Keepie uppie

Last updated
A footballer doing kick-ups Martijn Bosman.jpg
A footballer doing kick-ups

Keepie uppie, keep-ups or kick-ups is the skill of juggling with an association football using feet, lower legs, knees, chest, shoulders, and head, without allowing the ball to hit the ground. [1] It is similar to Kemari, a game formerly practiced in the Japanese imperial court.

Contents

World records

The record for the longest keepie uppie is 28 hours using just feet, legs, shoulders and head; Victor Ericsson completed the feat, which took place in Sweden, in June 2023. [2] The previous men's record was held by Martinho Eduardo Orige of Brazil who kept a regulation football in the air for 19 hours and 30 minutes using only the head, feet and legs. The feat was accomplished on 2 and 3 August 2003. [3]

The fastest completed marathon while ball-juggling was by Abraham Muñoz in the México City Marathon, August 2016. He completed the distance of 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi) in 5 hours 41 minutes 52 seconds, without the ball ever touching the ground. [4]

Dan Magness, holder of the longest keepie-uppie, is also the holder of the longest distance gone while doing keepie-uppie. He managed to go 30 miles (48 km) without letting the ball touch the ground. He achieved this feat on 26 January 2010 in London and in the process visited all the stadiums of the five Premier League teams in London. He started his journey at Fulham F.C.'s Craven Cottage and ended it at Tottenham Hotspur F.C.'s White Hart Lane. [5]

Thomas Ruiz holds the world record for the longest distance covered in one hour while juggling a football ball. He achieved this distance on 30 August 2020, in Saline, Michigan, United States, when he travelled 7.20 kilometres (4.47 mi) while keeping the ball off the ground. [6]

In 2020, Imogen Papworth-Heidel set herself the goal of achieving 7.1 million touches, one for every essential worker in the UK and performed 1,123,586 over 195 days to raise money for charities. The remaining 5,976,414 touches were "donated" by roughly 2,000 people sending in videos, including professional football players from Manchester United F.C. [7]

The most touches of a football in 60 seconds, while keeping the ball in the air, is 274 by Isaac Wood of Australia, set on 25 October 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. [8]

In football games

One of the more famous displays of keepie-uppie was in the 1967 Scotland–England football match, where Scottish midfielder Jim Baxter juggled the ball for some time in front of the English defence, taunting them by keeping possession. This allowed Scotland to keep possession and use up the remaining few minutes, leading to a 3–2 victory for Scotland over the world champions. "That's a defining moment for almost every football fan in Scotland irrespective of where their club allegiance lies," said football historian Bob Crampsey. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Kemari</i> Japanese ball game, non-competitive

Kemari (蹴鞠) is an athletic game that was popular in Japan during the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura period (1185–1333). It resembles a game of keepie uppie or hacky sack. The game was popular in Kyoto, the capital, and the surrounding Kinki, and over time it spread from the aristocracy to the samurai class and chōnin class. Nowadays, kemari is played as a seasonal event mainly at Shinto shrines in the Kansai region, and players play in a costume called kariginu, which was worn as everyday clothing by court nobles during the Heian period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Push-up</span> Calisthenics exercise

The push-up is a common calisthenics exercise beginning from the prone position. By raising and lowering the body using the arms, push-ups exercise the pectoral muscles, triceps, and anterior deltoids, with ancillary benefits to the rest of the deltoids, serratus anterior, coracobrachialis and the midsection as a whole. Push-ups are a basic exercise used in civilian athletic training or physical education and commonly in military physical training. They are also a common form of punishment used in the military, school sport, and some martial arts disciplines. Variations of push-ups, such as wide-arm push-ups, diamond push-ups target specific muscle groups and provide further challenges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Baxter</span> Scottish footballer

James Curran Baxter was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a left half. He is generally regarded as one of the country's greatest ever players. He was born, educated and started his career in Fife, but his peak playing years were in the early 1960s with the Glasgow club Rangers, whom he helped to win ten trophies between 1960 and 1965, and where he became known as "Slim Jim". However, he started drinking heavily during a four-month layoff caused by a leg fracture in December 1964, his fitness suffered, and he was transferred to Sunderland in summer 1965. In two and a half years at Sunderland he played 98 games and scored 12 goals, becoming known for drinking himself unconscious the night before a match and playing well the next day. At the end of 1967 Sunderland transferred him to Nottingham Forest, who gave him a free transfer back to Rangers in 1969 after 50 games. After a further year with Rangers Baxter retired from football in 1970, at the age of 31.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juggling world records</span> World records for varieties of juggling

Juggling world records comprise the best performances in the fields of endurance and numbers juggling.

The Kirkwall Ba' Game is one of the main annual events held in the town of Kirkwall, in Orkney, Scotland. It is one of a number of Ba' Games played in the streets of towns around Scotland; these are examples of medieval football games which are still played in towns in the United Kingdom and worldwide. The games are played twice a year, normally on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, unless those days fall on a Sunday in which case the game is moved to the following day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Throw-in</span> Method of restarting play in association football

A throw-in is a method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball has exited the side of the field of play. It is governed by Law 15 of the Laws of the Game. In Scotland it is known as a shy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freestyle football</span> Football juggling and tricks

Freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. It combines football tricks, dance, acrobatics and music to entertain onlookers and compete with opponents. The official governing body for this sport is known as the World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA).

Paul Sahli is a Swiss juggler from Lostorf, Switzerland.

Abbas Farid is a British freestyle footballer from Newport, South Wales. Farid is of Pakistani descent.

Alan Suddick was an English professional footballer who played at inside-right for Blackpool, Bury, Newcastle United, Southport and Stoke City. A talented player, he was a dead ball specialist, with a unique ability to bend the ball, and was known in particular for his "banana" free-kicks; he would often crouch down before taking set pieces, so that the keeper could not see him, thus making his strikes more difficult to read.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1981 European Cup final</span> Football match

The 1981 European Cup final was an association football match between Liverpool of England and Real Madrid of Spain on 27 May 1981 at the Parc des Princes, Paris, France. It was the final match of the 1980–81 season of Europe's premier cup competition, the European Cup. Liverpool were appearing in their third final, after two appearances in 1977 and 1978. Real Madrid were appearing in their ninth final, they had previously won the competition six times and lost twice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Farnworth</span> British freestyle footballer

John Farnworth is a football freestyler, entertainer, and actor. He holds four Guinness World Records including the most around the worlds in under a minute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of association football terms</span> List of definitions of terms and concepts used in football or soccer

Association football was first codified in 1863 in England, although games that involved the kicking of a ball were evident considerably earlier. A large number of football-related terms have since emerged to describe various aspects of the sport and its culture.

Victor Rubilar is an Argentinian professional football performer and comedian based in Spain. He is an official Guinness World Record Holder. He worked as a magician for three years in Argentina before he decided to become a professional football freestyler / football juggler. He moved from Argentina to Sweden to study at the school of contemporary arts in Cirkus Cirkör. He specialized in football freestyling, football juggling and acrobatics. He was also educated in the arts of performing, theatre and dance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alive & Kicking (social enterprise)</span>

Alive and Kicking is an African social enterprise that manufactures sports balls to provide balls for children, create jobs for adults and promote health education through sport. It states its vision as being of ‘an Africa where every child can play with a real ball, where thousands of jobs are sustained in the production of balls, and where sport contributes to the eradication of deadly disease.’

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacky sack</span> Ball game

A footbag is a small, round bag usually filled with plastic pellets or sand, which is kicked into the air as part of a competitive game or as a display of dexterity. "Hacky Sack" is the name of a brand of footbag popular in the 1970s, which has since become a generic trademark.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to association football:

Ash Randall is a British professional football freestyler and twenty-three time Guinness World Record breaker. He is a professional football entertainer, sports coach & Street Football Wales ambassador, who has been nominated for a Proud of Barnsley Award 2020 in the 'Children's Champion' category Best known for his football freestyle, social media videos and world records. Randall also runs the Freestyle Football Academy

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasha-Nicole Terani</span> Soccer training and ball control expert

Tasha-Nicole Terani, also known as TNT, is an American soccer training and ball control expert, eight times world record holder for soccer ball control, United Nations Special Envoy for Peace through Soccer, and founder of the Every Child’s Dream Foundation 501c3.

References

  1. "Keepie-Uppie" in the Scots Dictionary
  2. Davis, Cameron. "Victor Ericsson sets new global soccer juggling record". BallNerd.
  3. "Guinness World Records – Sports & Games – Soccer – Ball Control, Football – Duration". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
  4. "Atleta de la semana: Abraham Muñoz". Sportspedia.com.mx. Sportspedia. August 29, 2016. Access date: 31 January 2017
  5. "Man sets keepy-uppy world record in London". BBC. Archived from the original on 2010-01-28.
  6. "Farthest distance covered juggling a football (soccer ball) in one hour (male)". Guinness World Records.
  7. "Young footballer reaches 7.1 million keepy-uppies to help key workers". the Guardian. 2020-11-04. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  8. "World Record Attempt 4!". YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-12-11.
  9. "Tributes to Jim Baxter". BBC Sport . 14 April 2001.

Further reading