The hocus pocus is a same-foot two-touch move where the ball goes behind your standing leg. Your dominant foot pushes the ball at an angle past the back of your plant foot, then wraps around behind your standing leg and pushes it back the opposite way with the laces. CF Montréal describes it as derived from the Cruyff turn and the elastico. Written coaching on it is thin, so the balance and wrap cues here come from sourced rabona and elastico technique.
Set up
Learn the footwork without a ball first: plant, push, then wrap the same foot behind your standing leg. Then add a still ball.
Footwork before the ball.
Use it from a standstill, a walk or a light jog, mainly in the attacking third. It isn't a full-speed move.
Slow approach, fast exit.
Plant your weaker foot a few inches in front of the ball. Bend the standing knee slightly and put your arms out for balance.
Steady base.
The move
With your dominant foot, push the ball forward at an angle so it rolls behind your standing leg. Push it, don't kick it.
Guide, don't strike.
Let the ball get just past your plant foot before you start the second touch.
Wait for it to clear.
Wrap the same foot around behind your standing leg and push the ball the opposite way with your laces. Keep the plant foot still while the kicking leg moves.
Wrap behind, push back.
Sell the first touch with your head and shoulders, and keep your hips over your base instead of lurching your whole body.
Shoulders sell, hips stay home.
Change pace and accelerate away with the ball as soon as the second touch is done.
Then go.
Feel it
Both touches are gentle pushes, not kicks. The standing foot stays planted and steady while your kicking leg does all the travelling, first out to the ball and then around behind your standing leg. Slow and smooth comes first; speed comes from repetition, and the burst comes after the second touch.
Fix-its
- The ball runs too far after the first touch and you can't reach it for the second You're kicking it. Take a lighter touch and push the ball just past your plant foot.
- The ball hits your plant foot on the second touch You're starting the wrap too early. Let the ball roll a little past your plant foot first.
- You wobble or fall during the wrap Bend the standing knee slightly, get your arms out, and keep the plant foot steady. Go back to slow reps on a still ball.
- The defender doesn't move Sell it with your head and shoulders on the first touch while your hips stay over your base.
- You stall after the move Plan the exit before you start and accelerate as soon as the second touch lands.
Drill
- Warm up first. Shadow the footwork with no ball, slowly, on both sides. Stop if your knee, hip or groin hurts.
- Still ball from a standstill: plant, push behind the standing leg, wrap and push back. Start slow and build speed as you repeat.
- Two cones, a start cone and a defender cone: walk or lightly jog from the start, do the move at the defender cone, then accelerate past it.
- Same drill at a slightly quicker jog, keeping both touches as pushes. Don't take it to a full sprint.
Sources
- Online Soccer Academy — How to do the Hocus Pocus (n.d.)
- CF Montréal, Olivier Meilleur-Tremblay — Foot Culture: skill moves (n.d.)
- We Make Footballers (WMF Coaching Team) — How to Master a Rabona (2021)
- We Make Footballers (WMF Coaching Team) — How to master a flip flap (elastico) (2021)
- Brault, Bideau, Kulpa & Craig — Detecting Deception in Movement: The Case of the Side-Step in Rugby, PLOS ONE (2012)
Last checked 2026-10-31.