Tag Archives for " Punt "

Shoot 'n Save

By Jason Stockmann -

Getting players to help each other train while at a practice is an invaluable tool for multiple reasons. First and foremost, from a coaching perspective, it can relieve some of the time-crunch pressures we face by letting some players do their own thing while we focus on other aspects; it also lets us impart a sense of responsibility for personal development on the players themselves. From their perspective, this responsibility looks like a bit of freedom and control over their own soccer destiny…and it is a fun and subtle method to increase team cohesion.

I’m a firm believer that this player-to-player training is especially helpful when it is done with goalkeepers. Whether at a practice or during pre-game warmups, two goalies working with each other not only potentially frees up coaching resources, but

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Stay on Target

By Jason Stockmann -

Too often it seems that when coaching younger ages and planning practices we forget a major element of the game – goalies. Sure, we send them to goalie-specific training when offered and we have good intentions by not pigeon-holing a kid as only a goalie at that young of an age, but we all still have those couple of kids that tend to be our main goalies. We train the team in defense, offense, set pieces, etc. – so why do we not work more with the keepers as well?

In all honesty, this is most likely due to lack of time, skill and/or extra help at practices. But I refuse to take that as the answer and just let the goalies flounder on their own – they need help from us and they need to work with their teams. Working with the team on drills helps out in two solid ways by letting the keepers show off their own skills (building confidence) and lets the field players see that they can trust their keepers. This keeper-field player trust is a huge aspect of the

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