Edition 53

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today I will discuss some observations from watching the US Women's National team keepers train last week down in Ft. Lauderdale.

One of the interesting things that they did was go very quickly in the drills but they did not rush to the point where they lost sight of the purpose of the drills. An example of this was a very simple drill they did with three servers and one keeper. The keeper was in goal and there was a server on the top of the 18 as well as the other two being at an angle that puts them close to the end line and 18 but just far enough on the field that a shot could be hit. The keeper turned from server to server to save shots hit at different speeds and trajectories. When the keeper went from server to server, they moved very quick. However, once a shot was saved, they made sure they held the ball and watched the ball as they pulled the ball into their chest. My point being that while they worked hard and quickly to get to the shot, they weren't willing to rush themselves to the point that they lost quality in order to get more quantity.

Contrast this to many keeper training sessions where the emphasis is on getting as many shots in a short period of time regardless of quality of the saves.  Another very obvious point of emphasis was the importance of holding all balls and the speed at which any dropped ball was covered. It wasn't good enough to just make the save. Rather, they wanted to hold onto everything or at the very least cover any save that was made but not held onto (and it was demanded that they do so). Is this different then what any keeper coach says? No, not at all. However, it is different then what many keepers and keeper coaches actually put into action. Because of the need to get quantity of saves in, the quality in most training sessions suffers. By emphasizing technique and things being done the proper way every time, did the national team keepers get enough saves in? I believe the answer is yes and more importantly they followed the belief that I have always had which is practice makes permanent so make sure what you practice is perfect if you desire perfection in your play.

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Have a great day

Lawrence