Worcester Goalkeeping Academy Session 3

Friday 19^th October: Worcester Goalkeeping Academy Session 3

Tonight was the first session that I led, I had some help from one of the other coaches, Andy, and he came in with some ideas, but it was my session plan that the goalkeepers undertook. I planned a session that was specifically based around footwork however until I got there I didn’t know how many goalkeepers I would have with me or what their standard was like.

I started with a basic warm up to get them moving with the ball in their hands, they simply had to jog around a coned area and when I shouted out a number they would have to do something, for example when I shouted ‘1’ they had to throw the ball up in the air and catch it above their heads, when I shouted ‘2’ they had to place the ball on the floor and pick it up again and so on. To finish the warm up we did some basic dynamic stretches such as opening and closing the gate. We then moved into the first main activity, this was a simple footwork activity that could easily be progressed. The goalkeeper would stand in between their near post and a cone that was on the angle of the post. I would act as server and they would have to react to what I called, if I shouted ‘cone’ then they would have to sidestep towards the cone before sidestepping back into the middle, set themselves and catch the ball from the server. We split into 2 groups to complete this activity with Andy serving one group and myself the other. The main coaching point that I bought up from this exercise was the emphasis on always facing the ball and knowing your surroundings. I showed the ‘keepers what I meant by sidestepping to and from the cone and post and receiving the ball in between I made sure that they knew their heads should always be up with their eyes on the ball because if they look down in a real game they will miss the shot.

The 2^nd activity was a progression to this where I set up a few cones to the side of the goal, the goalkeepers had to use small steps to work their way through the cones before sidestepping across the goal to save a shot at the far post. Again they key point was keeping their heads up and looking at whether their footwork was quick enough to get them from one side of the goal to the other in time. In general the goalkeepers were very good at this so me and Andy decided that it would be beneficial for the goalkeepers to save a 2^nd shot, meaning they would have to get up and set themselves for the 2^nd shot. This went very well but I noticed a problem with Mike’s technique when catching the ball, so I took him to the side to explain and demonstrate what was wrong. He was leaning back when catching the ball, often causing him to fall backwards and sometime drop the ball. I explained to Mike that it was important for him to set himself by leaning forwards slightly and getting his hands up and ready for the ball, this would stop him falling backwards and dropping it. When Mike re-joined the activity you could see an improvement although sometimes he slipped back into his old routine.

These activities had finished a lot quicker than I expected so I asked Andy whether he had any ideas as to what we could do he advised a triangle structure that would mean one goalkeeper working and the other 3 serving the ball. This was a hard physical activity for the goalkeepers but they very much enjoyed and I am going to use it again next week. After this we joined with another group to play a game of ‘Last Keeper Standing’ this is a simple and competitive game that the boys always seem to enjoy. They basically have a shot taken at them if they save it they stay in but if they concede they are out. It is a good activity to end a session on.

I have learn tonight that I need to prepare more activities in my session so that I am prepared if we finish quickly I will bare this in mind when planning for next week.

Luke Shearing

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