By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on reactions and quick dives.
While keepers love the excitement of the extended dive to save the shot hit toward the upper corner, the reality is the tough save is the hard low shot just to the side of the keeper. That hard low shot to the side is difficult to get down in time for, difficult to get the legs out of the way and extremely difficult to hold onto the ball. This series of activities works to prepare the keeper for this situation.
Start with a goal that is 3 yards wide. A keeper is in goal and a server is 5 yards away with balls.
To start the keeper plays a hard ball just to the side of the keepers leg.
The keeper has to get down quickly to make the save.
The keeper then quickly gets up, the next ball is hit and the keeper makes the next save. This is done for 8 saves in a row.
Next, the server plays a simple ball to the keeper who 1 touches the ball back to the server.
The server then plays a 1 touch ball to the side of the keeper for the keeper to save.
By adding this one touch pass into the equation it forces the keeper to stay on balance.
This is done for 8 saves in a row.
Next we add a server to each side of the goal.
The ball gets played from the first server to either of the side servers. The keeper must follow the pass.
The server 1 touches the ball back to the first server who then hits a 1 touch low shot for the keeper to save.
The first server can play to either side server and can also elect to skip the side pass, or make 2 side passes before the shot. The key here is to force the keeper to keep moving, stay on balance and make the quick save.
There are other options you can do with this series but this should give you a good start.
Have a great day!
Lawrence
By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
