Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity deals with coming forward to meet the ball while catching with soft hands.
This activity uses 3 cones, a keeper, a server and a ball. Two of the cones are 4 yards apart and the third cone is 2 yards back from center of the line made up of the other two cones. The keeper starts at the back cone and the server is 10 yards away with the ball.
The server tosses the ball toward one of the side cones and the keeper must use proper footwork to get their body behind the ball and make the catch.
If possible, the keeper wants to get their body square to the path of the ball when making the catch
The thing for the keeper to concentrate on is even though they are coming forward to catch the ball, they still must cushion the ball with soft hands in order to hold onto the ball. There is a tendency when attacking a ball for the keeper to push the ball away when trying to catch instead of cushioning the ball and catching with soft hands.
The keeper would then return the ball and go back to the starting cone and then do the same in the other direction.
This would be done 10 times to each side.
Next would be the same thing but now the 2 front cones are move one more yard in each direction. Now the keeper will have to take a quick step and then dive to get to the ball before it hits the cone.
The same concept of trying to get the body behind the ball applies and also of trying to use soft hands to hold onto the ball while coming forward.
Have a great day
Lawrence
