I'm going to have about 18 7 and 8 year olds. I want to give them a GK training day once every few weeks. The objective is to teach them how to play the position safely and to just get used to the position. I plan to rotate a lot of players each game so I want them to know a bit about the position. Any advice? I'll have one or two assistants. What topics would you teach particularly about safety? I don't feel like catching and footwork do much for safety.
The NSCAA Goal Keeper 1 course is now an online course. Jeff Benjamin's site is still excellent. www.jbgoalkeeping.com/training.html I would do "Basics," "Catching", and "Distribution," but probably skip punts and drop kicks, but go over goal kicks and free kicks rules. These topics are more than enough for a season. I associate safety with dives and playing high balls in a crowd, which I don't think are beginner topics. For safety you have to rely on the referee to enforce the prohibition against charging a keeper (in possession of the ball) inside the penalty area. Hopefully Jeff will see your thread and comment.
Take the NSCAA GK 1. It is a great source of how to start out goalkeepers. Teaches the proper technique for receiving balls from ground, low balls and high balls. Keeping weight centered 2 things to emphasize for young goalkeepers - 1. don't drop to your knees for a ball, its dangerous and if the ball is misplayed you can't recover. 2. how to center themselves in the large goal - body between ball and center of the crossbar.
After you've covered footwork, catching, and positioning, I'd introduce proper diving technique next. Being 8yo, especially if they're boys, they'll want to dive on the ball anyway, and often will end up on the ground if there's a rebound or loose ball. Make sure they end up facing the field, on their side--not stomach, and sideways to the ball, with top leg's knee up protecting the midsection and arms/ball protecting the face. Other positions ("turtle" over the ball, facing away from attackers, head forward, extra rolls exposing back or head, etc.) can all be dangerous. ANY time they are on the ground, they should be in proper "end of dive" position. If you still have a session or two, you might cover basic breakaway technique, going in low which is actually in many ways safer than other ways of taking a ball off the attacker's foot. Often, they'll end up using this technique to claim balls that are rolling in from a long kick or off an attacker's long touch, so they won't be right at the forward's feet anyway. If they've already got basic diving technique down, the slide is related: essentially a collapsed dive going low and forward rather than sideways. The biggest potential for injury is when the kids go for a ball incorrectly on the ground and/or with opponents around. To me it's key that they learn to hit the turf safely with good technique. Diving and breakaway technique is particularly critical IMO when it comes to safety.
With that many kids, two things become important in a training session: 1) Goal frames or equivalent, 2) Service. The first is easy if you have a set of coaching poles. I often run entire sessions with just poles to make "frames". You can vary the size (e.g. smaller for collapsed diving drills). and a few poles can make many goals. Just six poles can be used to make 4 frames (3 poles on one side making two goals, 3 more poles opposite that) and have four or more keepers working at a time. I once did a one-day clinic, expecting 15-18 boys. Forty showed up! With a set of 16 poles, I was able to make 14 goals and have about 3 players on each set of 2 goals, so they all got plenty of "time in net". The second is harder. Even having the kids throw to each other rather than kick, ball placement and pace is often less than ideal for working the desired technique. The only real way around this is to have enough coaches to serve and make the groups small enough they all get enough reps. Otherwise, you just have to go with what you get.
My daughter had been watching adults play since she was 2 years old and would have played only keeper if I had let her. At U10 she was diving for catches and breakaways constantly. She never did get kicked in the face, but I was constantly worried. I worked with her on collapsed dives but didn't cover aerial dives.
It's going to be tough no doubt. Question regarding breakaways, I've always used your "tunnel drill". Man this goes back like 7 years ago! Is it still okay just to get the GK to stay in her feet and try to push the ball away, delay the attacker, force her into a mistake instead of going for the stop with a collapsed dive?
Generally speaking my point of view regarding the fundamental stage is that the coach conceptually separates techniques from tactics. Tactics involves selecting techniques. So you have to teach the techniques in order to give the players the tactical choices. My tactical objective with U10 keepers was aimed at developing confidence and tactical speed in decision making. Regarding when to come off the line, I told them I wasn't going to tell them when to go, because they were the best person to know if they could make the play or not. I told them that the only mistake would be to start and stop halfway--either go or don't go. Failing to save the ball when you go is not a mistake. (I used the same approach to finishing.) In my opinion with young keepers the tactical issue is really one of getting enough experience to read the game. No amount of coaching instruction is going to make up for a lack of game experience. What is the tunnel drill? Please! I tried googling with no success. Sounds like a 1st defender drill. I hope Jeff responds again.
rca, I think what elessar is referring to is marking out a channel or "tunnel" with cones as wide as the goalposts, and extending about 20 yards out. Attacker starts with the ball at the far end and the goalkeeper near the goal line. Attacker tries to dribble in and score, but has only a limited time (say 6-7 seconds) and must stay within the tunnel. If time runs out or the ball leaves the tunnel, the attack is over. For the youngest keepers, U8, I'd emphasize staying on the feet, but low and big, and "stalking". They'll make a lot of saves with the ball simply hitting them, or scooping up a bad touch easily. Sliding in should first be taught on balls the keeper will easily get to first--you can vary the tunnel drill by making the tunnel a bit longer, with a coach playing in a ball that the attacker chases. You can server the ball 70/30 for the keeper to practice sliding through first, then get closer to 50/50, then sometimes play the ball to the attacker so the keeper has to decide whether to come hard and slide through the ball first, or stay up and come out and stalk. I'm deliberately avoiding the point-blank/take-it-right-off-the-foot save for the younger ones. I want them to either slide for balls clearly in their favor or stay on their feet. More advanced/older keepers can go in at the feet, or even use the "straddle save" which has come into favor lately. Instead of going low sideways, the keeper kind of does the splits with legs and arms wide and body still upright: This takes timing and flexibility. It's the new method for making yourself big as the shot is being taken.
Good stuff thanks. Yes, I don't want them diving at feet at this age. Straddle save: is it the rise in popularity in chipping the keeper that gave rise to the straddle save?
How'd the session go? I have tried to have goalkeeper days because I too like to use everyone at keeper over the course of the season. I discovered a girl with god-like hands and she's now playing Div II soccer and is the best keeper in her conference. But, service is an issue. I usually coach girls, usually U10 or U12, and it's hard to get them to pair off, for instance, because they can't even throw the ball accurately enough for the keeper to get enough work catching the ball. I'm coaching a DC United academy team now, boys U12, but they're all Hispanic and they can't throw the balls very well either. For now, I'm just keeping my two keepers after practice for 15 minutes once a week to cover keeping concepts...