Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-Min revealed that his father punished he and his brother by making them do keep ups for hours.
In an interview with The Guardian, Son recounted stories about how his father, former soccer player Son Woong-jung, punished him and his brother when they were still being coached by him.
โHe gave us four hours of keepy-uppies,โ the 26-year-old former Bayer Leverkusen player said. โBoth of us. After about three hours, I was seeing three balls. The floor was red [through bloodshot eyes].โ
โI was so tired. And he was so angry. I think this was the best story and we still talk about it when we are all together. Four hours keeping the ball up and you don’t drop it. That’s difficult, no?”
Keep ups, also known as keepie uppies, is a term for juggling a ball without letting it touch the floor while using every part of one’s body except the arms.
Impressively enough, when asked by the publication if he ever let the ball fall, Son said, โNo, not once.โ
Son and his brother were not the only people who experienced this strict training under his fatherโs guidance. He revealed that at one point, his dad went to his school to coach other kids and everyone was made to do the same routine โ albeit with shorter time limits.
โWhen I was 10 or 12, he came in to coach my school team and we were training, 15 or 20 players. The programme was for us all to keep the balls up for 40 minutes. When someone dropped the ball, my father would not say anything. But as soon as I dropped it, he made us all start over from the beginning.โ he said. โThe players understood, because I was his son and, yeah, it was tough. But when you think about it now, this was the right way.”
Featured image via Instagram / hm_son
