Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today's topic will deal with
improving and strengthening the hands.
First I would like to let everyone know that the archives for both the Goalkeeping
Newsletter as well as the Soccer Newsletter are now up to date. You can find both
on-line at http://finesoccer.com.
The series of drills I would like to talk about today involve just a keeper and a server.
The keeper starts in a sitting position with her legs out in front and her feet
slightly further apart then shoulders length. Her hands should be in a position to
catch a ball chest height. The server is just beyond her feet standing with a ball
in her hands. The server takes a small step forward and then softly volleys the ball
at the keepers hands. As soon as the ball is volleyed, the keeper catches it.
The server should start off hitting the ball very lightly in order for the keeper to get
comfortable with a ball being played at her from so close but each time the ball will get
hit harder and harder. The tendency is for the keeper to lean back in the beginning
out of fear but once she gets accustomed to catching the ball, she will be fine.
It's extremely important for the
keeper to catch the ball with her hands in the proper catching position. Typically,
she will have some difficulties catching the ball at first but as she relaxes her hands
and watches the ball all the way into her hands, she will become much more successful at
this. Once her hands are in the proper position, she should have no problem catching
the balls as they come harder and harder. This should allow her to work on catching
hard shots and really keeping her eyes on the ball.
The next progression is to have the server step back a few steps and now really strike the
ball hard. Not only does the keeper have to have her hands in the proper position to
catch the ball, and not only will she have to watch the ball into her hands every time,
but she will also have to calculate the trajectory of the ball. As a rule of thumb.
You want your hands directly behind the balls trajectory (sorry I can't think of
the best way to word this). If a ball is coming straight down, your hands should be
directly underneath the ball. If it's coming straight up, your hands should be
directly above the ball. If it's coming up at an angle, then the hands have to be
adjusted to be directly behind that trajectory. If you think back to an earlier newsletter, I talked about
the three most important parts of the body (edition #2). This is working on two of
the three most important parts (hands and eyes).
The next progression is for the keeper to be in a standing position and the server to be
roughly 5 yards away. The server volleys the balls (hard) to the keeper who now much
use all three important parts of the body to catch the ball. She must get her feet
moving to get her body behind the ball, then she must get her hands on the ball and this
all must be done while watching the ball. These balls can be hit very hard and can
also be played slightly to the side of the keeper to make her move.
After doing this three step progression, most keepers will find it easier to hold onto
the ball since the drills have reinforced all good habits in catching. It is
important for the server to concentrate and do everything possible to make good serves
every
time since the keeper is in a position where she can get injured with a bad serve (for
example a ball to the face). However, I have been doing this series of drills for
years and never had an injury so the keeper really doesn't have anything to worry about.
