Step overs

We were doing 1V1 in training and I wasn't really doing any good moves, I wasn't even going at the defender I preferred taking shots from far and hope it went in. But towards the end I did a step over and I could see that it worked better than all the useless fake shots. I saw that the defender bought my move and went to the side quite a bit more than I normally manage to make them. And coincidently I found a video today called "The art of step overs". This video is a compilation and I sat down to watch and observe what makes them do it so good and what I can do to match it. 

Touch before: All the good stepovers have one touch in the direction the wanna take it, then the fake goes the other way and the final touch is in the direction the ball is already going in. Or the touch could be in the direction the fake is and then taken the other way. The touch I feel makes the defender do something before the step over instead of just staying stationary in front of a stationary/ball continuing in the same direction.

Keep it moving: I stop the ball a lot of times and give time for the defenders to do something. I need to make sure I keep moving the ball and wait for the defenders to react to what I'm doing. Not stopping the ball makes it harder for the defender to guess what I'm bouta do. 

Acceleration: You can't slow down after beating a defender, cause they're always gonna recover and get back in front of you or tackle you, and all the effort is gone. So to keep them behind or make sure you've beaten them for good is to accelerate and cut them off by coming into their line, blocking the ball from them. 

Sell the move: "Selling the move" is what you say for when you make the opponent think that you're gonna do a move when you actually don't. How to do this?. First thing is keeping your foot close to the ball, doing this makes it seem more realistic, cause they're gonna think you're gonna actually take it to the side and will probably move that way. So keep it as close as possible. The second thing is the rest of the body (mainly the shoulders cause they make the difference). You have to move the rest of the body to look like you're going through with the move. Dropping the shoulder a little further makes it more realistic than dropping it on the spot. 

Look up after: this one is simple. Look up after beating the player. this will give an opportunity to think of what to do next based on how the field has changed. 

Here is the video I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE8wjD-Q9N4

That's it