By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on positioning, reading the game and saving long shots.
Start with a 20 x 44 grid just outside the 18. There are three groups of 3 and a keeper in goal.
Two teams are on offense (in this case the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a warm up for combination play with a little bit of pressure.
There are two groups of four in a 20 x 20 grid with two balls. To start I’ll show this with only one group. Two players are on end lines and the other two are in the middle. The ball starts with one of the outside players.
The player on the outside starts by
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on scrambling to make the save.
This activity is designed to work on when the keeper has been caught out of position (possibly because of having made a save and then given up a rebound).
Start with two goals, three yards wide that are six yards apart. There is one keeper and two servers with balls 10 yards from the goals.
One server starts by
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
This activity uses half a field, three attacking players, five defending players and one target player at midfield for the defending team. There is also a keeper in goal.
The attacking team starts with the ball and tries to score. The defending team tries to
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on diving with a quick change of direction.
Start with a horizontal line of 6 cones, 2 feet apart. A keeper starts on one end of the line and a server is 10 yards away with a ball.
The keeper starts by sprinting behind the cones to get to the
Continue reading
By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing and movement off the ball.
This is a simple diamond passing activity. One player starts by himself, 3 players are opposite him, 15 yards away and there are cones on each side, 10 yards apart.. The first player in the line of 3 has a ball.
The player with the ball passes to the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on turning with the ball, shielding and taking players on.
Start with groups of 2’s with a 30 x 10 field for each group and a small goal on each endline. There is one ball per group.
This is a simple 1 v 1 game with an
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on shot blocking, footwork and dealing with rebounds.
Start with a keeper in goal and three servers on the field. The first one is 15 yards out, even with the 6 yard box with balls. The second one is 15 yards out, even with the other side of the 6, with balls and the third is at the 12 yard spot.
The keeper starts by sliding and
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on breakaways.
One of the difficult things about working on breakaways is that much of it comes down to experience. Knowing when to go down, when to stay up, when to come out, when to stay back is extremely difficult and it really does come down to experience. This activity can’t recreate a true game situation but it can help a keeper get accustomed to reading the touch, coming out for the ball and making the save.
This works best with a couple of keepers and a few field players. Each field player will need a ball. One keeper starts in goal and the others are to the side. The field players are near the top of the D.
The first player touches the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, following the pass and seeing space.
Start with 5 players in a circle (you can use the center circle of a field for spacing purposes. There is one ball.
The player with the ball passes to any of the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession and finding a target player.
Start with a 30 x 30 grid with a 5 x 5 area in the middle.
This is a 6 v 6 activity (the number of players and the size of the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on catching high balls and quick distribution.
To start have a keeper in goal, a server with balls 20-25 yards out, two dummies inside the 6 yard box and a couple of gates (or small goals) 30-40 yards out.
The server starts by playing a
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on runners off of a wall.
To start, have a server 25-30 yards out with a ball. There are 3 mannequins (or, if you don’t have mannequins, you can use people) making up a wall 10 yards from the ball. An attacking player is at the end of the wall and a keeper is in goal.
We are recreating a free kick situation here so the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on defensive pressure and attacking at speed.
Start with a 30 x 20 grid, 3 attackers, and 2 defenders. There is a group of balls on the end line the attackers are starting on.
One of the attackers starts with a ball and as soon as he touches the ball the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on reaction saves on close shots.
When we think about goalkeeping, and more specifically shot blocking, we think big goals and shots to the upper corners.
In this activity it’s close in shots with a keeper protecting a small goal.
Start with a goal that is
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing balls back to the keeper.
Using the keeper to relieve pressure is an important part of playing out of the back but it’s also something that is frequently neglected in training. Here is a simple activity that works on just this aspect of the game.
Start with a keeper in goal and a group of field player 40 yards from goal. A server is 45 yards out with some balls.
The server plays a ball behind the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on long passes, receiving long passes, dribbling at speed, crossing and finishing.
This activity uses half a field with a goal and a keeper in goal. There are 5 groups of players to start. One group has balls just inside of midfield, in the middle of the field. One group is out wide waiting for the first pass. One group is 10 yards away from goal than the group waiting for the ball (they are defenders). One group is out wide on the other side and the last group is off of the end line (they are also defenders).
The player with the ball starts by either chipping or
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on footwork, diving and being creative in shot blocking.
The other day I was speaking with a friend who asked “do you think the game of soccer would be a lot different if keepers couldn’t use their hands?”. My first thought was “this is a typical thought process of a non soccer person” but then I started thinking more about this.
One of the most enjoyable training activities I have done is a simple shooting activity with a server just outside the 18 with a line of balls and a keeper in goal.
The server shoots on goal and the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with using dummies (mannequins) to force more accurate crosses.
Let’s start with a simple crossing and finishing activity. A player starts out wide with a ball., another player starts out near the corner of the 18, on the far side. There is a keeper in goal.
The wide player dribbles toward the end line, cuts in and then
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on forward dives.
Start with a keeper in goal, a server with some balls at the top of the 18 and two field players just in front of the keeper.
The ball gets played, on the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking with pressure or playing away simple. Start with a 4 v 4 game plus keepers in a 50 x 40 grid with full sized goals (the number of players and size of the field can
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on dealing with distractions.
Start with a keeper in goal, a server 15 yards out and two players in front of the keeper. The server has a few balls.
As the server shoots a ball, the two
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on crisp, hard passes on the ground and receiving the same type of passes.
In a grid 12 x 6 with a midfield line, there are two groups of 2 players. Each group is on one side.
One team starts with a ball and makes a crisp hard pass, on the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Todays featured activity is a simple drill that works on catching and footwork.
Start with two keepers facing each other from 5 yards apart. Each keeper has a ball in his hands.
Each keeper tosses the ball, underhand, slightly to
Continue reading