Soccer drill to work on goalkeeper footspeed
Coaching your goalkeeper to work on his footspeed is vital to his ability to get in position to block shots. Goalkeepers who are quick off the mark will save your team if they can get the skills right. Use the following soccer coaching tips and drill to get the best from your goalie.
One of the mistakes that goalkeepers often make is to stand rooted to the spot when faced by advancing attackers. In this soccer (football) drill you can get your goalkeepers used to moving around and anticipating where the ball will go.
When you are coaching this soccer drill, look out for good positions the goalkeeper gets in to using quick-reaction footwork. Point them out and praise your goalkeeper. Goalies need your encouragement so they use their soccer skills successfully.
This soccer drill gives a good work out and should make the goalkeeper work hard. Depending on the amount of space you have and the age of your players, you should give your goalkeeper more time to start with so the shooting players should be further away, then move closer as the soccer drill continues.
Do not continually point out how poor the goalie's position or handling of the ball is. Use more positive instructions such as, "Not a bad move but it would be even better if you used your feet more, or were quicker," rather than "That's wrong, do this!" - otherwise they will soon get fed up with the criticism and lose confidence.
Soccer drill set up
- Arrange the soccer drill as the diagram shows, using three attackers to fire in shots.
- Make three goals, red, white and blue using cones. When you call out a colour, the goalkeeper runs through the white goal to the red or blue goal, depending on the colour you have shouted out. The player opposite those goals can only shoot once the goalkeeper has gone through the white goal.
- If you shout "WHITE" the player can shoot straight away and the goalkeeper must try to get to the goal before it goes in.
- Award a point for each goal or save and see if the goalkeeper can beat the attackers. You can also add in some one-on-ones so the player runs at the goalkeeper rather than just shoots.
- You will need a couple of helpers behind this soccer drill because there will be a lot of balls to retrieve!
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