Q&A: Mental Alertness Important For Goalkeeping Success!

I get many questions from all our fine readers here at Keeper Skool and I thought it would be nice to post some questions that I get asked and my responses to those questions. Mental alertness should be on top of your must have goalkeeping abilities! Understanding the mechanics of the mind to excel in certain situations while goalkeeping is very important to playing successfully as a goalkeeper. Today, goalkeepers face some interesting challenges like the general increase in the speed of the game and the skill of today’s players. The role of the goalkeeper has also changed to that of defensive support, playing stopper as an added fortification in defence. Following is a very good question by one of our readers Rob Davis who is a semi professional goalkeeper in Ireland:

Q: Hi John, just discovered the site a few days ago, and was wondering if you can help me with the mental side of the game. I play semi pro level in Ireland and have always been regarded as a very good keeper but I always lacked confidence. I dont know were this came from, but its always there, my coach says it is, and was the only thing that stopped me going further in the game. I’m 29 now and I still have no confidence, any tips?

A:

Hi Rob!

Hope all of this helps Rob!

Being mentally alert is the hallmark of great goalkeeping. I’ve said it numerous times here at Keeper Skool, as much as you train your body you should always strive to train your mind. Being mentally alert will help you keep calm and focused on the goals that you have set for yourself as a competitive athlete. If you have any questions that you would like to post to me, please feel free to email me by clicking the link here.

Q&A: Rich Goalkeeper; Poor Goalkeeper?

What separates me and you from the big guys in goalkeeping? Well, that is a very good question. There are many facets that differentiate goalkeepers at a low and a high level, most notably the training frequency and intensities. I know when I was 15 training in Zagreb that the training was super intense, two times a day, live, breathe, sleep and eat soccer. There was a very good question sent to me the other day from one of our US Keeper Skool readers living in Thailand, aout the differences between the big bad guys and us small timers. Enjoy:

Q: Hi, John. Just a quick note to say keep up the great work with the blog. I really love it. Discovered it recently and have read through your archives. Great stuff. I’m a 31-year-old American goalkeeper living in Thailand. I was wondering, just out of curiosity, if you might write a future post about what you think sets elite goalkeepers apart from very good ones. In other words, what makes the keepers in the English Premier League different from, say, top university-level goalkeepers or excellent amateur ones or even professional goalkeepers in lesser domestic leagues like America’s MLS. Is it mostly athletic ability? Training from an early age? Psychological toughness? Luck? A combination of all of these? I played at the university level in America and I often see world-class goalkeepers on TV and wonder what it is that makes them so unique. Thanks.

–Newley Purnell
http://newley.com

A: What an excellent question Newley! I think the answer, especially when it comes to goalkeeper training and fitness come down to the following:

• Intensity: Non stop! Training at a professional level, is super intense and frequent. Meaning you train two times a day in most cases. It is a job, as with any profession, so it entails dedication and hard work. With higher intensity training, the body adapts and grows. Therefore, the levels that most pro goalkeepers train at entail short, high intensity sessions.

• Frequency: Just like a 9 to 5, but so much more fun! Training at the pro level means training sometimes 6 to 8 hours a day.

• It’s Not Just About Technique: Good technique is always great to maintain, but what separates good goalkeepers from professional goalkeepers are training modalities. This means that the modes of training include a high emphasis on specifics with a lot of strength training and high intensity aerobic work thrown in for good measure. In fact (you can debate me on this one), I believe that technique does not really change significantly as you develop as a goalkeeper. If you were taught great technique when you were younger you are in good stead for great performance at a higher level, as opposed to never learning basic technique at all. Basic goalkeeping technique applies whether you are just starting out, or playing professionally. What really makes the difference is the first few points: Intensity, frequency and modes of training (strength & aerobics) focusing on specific strengths or weaknesses to enhance performance. That 2% difference in performance might not seem like much, but it’s that “little” extra you give at training that takes your game to the next level.

• Mental Strength Is A Matter Of Environment: Newley has wisely mentioned mental strength. I always believe that you are a product of your environment. Train in a negative environment and you will not go too far. On the other hand, training in a good environment with strong support means that you will excel with your goalkeeping game. Professionalism is not about how much money you get paid, it’s a state of mind. Create your own professional environment. You don’t have to be playing at Old Trafford, you just need to surround yourself with positive soccer players who are trying to achieve the same levels of excellence on the field or between the sticks as you. If they work hard and live clean then you will strive for the same. Humans are habitual by nature, so pick up good habits early (this includes eating like a pro and training like a pro).

So there it is, I would hope that all of you who regularly read Keeper Skool constantly strive for greater performance. The reason why professional soccer players have the opportunity to be named “Pros” is because they work harder and more often than we do. Professionals also strive for constant perfection of their abilities, and work on “specifics” to enhance strengths and iron out weaknesses. Check out Newly’s fantastic blog: http://newley.com. Thanks again for the great question Newley!

The Swing Of Things: Goalkeepers Can Increase Performance Through Studying Swing Biomechanics

One very interesting study could have implications in regards to how you utilize you body’s energy when attacking outfield opponents who are trying to attack your goal or even kicking the ball. So as a goalkeeper you will be faced with many different scenarios, where you will have to run to meet the ball and attacking opponent or throw the ball to your own attackers. Research has shown that when you are running and utilizing too much swing with your limbs (arms swinging out and back, or legs swinging out to connect the foot with the ground while running, for example) you produce too much energy cost, which can hinder your ability to conserve energy and meet an opponent in a timely fashion or even kick and throw a ball effectively.

Taking a look at the study, we can draw some conclusions about what a competitive goalkeeper can use to be more efficient when attacking the ball or even kicking the ball:

• “…the researchers were able to demonstrate that the swing-phase muscles, in fact, consume 26 percent of the energy used by the limbs when running while the stance-phase muscles consume the remaining 74 percent of the energy.“

• “The pioneering effect of this research is that by looking directly at blood flow to all of the individual muscles during running we were able to establish more directly the consumption of energy during the swing-phase.”

• “Future research will allow us to connect the mechanical functions of individual muscles with their energy use. This detailed information will be useful in models that integrate the energetics and mechanics of running.”

Now something from the above study really resonates with me, especially when it comes to kicking the ball. If we are better able to kick efficiently, then we will be able to produce more force to generate a powerful kick, for example. What about a goal kick situation? When you run, should the final leg swing before you make contact with the ball be long and arcing? Or should it be shorter? How about the run up? A few sharp steps, or a long powerful run up with long arcs? There are possibly many studies in regards to kicking force and velocity, but the above is a very good study about efficiency and how to utilize your swinging limbs to better goalkeeping performance.

I guess when it comes to kicking or throwing efficiency, technique is very important, but understanding how to kick or throw a ball more efficiently could ultimately lead to more power being used and ultimately longer kicks and throws.

Searching For Maximum Power? Train Harder!

Nothing happens by just thinking about it. In fact, you can almost kiss your chances of being the best goalkeeper you can be goodbye if you don’t work your heart out. Training hard and smart, can help you increase your ability to generate muscle power over a long period of time. That means, the harder you train over a prolonged period, will allow your body to become more efficient, and thus help you generate more muscle power. One study tracked a cycling legend over years of training with some fascinating results.

Everyone knows Lance Armstrong, this study by Coyle E.F. of the University of Texas-Austin showed some remarkable results of the champion Tour De France legend over seven years and the results may surprise you:

• “Generally there are two ways to improve efficiency: Train your maximum capacity to be very high, or train your sub-maximal capacity to be very efficient. In Armstrong’s case, he did both. In the lab they measured his performance against standard oxygen consumption and by the end of the study he was much more efficient utilizing the same amount of oxygen. But on the road,” he pointed out, “it means he can go faster and get more guys off his wheel.”

• “One possible mechanism for increased efficiency is that (Armstrong) increased his percentage of type I muscle fibers, (indeed) we predict that he might have increased his percentage of type I muscle fibers from 60% to 80%,”

• “for the same amount of cardiovascular and lung stress Armstrong is producing 8% more power, and yet producing less heat. These results have shown us how to improve already highly trained athletes by aiming at efficiency, which is a muscle phenomenon. But it’s also nice to know,” he added, “that as you get older that your body becomes wiser in how it does its job and less wasteful in energy usage.”

I think the above is an awesome study that gives you an overview of what the benefit of hard training over a prolonged period can help you achieve. Lance Armstrong is testament to iron discipline and the ability to overcome insurmountable odds. What has this got to do with goalkeeping? Well, I believe that anyone can learn from others who have been successful in just about any field. Bruce Lee was not the best martial artist in the world by just sticking to what he knew or what he was taught, they became supreme athletes by looking outside the box to help them maximize their potential.

Now back to the story. If you train hard, you can maximize your potential to generate more power from your muscles. If you train hard and long, your remarkable body adapts and becomes more efficient, which in turn allows you to be more effective at the art of goalkeeping. Great Oaks are not created in one day, and God certainly did not create the world in seven days. It takes time, persistence and a lot of blood, sweat and tears to turn yourself from a goalkeeping woe…to a goalkeeping pro.

Exercise Can Take The Wheez Out Of Asthma!

Let me tell you a little secret…I was asthmatic for most of my life. In fact my asthma was so bad, that I would constantly utilize a puffer to help curb my wheeze. By the age of 16, and with constant training I was able to get rid of my asthma for good, which is testament to the power of exercise. In fact, I truly believe that training at high altitude in the snow for many months while at Dinamo Zagreb as a junior really helped me improve my fitness and thus help curb the effect of my asthma.

My fight with asthma was prolonged because I feel that I was never taught the fundamentals of good nutrition, or how to maximize my fitness at an early age to help curb the affects of asthma. Asthma can also be genetic and sometimes caused by lifestyle. The best way to control your asthma is by staying fit, and you are way ahead of the pack as a soccer goalkeeper. If you are a parent reading this, always discuss your child’s condition with a doctor to help you maximize their training potential. Asthma does not mean that you should discontinue training, in fact, educating yourself in regards to your body, and how to maximize your fitness allows you to increase your chances of managing your asthma better.

I’ve found that playing at a highly competitive level allowed me to focus on good nutrition, better fitness principals and also maintain high levels of hygiene which can all contribute to better asthma management. If you need any more advice, please give me a shout via email. I’ve also attached a very good reference from a recent study below.

Pain Is Your Friend: Using Lactic Acid For Greater Athletic Performance

When you feel that your muscles are burning like a New York fire trap after an intense workout, don’t get mad at the cause of the pain. The dreaded "L" word is the bane of trainees all over the world. Now, significant scientific studies claim that lactic acid can be your friend. In fact, training the lactic system can help propel your performance to all new highs if you use it correctly.

I always remember those first few training sessions down at Sydney united as a junior coming up to the reserve team and training with the big boys. My trainer at that time was Steve Watson, and he had that old bulldog mentality that you have to work your arse off to be the best goalkeeper you can be. There is nothing wrong with that, but I also believe that a goalkeeper can work smarter to achieve success also. Smarter means, looking into the science of your own body and understanding the little things that you can do to maximize your performance. Training the lactic system can pay great dividends for the competitive goalkeeper as goalkeeper training is inherently anaerobic (without oxygen).

You can read more about the study with the reference that I have attached as it is a good primer into understanding the aerobic and anaerobic systems. One of the main topics in the study was the benefit of interval training. Interval training is where your run intensely over a short period, followed by a period where you taper the pace. Using speed intervals is a fantastic way of increasing your anaerobic system and the size of the mitochondria (the muscles energy house). Interval training using the lactic system can help the body produce the added fuel you need to power up your goalkeeper training.

I See Red: The City To Surf Marathon 2006!

A swirling dervish of red swamped me and the Mrs. as we walked toward St. Mary’s Cathedral to take part in the 2006 City To Surf, 14 kilometer run in Sydney today. Red hats were the order of the day, and much fun ensued. We started at the back of the pack, and as we moved along with the caterpillar swarm of runners, we soaked up the atmosphere of one of the great running events in the world today.

There were the usual odd characters dressed in Spiderman costumes, to the Budgy Smuggler wearing nothing but their yellow swimmers and chanting songs as they ran along. We had a chat with one of the oldest competitors at the race at the infamous "Heartbreak Hill" with 20+ years of City To Surf sprawled on his yellow running shirt like a war hero. There were mums and dads with prams, long haired bands playing ACDC’s "Thunder Struck" on rooftops of local pubs, with people cheering and having a fantastic time.

It has been a long while since I had run a City To Surf running event, and I remembered that the atmosphere was so awesome, that you really do numb the general brutality of the run in your mind. The first seven kilometers we did at a slight jog, then I pressed on from the Mrs. for the last seven kilometers. The most amazing part of the race is the view over Bondi as you run towards the finish line. The Mrs. was lucky enough to have won a competition to enter the race a few weeks ago through local radio station 106.5 FM. We were gifted brand spanking New Balance runners, a free New Balance T-shirt, and a fantastic 1 hour long massage after the run was complete that soothed away the soreness.

What I discovered from a fitness perspective is that goalkeepers can benefit from running in any such event as a primer for pre-season performance. The benefits include, greater aerobic capacity in the muscles and lungs and fantastic mental strength development. Apart from this, you have the amazing ability to mingle with so many fun individuals from around Australia and the world, it’s a school running carnival on steroids. I finished the run in about 2 hours which is way above my previous two runs but I really did it for the enjoyment today, and to spend time with my family. I should get the results tomorrow and will post them as an update on this post then.

Viagra Creates Strong…Athletic Performance At High Altitude

Sports scientists have taken Viagra out of the bed, and tested some athletes at high altitude with varying results. An interesting study by Hsu A.R (et.al) 2006 showed that 4 out of 10 cyclists who were training at a high altitude performed better while utilizing viagra than a placebo group. Other participants did not show any marked difference in performance while utilizing Viagra. Following are notes taken from the study and some of my thoughts on the topic:

It ain’t just for a glorious start to your morning, Viagra was initially developed to help control high blood pressure. Now scientists are looking into the effect of Viagra and performance at high altitude and the results are varied. Viagra or Sidenafil:

• "…causes blood vessels in certain tissues, such as the lungs, to relax. This improves blood flow from the heart and increases oxygen transport to working muscles. Because the high altitude atmosphere contains less oxygen, it is more difficult to get enough oxygen to support strenuous physical activity than it is at sea level."

• "The researchers hypothesized that the drug would allow the study’s participants to improve their performance at altitude because it would reduce the constriction of vessels in the lungs that sometimes occurs at altitude. In turn, that would allow greater blood flow through the heart, better transfer of oxygen from the lungs to the blood and improved oxygen delivery to working muscles."

What the study did show was some varied results that pointed to some participants only having a 1% increase in performance, while others had up to 45% increase. What happens is that when performing at high altitude, the vessels in the lungs tighten up, therefore reducing blood flow that carry oxygen into the lungs making it harder to perform an activity. Viagra helps reduce the constriction, therefore allowing blood to be carried more freely into the lungs, which enhances performance.

So what has this got to do with soccer players? Well, many of us play at sea level, while others at a higher altitude.  Viagra (in certain cases only) helps to increase performance at high altitude. I believe that one study does not entail anyone to utilize any form of performance enhancement, especially Viagra. But I can only imagine that some unscrupulous supplement manufacturers will try to utilize Viagra for use in some form of supplement for performance enhancement in the future.

The Hands Are Bigger Than The Feet: It’s All Neuromuscular?

Because we humans have a propensity to utilize our hands more often than our feet, some athletes are at a natural advantage with certain parts of their anatomy (no pun intended) because they have a very succinct mind-body connection. This awesome post at Soccerblog.com is a must read for any goalkeeper or soccer player. The hands are naturally used more often than the feet, and therefore it is testament to the awesome talent of great footballers such as Pele, Maradona, Ronaldinho and other greats who were and are, brilliantly talented with their feet. Does this mean that goalkeepers are less skilled on the ball? Possibly.

From a training perspective, it should be noted that the goalkeepers role has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. There has never been such a time as RIGHT NOW to utilize ball skills for any competitive goalkeeper within a training situation. In fact it should be made a staple of the goalkeepers training regime. Kicking at the start of a session, kicking at the end of a session, kicking goal-kicks, kicking from the hand, kicking to outfield players under pressure from attacking players…the list is exhaustive. From the article:

"In fact, football skills are one of the hardest things to do. Much harder than the dribbling skills that we see in basketball players. That is because our legs and feet have neuroanatomic and musculoskeletal connections that are far less numerous and well developed than that to our arms and hands. In other words we have far less muscles, nerves, blood vessels, devoted to our lower body. That is because for the finer manipulative and dexterous work that hands do, we need more input. The legs assist us in the cruder work of locomotion. In short we have better control over our hands than we do over our feet."

The big question for me is, are we goalkeepers more talented soccer players because we use both the hands and the feet? A question for the soccer fans around the world. But the mind is especially brilliant at helping the body adapt to certain situations. Therefore, a good question to ask and one for the sports scientists out there is, "Do professional soccer players have bigger feet than the average Joe? How about goalkeepers and their hands"? Riveting stuff and definately some food for thought. Another question to ask is whether great goalkeepers of their era such as Lev Yashin, were considered anatomically superior goalkeepers, and performed better than most goalkeepers of there generation because Yashin was known for coming off his line and playing the role of sweeper on numerous occassions. Therefore, Yashin trained both his hands and feet to accelerate and innovate not only his own skills, but that of the modern goalkeeper.

King Khan: A Video Tribute To a Goalkeeping Great

Love him or hate him, he stands as one of the best of his generation. Following is a video of goalkeeping legend, Oliver Khan. Tonight I was searching for something inspiring, and I can remember glossing over an old European sports magazine in Croatia when I was 15, standing in the Trg. Ban Jelacic, with the cobble stone streets glossed over from the remnants of snow turned to water. Some of the shots in the magazine showed Oliver Khan training, outstretched in mid-flight, pouncing above his opponents, and that stone cut face barking orders over his defence.

Some comments on You Tube, echoed back to remnant of scars from the World Cup in 2002, with the Finals blunder against Brazil that cost Germany the cup. From the video below, you can just see how much of a powerful goalkeeper Khan is, his phenomenal reaction speed, great coverage of angles, superior command of his defense, strong communication and imposing presence. Khan is definitely up there with Schmeichel as one of his generations best. He even applauded the efforts of Jens Lehmann during this years World Cup finals, even though there was a supposed rivalry between the two goalkeepers. This again shows that Khan has character, which speaks in volumes when it comes to truly great goalkeepers. Enjoy the video.

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