Welcome to the Goalkeeping
Newsletter. Today’s edition is about agility drills. I will be
writing about a couple of my favorite drills and the advantages and
disadvantages of each.
The first drill I want to
discuss is probably my favorite drill of them all. Its called spaghetti or
triangle drills. This drill requires 4 people, which is best if it’s one
coach or trainer and 3 keepers. Make an equilateral triangle with each
side being 8 yards. This essentially makes 3 full sized goals. The
first keeper starts in the middle of the triangle and the other three people are
on the outside of the triangle lined up 10 yards from the middle of each goal.
Each of these servers has a ball in her hands. The keeper will run to the
outside of each goal and save a simple serve with a collapse dive. As soon
as the save has been made, the keeper runs though the triangle to the next ball
being served. Each save must be made outside the triangle. This will
go on for a one-minute period. As soon as the minute is up, the next
keeper will start. If the makeup of the group is 3 keepers and one
trainer, each keeper will go hard for one minute and then rest for the next two
minutes. After each keeper has gone through this process, the next step
would be extended dives. It’s important for the servers to make sure
that each one is not serving to the same side each time. Try to get the
servers to alternate each serve. There are many options for sets to do in
this series including running through balls, forward dives, high balls, backward
tips, and parrying. Then you could build in forward rolls, knees to chest
jumps or burpees between each save and this becomes a wonderful drill for
conditioning, agility and technique. The reason it’s sometimes called a
spaghetti drill is after each one-minute period; the keeper’s legs start to
feel like they have the stability of spaghetti. This is a high intensity
drill that requires a lot of concentration. While the conditioning in this
drill is incredible, the technique used in each set is what has to emphasize.
One of the reasons for the rolls and jumps is to tire out the keepers to force
them to really concentrate on the technique. This drill will show how
fundamentally sound a keeper really is. The only negative of this drill is
the need for 4 people.
The next drill is also done
with a triangle although this one is much smaller. This equilateral
triangle should be between 3-4 yards. You also need at least 4 people
although the more the better. Field players can be used, as there is a
benefit to them as well. In this drill the working keeper must stay
outside the triangle at each time. The players on the outside would stay
around 10 yards back surrounding the triangle. They would pass the ball
around the triangle trying to create an angle to pass the ball through the triangle.
The working keeper must stay outside the triangle and use their footwork to
navigate their way around the triangle trying to keep everything outside of the
triangle. This can be turned into a competition between keepers to see who
can be scored upon the least in a one-minute period. Each time the ball
goes through the triangle it’s a point and each time the keeper runs through
the goal it’s also a goal. The keeper who has let up the fewest number
of points wins. This drill requires a lot of balls and the more field
players the better since it requires some skill to pass the ball around and
through triangle. This is very strenuous and again the only negative is
the number of people required plus the number of balls.
The third drill I want to
discuss involves fewer people. It’s done in front of a goal with two
servers and one keeper. The servers stand approximately 10 yards from the
goal even with the posts. They will pass the ball back and forth either
with one or two touches and the keeper must move with the ball in order to cut
off the angle. Any time the servers feel the keeper has not gotten there
quickly enough, the ball can be shot into the goal (either near post or far
post). This requires a great deal of movement and conditioning. The
keeper, while going back and forth between the posts does not really run in
straight lines but rather almost makes a U in their movements going back to the
line in the middle and then attacking the ball when its at the feet of the
servers. The advantage of this drill is the servers can be keepers,
coaches or just bystanders and it only requires one ball.
Each of these drills is high
intensity and should last for one-minute periods. Emphasize
the fundamentals and realize these are extremely simple but intense drills.
