Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on a keeper reading the situation when the ball is on the end line.  This activity is great for keepers as well as the rest of the team.

Start with a keeper in goal, an attacking player on the end line just outside the 18, a defender 3 yards behind the player on the end line and a few attacking and defending players in the 18.

As soon as the attacker with the ball touches it, the game is live.

The attacker can dribble straight toward

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Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity involves supporting the backs on their first touch.

To start, have a server with balls around midfield and a back near the top of the 18.  A midfielder is 10 yards in front of the back.

The server plays a ball into the back and the midfielder has to position himself to receive a

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Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on reading the touches on breakaways.

Goalkeepers tend to work on the technique and footwork for breakaways but just as important is reading the opponents touches.  Frequently the breakaway opportunity comes about real quickly.

An example of a typical way keepers might work on breakaways is to have a player start 30-40 yards out and dribble in at speed.

In this activity the keeper knows where the breakaway is

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Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing the ball out of the back.

We are going to play with two teams playing 4 – 4 – 2 but you can use any formations you choose.  There is a keeper in one goal and the other end line (70 yards away) has two 8 yard wide goals on the ends.

The ball starts with the keeper and the team defending the goal (in this case the black team) gets a

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Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on reading the game and anticipating shots.

When training keepers we frequently put them in a situation where they know a shot is coming.  In many cases, not only do they know when the shot is coming but also from where.  To allow the keeper to work on this we can play a 4 v 4 (any numbers really would work) possession game using the width of the 6 as one set of boundaries and the penalty spot to the top of the D as the other set of boundaries.  A keeper is in goal.

Whichever team has the ball must make 3 consecutive passes and at that

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Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activities work on heading.  There is an excellent DVD devoted just to heading that you might want to check out at 30 Minute Soccer Clinic – Heading

When you watch a lot of youth games (and it’s probably safe to lump a lot of professional games into this statement as well) you see that heading is an often neglected skill.  Great opportunities are squandered because players aren’t prepared to finish with their head.  Goal scoring opportunities are given to the other team because of bad clearances with the head.

Here is a simple game to work on heading with a purpose.

Start with a 30 x 30 area (size can vary) and have two teams of five plus a neutral player in the grid

One team starts with a ball in one of their

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