This is a nice easy one, throw up a ball & knock it back into a cascade off of a part of your body. Great force is unnecessary, usually only a tap is all you need. Footballers will have no problem using their feet & knees, but you can also use your elbows, the back of your hand & your head. Combinations of different bounces & several bounces made without making a catch with your hands are very effective.
The juggling part is easy enough, just throw the ball to whichever part of your body you are going to knock it up with. Then after you've kicked or whatever you do to it just treat it as if you had thrown the ball with your hand. Wait until the ball peaks then resume juggling. The only tricky part is knocking the ball accurately. Practise the body bounce separately with one ball, the moment you can do it with one ball you can do it with three. Here are some tips for the most common bounces:
Feet
You can kick the ball in many ways:
- Lift your thigh & bend at the knee so your leg is bent at a right angle, keep the foot stiff & kick the ball up with your toes. This will cause the ball to rise straight up in the air & is therefore very easy to catch.
- Throw the ball away from you & swing your leg keeping it outstretched. As the ball approaches the floor flick with your foot to kick it back towards you. This is a little harder to catch because it is coming at you at an angle & usually a lot faster too.
- Throw to the right hand side (for example), lift your right leg bend it at the knee so that your thigh points down & slightly forwards. Swing your right foot outwards to the right hand side & strike the ball with the outside of the foot below the ankle bone knocking it straight up. Where shoes to protect your ankles.
- Swing your leg to the inside & knock the ball with your instep. The kick can be made in front of the other leg (throw to the centre) or behind (throw to the outside).
- Chuck a ball over a shoulder, throw high to give you as much time to watch the ball's path as possible & throw far enough behind you so that you have to slightly stretch out your leg to make contact, this will reduce the risk of the ball hitting your back when you kick it. Kick up using the sole of your foot or your heel. You can look under your arm or over your shoulder to watch the ball (or just watch the ball peak to be very flash). Lean forward as you make the kick so that it will bounce back up over your head/shoulder or around the side of you.
Knees
Knock the ball with the thigh just above the knee. It has a flat surface & will give a much more predictable bounce. If the ball hits the knee it may bounce off at an odd angle. If you are using solid balls you may damage yourself too. It is very easy to knock a ball from knee to knee without using your hands which looks very good.
For many more foot & knee tricks take a look at www.footbag.org who have lots of ideas & some very impressive videos.
Elbows
There are two parts of your elbow you can use, the outside or the underside. Outside first. Put your arm out to the side with your hand open & palm down. Keeping your hand palm down bend your elbow as far as it will go. This creates a wide & flat surface (flat surfaces are much more predictable) to bounce the ball off of by flapping your arm. Bounce a ball back & forth over your head to look like a bird that hasn't quite learnt to fly!
Point your arm out in front of you, bend your elbow back & touch your shoulder. The underside of your elbow is the knobbly bit at the end. It is very bony so bouncy balls may go further than expected.
Back of the hand
Grip the other ball between your thumb & the palm with your hand palm downwards. The other four fingers should be outstretched & will provide a nice springy platform to flick a ball off of.
Elbow & hand bounces are easiest to catch with the non bouncing arm. A nice combination is to juggle two in one hand then perform an outside elbow bounce, back of the hand bounce & then an underside elbow bounce, all in one fluid arm movement & without missing a beat.
Head
Be careful if you are using solid balls. Only use your forehead for head bounces because the skull is at its thickest at this point. It is very thin & fragile on the very top of the head & even more so at the side by the temples. Any knock in the wrong place can cause serious damage.
Don't throw too high, look up, pull your neck in & use your body to bounce the ball up & away.