Edition 54

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today's topic is economical training.

Too many training sessions are designed without economical training in 

mind.  The coach decides to work on a specific thing and disregards
the opportunity to work on that and much, much more.  Economical
training is simply trying to do things as efficiently as possible in
order to maximize the effects of the training program.

In a training session I ran recently, I wanted to work on catching
balls hit hard at the keeper.  We started with a simple progression
but real quickly added in some plyometric training as well.  The
reasons for this were numerous.  First of all, I was working with
talented keepers who don't have problems holding balls without
pressure.  By adding plyometrics into the equation, it added pressure
by adding fatigue and also reducing  time.  Another thing it did was
work on their legs at the same time as we worked on their hands.  Yet
another thing accomplished was working on their cardiovascular
systems.  We also were working on their ability to concentrate since
as they got more and more fatigued, they had to concentrate more in 

order to refrain from
reaching for balls with one hand or bobbling balls. In the same time
as I would have spent just working on receiving hard balls, we worked
on all of the other things as well.  This is an example of economical
training.

It is actually easier to utilize economical training with keepers then
with others because it is so easy to customize a training session with
the individual needs of the keepers in mind.  Even if you are a keeper
training by yourself, you can utilize economical training.  Just be
creative.  Take your two favorite drills and combine them into one
that accomplished a great deal more.

Most of the best training sessions I have been involved in have had
some type of made up drills.  Don't feel restricted by doing what you
have seen others do or by what you have ready (except, of course, if
you read it in one of my newsletters!).  Be creative and don't
waste time.

If you have any examples of economical training that you have done,
send them to me at comments@finesoccer.com and if I feel it would help others to see
them, I will include them in a future newsletter.

If you are a keeper in the Atlanta area, check out the information
about my keeper camp at http://finesoccer.com.

Also, don't forget to check out the forum at
http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm.

Have a great day.

Lawrence