To parry or not? Drills to help sharpen your footwork.

It’s the last minute of extra time. Your team is one up and you have the game in the bag. You’ve masterfully parried a shot out for a corner and suddenly in a concerted effort, the oppositon have levelled the game? It didn’t have to end up that way, but it does happen, albeit too often in some cases.

Parrying the ball is sometimes the only way to keep the ball out of the net. One of the things I have noticed over the last week with my academy goalkeepers is the prevelance of parrying simple shots on goal back into play.

Now, it should be mentioned that these young kids are playing at a grassroots or elite junior level. It’s still an alarming end result to simple shooting drills. The reason the parrying situation eventuates is a lack of basic handling technique.

Can it be rectified? Sure can. Here are a few things I’ve been taught over 20 odd years of Goalkeeping:

1. Body behind the ball: Ever heard your coach call out that footwork is everything? Footwork provides the platform to success between the sticks. Beg to differ? OK, how many times have you dived for a ball only to “just” make it to the ball? Or, how many times do you sway your arms out  to catch the ball instead of using your feet to get your body behind the ball? Footwork…got the picture?

So, one thing I always focus on in training is footwork as a warm up or as a primer before game based practice. What the following drill allows the goalkeeper to do is get their mind focused on basic footwork (and handling) and also enhancing their footwork to make sure that their body is always behind the ball instead of stumbling to save the ball in a last ditched parry attempt.

(The above image is copyright of Keeper Skool, All rights reserved, 2009)

2. Footspeed: Resident goalkeeper strength and conditioning expert Mark Williams is a stickler for footspeed. Mark uses a lot of plyometric training in his sessions with elite level goalkeepers.

Plyometrics focuses on conducing muscular power, though, it also sets a strong foundation of agility. Agility training can effect foot speed, therefore, allowing the goalkeeper to get their body behind the ball more efficiently.

Following is a very basic  plyometric/diving drill I have developed over the last 20 weeks of training at the academy.

(The above image is copyright of Keeper Skool, All rights reserved, 2009)

The net effect of both the above training drills allows the goalkeeper to be more efficient in goals, whilst allowing them to get their body behind the ball with effective footwork which will help them conserve energy during the game without unecessarily diving at every instance.

But, with that said, there will be many times during a game where the only option is a split second (parry) reaction save. So, I’d rather get you in a mind frame of focusing  on proper footwork most of the time rather than just diving and parrying in every shot at goal and the above drills can certainly help.

The above drills are examples of the forthcoming goalkeeper training guide from Keeper Skool, to be released by the end of 2009. For exclusive interviews, goalkeeper fitness articles with leading experts, videos and written training drill programs sign up to Keeper Skool Certified by clicking here.