By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity helps the keeper stay on his feet on breakaways.
One mistake keepers make when dealing with breakaways is they tend to want to go down too quickly. If they go down with the ball at the players feet, the player will easily be able to pull the ball away and score. It’s extremely important for the keeper to stay on his feet until the ball is played away by the field player and then, and only then, should the keeper go down to get the ball.
In this activity we have a grid 20 yards long and 15 yards wide. The keeper starts on one end line and a line of field players is on the other end line with balls.
The first player starts by dribbling toward the keeper and the keeper approaches the field player.
The field player tries to dribble across the end line the keeper started on. If successful, the field player wins.
The keeper wants to keep the field player in front of him and wait for him to push the ball too far in front.
The field player is not permitted to shoot the ball but rather must dribble the ball past the keeper. The keeper should try to stay on his feet, ready to pounce, until the field player makes a bad touch. If the keeper can make the field player stop, or go backwards, the play is over. The keeper should work on forcing the field player toward a side to use the sideline as a helper.
When the play is over, the keeper goes back (or a second keeper starts) and the next player goes.
Have a great day!
Lawrence
By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
