Goalkeeper Georgi Petkov concedes least goals per minute

One of the most important aspects of the goalkeepers game is to keep the ball out of the net…did I just say that? Well of course. I think I mentioned it before in some previous posts, where my old goalkeeper trainer Steve Watson (whilst I trained in the reserve team of Sydney United, Australia) said, “I don’t care how you [expletive] keep the ball out of the net…just keep it out!” With that in mind, feet, head, arms and hands…whatever your chosen poison, just keep the ball out of the net is the mantra for most goalkeepers around the globe. Read more

Youth Goalkeeping: Beginning the Technical Training for High Balls and Crosses

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Keeper Skool Interviews Martin Brennan, Goalkeeper Coach of Wycombe Wanderers

Keeper Skool recently caught up with Martin Brennan, goalkeeper coach for Wycombe Wanderers F.C. (English League Two). Martin started his goalkeeping career as an U/9 at Layton Orient, before signing on with Tottenham Hotspur at 13 years of age, plying his trade with the club for 2 years before moving onto Charlton Athletic. Read more

Football coaching – half time psychology to maximize goalkeeper performance

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How To Choose The Right Goalkeeper Gloves?

So, it’s a new year with a new season ahead of us, and it’s probably the best time in the world to look for new goalkeeper gloves, goalkeeper jerseys and the like. Of course, nothing is better than the smell of latex in tha mornin’ (yes, sick goalkeeping type fetish, I know). Read more

Casillas voted best goalkeeper in the world for 2008

The IFFHS (which is short for…well, something) released its annual world’s best goalkeeper for 2008 award, with none other than Iker Casillas crushing the charts with some blinding displays of goalkeeping genius. The Spaniard maestro set the world alight with his leadership for Real Madrid with the clubs 31st title win in the La Liga. Read more

Build a “base” to blow up your goalkeeping performance!

Possibly one of the scariest moments I’ve encountered was a trip to the old Ryde pools in the Western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. One of the features of the old pool (before it was reconstructed into a monstrous “uber” Olympic pool for the Sydney 2000 Olympics) was a monolithic set of diving boards. Now I can’t exactly recall how high the tallest diving platform was, suffice to say I swallowed some gall and then some looking at it from afar.

Taking the arduous journey up the voluminous flights of stairs and crawling on hands and knees to the edge of the highest platform was a terrifying journey in itself. The funny thing was…I never took the plunge. Many adventurous kids did, but I couldn’t? This mindset resonates in the way that we approach our own goalkeeping development.

Why? Was the diving platform not sturdy, would I fall to a crashing death? Nope. If I belly flopped, I’m sure to have been in a world of pain, but that pain would surely be treated and pass. In my previous article I spoke about getting ready for the preseason ahead (or the season that you are currently in), and when you begin any training regime that is goalkeeping specific (or otherwise) we should always start with a solid “base”.

Back to the diving analogy. Wouldn’t it have not made more sense that I approached my journey into platform diving starting on the smallest platform? Sure, it would look funny, diving off a 1 metre platform with floats on (please don’t laugh…I’ve seen it done). But, from small steps, we create larger steps, and can then take the proverbial leap into bigger and better goalkeeping performance.

So, let’s talk about these baby steps, and building a “base” to solid goalkeeping performance. Starting out after a long hiatus from goalkeeping, or from training competitively, entails that we do not rush into the fray without priming the body again for competitive action. Here is a little plan you can utilize to build a solid base to maximize your goalkeeping performance, and it’s based on one of the primary and most basic training methodologies outlined in our G-Code e-book (part of our Keeper Skool Certified subscription) titled Easy F.I.T.T.

Easy F.I.T.T. entails that you look at the basic components of your fitness and break it down into the following:

Fitness: Look at your overall fitness, have you done previous exercise, and what types of exercise have you completed? Make a list, and start from where you have left off. Remember to take baby steps back into your training. This does not mean go at a snails pace, but at a pace where your body is comfortable with the workload, and ready to take the next step in your physiological development.

Intensity: Take a look at what kind of intensity you wish to begin with at the outset of your new program for the year. Intensity means that we have progressive periods of overload, followed by periods where the intensity is lower than the previous weeks work, so that the muscles can adapt and recuperate. But lowering the intensity does not mean that we cut off our exercise development fully, otherwise we can lose the gains that we have initially built upon.

Time: Look at the duration of exercise that you wish to complete. If you know the exercise types that you are looking at utilizing for your training sessions, then set time limits that are easily adapted too, and are progressively lengthened over a 4-6 week period.

Type: Your exercise to begin with does not need to be goalkeeping specific, so long as the movements you utilize via the exercise activity of choice entails movements that are similar to the movements that you may conduct during competition as a goalkeeper. Try swimming, cycling…you name it, there are many activities that have some sort of “goalkeeping” like component in their movements which you can utilize to your advantage.

So there you have it. The above principles allow you to start to build a “base” for successful progression into bigger and better goalkeeping performance throughout the season. The aim is to always start slow, and progressively build up each of the above components until you start getting “specific” with the types of exercises you choose to utilize to enhance certain facets of your game.

Remember, taking a view over the edge of a looming platform, can usually scare the pants off your performance, so much so that it may derail you mentally from achieving your end goal as a competitive goalkeeper. So, always start at the beginning to prime your body, and prepare it for when you are ready to take the plunge of the highest peaks into greater goalkeeping performance.

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Keeper Skool Interviews Frans Hoek

How can one encapsulate the career of a goalkeeper educator that is considered the very best in the world? The name Frans Hoek is synonymous (in global football) for providing some of the very best goalkeeper coaching and football development to be found anywhere. Frans Hoek Sports and the ‘Hoek Method’ are brands unto themselves, much like Ferrari or Mercedes Benz is considered the pinnacle of automotive achievement, so to is Frans Hoek’s training methodologies considered at the highest echelon of football development in the world.

Keeper Skool was fortunate enough to chat to the man himself and find out more about what drives him, how he developed his training methodologies at Ajax, Barcelona and the Dutch Royal Football Federation (KNVB) and what training sessions with the likes of Victor Valdes (Barcelona FC, Spain), Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United, Holland) and Artur Boruc (Celtic FC, Polish National Team) entailed. Read more