travels in a wide arc as if the ball were at hip height. The standing leg stays softly bent, the upper body calm.
Milestone: 20 clean circles per foot.
Lift the ball with the instep to about hip height and catch it again. A lift that flies off at an angle ruins every circle. A review of skill acquisition in football notes that many training habits rest on tradition and gut feeling rather than evidence [2]. So check for yourself: film yourself and see whether the ball rises vertically.
Milestone: 10 lifts that rise almost vertically.
Lift the ball, bring your foot in an arc over and around the ball and then strike it with the instep. Start with a big, slow movement. Speed comes later.
Milestone: 5 of 10 attempts with a clean circle.
After the circle you keep juggling with the same foot. Only when you hit the circle three times in a row do you add the variation: outside or inside circle, later with the weaker foot.
Milestone: Circle plus at least 5 more contacts, 3 times in a row.
ATW is a calm trick, but it loads the standing leg: you stand on one leg, rotate the hip and catch the ball while falling. Practise on level, dry ground with suitable footwear, never on a wet hall floor with slippery soles. Warm up hips, calves and ankle. The FIFA 11+ programme cut the injury risk by 39% (rate ratio 0.61) in a meta-analysis [4]. If you feel pain in knee or ankle, stop. This guide explains and motivates; it does not replace supervised training.
When you learn a trick, you sometimes learn more than a trick. In a study of 111 participants aged 17 to 19, a programme of 70 juggling sessions improved inhibition control and shifting more than the control group [3]. The study tested juggling in general, not ATW, and is considered preliminary. But it is a nice argument when someone asks whether practising "does anything".
In five steps: check your juggling base, shadow movement without a ball, hip-height lift, circle above the ball and then the series. Set milestones instead of weekly targets. The shadow movement saves you many failed attempts.
There is no documented duration. It depends on your juggling base and practice time. Ten minutes daily beats one long session per week because timing builds over many short repetitions.
It mainly improves your juggling. In a study of 22 adolescents juggling performance rose, but ball reception against approaching balls did not [1]. For game situations you need real passes and opponent pressure.
The foot you juggle with confidently. Start with the stronger foot and add the weaker later. Outside and inside circle are variations of the same trick.
No. In the 2016 study, smaller and larger balls brought the same improvement in juggling at equal practice time [1]. Take the ball you enjoy, at medium pressure.
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