The reverse elastico is the elastico done in the opposite order: the inside of your foot guides the ball a short way across your body, then the same foot wraps around it and snaps it back the other way with the outside. No coaching body or detailed written guide breaks down the reverse version, so this lesson mirrors sourced elastico technique and a FIFA ball-mastery touch (inside, then outside of the same foot). We read the fast foot motion and your balance on the standing leg; the touch on the ball itself isn't visible to the camera.
Set up
Learn the touch slowly first: touch the ball with the inside of your right foot, then turn it back with the outside of the same foot. Do the same with the left. Build speed only while you keep the ball under control.
Inside, then outside, one foot.
Dribble at the defender with the ball close and your head up. Start the move about two steps before you reach them.
Close ball, eyes up.
Flick
Guide the ball a short way across your body with the inside of your working foot. Guide it, don't kick it. If it goes too far, you can't get your foot around it in time.
Ball on a string.
Wrap the same foot around the ball and snap it back the other way with the outside of the foot. The two touches should merge into one quick, fluid motion, with the ball kept close.
Across, wrap, snap.
Sell the fake with your shoulder and head toward the inside touch, but keep your hips and weight near your midline over the standing leg so you can go the other way at once.
Shoulders lie, hips stay home.
Exit on the side the ball snapped to: change pace and accelerate past the defender.
Burst out.
Feel it
The reverse elastico should feel like one whip of the foot: the ball moves a short way across, your foot goes around it and the ball comes straight back out. Your shoulder and head do the lying while your hips stay under you. If it feels like two slow, separate touches, the defender has time to recover.
Fix-its
- It's two slow, separate touches Make it one rapid, fluid motion. Go back to slow reps on a still ball, then speed up a little at a time while the ball stays close.
- The inside touch goes too far and you can't wrap around it Guide the ball only a short way and keep it close to your boot.
- The second touch comes off your other foot Both touches use the same foot. Practise inside then outside of one foot on a still ball until it's automatic.
- Your whole body lurches with the fake and you can't get back Sell with the shoulder and head only. Keep your hips and weight near your midline.
- The move works but you stall after it Plan the exit: change pace and accelerate away on the side the ball went.
Drill
- Still ball: touch with the inside of the right foot, turn back with the outside of the right foot. Repeat with the left. Slow and controlled.
- On the move: dribble, reverse elastico, keep going. Speed up only while the ball stays close.
- Cone defender: set 3–4 cones as a defender. Run at them at speed with your head up, drop your shoulder, do the move and burst out.
- Unopposed then semi-opposed, 5 minutes each: beat a tall cone with the move, then a partner who defends passively. Start the move about two steps before the defender and work both feet.
- Fully opposed: 3 v 3 in a 20x20 area with 3-yard gates. Score by dribbling through a gate under control. Switch roles every minute.
Sources
- We Make Footballers (WMF Coaching Team) — How to master a flip flap (elastico) (2021)
- GOAL — Best football skills: how to do the Ronaldo Chop, Elastico, Cruyff Turn and more (2022)
- FIFA Training Centre, Anton Corneal — Building relationships between the ball and the boot (2025)
- Jobs In Football — Soccer Skills: The Elastico (2022)
- Sportplan — Flip flap / elastico 1v1 drill
- Sport Session Planner (F. Greenawalt) — Inside-Outside (Coerver) session
- Brault, Bideau, Kulpa & Craig — Detecting Deception in Movement: The Case of the Side-Step in Rugby, PLOS ONE (2012)
Last checked 2026-10-30.