EDITION 13

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Michael Barr (keeper at the College of Charleston) suggested today’s subject.  Michael said that he has been asked a few times what keepers should do in terms of training during the summer.    Since the summer is fast approaching I figure this would be the best time to address this issue.

I have to first put in some disclaimers.  This will be geared to the older more serious minded keeper.  Most keepers take the majority of the summer off and think by attending a week of a soccer or keeper camp that this will be sufficient.  The truth is this is completely inadequate as anything you might have learned at camp will be lost in a very short time. Keeping in mind that the key to goalkeeping is consistency and fundamentals, it’s extremely important to develop you good habits during the summer when there are not as many matches and more opportunities to train. 

Having said this, the real question is how much training and what kind of training should be done during the summer months?  I think the summer should be broken down into three parts.  The first third should have a high concentration on diving, starting from the beginning and working up to extended dives in a very short time.  Obviously, this is only true for the keepers who are fundamentally sound but this would be the best time to work on the techniques as well as the conditioning side of the goalkeeping.    Hit the weight room and do a lot of Plyometrics, rope jumping and short sprints.   This is the part of the summer when you really want to push yourself because as you will see, as the summer progresses, I will be building in time for your body to recover.   I strongly encourage keepers to use as a minimum the conditioning program found on the Goalkeeping Newsletter web site.  This should be used in addition to a good 1-1.5 hours of intense training per day.  Before moving out of Atlanta, it was not unusual for me to train a couple of keepers for two hour at a time, twice a day for weeks at a time during the summer.  Some might say this was too much but it’s the kind of training required to play at a high level.  There was a heavy concentration of diving with emphasis on the power step and truthfully, this was extremely hard on the keeper’s bodies. 

As the summer progresses and you move into the middle third, start to really push yourself on the conditioning side and change the emphasis from diving to footwork (still do some diving but just not as concentrated an amount as in the first third).  Drills such as the ones described in the last newsletter are great for this time of the summer.  In my opinion, a properly trained keeper will show up to her teams preseason in better shape then any of her teammates and this is the time of the year when you should really push yourself.  Many keepers try to train early in the morning or later on in the evening to avoid the heat but the truth is since most training sessions are during the afternoon, you might as well condition your body for the heat when it’s at it’s worst.    As long as you do a good job of keeping yourself hydrated by drinking a lot the night before, as well as before during and after training then you should be fine (keep in mind I am referring to liquids like water NOT ALCOHOL the night before, I have to put this disclaimer in for a couple of the older keepers who I know subscribe to this newsletter).  

During the third part of the summer, you should continue the intense conditioning but now change the emphasis from diving and footwork to hands, positioning, crosses and distribution.  By doing this, you will continue to progress while giving your body the opportunity to recover from the pounding it has taken the first two parts of the summer.  I have seen keepers not take this into consideration and when they start their preseason training for their college or club team they are already beaten up and injured.  Your body does need a break and this is the time to take it without losing your edge.  The only diving I would recommend would be the typical warm up in order to keep reinforcing the good habits, plus any diving you might do in any games you play (it is extremely important to keep playing games whether they are formal league games or just pickup games among friends).  The mistake some keepers make during this final third is to let up on their conditioning and then they find that all of the hard work they have undergone the first two thirds is lost. Keepers frequently ignore distribution when training by themselves and this is a great time to work on it.  Still keep in mind that you should only punt or drop kick a ball so many timers per day and throw the ball so many times per day to avoid injuring your joints.

If keepers use this general schedule for their summer training, I believe they will find they will go into next seasons preseason is great shape and also eager to play without too much risk of burnout either physically or mentally.

Hopefully, within the next week, I will have a strength program to send out that can be done without ever getting near a weight room.  It uses resistance training and has been developed for me by a medical doctor who owns a fitness center and specializes in sport specific training.  The only piece of equipment this program requires is an elastic type of rubber band that I believe can be purchased at any sporting goods store.   

If you have any suggestions or comments about the Goalkeeping newsletter or if you would like to stop receiving the newsletter, please send them to comments@finesoccer.com

Have a great day.

Lawrence