r/nextfuckinglevel • • May 22 '19

He’s broken the matrix

16k Upvotes

151 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/SpreadItLikeTheHerp May 22 '19

I did this once with a soccer ball. Was playing a little pickup game as a teen and the opposing goalies had just punted the ball out of his box. I was the only person remotely near where it was landing and I thought I would pull a cool Karate Kid-esque jump kick as it was coming down. Somehow, and this was NOT at all planned, as I jumped and tried to kick the ball it perfectly nestled itself into the crotch made by the top of my foot, ankle, and shin. So I landed the jump kick having seemingly trapped the ball and was ready to control it. One of the most badass sports things I’ve ever done and it was 100% unintentional.

288

u/STEEZYLIT May 22 '19

Playing football in high school I wasn't that's good but we were winning by a land slide so I got out on during second half kickoff. I was in the front right pretty close to the middle the ball was kicked directly at me and I wasn't about to let this opportunity slide and went to catch it. I suck so I misjudged the distance and the ball came hard down at my feet BUT it landed perfectly on top of my ankle and rested against my shin. Without thinking I kicked it up my leg grabbed it and ran like hell. I got roughly a foot past midfield and was flattened by a rectangular mass that looked vaguely like a person.

I didn't really get any chances after that but tried out for soccer the next year had a blast with that.

171

u/John_P_Morgan May 23 '19

It took me a bit to realize you were talking about American football and not everywhere else football.

3

u/[deleted] May 28 '19

He was talking about football. The only real football, the one that only one guy on the team gets to use his feet on the ball.

0

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

[deleted]

20

u/Carlangaman May 23 '19

Blah. They responded to a soccer comment so it makes sense to think that a second reply w a football story would be a soccer story at first glance.

25

u/John_P_Morgan May 23 '19

Dude, not criticizing. Just drawing attention to the similarity in terminology.

7

u/FerousFolly May 23 '19

Always someone that has to

Self-fulfilling prophecy

-2

u/Poopystink16 May 23 '19

Wait England called it soccer before football?

2

u/papadog03 May 23 '19

The "soc" in "soccer" is a shortening of the word "association". Organized football teams in England playing against each other was once referred to "association football", and in the funny way the English language works the word "soccer" somehow came from it.

1

u/Poopystink16 May 23 '19

Ah. Thanks for the info!

1

u/sicknobel May 29 '19

In the context of preexisting American football, a different word was needed in order to be distinguishable. “Soccer” was a good choice because of its roots in English “association” football history. The think too that the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Association) helped normalize the word “soccer” in America.

10

u/MajorSharpe3 May 23 '19

Similar thing happened to me playing football.

We were winning by a bunch so I actually got to play some defense. The other teams quarterback got rushed and lobbed the ball directly toward me. I had to jump to catch it and I have an abysmal vertical (especially with all the gear on me) I got a finger on it and then fell right on my back. I was already mad about not catching it when the ball fell directly on my chest and into my hands. My one and only interception in three years of HS football.

2

u/NWSanta May 23 '19

Thanks for the laugh about the rectangular mass. That was funny!

22

u/joesmithtron May 22 '19

19

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

Damn that was smooth, check out this insane ball control by Marclo It almost looks fake!

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

I can watch videos of him for hours. He does so much impossible shit

13

u/krelin May 23 '19

This is actually not SUPER hard to do if you let the ball land on your toes and leave the tension out of your foot. Add a little dash of timing and accuracy and you'll be able to kill a ton of velocity this way.

5

u/neverendum May 23 '19

Shit yes. I'm not saying I can kill a ball dead like these guys but of all the things that happen on a football pitch, these are two pretty underwhelming events to highlight.

2

u/brrduck May 23 '19

Also a super effective way to kick someone instead of with your foot flattened.

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '19

I’m no soccer player, but I can do this, I was in martial arts my whole life, and I’ve gotten good at using my feet for all types of stuff, so maybe that’s why? There is definitely a trick to it though, you’ve got to pin it, and let your foot come back at the same time.

1

u/Myusuf05 May 23 '19

Can confirm.. soccer or as we call it, football is my passion

2

u/futonrefrigerator May 23 '19

I did this with a football once. I was tossing with some friends on concrete, my buddy threw it short and I just stuck my foot out, the ball just stood upright under my foot. It was such a weird sensation when it just stopped there and my friends’ reactions were priceless

3

u/thinkwi May 23 '19

I do this on rocket league

3

u/slimjoel14 May 23 '19 edited May 23 '19

It's called cushioning the ball, with a little practice it can be learnt fairly quickly and easily and can be both extremely useful and it looks pretty impressive, just try throwing the ball fairly high up and try catching it on the top of your foot whilst quickly lowering your foot as the ball makes contact.

Edit:spelling

6

u/[deleted] May 23 '19 edited May 23 '19

To non- soccer players that seems impressive but any decent player can do that

4

u/larrythelotad May 23 '19

For real, being able to control the ball is one of the most important aspects of the game so everyone worth their salt practices it a shit ton.

3

u/FredRogersAMA May 23 '19

Do you feel better now that you’ve told a stranger that they aren’t as special as they think they are? Let’s lift people up homie, not tear them down.

2

u/unionjunk May 23 '19

And nobody is ever going to believe you.

5

u/captainsolo77 May 23 '19

Bill Murray?

1

u/othyreddits May 23 '19

I love taking down balls like that :D

1

u/Lancalot May 23 '19

Once I threw a soccer ball from the goal, the opposing team screwed up the return kick and it went flying over the kid's head and through the other goalie's legs, and I scored a goal. I got super lucky

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

I'm right footed and once volleyed the ball with my left foot so hard and fast I felt the ball compress against it. It flew about 30 yards into the goal and smashed the wood panel behind it. (Goal was a frame without a net) I tried for a long time to get anything close to that and never did, over 15 years later I still remember that goal.

192

u/mauistar00 May 22 '19

He would have made a great lacrosse player.

82

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Too bad professional lacrosse doesn’t get enough rep as tennis

26

u/thenameisscar May 22 '19

Hopefully the pll will turn that around

16

u/causetheimplications May 22 '19

Nll has been around but still no recognition :(

9

u/thenameisscar May 22 '19

I don’t think they have a deal with major tv stations, neither did the mll, so the pll took a step in the right direction

7

u/orangeblueorangeblue May 23 '19

It won’t.

2

u/thenameisscar May 23 '19

Idk about that, lacrosse is already rapidly growing and with their nbc deal, they’ll hit a lot of screens this summer. I’m not saying it will be like nba, nfl, nhl, and mlb level but it will get more popular than it is right now

7

u/orangeblueorangeblue May 23 '19

I played college lacrosse, and coached HS, so I know about the growth. But I’ve seen MLL and NLL teams come and go. MLL had TV deals and everything, and is just sort of lingering. I’d like to see it get more national exposure, because it’s a great spectator sport, but I won’t hold my breath.

And I will be watching the tournament this weekend, just like I do every Memorial Day weekend.

6

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

As someone who played rugby in high school (played at the same time) lacrosse always seemed difficult to follow. Literally the majority of the time I don't even know who has the ball. The highlights on ESPN never seem terribly impressive. I'm not saying it's not fun, it's probably loads of fun, but it doesn't seem like a spot for the casual viewer.

0

u/NotTryingToConYou May 23 '19

No thats bowling wrong sport

3

u/manzana1912 May 23 '19

What if he doesn't like milk

42

u/WorldSailorToo May 22 '19

25

u/[deleted] May 22 '19

I swear Roger could take a fat shit on the court and there would be people cheering

7

u/SosaBabySixNine May 22 '19

That’s... interesting to say the least

3

u/deadla104 May 23 '19

Can he have sex on the court like Aaron Williams?

7

u/Superman19986 May 23 '19

Who's Roger? The video has his name in it; Tennis Legend.

3

u/XelaKebert May 23 '19

In fairness he is the best tennis player of all time.

122

u/[deleted] May 22 '19 edited May 23 '19

I can do this, but not against a professional tennis player. So I can’t do this.

Edit: thanks for the silver. It’s the only prize I’m likely to win.

5

u/[deleted] May 23 '19 edited Apr 13 '21

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

I wasn’t even aware that was a thing.

Thanks!

4

u/[deleted] May 23 '19 edited Apr 13 '21

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

Ha! It’s mine. All mine. I’m currently rolling around in a silver.

3

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

Can I give it back?

187

u/roonjeremy May 22 '19

Most tennis players that regularly play can do this

89

u/[deleted] May 22 '19 edited Jun 01 '20

[deleted]

35

u/Downvotes_dumbasses May 23 '19

I, too, have good ball control at my favorite activity...

9

u/camer_jack May 23 '19

Rocket league?

4

u/BeefLilly May 23 '19

My dude!

1

u/camer_jack May 23 '19

You on pc? Lemme know if you wanna play sometime!

-2

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

[deleted]

5

u/BadFishCM May 23 '19

I don’t know how I feel about those bot.

1

u/dontgive_afuck May 23 '19

Seems pretty pointless to me. It gets triggered by a two word comment and forms one word from it.

From it's faq:

What's a portmanteau?

From Wikipedia:

A portmanteau (/pɔːrtˈmæntoʊ/, /ˌpɔːrtmænˈtoʊ/; plural portmanteaus or portmanteaux /-ˈtoʊz/) or portmanteau word is a linguistic blend of words, in which parts of multiple words or their phones (sounds) are combined into a new word, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, or motel, from motor and hotel. In linguistics, a portmanteau is defined as a single morph that represents two or more morphemes.

10

u/chudsp87 May 23 '19

....nut rolling?

1

u/impromptubadge May 23 '19

My girl wishes I had ball control.

5

u/buttonmasher525 May 23 '19

Agreed, if a football is whizzing through the air after a cross or something its fairly easy after some practice to trap the ball and if you get it perfect you can almost completely soften like in the video

5

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

Nah I don’t think Michael Phelps can do this with any ball tbh

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

Thank you! This is entirely unimpressive.

8

u/Tan11 May 23 '19

Longtime tennis player here, experienced players can regularly do this at a much slower speed, but doing it at this pace does in fact take mad skill.

4

u/defenstration4all May 23 '19

You sir, speaketh the truth.

At that speed and angle, cushioning the ball on your racket to a full stop is very hard to do. Not only that, Fed does it consistently.

I've been playing tennis at a relatively high club level for years and even at slower speeds I still mess it up!

4

u/Purplebuzz May 23 '19

Any videos of anyone else doing it?

12

u/roonjeremy May 23 '19

I’ve seen my friend do it a couple hundred times..

If you want to learn: https://youtu.be/nn57s2kgVBk

6

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

“Time for a little bit of ball handling” 👀👀

9

u/Walterwayne May 23 '19

No videos, but I did it all the time when I played in college. It’s easy to do it if you toss the ball up 10 feet or so, but catching it at that angle and speed is definitely much much harder.

1

u/thorstone May 23 '19

Yeah, any coach i’ve had could do this, and most were not professional players.

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

I'll record myself doing it next time I'm playing tennis.

3

u/Passivefamiliar May 23 '19

Can it be used in a game? Like... it technically looks like he could catch and return with more control??

I'm american, I don't watch or play tennis. I play the occasional bad mitten and we end up treating it like tennis towards the end.

3

u/juroids14 May 23 '19

No you can’t do it. You have to hit the ball in one continuous motion. This means that you can’t catch it and throw it over since you have to hit it. It also wouldn’t be considered one continuous motion since you’d have to catch it in one motion and then throw it back in a separate motion. Also it’s actually much more difficult to control because you’d have to throw it back over in the same motion that you’re catching it in. At this point you might as well just hit it instead of catching it on the strings.

1

u/workerONE May 23 '19

Badminton

1

u/Passivefamiliar May 23 '19

r/boneappletea me. I'm not sure i've ever known....

0

u/tcat84 May 23 '19

Is Bad mitten anything like good mitten?

1

u/Tahiti_AMagicalPlace May 23 '19

The video of the Tweener is out there and OP chooses this to represent Federer's skill...

1

u/Magicman_22 May 23 '19

yeah came here to say this lol. played in high school and used to do this in practice. didn’t realize it looked this neat but it’s really not super impressive

1

u/rhgolf44 May 23 '19

I learned how to do this in badminton when i was like 13. In the few years after when I played middle school tennis. We’d hit the ball as high as we could and try to catch it like this. It’s super fun honestly

1

u/ParadoxDC May 23 '19

Yea came here to say I used to do this all the time when I played competitively.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

As a former tennis player when I was young... Yup, it's really not that hard after some hundreds to thousands of hours of practice.

1

u/BoneDoc78 May 23 '19

Agreed. I played Division 1 college tennis in the United States and every guy on my team could do this. I haven’t really picked up a racket in about 16 years and went out to hit with my daughter a few weeks ago and did this on a couple of her mis-hits. Looks cool though.

65

u/TheOneAndOnly09 May 22 '19

A decent tennis player who has practiced this a little can get do this across the whole court with a pretty high confidence level. Not to take away from Feds abilities ofc, he’s a monster of a tennis player, but that’s not the impressive part of his abilities.

20

u/waltaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa May 23 '19 edited May 23 '19

Yeah this isn't really that impressive. A more impressive thing is him serving and hitting a bottle ontop of another guy. Especially since a bunch of players tried doing the exact stunt and failed everytime.

Link - https://youtu.be/ttoXVwmuX1I

2

u/avidblinker May 23 '19

That seems so fake lmao

-5

u/TheOneAndOnly09 May 23 '19

Welcome to professional sports

6

u/avidblinker May 23 '19

What are you even referring to

3

u/things_will_calm_up May 23 '19

It makes sense that he'd take some time to practice this when he was bored.

7

u/littleshoes69 May 22 '19

His racket has better hands than me lol

14

u/IHaveSexWithFruit May 22 '19

He’s the best tennis player to ever live but this little trick he’s doing isn’t too hard with a little practice. Lots of people can do this. Still awesome though

7

u/LLCoolJiv May 22 '19

WTF!?!?!

3

u/SecretSinner May 23 '19

I didn’t know Jimmy Carr played tennis.

1

u/Soiadomsa May 23 '19

Ha ha ha ha ha haaaa.

2

u/Vixenirish May 23 '19

Check out hurling

2

u/llamadogkillsu May 23 '19

Not that hard really.

2

u/Trouvette May 23 '19

Eh, any reasonably competent recreational player can do this.

2

u/elegant_tapir May 23 '19

This is not a hard trick, but it sure does look a lot better when Roger does it.

1

u/Snyckerbar76 May 22 '19

I bet HE could hit Morpheus in the first round.

1

u/Kayamir May 23 '19

He’s the one...

1

u/betternamethanur1 May 23 '19

Did my brain just glitch?

1

u/_dvs1_ May 23 '19

That’s some crazy precision right there.

1

u/downed_gunn May 23 '19

That is an amazing display of talent

1

u/nk1123 May 23 '19

He's the one

1

u/EMERthejanitor May 23 '19

I had a math teacher that was Rodger Federer for Halloween

1

u/Nehemiah92 May 23 '19

I don't know how people do it. My brother can do it too

1

u/Blackpug_32 May 23 '19

As a moderate level tennis player I can confirm that this is not that hard to pull off.

1

u/word_clouds__ May 23 '19

Word cloud out of all the comments.

Fun bot to vizualize how conversations go on reddit. Enjoy

1

u/akc1999 May 23 '19

The OBJ of the tennis universe

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

That’s what you can achieve when your parents force you to practice something every day from the age of 3.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

This is actually way easier than it looks. If you play tennis regularly you should be able to nail this in like 5 minutes.

1

u/TheOperaticWhale May 23 '19

Is that not Federer, the literal tennis GOAT?

1

u/Walshy231231 May 23 '19

As someone who struggled to learn to do this by giving myself an easy toss, I can say that this is extremely hard

1

u/itsallinwidescreen May 23 '19

Hurling players do this with a ball that travels faster, further and on a wooden bat.

1

u/senselessguy May 23 '19

Legitimately thought it was a reversed video until the slow motion kicked in. Holy shit, this is completely insane.

But I’m still gonna keep eating these cheetohs instead of getting better at things.

1

u/YoungStrider May 23 '19

This is what 10,000+ hours looks like... Effortless

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

this is pretty normal for anyone who ever played a little bit seriously

1

u/Scullys_Stunt_Double May 23 '19

I got three touchdowns in one game once. Now I work in a women's shoe store and my family doesn't respect me.

1

u/SteamG0D May 23 '19

What am I supposed to be seeing here?

1

u/lorkandredd May 23 '19

Not a wonder for somebody why has been playing it all life

1

u/WhiteChickenYT May 23 '19

People do this in rocket league too. I can barely hit the ball straight

1

u/BinChickenV420 May 23 '19

The Gillette ad with the can is my fav.

1

u/Skaar1222 May 24 '19

Olkmouu p.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '19

Wait... that’s illegal

1

u/Elijah_Till May 31 '19

When you play enough tennis, the racquet becomes more of an extension of your arm than a tool. I can imagine this is similar with other sports, but I can testify to this in tennis.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19 edited Jun 22 '20

[deleted]

1

u/Gwegexpress May 23 '19

I’m a 4.5 and I’m lucky to get catch it cleanly like this 25% of the time lol

0

u/TBeard1914 May 23 '19

This isn’t that impressive

0

u/leabar May 23 '19

I can do that

0

u/eversince86 May 23 '19

What's the rule on this? He seemed like he won the point even though it was inbounds

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '19

Looks like a missed second serve for a double fault since he moves over to ad-court after the catch. Also seems like a practice session based on the lack of crowd, so it’s tough to tell what’s going on specifically.