and
Goalkeeping
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject deals with knowing when to dive and when not to dive.
There are currently 5 full keeper sessions online in the Full Season Training Sessions as part of the 27 training sessions currently online (and many more to come). To learn more about these complete training sessions, please go to
http://finesoccer.com/full_season.htm
Many keepers seem to have some confusion regarding when to dive and when to stay on their feet. Either they don't dive when they should have or they dive when it was unnecessary.
As a general rule of thumb, a keeper should do everything possible to get her body behind the ball. This means if she can't get her body behind the ball while staying on her feet, she would then have to dive.
The mistake keepers make when they hear this rule of thumb is they don't realize that with proper footwork they can get their body behind the ball much more than they think. Starting with a proper stance, on the balls of their feet and understanding proper footwork will allow most keepers to dive less than they think they have to.
The more a keeper dives the more likely they are to lose the ball or get injured. If keepers would make a better commitment to proper footwork which would allow them to get their bodies behind the ball without diving they would make more saves, get injured less and be an overall better keeper.
Remember the rule of thumb: If you can get your body behind the ball without diving don't dive but if the only way to get your body behind the ball is to dive, then dive!
Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or they can be posted on the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.net
To subscribe to any of the FineSoccer Newsletters please go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm
Have a great day!
Lawrence
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject
will deal with penalty kicks.
There are currently 19 complete training sessions
online for the Full Season Youth Training Sessions. To learn more about how
to organize and run training sessions for youth teams please go to
http://finesoccer.com/full_season.htm
Also, at the request of a number of subscribers the
Goalkeeping Newsletter is now available to be placed on your web sites and
the most current newsletter will be online and updated automatically as soon
as the next newsletter is available. To learn more please go to
http://finesoccer.com/soccer_content.htm
There are a number of theories on how keepers should
handle penalty kicks. Some people believe that the keeper should guess one
way with the logic being that if they guess correctly it increases their
chances of making the save. Others try to look for visual cues in
order to give them an opportunity for a more educated "guestimate". Still
others believe they can intimidate the shooter into making a mistake by
doing things like delaying a long time before being ready or doing some
other unconventional things.
I believe the best thing to do is combine a couple of
these theories and then hope for the best.
First let me say I do not believe in outright guessing.
Not only does the keeper have to guess the correct direction but also the
correct height and the correct timing. Even then the keeper still has to be
somewhat lucky to make the save.
The intimidation factor also should be discounted in my
opinion for the simple reason that it goes against the spirit of the game as
well as the laws of the game (Law 12 - Unsporting Behavior).
There are a few visual cues that can give you a slight
idea of where the ball will be going. If you know the shooter is going to
shoot with the inside of the foot (which isn't unusual for PK's especially
with younger players), if, when they plant their foot to shoot you see the
inside of their knee on their kicking leg, it most likely means they are
shooting to their strong side. To give an example of this, if it's a
right-footed shooter and they open up their knee they will most likely be
shooting to their right side (the keepers left side). If they don't open up
their knee and they use the inside of the foot, they are most likely
shooting to their weak side (a right footed player shooting to their left
side)
Another visual cue would be the shooters approach to
the ball. If they come straight onto the ball (or almost straight on) it
doesn't tell you anything but if they come from a severe angle (more than a
90 degree angle) they are more likely to shoot to their strong side. The
reason for this is that if they come from a severe angle and shoot to their
weak side, they are more likely to come around too far on the ball and shoot
it wide.
To me, the most frustrating thing from a coaching
standpoint on penalty kicks is to see a keeper guess one way and then have
the ball miss-hit straight down the middle of the goal. Because of this, I
prefer to see a keeper watch for some visual cues to give them an idea of
where the ball MIGHT be going but to keep on their feet and react to the
actual shot. Especially at the youth level, a surprisingly high percentage
of PK's are miss-hit so if a keeper stops the easy balls and forces the
shooter to hit a good shot, they have a better chance of making the save
than if they guess and go for the spectacular save.
As long as the keeper realizes that the real pressure
in a penalty kick situation is on the shooter they can relax and let the
shooter make the mistake. By making the easy saves, and letting the pressure
make it hard on the shooter to hit the great shot, it puts the keeper at the
advantage
Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent
to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or
they can be posted on the FineSoccer Forum at
http://finesoccer.net To subscribe
to any of the FineSoccer Newsletters
please go to
http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm
Have a great day!
Lawrence
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject deals with getting rid of excess movement as a keeper.
I have done a lot of work with videotaping soccer players recently and then going over videos with the players. One thing we have noticed is the amount of unnecessary movement by many players when they are getting into their 'set' or 'ready' positions. The thing to remember is that the more unnecessary movements a keeper has, the more likely they are to make a mistake in trying to do things properly.
To give you an idea of some of unnecessary movements they include getting into the set position and then as the ball is struck, widening the stance so that they feet are set wider than shoulders length apart which limits the ability to move in any direction. Another common unnecessary movement is the "hitching" of the arms while setting. What I mean by this is the keepers bring their arms up and back while coming forward. This is what I refer to as the "Schmeikel syndrome" because keepers want to be like Peter Schmeikel and look as big as they can in goal. While it's good to look big, it's better to play big and by making many of these unnecessary movements in goalkeeping it makes it harder for a keeper to do the simple things. When keepers bring their arms up and back, it makes it harder for them to get their hands back together in order to catch the ball. It also frequently stops their momentum from going forward which limits their range as well.
In looking at keepers who are diving, it's amazing how many steps you see in the wrong direction prior to the dive. This seems to happen most when a player takes too small of a power step and the second step is with the opposite foot going away from the dive. For example, when a shot is hit to the keepers right, she should take a big power step with the right foot and then use the left leg to come around hard to create the momentum in that direction. However, when the keeper takes the power step too small they might take that first step with the right but then tend to take another step with the left going forward instead of toward the ball. Again, this unnecessary movement limits range and makes it harder to make the save.
Using video to see unnecessary movement makes things a lot easier because of the ability to put it in slow motion and watch it step by step. I use special software that lets me control the video even more to help make minor changes which can result in a big difference but if you don't have this available, just having someone who knows what they are doing watch the keeper during training can really help spot and get rid of unnecessary movement by keepers.
Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or they can be posted on the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.net To subscribe to any of the FineSoccer Newsletters, please go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm
Have a great day!
Lawrence
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject deals with punching the ball at the highest point possible.
First, the Full Season Training Sessions are back for the third year with a major twist! Instead of showing how an older, college program runs it's training sessions, this years sessions will be with two youth teams (one girls and one boys). To learn more about the new Full Season Training Sessions, please go to http://www.finesoccer.com/full_season.htm. As a bonus, I will also include 8 keeper-training sessions (unrelated to these teams because they will be with older keepers) in this program. If you are more interested in the older ages, the 2002 sessions are still available from this page as well.
One of the earliest Goalkeeping Newsletters was written on how and when to punch a ball (see http://finesoccer.com/edition6.htm). However, the more I watched keepers this summer, the more I realized that too many are so interested in hitting the ball hard on their punch, that they lose the built in advantage that keepers have. The main advantage that keepers have over other players (besides the obvious one of being able to wear cool jerseys!) is that they can use their hands which should allow the keeper to reach balls before other plays can get to them on high serves. However, because many keepers seem to want to hit the ball as hard as they possibly can when punching, they let the ball drop to head height or sometimes even lower in order to get more power on the punch.
The problem with letting a ball drop to head height or lower on a high ball before punching is that if the ball is head height, there is nothing to stop an opponent from getting to the ball at the same time as the keeper or possibly even before the keeper. Like almost all other situations involving the keeper, the keeper would like to get to the ball at almost the highest point possible. This means getting to the ball almost a complete arms length higher than an opponent can get to the ball.
The reason I use the term "almost the highest point possible" is that the keeper will need to have a slight bending of the arm when making contact in order to extend the arms to get some power with the bunch. It's important to realize that most of the "power" from a punch comes from the timing (making contact with the ball while rising in a jump rather than while coming down from a jump) as well as from the momentum from the ball coming in.
While keepers might think it looks impressive when they punch the ball far down field, they have to realize that it's just like a field player who has an easy goal scoring opportunity but because she wants to hit the perfect shot, she puts it over the goal. The field player who simply places the ball into the back of the goal might not be as "impressive" to some but a goal is a goal is a goal. A keeper trying for the really hard punch might seem impressive to some UNTIL she misses the easy save trying to make it look more impressive than was necessary. Make contact early, be consistent and be a better keeper.
Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or they can be posted on the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.net
To subscribe to any of the FineSoccer Newsletters, please go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm
Have a great day!
Lawrence
In yesterdays Goalkeeping Newsletter there was a typo regarding the use of the proper knee from the left side. Here is the same newsletter with the correction. I would like to thank those subscribers who pointed this out to me.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject deals with using the correct knee on high balls for protections.
Many keepers seem to understand the importance of raising the knee on high balls (it's used for three reasons, first to help you get higher by "throwing" your knee up to get your body going in that direction from the start, second to deter an opponent from hitting you and third, in case an opponent does hit you, they hit you're your knee/thigh which you are prepared for as opposed to other parts of your body). However too many don't seem to understand which leg to use in a given situation.
This is a general rule of thumb but start by drawing an imaginary line down the center of the field (from the center of one goal to the center of the other goal). If the keeper is standing in the center of her goal, for any high ball that comes from the right side of the line, you should use your left knee for protection and any ball coming from your left side you should use your left knee for protection. The reason for this is the keeper will most likely get hit from a player coming from the middle of the field so; she should use her knee closest to the center of the field for protection. If she uses the other knee and gets hit, the player coming from the center of the field will most likely hit her body and then her leg as opposed to when she uses her proper knee the knee will be the part of the body hit most.
If you are having a difficult time understanding which knee to use from which side, please see the diagram at
http://finesoccer.com/goalkeeping_edition_192.htm.
While using the correct knee might seem like a minor thing, it very easily could be the difference between holding onto the ball and dropping the ball as well as staying healthy or being injured. In other words, this "minor thing" is actually very important.
Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or they can be posted on the FineSoccer Forum at
http://finesoccer.net. To subscribe to any of the FineSoccer Newsletters,
please go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm
Have a great day!
Lawrence
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject deals with goalkeepers and the eyes.
One of the biggest differences between most keepers and higher-level keepers are the eyes. Watch any top keeper play during games and it's fascinating to see their eyes. If you watch bad keepers eyes, it frequently seems like they aren't even paying attention to the game (which is one reason they are bad keepers). If you watch average keepers eyes during a game, you see that they are usually watching the ball. However, watch a top keeper and just seeing their eyes, you see the complete focus that is required to be a top keeper. When the ball is approaching a top keeper, they eyes stay completely focused on the ball regardless of what else is happening. The rest of the time, the eyes are both on the ball as well as constantly surveying the field to make sure the keeper is aware of everything that is happening with both teams (players unmarked, players struggling etc). Top keepers realize the importance of seeing and being aware of everything that is happening on the field.
The ability to see the field might seem like an easy one to master but like most other skills, it's something that takes some time and effort to master. One way to work on this is to watch games from behind the goal (which gives you a similar view as you would have while playing goal) and working on keeping your eyes on the ball while at the same time making sure you can see where the other 21 players on the field are at any time. By starting off working on keeper's vision without having to worry about the other aspects of goalkeeping it allows the keeper to isolate one part of the game at a time and then gradually add in the rest of goalkeeping.
While I realize that many people think of goalkeeping as being the same as shot blocking but the truth of the matter is things like working on vision and how to truly read the game is what real goalkeeping is all about
Any comments, questions or suggestions can be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or they can be posted to the newly reopened FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.net
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's subject deals with keeping on your feet.
When keepers come off their line to challenge an oncoming attacker there seems to be a tendency to want to dive too early. When the ball is at the attackers feet, the longer the keeper can stay on their feet, the bigger they will look and the bigger they will play. For more on playing big, see http://finesoccer.com/goalkeeping_edition_119.htm
While going down at the attackers feet while they have the ball does put the attacker under more pressure, it also gives them more room to shoot. Instead, the keeper should keep coming out to take away the attackers space and angle while also staying upright to give up as little scoring space as possible. This puts the attacker under pressure while also allowing the keeper to move in any direction to prevent the scoring opportunity.
As long as the keeper takes away the distance between the attacker and the keeper and stays on their feet while the ball is at the attackers feet, the keeper will be more effective and be in control of more of the game.
This simple point of staying on the feet while the attacker has the ball under control can make the difference between being an average keeper and being a top keeper.
Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com In the same way that the Goalkeeping Newsletter
helps make better soccer players, SoccerAtEase helps make better soccer players and better people. To learn more please go to http://finesoccer.com/socceratease.htm
To subscribe to any of the FineSoccer Newsletters, please go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm
Have a great day!
Lawrence
We would like to thank Lawrence Fine and FineSoccer.com for allowing us to publish this article on the NASL website. Please visit http://www.FineSoccer.com and sign up for Lawrence's free coaching newsletters and articles.
Created:
12/20/99
Last Updated:
07/02/04
Since
February 24, 1999
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