Why perception is everything?

You can’t turn a blind eye toward goal. Indeed, perception can be everything when it comes to Goalkeeping. I’m not only speaking to how you carry yourself on and off the field (that’s one part of professionalism). In this case I’m talking about being “aware”.You can’t see the goal behind you, every goalkeeper wishes they had eyes on the back of their head! But you can be “aware” of your surrounding goal area. Your team mates in front of you may not be aware of which player is not being marked, but you are wholly “aware” of the game being played out in front of you. This is called tactical awareness which we spoke about in this article.

One of the key principles I uncovered whilst training in Europe was something called “propreioception”. What this term means is that the goalkeeper is wholly aware of their surroundings, and this trait can (and should) be trained.

One of the key ways to train the goalkeeper to be aware of their surroundings revolves around visual markers and having the goalkeeper coach call out particular colours (in a sequence) which the goalkeeper moves toward quickly. Usually, I get my young academy goalkeepers to visualize or map out the colour schemes before they conduct the drill. During the drill I’ll also change the colour schemes around so that they have to think and react quickly to the change in the drill.

Following is a simple drill you can use to help make your goalkeeper more positionally aware. The first drill focusing on footwork and the second drill focusing on attacking the ball in a fun game based situation.

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.