Don't Forget the Goalie

When I first started coaching, I had my hands full trying to figure out practices, drills, game strategy, equipment, etc.  A lot to figure out.  I knew nothing about goalies.  At one point I noticed Jarred didn't seem to have a problem with throwing himself around and said, 'you're the goalie.'  We never gave him any training, just trusted he'd figure it out.  And he did a decent job for what he had to work with.  Funny story: at one point in a playoff game he flagged down the referee and they appeared to be looking for something.  He lost a contact.  We couldn't find it.  He took off his gloves in order to have his fingers to poke around, and there, on his finger in the glove was his contact.  How his contact got into his glove will be one of life's great mysteries!

In the years after that I was able to find someone with some goalie experience and would send them off to work at the next at the other end of the field.  That worked good, but always felt that we needed something more comprehensive, something more complete.  I'm not coaching this year, but guess what?  My son is a goalie!  Eager to learn about goalie training, I'd ask him how things went in practice.  At one practice a former goalie provided coaching.  A good thing.  At another practice a former player with no goalie experience and one year of soccer provided the coaching.  Huh?  At another practice an adult with good field experience provided coaching on field position.  Good stuff.  Another practice the goalies were left to themselves.  I sent my son to a goalie coach for a couple sessions to at least get some basics.  Of course all this was disjointed and sometimes contradictory.  I saw the frustration this created in my son.  It's the problem I faced: a large team with a lot of moving parts and little experience with goalies.  It's a numbers game: do I invest in 8-10 players or 2?  Obviously we focus on the 8-10 players and do what we can with the goalie.

So I've been digging in this fall, researching goalie training.  My research has brought me to the following areas that need to be covered.  These are broken down into two broad categories: general skills and specific situations.

General Skills:

1. Goalie Rules
It seems obvious, but a new goalie doesn't know the rules.  When and where can they pick up the ball?  Who can take a goalie kick?  When they pick up the ball, how long can they take to punt/throw it?  What equipment can they have/not have?  What are the rules around free kicks - particularly important when it's near their goal.

2. Conditioning
While there is some overlap with what field players do, goalie movements are very different.  They have to get into awkward positions and move quickly, they jump, they use their hands, etc.  This conditioning is also important for injury prevention.  Field players don't throw themselves on the ground!

3. Basic Skills
How to catch the ball in three different positions.  Basic body position and movement.  Cover the three types of dives.  This is foundational skills for the specific situations.

4. Regular Play
During the regular play of a game, what should the goalie be doing, how far out should they come and how can they be part of defense?  Too often I see goalies standing on the goal line throughout the game.  Good goalies can read the field and are more dynamic in their positioning and movement.  Discuss angles and how they manage space.  Cover helping the team transitioning from defense to attack.

Specific Situations:

The following are specific situations a goalie needs to be familiar with.  Each has a similar pattern of (1) what are the rules for the situation, (2) recognizing the situation and where should the goalie be, (3) specific action to be performed, and (4) transition of play.

1. Breakaway 1v1
When the opposing team has one player breakaway with the ball and it become a one on one situation, what is the goalie supposed to do.

2. Corner Kicks
When the goalies team is defending a corner kick, what is the role of the goalie?  What will the opposing team try and do to the goalie?

3. Free Kick
When the goalies team commits a foul that results in a free kick, the goalie is responsible for helping to setup the defense.  Need to review the rules around a free kick, from a goalie perspective.

4. Throw In
While scoring on a throw in doesn't happen very often, it does happen.  Teaching the goalie to watch the game to see who has a strong throw in, how will the opponent move to try and score on a throw in, etc.

5. Penalty Kick
What kinds of situations go to a penalty kick, what are the rules for the goalie, how to read the kicker, and what can happen once the kick is taken.  This also includes a shoot out in a tie game.

Given these categories, I've been able to identify specific skills and drills for each of these categories and I'll cover this later.  Some key points:

- This looks complex, but doesn't have to be.  You can go as deep as you want into any of these areas.  Pick three things to work on each each area and over the course of the season, you'll cover a lot of ground.

- Define a pattern for every practice - have a set of conditioning drills and ball handling drills that are done every practice.  Do a couple times and the goalies will be able to do the drills themselves.

- For specific situations, it's good to review with just the goalies first, then integrate in with the rest of the team.

- Get materials for the goalies to read out side of practice.  Have them take responsibility for this.  For example, copy the pages out of the rule book and have them read.

Kindness & Character

Saw two things over the past couple weeks.  First, I attended my son's basketball banquet.  I love these banquets!  Everyone is jazzed, a sense of completing something important, and just good fellowship.  One of the coaches described each player and identified one specific positive character trait, then charged the player with a bible verse.  What a great, encouraging thing to do!  For example, a player might be told they have focus or courage.  What an encouragement that is.  In management consulting, they say to focus on your strengths and that was what this coach was doing.

Secondly, I attended a girls volleyball game and watched to coach.  Always a smile on his face, no yelling or intensity.  No drama.  You know what those girls did during the game?  They smiled a lot, kept things positive when they were down, and stayed focused.  Sometimes I think we as coaches are so focused on winning or the importance of winning that we 'will' our players to play better and that comes out in body language, tone of voice and what we say.  But is that really the goal of a coach?  The coach's job is to equip their players so they can win.  The girls team lost - it was close - but the coach was still smiling and encouraging.  I've said before that one of the problems that players need to overcome is the video that plays in their head.  We love soccer because we see Lionel Messi dribble through four other players and score.  It's exciting!  Since our players don't have that level of skill, they need to focus on other things like effective passing, dropping the ball, etc.  Maybe coaches have the same problem.  They see Jim Boeheim from the Syracuse Orange pacing up and down, intense and yelling a lot.  Drama.  And we as coaches have that tape playing in our heads.  Time to turn off that tape.

Kudos Time

My son got home from volleyball practice and we got talking about it.  Volleyball is a new thing for him and new things can sometimes be a little intimidating.  Sports come fraught with social complications for kids.  Lay the competitiveness of sports on top of already complex social situations with youth and physical development, and it can be messy.  Boys are the worst at this.  Go into the locker room after a game, especially a losing game, and you'll see what I mean.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard about the practice of 'kudos time' at the end of volleyball practice.  The team huddles up and players exchange kudos - who did what well.  Simple, but brilliant.  Anything that we as coaches can do to encourage behavior that builds up one another is important.  It's important for team performance and for the development of Godly young men and women.

Mid Season Get Together

In the middle of my son's basketball season.  The coach invited the JV team over for pizza and game video reviews.  Lessons learned:

A mid season get together is so simple to do (just show up with pizza) and very effective.  Get the kids together just to talk and hang out.

Often kids develop a kind of social hierarchy during practices and games.  A mid season get together helps to break that down.

Reviewing game videos together is really valuable.  I always posted them to youtube with links on FB, but getting together to review really focuses attention.

Getting critical feedback while watching game videos in front of peers is hard for kids.  The coach just wants to point out areas for improvement.  The players hear criticism.  It's hard, but important.

Rant: people don't handle feedback well.  Almost never.  Too many complicated rules: don't give me feedback on that, your tone was wrong, you've given me too much, how are you qualified, etc.  It's bad.  Ask people if they want feedback and they'll gush and say 'oh yes please'.  In reality, not so much.  We suck at getting feedback.  Doing this review with kids helps to equip them for taking feedback better as they get older.

Time is tight for all of this, but this is low hanging fruit and easy to do!