Les Sparks Goalkeeping Drill Page - Relationship between Head Coach and Keeper Coach

A soccer team which has a goalkeeper coach is very lucky. If a soccer team is fortunate to have a head coach and keeper coach who communicate their training objectives to one another, the goalkeepers and the team will benefit greatly. Harmony and interaction within the entire group, not just amongst the field players, is of the utmost importance to a successful team performance. The goalkeeper must develop a sense of responsibility within the team. He or she must be involved as a vital member of the team.

All players on a team are assigned crucial roles and it is important that they understand how each other functions in order to form a cohesive unit. When we coordinate our efforts with the efforts of others we speed the way to the team goals. This type of cooperation builds success.

We all understand that the goalkeeper is very unique and has special demands to confront in a match that are very different from the field players. Yes, the goalkeeper requires special training to meet these special skills. Training keepers on separate islands away from the team has some merit, however to maximize the keeper’s contribution to the team, the keeper must interact in all phases of team development.

I am extremely fortunate to have been working with Carlos Queiroz since 1992. We have worked together with Portugal’s National Teams, First Division Sporting Club de Lisbon, MLS NY/NJ Metrostars, and now with "J" League Grampus Eight of Japan. During these years we have grown together and understand each other’s training objectives. This has been essential to maximize our goalkeepers’ performance and development. All of our goalkeepers, including Vitor Baia (Barcelona), Lemajic (Sporting), Tony Meola (Metrostars), and Y.Ito (Grampus Eight) have benefited from these methods of training. These individuals were integrated into the team and acted as leaders. Three of these four keepers were the captains of their team. These keepers realized that not just the goal coach was interested in their training, but so was the head coach. Their training became a priority and not an after thought as a result of suffering a goal.

As a result of the four step rule, back pass rule, and now the six second rule, the role of the goalkeeper is changing. These restrictions not only affect the keeper, but they also affect the team as a whole.

As I have said numerous times in the past, goalkeeper experts are not the best goalkeeper coaches. It is the game that is the best goalkeeper coach. However, a knowledgeable goal coach can guide the keeper by combining the assessment of technical efficiency, psychological makeup, and the physical aspects of training with the tactical aspects of matches.

When you fit the goalkeeper into the team training, you will be able to address such issues as: Shot handling and crosses under pressure, initiating the attack from the back, back pass strategies, defensive restarts, off side trap, spacing between the keeper and defenders, team communication, etc. It is also important that the goalkeeper’s voice is familiar to his or her teammates. Not only the tone of the voice, but the terminology as well. A well organized defense sees fewer shots and thus concedes fewer goals. This organization needs to be trained. At Grampus, we are presented with a communication challenge. There are several different nationalities of players on the team and is thus critical for the goalkeeper to learn specific commands in each foreign player’s language.

The goal coach/head coach relationship is important for many reasons. A line of communication must always be kept open. This will prepare your goalkeeper to meet the needs of the team without having any surprises or being unprepared.

The goalkeeper warm-up should reflect the tactical theme of the training session. As an example, if the team will be focusing on attacking from the flanks, then your goalkeeper lesson plan should have a warm-up that prepares the keepers to handle crosses. The goalkeepers should always be informed of the activities of the team training. Always give sufficient time to prepare the keepers for the demands of the team training sessions.

Sometimes as a goalkeeper coach you sense your keepers are fatigued or they just do not have the spark to dive into the upper corners. It happens. The head coach has prepared an intense session for the team. For fear of overload, it is my responsibility as the goal coach to advise the head coach that it would not be in the best interest of the keepers to have them participate in this particular activity. It is very important that the team have a minimum of three keepers at all of the training sessions. With three keepers you can rotate.

It is not unusual for head soccer coaches to prepare a training session that does not take the demands of the keeper into consideration. They will design a specific activity with a work/rest ratio appropriate for field players. However, for the keeper the work/ratio might be different. For example: Half of the team trains throw-ins and the other half play 4V4, one touch, in an area the size of two goalboxes. They will rotate after ten minutes. However, the two keepers stay in goal for a total of twenty minutes. It is the second ten minutes, when fatigue is a factor, that can present a high risk of injury for the keepers. So these are the sort of situations that need to be discussed and balanced accordingly.

The actual times of the various training phases need to be coordinated with the goal coaches as well. This allows the goal coach to allocate the amount of training evenly among the keepers. Coordination of the training space should also be decided before hand. Naturally, the field players have first choice because they need more space to train. Occasionally, it is also advisable to move the goalkeepers’ training location. The nature of the goalkeepers’ training session has a tendency to disturb the ground area.

Training equipment needs should also be planned prior to the training session. This will avoid any confusion at the training site. Towards the end of the training session, we typically have players take penalty shots while they stretch for cool down and we have free kick specialist shoot on goal. Once again this requires the dispersing of the goalkeepers and the goal coach should be informed in advance.

The head coach and goal coach both should be aware of the time it requires to conduct the match day warm-up. This is important so that field players avoid being ready too early and are anxious to shoot on goal when the keeper is not yet prepared for this type of action. At Grampus Eight, we needed to sort out this situation. It takes twenty-three minutes for us to conduct the goalkeeper warm-up. In the cooler weather we experienced no problems. The timing was perfect. As the field players were concluding their match preparation, we also were at the end of the goalkeeper warm-up. The keeper was prepared to save and the field players were prepared to shoot. The harmony was in sync.

As the weather began to get warmer, the field players’ warm-up time was reduced. However, the keepers kept the same time frame. The result was the field players were shooting while the keepers were in the process of warming-up. Balls were being fired at the keeper. At times several balls were being shot at the same time. The goal box had turned into a high risk area where our keepers could not properly prepare themselves for a match. A meeting was necessary to discuss the issue and resolve this challenge. The solution was that the keepers would start a bit earlier and the field players spent a longer time on stretching. This decision has to be made with the approval of the head coach. The connection must be made. When the time was right, both myself and the assistant coach made eye contact and we combined the keeper and the field players. This might appear to be a small and insignificant matter. However, warm-up activities need to have a sequence and the timing of these patterns is important. We always choreographed the match day warm-up the day before the actual match. This ensures that it is mastered by the whole team.

Overall, keep the lines of communication open between the head coach and keeper coach, be flexible, and balance the time spent between isolated goalkeeper training and team training. This will ensure that a goalkeeper is not only technically fit, but functions as part of a team. Ultimately, a good goalkeeper is more than just a shot stopper and we must prepare them to face this challenge.

Good Luck! Train Hard! Live Goalkeeping!

Yours in goal,

Dan Gaspar

Star Goalkeeper Academy Founder and Assistant
Goalkeeper Coach of Japanese "J" League Grampus Eight

A few of Dan Gaspar's accomplishments:

USSF "A" License,NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and National Clinician, More than 17 years experience as a goalcoach, Assistant Coach & Goalkeeper coach for "J" League Grampus Eight, Assistant Coach & Goalkeeper coach for the NY/NJ Metrostars, MLS, Portugal’s National Goalkeeper Coach (Men’s, Women’s, Olympic, 18u, 16u)