Variety of Sports, Make Better Goalkeepers.

Remember the old days when you felt like you were invincible? Sticks and stones could never hurt you. I remember the times where we would play cricket in the park, hide and seek across at the local school, touch football and long sessions at the pool. The good old days. Why do they have to be a thing of the past? It is a matter of fact that we develop our motor skills and coordination at an early age, though as sports people we have the innate ability to diversify these skills throughout our training life. Overall, it means better performance and abilities that we would not necessarily find in one sport alone. Training in other sports in the off season is a good recommendation for all athletes especially the competitive goalkeeper. It keeps you fresh, and allows you to develop other abilities that can complement and enhance your current skills.

Back when I was playing at Marconi in the old Australian National Soccer League, one of the goalkeepers that I trained alongside was Ante Covic. Ante was the third string goalkeeper for the Australian National Team who will be playing in the World Cup next year. Ante is a fantastic goalkeeper who started his soccer career playing in the outfield. I believe this gave Ante a great ability to distribute the ball, and the confidence to play under pressure in a back pass situation. Here are some of the sports that I believe can give you an edge for better goal keeping performance (and some that I participated in whilst growing up):

• Basketball: In year 10, I played ‘B’ grade basketball for the whole year! I played soccer on the weekends and in fact know one ever knew I was a competitive goalkeeper until I was in my final year and I was playing for Sydney United, and selected for the NSW School Boys. Basketball gave me hand-eye coordination, strength and the ability to work on my jump, which is particularly important for goalkeepers.

• Touch Football: In Australia, Footie is a sport that relies on strength and speed, plus excellent ball handling skills. This is a great little sport to throw into a training session to break up the monotony.

• Cricket: Playing a game of cricket with your mates or family down at the park is a great Australian social tradition. Cricket allows you to increase your hand eye co-ordination and catching ability.

Australians are renowned for their sportsmanship and athleticism. One of the key reasons that Australia does so well in the international sporting arena is that we play a variety of different sports which enable us to increase our motor skills at an early age. Utilising a variety of different sports in your off season can really help you increase your goal keeping ability and put some fun into a monotonous training year.