This is a question my family and I are having to wrestle with right now, and I would like some input from others if possible. When is the right age to play only goalkeeper? My son is currently 10 yrs old. He has been playing up with the U-11's for one of the biggest clubs in Houston here. He splits his time between the field and the goal. However as we draw closer to next season, when he will likely to return to his own age group we have decisions to make. His age group is pretty talented at the top. If he commits to playing in goal all time he is a dead lock for that top team, but if he wants to continue to split time he is on the border between first and second team, and might not make it. At the moment he probably would but once U11 tryouts come around there are generally quite a few new boys who will come into the club because we are such a big, successful club and that could well put him down to the second team. Now I do realize that being on the first team at U11 is not the most important thing. And my son does love goalkeeper and see it as his future position (assuming that he grows tall enough physically - currently he is on the tall side of average height for his age). Part of the complication is he has played with that top team for years and has a number of very good friends on it, and while there are a couple of good kids on the second team there are also some very annoying ones as well. There is another big, succesful club in the area that does very good things and we could jump clubs if needed, but we love our club. So we are just wrestling with what my son wants to do at this point and what is best for him and we can't make up our minds yet. For a little additional background, this isn't our first rodeo with select soccer, my oldest son is U17 and has been doing this a long time, and I have a U12 daughter as well, but this is our first time wrestling with these decisions about a goalkeeper.
I think he should try to stay both field player and goalkeeper as long as possible. Even into high school. In the European and professional ranks, the goalkeepers are accomplished field players too—they just weren't good enough to keep playing as field players. My concern about specializing as a gk too early is that they get "used" by the clubs. Every club that wins a lot of games needs reliable gk but it always seems to be a one-sided commitment. They train the kid to be a gk, in training most of his time is spent in goal or at least half and the field player side suffers. It takes extra commitment to be a gk. So if I were to "design" the program, I'd have a separate day just for GK training. Maybe he trains with a different team within the club (older or younger) and have a specific gk coach working with him while the field players do their thing and he drops in during scrimmages. Also, I don't know what your commitment level is but gks tend to get the short end of the stick. Too few clubs have the resources for GK trainers so they become an afterthought until they get to an age/level where they can have a specific position trainer. It'd be good to watch some videos and take some courses so you can help him along if the resources aren't available. Even something as simple as a pre-game warmup is rarely gk friendly.
My son has been training to be a keeper since the age of 8, he is 11 now. He currently plays for a club team who practices 3 days a week. On one of those days, a keeper coach comes in and trains him for an hour, once a week. The other two days he is strictly learning moves, juggling and then small sided games as a field player. At first I was upset with this, keeper training for only 1 hour a week but as time went on, learning the techniques of a field player, we found that to be very important and usefull. My son already decided that he wants to be a keeper. Alot of clubs at his age group do not focus on keepers, not until U12-U13. With that, I have a personal keeper coach who trains my son as well. His club team teaches him the field aspect while his trainer teaches specific keeper techniques. Well balanced and very beneficial. Elessar78-your absolutely right! Keepers at a young age do tend to get used. You hardly find a child who wants to strictly play keeper, it is like finding a four leaf clover for a coach, especially if the keeper is good.
I agree that you should have him try to play both for as long as possible. Try talking to the coaching staff. If he truly is a lock for the top team as a keeper, maybe he can get rostered to the second team and play the field there and play additional games as a keeper as a guest player on the top team. As a former keeper, it was great that I specialized early and played a lot, until a better keeper came to the club and I sat out. For that reason alone, it is better to keep field play a possibility.
I agree that you should have him try to play both for as long as possible. Try talking to the coaching staff. If he truly is a lock for the top team as a keeper, maybe he can get rostered to the second team and play the field there and play additional games as a keeper as a guest player on the top team. As a former keeper, it was great that I specialized early and played a lot, until a better keeper came to the club and I sat out. For that reason alone, it is better to keep field play a possibility.
There is a lot of good advice within this thread. If it were my child I would definitely want them splitting playing time being in the box and on the field. And I don't mean just training on the field - actually PLAYING a field position during matches. If a child only plays in the box as an 11 or 12 their field skills will diminish. I honestly think that if a keeper does not play at least 1/2 of their time on the field when young they will not play in the box OR on the field when they are older - at least not for a top level team. They may be able to play as a keeper on lower level club teams or recreational teams. My rationale for saying this is that a keeper needs to be highly adept with their feet when they get older. Watch high level matches; how often does the ball get played back to the keeper? A lot! If a keeper is not comfortable with the ball at their feet those balls that get played back to them become scoring opportunities for the opponents. High level squads do not value keepers that are not good on the field. So, if they did not play on the field when young then they are going to be way behind the best keepers. There will not be a spot for them on the field or in the box on high level teams when they get older. It really is too bad how so many clubs "pigeon-hole" players when they are young. This happens not only with keepers but with field players as well. There are many time when a 10, 11, or 12 year old will only play one position. Again, this is a disservice to the player and is only done in order to win matches and not for development. It is a very short-sided viewpoint.
i agree, too early to be a primary keeper. people say that great keepers can also play the field well. why would a coach "stick" a player in goal other than because it is one less thing they have to worry/argue about when no one wants to go in goal? if that is ALL the kid wants to do.. fine but like blue chicago, when a more versitile player comes along, you lose your spot. keeper training since U8, U9, my daughter was in goal for a half, 18 out of 21 games. her field skills plummeted as did her playing time that second half because of it. at U10, she recovered most of her skill but was a year behind the top players. at U11, she wanted to go to a high level team to be their primary keeper but was promised she'd get field time when possible. also plays forward. i had my doubts but it's what she wanted. not sure if she would have made the team if she didn't go in goal. for the most part, there were games where she never/rarely touched the ball and she only saw field time when they were winning 4/5/6-0 and then there were restrictions. headers only. the kid never gets on the field and then she's not allowed to score? hard for an 11 y.o. to take. after the fall season she was not happy. wanted more field time but wasn't going to get it so i moved her USYS card to another team. she played in goal for state cup and tournaments with the old team and up front in league with the new. her last game with the old team was the semi-final at a big tournament. they ended up losing 2-0 but my daughter played AWESOME. she made some amazing saves/challenged the shooters and won. if she hadn't played so well, the score would have easily been 4/5/6-0. we were the only ones from our team that went back to the car with smiles. U12 playing U13, her current coach doesn't like her in goal, he tells her that she's too valuable to him on the field. it's doing wonders for her confidence and she's playing great. she only plays in goal now when they are up by 3/4 goals or scrimmages. she still does keeper training and guests in goal. all of which is keeping her happy and playing well.
i have a 3 year old son. if he plays soccer and wants to be a keeper, i will never let him be a primary keeper on any team till he has no other options.
Hope Solo is arguably the best woman's keeper in this country and one of the best in the world. Here is a bit of her bio: "Solo played soccer with the Three-River's Soccer Club in the Tri-Cities. As a forward at Richland High School, Solo scored 109 goals, leading her team to three consecutive league titles from 1996–1998 and a state championship in her senior year. She was twice named a Parade All American. At the University of Washington, Solo switched to the goalkeeper position and was the team's all-time leader in clean-sheets, saves, and goals-against average (GAA). She was a four-time All-Pac 10 selection and a three-time NSCAA All-American." It is just something to think about.
I've made this point before in the coaches forum so I apologize if it's repetitive for others, but at young ages few players want to play keeper because they don't do well at it. Which is more than a fair reason, IMO. Why don't they do well at GK? Because U-little coaches rarely take the time to teach them how to play goalie, not even the basics. Few U-little coaches make it fun to play keeper. Few step up to defend their goalie when the blame is directed at them for losing the game (Um, the ball went through 6 defenders and it's the gk's fault??). I found a few great games and we play those during training—it's my best recruitment tool because it shows them that playing keeper is fun and not this dreadful, pressure-laden position where the only good outcome is not failing. In my first season of coaching where the gk let goals in between her legs and other similar weak moments, it was clear that we wouldn't "survive" without reliable keeper play. So it took a season or two but now we have 6 kids who are competent goalkeepers. Except for one that gets 2 "shifts" at gk, they all play one 8-minute shift in a match (ones that don't play the following week). It's a process and don't put them in a position to fail. I didn't put the new keepers in until they said they were ready and for a few it took two seasons before they were ready for "live-fire". If they're new, they play keeper in practice or they go in when the game is safely in hand. How this relates to the OP? Not that you do, but don't buy into the idea that no one else will play gk, so your kid has to. It takes an investment of time from multiple parties to make it happen. I even had my assistants (parent volunteer coaches) join me at a gk training course, so the gks could get more attention. The coach/club has to demand that players they take on at least be open to the idea of playing gk. Again I think this boils down to an over-emphasis on winning games over the development of young players. Too often in this country it's what drives soccer decisions in this country. BTW, the two are not mutually exclusive. You don't have to field a loser or even a .500 team to be focused on developing individual players.
Thanks for the input everyone (and more is always welcome if any lurkers are out there). It gives my family a lot to think about. It would be very hard to leave our current club who we have had a relationship with for so long and have so many friends at. But I also don't want my son being taken advantage of either. Our club has a similar set up. For us our team trains twice a week as a team during which my son is getting normal technical work most of the time, though he is in goal for scrimages. Then every other week there is a pool training session with the entire age group (again my son gets technical work but some time in goal). Then there is a third session every week for the goal keepers that runs an hour and a half. This is the same set up that most top competitive/professional clubs in our area offer. We also love our goalkeeper trainer and have a hard time imagining a better one anywhere which adds additional difficulty in considering a possible move.
Earlier the better. After attending keeper practices, our kid helps out, I learned there is a huge variety of Pavlovian responses that absolutely must be developed purely from a safety issue standpoint. Add to that all the "common sense" best ways to tend that must become second nature, it's truly a daunting task. Add to that that they should be at least as good out on the pitch as the rest what with that extra day of practice....eh? Kudos for kids training for keeper and no regret or shame for backing out at any time. Certainly nothing wrong about someone coming to their senses.
One of my buddies is a former MLS all-star, team MVP and former MLS and Youth club goalkeeper coach. I asked him the same question and he said he would recommend every player to learn the game by playing on the field up until at least age 15. At that point, you have the footskills and knowledge of the game which is a must even for keepers. He said goalkeeping was, in the end, a far easier position to learn than the field positions and that specialization at such a young age, (my son is U10) would be detrimental to his soccer development and overall enjoyment of the game.
Interesting, never looked at it that way. I was never a keeper so helping my son out with this possition was a no go, therefore we rely on keeper coaches and camps. From what I have seen, my observation, if you have a kid who loves the keeper possition and is dedicated, start them when they are ready. I believe U14-U15 would be extremely difficult to train a field player to become a keeper. Can it happen, of course. Watching my son at the U11 age, everything he has and will have to go through during his keeper training sessions is a lot. Starting them young is beneficial to become a great keeper in the future. With that, like I stated before, playing the field, getting the experience is a must. You will not be successful as a keeper without the knowledge of playing the field, the technical skills that go along with it. My son recently attended an ODP try out. ODP, as everyone knows, starts off at the U13 level, my son is 11. Long story short, out of the 34 keepers who tried out, he made the top 10 call back list. Well it just so happened that at the age of U11, the nets they use are smaller than what the U13 uses and my son just got killed during the final try out. No experience with the big nets. Now, I believe that training as a keeper at a young age along with field experience helped him to become one of the top keepers in his region for U11 NCSL. I am only stating that my son is a very good keeper because of his training and I don't want it to seem that I think he is better than all the other keepers out there becuase there are some excellent youth keepers out there in the same boat as my son, just using this in reference to this topic. If your child wants to be a keeper, nothing wrong with starting them young, as long as they get the field training as well.
As a matter of perspective, Europe and Latin America do exactly this and start goalkeeper specialization much later. The other side of the coin is that the US produces more than our share of elite gks, so take it FWIW.
I totally agree that every keeper has to have foot skills that can only be developed by playing the field. That being said...keeper training from a younger age is very important from a safety point of view. DD is a keeper for a top club. Has loved the keeper position since she was 6 and realized that field players had to do all 'that running', while she could hang out in the goal and not run so much! LOL Our club has dedicated keeper training once or twice a week depending on the season. Keepers are expected to attend all practices and that includes doing field player training, ball handling, etc. Dedicated training for a keeper is critical in my humble opinion from a young age. Teaches them how to protect themselves when jumping up for a ball, how to protect themshelves and others from being injured when diving or sliding to grab a ball. This and proper form only come from repetition, no different from the repitition that field players need for corner kicks, passing, etc... But I totally agree that a keeper should be kept in team practices and playing situations to ensure good all around develpment. However, many clubs, including my DD's do want the keepers to be full time in game situations. My DD was a full time keeper at age 11, but was given ample opportunity for field play during practices and scrimmages. I cannot imagine a coach trying to teach a U15 how to play keeper, from directing the field and communicating to defense to proper form, I just don't see how that can work for the majority of players. Starting young worked out great for DD...she is highly recruited as a junior this year. Not sure why being a dedicated keeper would affect anyone's overall enjoyment of the game, IF that was where they wanted to be? If that is where they want to be, then they will enjoy playing. No child should ever be forced to play keeper...it takes a mental toughness that not everyone player has. It is damn hard to walk into the back of the net and get that ball out when you are scored on. Can be tough to take especially as a U-little.
We had a similar situation. My U13 daughter started specializing in goal at U11 as that is what she wanted to do as she simply loved the position. She made the elite squad because of it as that is really what the team needed. Coach could have chosen from another 15, fast, highly skilled field players for the one spot and because of that she likely would not have made that team. I like the idea of specializing in goal at a younger age because they can apply skills and worry less about goals being scored. This approach paid very high dividends as good goalkeepers are years in the making and today technique wise she is on par with high school GK’s in most areas. The 2nd aspect is goalkeeping requires a lot of game experience, week after week, as decision making is a huge part of the role as those decisions are finite. As a player gets older the pressure to win games only increases and to me that’s not the time to be acquiring basic skills and having the added pressure of giving up goals with basic mistakes. The deal however we made with the coach was she gets field time against lower bracket teams to make her ‘competent’ in that role/level. Yes she is behind the others in field play but I look at it this way: she also gets the benefit of learning the field game at a much higher level than playing on a lower level team. Seems to me the position of GK gets fairly solidified by U13 minimum on the competitive teams. Will she play beyond high school/college? Highly unlikely. So if she’s happy then that’s all that matters…I guess only the player can make this decision and a parents role is to present the pros, cons and risks of specializing accordingly.
In your state, ODP starts at U13, it starts younger in some states. In your state, they allow younger players to try out for older age groups. My state does not. ODP is of fair to middling quality in my state, I've no reason to believe it is different in yours. If your point is that goalie-specific training pays off, yes I agree and at least 5 hours per week is necessary to show improvement. An hour per week with the club's other goalies isn't enough. But back to the OP, I would not stop my child from playing and training for a field position if they wanted to play in the field as well. And I wouldn't force them to play a field position unless their coach insisted and the choice was to leave the team or not.
Before you slander all the coaches, take a moment to look at their dilemma. At Tryouts, he gets to choose from 12 very skilled players, and a bunch of others who may or may not even come close, including some that also try out as keeper. Does he take the top 12 (as I have done in the past)? If so, he will be using players in goal that more than likely do not have any desire to play in goal (or ability, since they've likely been the stars of their younger teams) and reluctant, unhappy (and unsuccessful) goal-keepers can be a huge problem (regardless of whether he is doing the right thing, he has to deal with the realities of those player and their families' expectations, and as with everything else, the coach might find himself walking the righteous path alone, as parents look elsewhere). For example, just for a tournament team once, I had one of the field players volunteering in each practice to play keeper - of course, the real reason was probably just laziness. Because come the first game of the tournament, I go to put her in goal even for just the first quarter, and she throws a major attitude, and lets in three goals in the first eight minutes that were entirely due to her throwing a snit and not trying (i could swear she even threw me a look after one of them that said "that'll teach you!). That sort of thing, if it happens even 2 or 3 times on a top team that is going to be stuck together for an entire year, can cause big problems. On the other hand, he may reach down and take the goalkeeper who does not have the skills to play on the field, but who might actually be exceptional in goal (though footskills are needed for keepers, not every good field player makes a good keeper) but often that family has their own agenda - they want to get their daughter on the best team through the GK route, even though they might not have any chance on the field, but then once on the team, they expect the coach to make sure her field skills also develop through meaningful time on the field. If he guaranties that she will get significant field time as well, despite being nowhere near the level of the team, then shouldn't he have just taken the 12th best field player instead and hope that he gets several player that make willing fill-ins?
In response to coach bashing we are very fortunate to have a coach who was a former pro keeper himself. Yes our situation is extremely rare. He is a pro in all aspects of the game on the field and in the net. He certainly knew that to be competitive having a very good GK is priceless and having a good utility player as a back up is an absolute. In my experience (including coaching clubs) most coaches have little knowledge or really care for the position of GK but, come game time, coaches expect the kid to 1. Want to be there and 2. Come up big regardless of having no technique. That’s a tough role to fill. Many coaches can’t fathom how hard a good goalkeeper has to work to build the skills needed at a young age in addition to regular 3x wk team practice. What I have seen as the biggest culprit is most youth coaches (in fairness: understandably) don’t really know the skills themselves so it becomes the bastard step child. Thankfully not on our team as all is equal in importance as it should be. It also seems to be a common assumption on this thread that a mainly dedicated GK can’t play the ball with their feet because they have a lot less field time? By U11, U12 min if any player at the competitive level can’t play the ball effectively with their feet then there is a bigger problem. Most players by this point have been playing 6-7 yrs. Big misconception. We experienced exactly what the previous post points out: some unknown new girl plucked from the middle of the ‘field playing pack’ to play at the top level and be rest assured there was a lot of talk about that choice. That is, until the parents were exposed to how a real keeper actually plays that position. Things changed drastically. Today, I can’t tell you how many parents and opposing coaches ask to approach my child directly and say “you played one hell of a game, shake her hand, and say – keep going”. What’s better than that for a 13 year old? Is that enjoyment of the game? Or, is this all my parental meddling and scheming just so she can play at the top for now? The mere notion is beyond ridiculous. In all other youth, team sports within a few years’ kids get placed into a general role based on many factors (speed, agility, size, skills, etc). That’s what a team is: a mix of capabilities that adds up to, hopefully, something greater. Apparently the consensus of the cult has another bias entirely.
FYI Good article here that drives home some of of what has been discussed. Field Play Important For Young Keepers http://www.socceramerica.com/article/41945/field-play-important-for-young-keepers.html
Yeah, I wound up sending emails to more than 2 dozen goalkeeping directors and technical directors all from top clubs (almost all DA clubs too), leaving our situation anonymous without naming my club, state or region. I asked for input and most of them replied back. Almost unanimously they agreed with most of what was said here - field play is important, and you shouldn't commit entirely to goal at this age. One said that it was ok to make the full time switch if the player was exceptional, and a couple of them admitted that although it's not ideal, there have been situations where they have put kids in that position. For our part we have decided to move clubs. There is another good club in the area who also have DA play at the older ages. They don't have quite the track record of player development as where we were but they are doing great things with some of the younger age groups in particular, and play soccer the right way. It will be hard to leave friends we have known for years, but my son is actually excited and looking forward to it. Thanks everyone for your input. edited to add - looking back, I don't know if it was clear in my opening post, but my son is actually talented enough as a field player for the top team. However that team does not have any other skilled keepers and the we feel the trainers are trying to force the change to full time play for the good of the team and their results and not considering enough what is best for our son.
Roman, If at all possible, would you be able to forward the responses from the GK and Technical directors? I have my own situation where a player of mine is absolutely getting USED by her club. U10 and they stick her in goal for the whole game, several games in a row until it's garbage time. There is not even a GK coach on staff for this pay to play club, so I'm trying to convince her parents to switch her to another club and at the very least convince them that they are getting ripped off.
So here's another aspect of the situation: We don't play travel at U8, and we just had Rec Tourney try-outs, and formed A, B and C teams. I have the A team with 11 players. The try-outs did NOT consider keepers. Starting in the Fall, at U9, we'll have travel teams, and my 11 players (or most of them) will probably make the Travel A team for the Fall - tryouts are in about 5-6 weeks. Travel tryouts WILL permit players to tryout as a keeper. Of my current top 11, not a single player has any desire to be a keeper, nor do most of the rest of the girls below that. However, there ARE 2-3 girls who actually want to play keeper, one of whom has gotten a lot of training by her father, who used to play keeper. None of them have good foot skills, though, and all made the C Tournament team because of it. Now when I go form the Travel Team for the Fall, given that the ratings will most likely remain the same, I can stick with the top 12, and force them to rotate through the keeper position. But if none of them really wants to play there, and no one changes their change their mind, what do I do as the team gets older? Keep using a rotation of mediocre keepers? If that hurts the team's results, they'll get dropped down, and we'll end up playing weaker competition, which means the development of the field players will suffer. Do I keep that up until the teenage years, then go look for a true keeper? Wouldn't that rather defeat the point of not specializing on my own team with a keeper, in that I would just be bringing in someone that probably specialized on another team since they were U9? Or do I reach down to a girl who wants to play keeper, but otherwise has no chance to play on the A (or possibly even B) team? She may be the best natural keeper we have, and with her enthusiasm to play the position, she might improve more than any other player who simply rotates through because they have to. And frankly, her foot skills are going to improve more on the A team, training with and against better competition, with better coaches and trainers, then she will get playing with the C team, or even REc, if the Club doesn't have a C team, which it probably won't. It's not easy figuring out what's best for 12 different players, all of whom bring not just different skills, but different desires.