Worcester Goalkeeping Academy: Session 1

Friday 5^th October: Worcester Goalkeeping Academy session 1

Tonight I had my first session as a coach at the Worcester Goalkeeping Academy. I used it as a taster session for myself to see whether it would be the sort of thing I am interested in doing. It definitely is! When I got there I spoke to Julia (who runs the academy) briefly and she explained to me what it was all about and how they run their sessions. She explained to me that she would be taking the kids (aged 7-14) to a class room where they would go over various techniques they should be using and how they could improve their own techniques. While they were doing us the coaches would set up various drills that their groups would complete when the kids came back out. I was partnered with Wayne who had his own group to coach for the evening, I would be shadowing and helping Wayne to find out about the sort of thing they do in the sessions. Whilst the kids were in the classroom all of the coaches got together and had a bit of shooting at each other to warm up, this was a very good experience for me and I enjoyed having some shots at me and taking some at the other keepers.

The kids then came back out and we were all set up and ready for the session, Wayne told me that we would be focusing on distribution for this session. After a quick warm up with the kids we went straight into the 1^st drill which was very basic distribution, we had a group of 3 kids aged around 10 and it was interesting to see their levels of distribution which all and all was very good. I was partnered with Freddie and we were rolling, throwing, drop kicking and goal kicking the ball to each other over increasing distances. I was very impressed with the level of Freddie’s distribution in particular and I helped him a bit with his goal kick techniques telling him to focus on kicking the bottom of the ball and to get underneath the ball to increase height and accuracy. We then moved onto a drill which saw each of the keepers save one shot before having to throw the ball to a coloured cone, the colour of which one they have to throw to was shouted as they saved. This was a good drill as it tested their accuracy when throwing over arm under time pressure. The final game we played as a group was distribution golf. Each ‘keeper had to kick the ball off of a cone aiming for the ‘hole’, then their next shot would be an over arm throw and they would finish, if close enough, with an under arm roll into the hole. This was good because it tested the whole range of distribution that we had practised throughout the whole session.

The session as a whole ended with all 20 (ish) goalkeepers, from the whole academy, having a go at the crossbar challenge, the younger you were the closer you were allowed to have a go from. Each keeper had 2 goes, but there were no hits. Then all the coaches had a go and everybody missed, including me. This was a good way of finishing a good session as it added a competitive element to the evening.

I’m already looking forward to next week.

Luke Shearing

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