Choosing A Goalkeeping Camp - NASL.com - The Best source for soccer coaches in the world

Wow, I can’t believe how late I am in getting this newsletter out. I have been meaning to send out the newsletter on camps for weeks now but for various reasons (including procrastination) I have not done so.

I would like to start off by writing about what a keeper should look for in choosing a camp. I believe that the first factor in this decision is the age of the keeper. If she is High School aged and has plans to play college soccer, there are two things to consider. First, does she have an idea of what College or University she would like to attend? If she does then it would be an excellent idea for her to attend the camp of that college’s coach. This will give her an excellent opportunity to be seen by the head coach and the staff as well as give the keeper an opportunity to experience the staffs coaching style. It’s one thing to hear about a coach’s style but another thing to see it and experience it up close and personally. For example, if I was a junior in high school and I was interested in attending Marshall University (self-serving example but you get the idea) I would try to attend a Marshall University Soccer Camp. If they did not provide adequate keeper training, or were disorganized in the running of the camp, then I would have to give a great deal of thought to whether that was the type of organization I want to be associated with (of course there are a lot of other factors regarding the college selection but that is a totally different newsletter).

If you are selecting a camp without regard for college exposure and experience the most important factor to consider is the training you will receive at the camp. Pretty facilities and swimming pools and things like that are nice but they will not affect the training at all. Most of what it comes down to is who is doing the training and what exactly are they teaching. I have been to some big well known soccer camps where the keeper training was completely inadequate because it was based on how much yelling the coaches can do and how hard they can have you work. The first day of camp, I have observed keepers diving over each other to show their ability to extend on dives when these keepers didn’t know how catch a ball properly. The uneducated observer might think it was pretty cool to see the keepers doing that but I believe it’s borderline negligence. If the coaches don’t coach within the capabilities of the campers then they are not doing their job. In choosing a camp, check out the keeper coaches. Are they qualified? Are they simply college players with no background in coaching who are following a schedule without regard for the level of the campers? Are they capable of coaching different players at different levels at the same time? Unfortunately, none of these are easy questions to answer. What makes a coach qualified? Certainly not coaching licenses since there are too many coaches running around with A licenses who don’t know a damned thing about keepers (or about field players for that matter). I guess the best indicator is history. Has the keeper coach successfully coached quality keepers in the past? In using history as an indicator, there is always the qualifier that is used in investments "prior success does not guarantee future success" but it is probably the best determination. If at all possible, check out the keeper coaches in a training situation prior to signing up for a camp. I realize this is difficult to do but it’s the best thing I can think of at the present time.

One of the difficulties with some of the big camps out there is that the "name" coach doesn’t show up often or doesn’t do any of the coaching. This does not mean it’s a bad camp but rather it just means that you have to do more research to find out who will be doing the training and find out about them. If you contact a camp to find out who will be doing the training and the camp wont tell you then in my opinion; this speaks volumes about the camp.

There are a lot of arguments for and against isolated keeper camps Vs keeper camps connected to field player camps. Rather then getting into it here, I will simply say that you need to determine what is best for you. I have worked at both and think both types can be very effective if done properly.

When it comes to talking about big keeper camps, there really are two. They are Tony Dicico’s SoccerPlus and Joe Machniks Number One Goalkeeping Camp. (I apologize for the spellings but it’s the best I can do on short notice). Both are very intense, high level camps that are also very expensive. I believe most people leave the camps feeling they were worth the cost but when I say they are expensive, I am talking about $600-800 dollars per week. Both camps are very structured but still if you consider going to them; find out the director will be for the session you will be attending.

The other camps, I am going to recommend are camps at which I will be working. The first one (and the one I recommend the most if it’s convenient and especially if you are looking for an inexpensive day camp) is my own keeper camp in Atlanta GA. It is highly unusual because it’s a very informal, very intense, camp in which you don’t have to worry about who the coaches will be because the only coach you deal with is I. This will be my 5^th year doing this camp and sometimes I bring an "assistant coach" (whose sole qualifications are they must have been trained by me and do things exactly as I want them done) but most of the time I do all of the training myself. This camp is from 9 AM to 3 PM and will be June 14-18 in Northeast Atlanta (hopefully in Stone Mountain). The cost of the camp is $150 for the week and I can guarantee you that it will be some of the most intense training you can get anywhere. There is no schedule going into the week and everything is done based solely on the needs and levels of each of the keepers involved. I will not put my qualifications down on this email because if you are still reading this 9^th edition of my newsletter then you must have some reason to believe I know what I am doing. If you want more information or have some questions, then click on this link to get to my web site http://finesoccer.com/camp.htm . You can sign up for my site online.

If you are looking for an overnight camp there are a couple I will be working at. For the third year now I will be at the UAB Women’s Soccer Camp run by Paul Harbin. The past 2 years, I have been the sole keeper coach at the camp and while I am definitely working there again this year, there is a chance I will work with field players and someone else will train the keepers. I have known Paul for 8 years and know that besides being an excellent team and keeper coach, he would never allow his camp to have anything but an excellent keeper coach. The UAB camp is from July 18-23 (I believe) in Birmingham Alabama. Please contact Paul Harbin at pharbin@uab.edu for additional information. One of the interesting things about this camp is you train in the mornings with the keeper coach and in the afternoons you spend with an assigned team who will incorporate the keeper into the rest of the team. This gives you the benefit of more tactical training then a lot of camps provide. A highly qualified coach hand picked by Paul Harbin coaches each of the teams. While most camps have a set curriculum that coaches must follow, each of these coaches is capable of designing the training session based on the teams and individual needs. It’s an excellent camp for everyone

The Marshall University Women’s Soccer camp will be July 26-30 in beautiful Huntington WV. Teresa Patterson, the head women’s soccer coach at Marshall University, runs this camp. Teresa was a high level keeper at Mercer University and is an excellent keeper and team coach. This is actually a team camp for female soccer players but I believe if you contact Teresa, she might be able to make room for some extra keepers. The cost of the camp is an amazingly low $275. She can be emailed at patterso@marshall.edu

The Marshall University Men’s Soccer camp is June 6^th-10^th at Marshall University. I honestly don’t know anything about the camp except that I will be doing the keeper training. For more information contact grayr@marshall.edu.

Good luck in your decision-making and if I can be any help please feel free to contact me at comments@finesoccer.com

The next newsletter will go out later on this week. I promise.

Lawrence

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