India have skills but need to work more on basics: Freestyle football star Tokuda

New Delhi, Nov 14: Japanese freestyle football star Kotaro Tokuda has praised Indian freestylers, saying they possess some good natural skills but first need to master the basics to make the mark at international platforms.

The current world champion advised the budding players that they need to watch more international freestyle footballers.

"Indian freestyle community is definitely growing however, freestylers need to invest
time and work on their basics a lot more. I was very surprised at the level of skills shown by the Indian freestylers. They have some original styles, Indian styles. Their styles are quite special," Tokuda told IANS.

"My advice to budding freestylers is to first master the basic skills. They have a lot of styles and variations but only if one strengthen the basics it is possible not only to participate in various competitions but also reach to the top.

They need more practice and watch more International freestylers. They need to master the basics first and then innovate the styles and tricks," he added.

The Red Bull athlete Tokuda, better known as 'Tokura', is the biggest names in freestyle football and has a long list of achievements in the sport.

Tokura became an international sensation when he became Red Bull Street Style World Champion in 2012, taking home the gold medal at the finals in Italy.

Tokura also revealed that freestyling also will also help the footballers to improve their game.

"Yes it does help, in fact when I play football, I freestyle as well. The ball control definitely improves with freestyling. But in the case of soccer, there is more room for improvement since players have to pass and shoot," he said.