Solid444
17 Jun 2005, 11:48 PM
First a little bit about myself. I am 22 year old goalkeeper who enjoyed a successful highschool "career". Due to other educational opportunities that opened up for me and a recuring knee injury, I decided to stop playing in college. I still go to college full time and coach goalkeeping at a highschool in Texas. I tell you this so you dont think I am a professional of certified coach by any means. However, I think my techniques will give great results for goalkeepers especially at the top high school level.
When I used to play, I was obsessed with penalty kicks. The glory that you experience when you stop a penalty kick is like no other high that a goalkeeper can experience on the field. I used to read books and watch tapes of PKs, both professional and youth, religiously and I incorporated strategies to my game that gave me remarkable results. Goalkeeping, especially considering PKs, is vastly different between pre-highschool, highschool, college, pros because of the difference in mental maturity (a key aspect for penalty kick takers). These techniques, while aimed primarily at top-level highschool goalkeepers will also benefit pre-highschool and college goalkeepers to some extent.
I will cover specific techniques that I used to help coaches out there with their goalkeepers. Of course, the most important thing to keeping PKs is to 1) mentaly manipulate the taker's decision on where to take it 2) Put as much pressure as possible. Number 2 can be accomplished by making sure the taker has as much time as possible before he takes the PK, so stalling is a key. There are also many other tactics to accomplish this, like taking your time or
saying something to the taker but I will primarily cover #1.
I am 6'2" and my strength was shot stopping. I knew that if I guessed right, there was a huge chance of me stopping the PK. Something that really bugged me was when takers shoot to the middle, because there are no "signs" to read from the taker, that tells he will shoot to the middle. So the only obvious way to stop this, is manipulate their decision not to chose to the middle. So while the taker prepared to shoot, I would always stand on my tip toes, open my arms wide, flat footed and make myself as big as possible (I was able to touch the top bar with my fingertips doing so). This had remarkable results and the shooter would rarely (and when i say rarely, I mean almost never) shoot to the middle. Looking at this huge figure in the middle of the goal, flat footed (looks like I would not be able to dive to save to the sides) would change the mind of any shooter who wanted to shoot middle. Note that I am not saying to try to save a shot flat footed, this is only done before the taker approches the ball and a little bit after. When he gets closer to the ball you can get on your toes again to save the PK.
Most coaches teach to read where the taker stands before he approaches the ball, thinking that if he stands directly behind the ball, he will shot to the goalie's right and a steeper angle signifies a shot to the left. The problem with this is that a better PK taker at varsity highschool or college level knows this and is the first thing he will try to change. The more important thing to read is his final 2 or 3 steps to the ball. Regardless of where he starts off, his final steps are the true indicators. I have asked many takers about this and have found that by the time they get that close to the ball, the thought of fooling the goalkeeper vanishes and they focus more on getting the shot on target.
Always, ALWAYS, dive in a diagonal to the side and NEVER parallel to the goalline. This is not rocket science, by diving diagonal you close the angle and therefore have less ground to cover. Proffesional keepers do this ALL THE TIME. I always imagined that I was diving toward the corner of the 6 yard box to the side that i chose. Once again, NEVER parallel to the goalline.
Another thing that is very telling, and few people teach this, are the eyes. The eyes are huge indicators of where the shot is going. A taker is almost never going to shot somewhere he has not looked at (once again, at a top highschool lever). So chances are that he will look toward the side he will shoot at, at some point. The problem is differentiating between an "honest" look and a "fake" look. I was watching a tape of the most important PK shootout ever in the history of football, the 94', World Cup final. I was amazed how telling the shooters eyes were during these shootout! I have seen 3 seperate televised coverages of this shootout to get as many camera shots as possible of the shooters. 6 out of 10 of the shooters gave away their position with their eyes. Once again, when i saw this I was amazed. The shooters, either before approaching the ball, or shortly after starting their approach gave an (what I call) "unconscious" glance to the side they kicked the PK. This glance does not require any head motion but just a split second look to the side the shot is going. Once again, 6 out of 10 is a remarkable number, considering I have a very limited view because there are limited views of the players' faces while they are approaching the ball, so the number might be greater. So teach your goalkeepers to look for this "uncounscious" look instead of a "fake" (deliberate, more than a split second) look.
I have more tips, but I am tired of typing (sorry its this long), I will type some more later. So finally, use your head. My biggest moment in regards to PKs happened my senior year during the playoffs. We were up 2-1 with 15 minutes left and the opposing team got a PK. I applied many of the tips I described today. The taker gave just about EVERY single sign that he was going to my left. At this point i started chuckling (i am an arrogant s.o.b. when I am in goal :)), even though i wasnt sure if this guy was trying to fool me or he did not know how to take PKs. Shortly after he started to approach he ball , He gave an "unconscious" look to the right (didnt move his head, just a quick split second eye movement). I put all the info together and was completly sure he was going to shoot to my right. At this point, I said "You have got to be kidding me!" (I never intended to say it loudly, but later, watching the tape with the team, realized how loud I said it). I dove to my right and saved it, we won the game. So teach your keepers to look for these signs, but also use their head. I will type some more later, kinda tired. Tell me what you guys think.
When I used to play, I was obsessed with penalty kicks. The glory that you experience when you stop a penalty kick is like no other high that a goalkeeper can experience on the field. I used to read books and watch tapes of PKs, both professional and youth, religiously and I incorporated strategies to my game that gave me remarkable results. Goalkeeping, especially considering PKs, is vastly different between pre-highschool, highschool, college, pros because of the difference in mental maturity (a key aspect for penalty kick takers). These techniques, while aimed primarily at top-level highschool goalkeepers will also benefit pre-highschool and college goalkeepers to some extent.
I will cover specific techniques that I used to help coaches out there with their goalkeepers. Of course, the most important thing to keeping PKs is to 1) mentaly manipulate the taker's decision on where to take it 2) Put as much pressure as possible. Number 2 can be accomplished by making sure the taker has as much time as possible before he takes the PK, so stalling is a key. There are also many other tactics to accomplish this, like taking your time or
saying something to the taker but I will primarily cover #1.
I am 6'2" and my strength was shot stopping. I knew that if I guessed right, there was a huge chance of me stopping the PK. Something that really bugged me was when takers shoot to the middle, because there are no "signs" to read from the taker, that tells he will shoot to the middle. So the only obvious way to stop this, is manipulate their decision not to chose to the middle. So while the taker prepared to shoot, I would always stand on my tip toes, open my arms wide, flat footed and make myself as big as possible (I was able to touch the top bar with my fingertips doing so). This had remarkable results and the shooter would rarely (and when i say rarely, I mean almost never) shoot to the middle. Looking at this huge figure in the middle of the goal, flat footed (looks like I would not be able to dive to save to the sides) would change the mind of any shooter who wanted to shoot middle. Note that I am not saying to try to save a shot flat footed, this is only done before the taker approches the ball and a little bit after. When he gets closer to the ball you can get on your toes again to save the PK.
Most coaches teach to read where the taker stands before he approaches the ball, thinking that if he stands directly behind the ball, he will shot to the goalie's right and a steeper angle signifies a shot to the left. The problem with this is that a better PK taker at varsity highschool or college level knows this and is the first thing he will try to change. The more important thing to read is his final 2 or 3 steps to the ball. Regardless of where he starts off, his final steps are the true indicators. I have asked many takers about this and have found that by the time they get that close to the ball, the thought of fooling the goalkeeper vanishes and they focus more on getting the shot on target.
Always, ALWAYS, dive in a diagonal to the side and NEVER parallel to the goalline. This is not rocket science, by diving diagonal you close the angle and therefore have less ground to cover. Proffesional keepers do this ALL THE TIME. I always imagined that I was diving toward the corner of the 6 yard box to the side that i chose. Once again, NEVER parallel to the goalline.
Another thing that is very telling, and few people teach this, are the eyes. The eyes are huge indicators of where the shot is going. A taker is almost never going to shot somewhere he has not looked at (once again, at a top highschool lever). So chances are that he will look toward the side he will shoot at, at some point. The problem is differentiating between an "honest" look and a "fake" look. I was watching a tape of the most important PK shootout ever in the history of football, the 94', World Cup final. I was amazed how telling the shooters eyes were during these shootout! I have seen 3 seperate televised coverages of this shootout to get as many camera shots as possible of the shooters. 6 out of 10 of the shooters gave away their position with their eyes. Once again, when i saw this I was amazed. The shooters, either before approaching the ball, or shortly after starting their approach gave an (what I call) "unconscious" glance to the side they kicked the PK. This glance does not require any head motion but just a split second look to the side the shot is going. Once again, 6 out of 10 is a remarkable number, considering I have a very limited view because there are limited views of the players' faces while they are approaching the ball, so the number might be greater. So teach your goalkeepers to look for this "uncounscious" look instead of a "fake" (deliberate, more than a split second) look.
I have more tips, but I am tired of typing (sorry its this long), I will type some more later. So finally, use your head. My biggest moment in regards to PKs happened my senior year during the playoffs. We were up 2-1 with 15 minutes left and the opposing team got a PK. I applied many of the tips I described today. The taker gave just about EVERY single sign that he was going to my left. At this point i started chuckling (i am an arrogant s.o.b. when I am in goal :)), even though i wasnt sure if this guy was trying to fool me or he did not know how to take PKs. Shortly after he started to approach he ball , He gave an "unconscious" look to the right (didnt move his head, just a quick split second eye movement). I put all the info together and was completly sure he was going to shoot to my right. At this point, I said "You have got to be kidding me!" (I never intended to say it loudly, but later, watching the tape with the team, realized how loud I said it). I dove to my right and saved it, we won the game. So teach your keepers to look for these signs, but also use their head. I will type some more later, kinda tired. Tell me what you guys think.