Tag Archives for " Lawrence "

Recover and React

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on parries, getting up quickly and making the second save.

Start with a keeper in goal, on one knee, a server 15 yards out with balls and a second server 15 yards out on an angle also with balls.

gk204a

The first server starts by playing a hard ball to the side of the keeper (the side where

Continue reading

Passing, Receiving, Quick Turns and Movement Off the Ball

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving, quick turns and movement off the ball.

Start with 2 lines of players 20 yards apart and one player in the middle. A ball starts with the first player in one of the lines.

drills255a

The player with the ball passes to the player in the

Continue reading

Protecting the Posts on Corner Kicks

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with protecting the posts on corner kicks.

When watching many professional teams defending corner kicks we see one, or both, posts left unprotected. Without looking at the data but rather using general observation, it also seems there are a lot more goals being scored on corner kicks. One might say this is because of better services, better attacking players etc. but I have a hard time believing this isn’t partly due to lack of players on the posts.

My suggestion, especially at the youth level, is to have a player on each post.

It’s not good enough to just have a player on each post, they also need to know how to position themselves.

Too often I see players on posts with their entire bodies facing the corner.

gk255a

There are a couple of problems with the players lining up this way. The first one is the player at the near post tends to

Continue reading

Distribution with the Feet

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on distribution with the feet.

Start with a keeper in goal, a server 30 yards out (with balls), a line of players even with the server and a player out wide on each side.

gk254a

The server plays a ball back to the

Continue reading

Footwork, Fitness and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on footwork, fitness and finishing.

Start with three balls lined up 5 yards apart beyond the top of the D and then 6 balls spread out around the top of the 18. There is a keeper in goal and a line of players beyond the last ball.

drills254a

The first player starts by sprinting to the first ball and

Continue reading

Quick Passing and Receiving Warm-Up

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a quick passing and receiving activity to be used as a warm up.

Start with two lines of cones with each cone 3 yards from the next. The two lines are 5 yards apart. There are two players in this activity and one ball.

drills253a

The players are playing two touch and it starts with

Continue reading

Footwork, Fitness, Balance and Catching

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on footwork, fitness, balance and catching.

Start with a speed ladder on the ground and a keeper on one end facing a server who has a ball.

gk253a

The keeper starts by hopping (with two feet) into the

Continue reading

Positioning in the Goal

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with positioning and taking advantage of the fact the center of the goal never moves.

As a general rule, a keeper wants to be centered (which means however far off his line he might be, he would be on a line from the ball to the center of the goal).  The exceptions of this would be when the ball is out wide and a few other times when a keeper choose to be off center BUT would want to know where center is.

The one constant is the center of the goal never changes so we can start by putting a cone in the center of the goal.  Then we spread some balls out around the 18.

gk252a

Continue reading

Passing, Receiving and Awareness

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving and awareness.

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with 3 groups of 4’s.  The size of the grid and the number of people in the groups can vary based on availability, ability and need.  Three players start with a ball.

drills252a

In this example, the black team passes to the yellow team.  The yellow team passes to the blue team and the blue team passes

Continue reading

Passing Under Pressure and Moving After the Pass

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on passing under pressure and moving after the pass.

Start with 4 lines of players, with each line in the middle of an endline of a 25 x 25 area.  One player starts with a ball.

drills251a

The sequence is quite simple.  The player with the ball passes to

Continue reading

Developing Good Habits to Deal with Rebounds

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with developing good habits to deal with rebounds.

Coaches like to do a lot of pressure training which can be defined as a lot of activity in a short period of time.  An example of this would be a server with a line of balls and a keeper in goal.

gk251a

The server shoots the balls as quickly as

Continue reading

Long Passing, Receiving, Crossing and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on long passing, receiving, crossing and finishing.

Start with a 50 x 40 area with a goal on each end line and a keeper in goal.  The group is evenly split into 4 groups just outside the 4 posts.  There is also a player out wide on each side.

drills250a

The player with the ball plays a

Continue reading

Explosiveness, Diving and Changing Angles

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on explosiveness, diving and changing angles.

Start with a keeper in goal two servers at the top of the 18 with balls and 6 hurdles in a line in front of the keeper (around 1-1.5 yards apart).

gk250a

The keeper starts by

Continue reading