Functionality in Goalkeeper (and all) Training

I remember being asked to become the goalkeeping coach at Shawnee High School.  I knew very little about goalkeeping and was hesitant to say the least. I was honored to be considered, but couldn't help wonder, why me?   This much I knew, it was January and I had about 6 months to prepare for the role of goalkeeping coach.

One of the first things I did was to contact Graham Ramsay and ask him to recommend books and video tapes on the subject. This is where my library of now over 300 DVDs and 200 books on soccer got its humble beginnings. 

Shawnee's then head coach, Dick Hagen, recommended taking a coaching goalkeeping course and that was my next stop. I was one of the last to register for the NSCAA State Level Goalkeeping course to be held in Columbus, Ohio in about two weeks time.  This course would forever change the way I coached, regardless of the sport.

The instructors for the course were Tony Waiters, Tony DiCicco and John Murphy. Waiters and DiCicco were world renown household names.  Waiters was widely recognized as England's star goalkeeper much as Tim Howard is recognized as the US goalkeeper these days.  DiCicco was in his heyday as the USWNT team coach.  John Murphy?  Only true die hard soccer fans probably knew who he was.  I certainly knew nothing of him at that point in time, but it was Murphy who stole the show that weekend.  To this day, he is still the best clinician I have ever had the privilege of learning from.

Among the many lasting lessons learned that weekend was the importance of functionality being a part of everything we do in teaching the game. I'm not sure why, but that concept really struck a chord and still resonates with me to this day. Graham Ramsay seconded the importance of functionality in his camps and the many discussions we have had over the years. One of the reasons I have so many DVDs and books is that I am constantly searching for quality DVDs and books that stress functionality in training. A lot of the DVDs and books I have are mostly rubbish. A few are absolute gems.

So, there I was that July in the team's coaches led mini-camp getting my feet wet as a goalkeeping coach. My biggest concern was simply to not mess up the already established goalkeeping ability of the players being entrusted to me.  I had worked tirelessly to prepare and knew one of the first things I had to do was to convince the athletes to trust me.  I was about to change the way they had previously trained to be goalkeepers and had absolutely no experience or credibility to base my approach on. 

I want to focus on one simple exercise still common in goalkeeper training today.  This exercise is supposed to train a goalkeeper to "collapse dive" and pin the ball to the ground.  The active goalkeeper will be sitting on his butt as a coach or teammate hand serves balls to first the left then the right. The goalkeeper reaches out to field the ball and then collapses to the ground. When this occurs the goalkeepers body is falling away from the server. The goalkeeper is actually falling backwards... towards the goal.  It is a terrible drill in terms of functionality.  This is where my assault on poor goalkeeper training began.

In every goalkeeper camp and clinic I have ever conducted the question of cutting down angles has been raised by athletes and coaches alike. Heck, it was one of the few things I "knew" about goalkeeping before starting this journey as a goalkeeping coach.  When faced with a breakaway the goalkeeper comes out or comes off his line to cut down the shooting angles of the approaching attacker.  I had a basic understanding of this. I "knew" what it was all about. Sound tactical strategy generally accepted by everyone.

Somewhere in my mind all these bits and pieces were beginning to coalesce into what would become my curriculum for goalkeeping.  Tony Waiters' gorilla stance and Tony DiCicco's step to the ready position combined with John Murphy's demand for functionality in everything we do. 

I asked myself, how many times in a match would a goalkeeper be found sitting on his ass making a backwards moving collapse dive save?  My answer was, if it ever happened it would be as a result of the goalkeeper having made a mistake leading up to the necessity of performing such a maneuver.  It was that day the decision to never train a goalkeeper to recover from a mistake was made.

Can you imagine the reaction of young men who had played the position of goalkeeper for years to a rookie goalkeeping coach banning one of the most widely known goalkeeping exercises in the known soccer world?  Yeah, it was about what you would expect it to be.  I had to convince the players that my approach was better.  I taught them why it was indeed better and functionality was the main selling point.

When teaching the collapse dive to goalkeepers I have them begin with their knees on a painted line - goal line, touch line, any line will do.  I then place a soccer ball diagonally out in front of them to one side.  From this position we learn to dive diagonally forward on our collapse dives. Once I am satisfied with their technique for collapsing to the ground we put their feet on the line and progress to collapse dives from a standing position.

Let's back track for just a moment.  From their knees I have them collapse dive diagonally forward.  When defending a break away the goalkeeper comes out to take away shooting angles. By performing the collapse dive diagonally forward as opposed to falling backwards toward their own goal the goalkeeper is in effect cutting down the angles of the balls path to goal. 

So, on your feet the goalkeeper takes the step into the ready position as the attacker prepares to strike the ball. From the ready or gorilla position the goalkeeper takes a diagonally forward step towards the path of the ball and then collapse dives diagonally forward to make the save of the shot on goal.  This is functional training. 

What I discovered was when performing a collapse dive while falling backwards the effective range for saving a shot was generally 4 to perhaps 4.5 yards for an averaged size goalkeeper.  When the goalkeeper dives laterally the effective range for saving a shot stretches to approximately 6 yards for an average sized goalkeeper.  But when the goalkeeper attacks the ball by collapse diving diagonally forward the effective range for saving a shot can be stretched to cover 8+ yards.  With a goal being 8 yards wide we can cover its entirety provided we are positioned properly on the ball line angle arc. 

That first year as Shawnee's goalkeeper coach,  once proper collapse dive technique was established we never once practiced performing this technique from any position other than on our feet. Three times in each direction every day, including in pre-match warm ups.  No more. No less.  Our training was completely functional in nature. And if I recall correctly our GAA (goals against average) was a minuscule .48 / game that season. 

Since that time, I have strove to make every exercise utilized in training - for goalkeepers and field players alike - functional as it pertains to games.  Whether it is a technique, tactic, physical or psychology consideration I strive to make it game-like and functionally applicable in training. After all, training is preparation to play the game.  Failing to prepare properly is preparing to fail. So why ask athletes to train / prepare in a manner that is not functionally applicable to playing the game?