Want the ground-pass version of first touch?
The same first-touch problem, but for a ball already rolling.
Want the ground-pass version of first touch?Controlling a Bouncing Ball With Chest or Thigh
Skill-Building Games
Learning to control a bouncing football with chest or thigh starts with picking the right surface for the height it arrives at.
When a ball arrives in the air rather than rolling along the ground, the foot still works for anything landing low, around shin height or below. Cushion it with the thigh if it arrives higher than that, up to around waist height, or the chest if it comes in higher still, letting the surface give slightly on contact so the ball drops rather than bounces away.
I only worked out my own son could trap a rolling pass fine but had no idea what to do with a bouncing one after watching him bat it away with an arm three times in a row.
Thigh control football kids can actually use
Thigh or Chest: Which One?
Which surface to use comes down to one question: how high is it arriving?
- 1
Thigh, for a ball between shin and waist height. Raise the thigh slightly into the ball's path and drop it away on contact, using the soft part rather than the knee.
- 2
Chest, for anything arriving higher. Lean back a touch, let the chest give as the ball meets it, so it drops instead of springing off.
A chest control practice game worth starting slow
Starting Gentle, On Purpose
Start with an underarm toss or a soft bounce from close range, not a hard kicked serve, while the technique is still new. Let your child call it when they're ready to go higher or faster, rather than deciding that for them.
"Shall we try one you drop yourself first?" hands the pace back to them, and a self-served bounce is the gentlest possible way in.
What the research actually shows
Why the Bounce Feels Harder Than the Pass
Judging where a bouncing ball will arrive is genuinely a different skill from receiving a ball already rolling on the ground, and a controlling-a-bouncing-ball drill needs to respect that difference rather than treat it as the same first touch with a different body part.
A study following children aged 5 to 12 found a marked shift around age 7 in how well children could judge and time their movement to a ball's bounce (Read the study on ball-bounce timing, Bazile, Siegler and Benguigui, 2013). The study used a virtual task with a physical racket, not a real ball against the body, and only a small sample. So it shows only that bounce-timing judgement develops markedly around that age in a lab task, not how any one child will manage a real chest or thigh catch.
See how Our Kickabout researches its pages.
Where this fits
This Is a Different Skill From a Ground Pass
That game is for a ball rolling along the ground, cushioned with the foot. This page is for the same first-touch problem when the ball arrives from the air instead. Neither replaces the other.
Quick answers
Common Questions About Chest and Thigh Control
Do you teach thigh control or chest control first?
Thigh first, for most children. A ball arriving between shin and waist height is easier to judge and less daunting than one coming in at chest height.
What's the actual first touch on a bouncing football?
The surface, thigh or chest, gives slightly on contact rather than staying rigid, so the ball drops down close to the body instead of springing away.
My child just bats the ball away with an arm. Is that normal?
Very common, and usually just means the ball is arriving faster or higher than they can judge yet. Drop the serve height and speed right down and build up gradually.
Keep going
Where to Go From Here
Three places to go next, depending on which version of first touch tonight needs.
Want a rep counter to build the habit?
Rebound reps off a wall keep the same first-touch idea moving.
Try wall rebound first touchWant to see the whole skill collection?
Every page in the Skill-Building Games collection, in one place.
Want to see the whole skill collection?Tonight's five minutes
Shin to waist: thigh. Above that: chest.
Start with a gentle underarm toss and let the surface do the cushioning, not the arms.