By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with recognizing and working on weaknesses.
Recently I was thinking about some of the differences between coaching field players and keepers. Besides the obvious things one thing that came to mind was the emphasis on focussing on strengths vs weaknesses.
If a field player has a strength we want to really work on that strength. As an example, a great goal scorer who is somewhat deficient in his marking would be someone we would try to put in a position to score as much as possible. We would want to help him with his marking but when a field player has a true talent, you emphasize that as much as possible (think David Beckham and dead ball situations, you would have wanted him serving the ball in rather than being on the receiving end). With field players you try to help them with their weaknesses but really want to take advantage of their strengths.
In training keepers, it’s quite different. While it’s nice to have strengths (for example, being strong on taking crosses out of the air) you really have to focus on the keepers weaknesses. A keeper who is strong on crosses but struggles on low shots will be exposed very quickly. We need to work on his ability to deal with with low shots.
[wpsharely id="821"][/wpsharely]In coaching we need to constantly evaluate players strengths and weaknesses. With field players we want to help them improve their weaknesses but really focus on their strengths. With keeper we want them to improve their strengths but really focus on their weaknesses. It might seem like a small difference but in reality, it’s quite significant.
Have a great day!
Lawrence
By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
