The reverse scissors is the mirror of the scissors. You shape to touch the ball with the inside of your foot, sweep that foot across the front of the ball toward your other foot (outside to inside) without touching it, then take the ball the other way with the outside of the same foot. It sells a cut inside so you can break outside. Naming varies: some coaches call this an inside step-over or simply a step-over.
Set up
Dribble toward the defender at a steady, controlled pace with the ball close, and keep your head and eyes up so you can see the defender and the space.
Ball close, eyes up.
Start the move before you reach the defender, while there is still a gap between you.
Move early, not on top of them.
Scissor
Shape as if you are about to touch or pass the ball with the inside of your foot. That fake starts the move.
Looks like an inside cut.
Without touching the ball, sweep that foot around the front of it toward your other foot, and step it down just past the ball toward the middle of your body. With the right foot, the foot travels in front of the ball from your right to your left. This is the opposite circle to the scissors.
Foot crosses in front, toward your other foot.
Angle your shoulders and head toward the fake as the foot sweeps, but keep your hips under you so you can still change direction.
Upper body sells it, hips stay ready.
Straight away, push the ball the other way with the outside of the same foot.
Fake in, go out.
Speed up right after that touch and drive into the space as soon as it opens.
Slow in, fast out.
Feel it
It should feel like one fake and one escape: the foot crosses in front of the ball as if to cut inside, your shoulders turn with it, then the outside of the same foot takes the ball away and you accelerate. The change of pace does much of the work. If you stay at the same speed after the touch, the defender recovers.
Fix-its
- Feet-only fake Angle your body, shoulders and head toward the fake as the foot sweeps. Defenders read the upper body early.
- Whole body lurches with the fake Sell it with your shoulders and head, and keep your hips under you. If your weight commits to the fake, you can't get back the other way quickly.
- Sweeping the wrong way In the reverse scissors the foot crosses in front of the ball toward your other foot, and the ball leaves with the outside of that same foot. If the foot sweeps away from your body and the other foot takes the ball, that is the scissors.
- No change of pace Approach slower, then accelerate straight after the outside touch and drive into the space.
- Eyes on the ball Practise on a still ball until the footwork is automatic, then keep your head up so you can see the defender and the space.
Drill
- Standing over a still ball: go through the motion without touching the ball, sweeping in front toward your other foot, then push the ball out with the outside of the same foot. Four times with the right foot, four with the left.
- Cone run: put a cone about 10 m ahead as the defender and another about 8 m ahead as the move point. Dribble at a slow, steady pace, do the reverse scissors at the 8 m cone, and speed up past the 10 m cone. Repeat at different approach speeds.
- In a 15x15 m area with other players, dribble for one minute with your head up. Each time you meet a player or cone, fake the inside cut and go out the other way.
- Combine the fakes: do a scissors, then a reverse scissors, and escape after the second one.
Sources
- We Make Footballers (WMF Coaching Team) — How to master a Step Over (2022)
- MOJO Sports (Team MOJO) — 5 of the Best Trick Soccer Moves
- Jackson, Barton, Ashford & Abernethy — Stepovers and Signal Detection, Frontiers in Psychology (2018)
- Brault, Bideau, Kulpa & Craig — Detecting Deception in Movement: The Case of the Side-Step in Rugby, PLOS ONE (2012)
- FIFA Training Centre (Branimir Ujevic) — Mastering ball control (2024)
Last checked 2026-10-26.