I’m looking for some good goalkeeper drills for U15 boys. 1goalkeeper.com has disappeared and finesoccer and Decatur seem very girl oriented. Any body have any more ideas or links..Thanks You are who you pretend to be. Kurt Vonegut Jnr.
focus on footwork.... I know it sounds weird, but footwork is often overlooked for keepers and is in my opinion the MOST important thing, besides positioning (cutting down the angles of the shooter). When I went to summer goalkeeper camps, quick feet were always stressed, and when I returned from camp I was extremely quick with feet and my performance was great. Unfortnaylt my HS coach didnt focus on it with us, and as my foot speed returned to where it was b/4 camp-, my performance dropped a little. As far as specific drills, I dont really have any in particular.. Just remeber, dramatic, and "spectacular" saves are often the result of bad positioning and slow feet to begin with!
Also, to help break up training and to also better a goalkeepers footwork, let him switch roles and shoot on goal once in awhile and take part in attacking drills. This does 3 things: 1. Breaks up any possible boredom keeper might have from day-in day-out goalkeeping drills.. 2. Improves his footwork skills.. 3. Allows him to "see the field" as an attacker and brings a new perspective to the game for him. This helped me improve my goalkeepring game b/c it brought a new feel for the game to me. This is also done in reverse (allowing forward and field players to play keeper) to help boost their scoring.. It is hard to decribe, but this changing of perspective does sometime improve a players game.... As far as specific drills to answer your question, my advice is to rent a basic (since they are under 15 dont go too in depth with diving, advancved stuff...) video with drills that focus on fundamentals for goalkeeping
Basic Stuff: * Stand about 8 yards out from goal. Have the keeper go through side to side steps... NOT crossover. Make the touch each post. At your discretion throw (unless your real accurate with your foot) at them when they're past halfway. At first, just throw to their hands, then start to throw to the post they are moving towards. It's not supposed to be a guessing game, it's to work on their hand-eye-foot coordination. * Another good thing to do is have them get into a push up position, on the goal line, facing you. On a verbal, let them start to get up, and then toss the ball at them... This is good with a shooter, too. * A variation on this is to have them face away from you (looking into the net) then give them a verbal (TURN) and have them reflex save. * A final variation on this is to have them start on the goal line and then do a fwd somersault. Right as they are popping up, toss the ball as you see fit... Helps them work on reaction, as well as recovering from being on the ground (like a save and a rebound type thing). Oh, one more thing to work on... and do it a LOT... is to have them start on the penalty spot or possibly 8 yards out, and then chip them... You might need to throw the ball to keep it accurate. (There's nothing worse as a keeper than repeatedly having to throw yourself at shots that aren't on frame... spatial/goal awareness is REALLY imp.) I have a lot more, but those are a couple that are good.
Body-line I start with hand positioning, side to side stretching exercises with a ball in your hands. Then light tosses, emphasiizing form, always bringing the ball into a safe hold position. Work on harder shots, tosses above the shoulders, ge tthe keeper to use strong hands, not focus on catching everything but keeping everything close in (hands make a dual nazi salute, so that a ball falls directly to the ground, where ball can be picked up). Always step forward when doing this. Then I add a tosses to the sides and hands moving together and falling with proper form, hitting your body line, using the ball as a shock absorber. From the ground: down leg brought forward, up leg stretched back, hands extended and body angled towards shooter work on tosses about three feet high above the keepers belt, keeper uses down elbow and down leg to get his body into pisition to make stop, rest of body stays static, Catch, toss back to shooter, repeat about 15 reps each side. Then Start up, and have him go down after balls tossed to each side. When keeper gets body position down, get him rocking back and forth in it, goal is to get him moving forward while on the ground, so have him chase as you walk backwards, tossing balls at ground or above the belt. This probably is a visual thing. Does it make any sense at all?
Start the keeper lying on his butt, toss the ball to him so he does a situp and catches the ball somewhere over his knees. Vary whether the ball is left, right or middle. This teaches quick recognition of ball direction, ability to get back up after a shot, and gets the kid to do some situps without realizing it.
I am not a coach i'm just a highschool Keeper but I'm pretty good my coach runs a drill with me where I stand facing him and he gives me a command such as, Roll and I have to get down do a barrel roll while completing this roll he throws or kicks the ball at me and I have to get up and catch it or deflect it whichever applies to the shot this helps with Ball recognition, reaction, and recovery on a rebound. Also I will stand with my back to my coach and he will roll the ball at my whether to my right to my left or between my legs and as soon as I see it I have to dive for it
Keeper Drill One of the better ones I call "INSANITY"After working the rest of the team, and warming up the Keepers, Put a Keeper in Goal, and station other players (servers) around the penalty box, on the line w/ball.Put two (or three) shooters around the arc, and put three attackers, and two defenders in front of the goalie box. Have a server flight or kick a ball into an attacker, who tries to either score or pass-to-shoot. After the ball is 'dead'(either cleared or stopped), the first shooter immediately shoots on goal. After this ball is dead, the next server serves, then then next shooter shoots, then a service, then a shot All around the box for servers, loop back and forth for shooters. Change keepers ever 10 balls, but make them change on the fly. (Servers retrieve their own, and shooters switch off.)
Check out http://askthegoalkeeper.com/index.html It is a website that has drills and you can ask a professional goalkeeper questions about the position.
Crimson Ace, sorry if I spamed the website. I typed in goalkeeper drills into google and I got to this forum. I saw that someone asked a question about goalkeeping drills and they were talking about websites that they use to go to. I thought I was just spreading the word. Is there a way for me to remove my post? Once again, sorry about that.
No harm, no foul. Stick around and contribute. We're always happy to see new faces. Hopefully, your website develops into something we can use and refer to others.
have the keeper start on the end line. Put a bench or stack of gym bags in front of the goal box. stand inside the 18 infront of the goal with some balls. Have the keeper run off the endline and jump over the obsticle. When the keeper lands kick or throw balls to the left or right of him and have him make saves or parrie the balls past the corner. You can work on this shot stopping, foot work and hands along with exercising his legs and jumping ability get 5 balls, stand in the arc. Kick balls one at a time to different spots inside the penalty area. Keeper must run to the ball and slide to save it before it stops. As soon as he stops the first ball kick the next before he gets up. Helps him build endurance, reflexes and technique for keeper warm ups every practice, if you have bleachers, facing the side of the beacher have him jump(like a standing broad jump) from the ground to the first 3 or 4 levels of the bleachers. Have him go ground to first level, run down, ground to 2nd level up, run down and then third level. Have him do each level 8-10 times before every practice and do it in sneakers.
The biggest problem I find in GK training is the frequency with which GKs are not required to make any decisions. Too often we ask GKs to do repetitive technical exercises that do not require any decision making from the GK. While the technical repetition is a critical part of training, so is the ability to decide to use a given technique at a give time in a given circumstance. While I use the repetition type exercises in warmups and early on in training, I tend to move quickly to exercises that require: footwork moving from one position to another positioning decision making when applying technique The first three of those obviously are linked together and the fourth has a relation in that though the right technique might be applied performing poorly in the previous three will likely affect outcomes. Another issue related to GK training is one of quality over quantity. Too often GKs are asked to make a string of multiple saves in a row with no rest. While there is a time and a place for this generally it is to be avoided particularly if you are not specifically working on GK fitness.