Auto-generated captions — may contain the odd mishearing. Click a time to jump there.
0:00 Hey coaches, Coach KW here. Hope you're all well. Today is part two of our goalkeeper series. If you missed part one, please go back and watch that one.
0:08 Really sets the standard for what we're going to go on to. I will say thank you for all the kind comments. I got a lot of people reaching out from the personal
0:16 story I shared at the end of it. it really resonated with some other uh parents uh dealing with their own children who are either being forced to
0:23 be in net or um are maybe stuck there and were looking for some uh thinking that maybe that wasn't the best idea.
0:30 So, uh thank you. So, go back and watch that if you haven't. This video we're going to take a look at some video examples of my youngest son when he was
0:37 a highly rated prospective keeper. Uh long story short, he's a 6'1 center back, club captain, MLS next, prospects, the whole nine yards. So, you never know where a player's going to land, but
0:49 we're going to see like what the top end level of what that might look like at the young ages and really kind of look at what the primary thing it was he did,
0:58 which surprise surprise was positioning, communication, and using his feet. Made some great saves, too. I'll make sure I put those in because he'd be mad at me
1:06 otherwise. Then, I'll show some video of some basic handling techniques that you can show and teach your players to make them more comfortable when the ball comes in their direction in the air or
1:15 on the ground. be comfortable with their hands and then we'll just wrap it up.
1:19 All right, so let's get going.
1:22 Okay, so let's just set some expectations when we look at this video uh this video review. We're going to see U9, U10 game, and then we'll look at a
1:29 U11 game at 99. We'll throw some foot in there as well because there's just a lot of actions and saves and stuff like that. Um again, my son was very highly
1:37 rated at the time and now he's 6'1, center back, MLS next club captain. So clearly worked out for him, but as we said in the last video, it's because his
1:47 coaches made sure that they spent as much time as they could on his field skills and really did not work very much on keeper skills. He very rarely went to
1:55 keeper specific training even if it was offered. Um, and it pays off because again, as we said in the last video, you have no idea. So, we're going to take a
2:02 look at this and we're going to take a look at both, you know, some fantastic saves because he would be mad at me if I didn't uh include some of those, but
2:10 we're going to look at the more mundane things as well as things that you can work on with your players and that is positioning, communication, and using
2:18 their feet. So, let's take a look at some video clips now and uh go through some of that.
2:23 Okay. So, in this first clip, uh this is U9 maybe, uh maybe U10, long time ago, 2017 or 2018, uh for this clip. And the important part to pay attention here is
2:38 positioning. Where is he standing? Number 25 and net. You see him moving around with the play. Um and what's most important is notice he's not rooted to
2:46 his goal line. As the ball goes up the field, he's getting up and outside of his box. He's supporting his center back. So if the ball get hit to the
2:54 center back and it missed him, instead of being on the goal line and having so much space to get to the ball, he's right behind the play. Yes, there might
3:02 be a risk of a player getting a hold of the ball and trying to hit it over his head. But this is U8, U9, uh U9, U10. Uh
3:10 these are all eight or nine year olds out there. Um right here, we're also going to have a save. We're going to slow this down. Not the most spectacular
3:17 save, but it's his positioning that helps him be ready for this ball. As the ball comes across, you can see his body shape. His footwork is skipping across
3:26 the thing. He's keeping his body square to the ball. As it comes across the net, you can see he's in a good athletic position. He's inside his post. He's
3:34 ready. And as it comes, while it's not the hardest shot in the world, he's in the right spot. Makes his body big.
3:40 Picks up the ball. And again, the other big part of this game is just putting the ball down on the ground and passing it. So, positioning huge part of the
3:51 game, playing with your feet, another piece. We'll see a lot more of that as we go along.
3:59 In these clips, we'll see a little bit more uh on the save, but again, ground ball, comfortable save here. Uh tiny fields. This is where they cut up a
4:09 fullsize field into quarters. uh really tiny. Uh you can see he's moving his shuffling his feet, athletic stance, and is able to get up and off the ground
4:19 even though that ball is over the net.
4:20 Uh here is one uh you know, you're not you're not supposed to make a save like this. Uh that's called a collapse dive where you basically pull your leg out
4:29 from underneath you to drop down. One of his better saves there. Uh this team in black was really a good team, but they were incredibly frustrated. The red team
4:38 did end up winning this game. Uh, I don't think he let in any goals. That step right there, however, is something that I wanted to highlight in this video
4:48 and for a reason. And that's because a lot of times keepers when they're in the net, they forget to move their feet. And you can see there he fell over like a
4:56 tree trunk. And that's a result of not moving their feet. And if he had taken just one step, it wouldn't have been so dramatic. So, uh, something to keep in
5:07 mind with your keepers. Sometimes they get so fixated with the hands they forget to move their feet and that's a really important part of the game.
5:15 Here I want to throw in some uh clips from a video that I made for him. Uh this is a football game obviously and in this game he had 24 saves and I missed
5:25 um at least three minutes of the game somewhere else. And you can see here a lot of it again is closing down space which is a defensive skill that any
5:36 player should learn as a defender obviously. Um but closing down space and being ready and athletic. Uh this video is great just because there's so many saves back to back to back and so many
5:47 of them are taking the space away from a player as they come out u and taking down the angle. Uh still sliding in with his feet as he's younger. We'll take an
5:57 example when he's a little bit older where he starts to learn how to handle uh go after it with the with his hands first. And in this clip, we talked about
6:06 coming out with his feet. And now you can see as he progresses here, he's going to come out aggressively, shield the ball, and come out with his hands
6:14 first. So, he's done all the things.
6:15 He's protected the ball, protected himself, uh, and kept the other player away from. So just showing you that progression of coming away from sliding with feet first where that sometimes can
6:27 get called as a foul is a skill that you know takes a little time to get comfortable with. And here as we get to the bigger field in 9v9 where at 2x the
6:37 importance of being able to play with your feet becomes even more apparent. Uh here you're going to see this ball comes in collects the ball restarts the play
6:44 and in three or four passes it ends up in the opposition net. Um because you know just being comfortable of being able to play out of the back which is
6:53 such an important skill here uh really will make your team stand out amongst other teams by having that ability. You can see here again uh just playing back
7:03 to the keeper playing with his feet with somebody coming towards them and then moving the ball forward from that play.
7:10 Just such a big part of the game here.
7:13 Um it really, you know, while they keep losing possession in the middle of the field, when it gets back there, it just is a reset and just goes backwards and
7:21 then goes forwards again. But they've held on to the ball. You can see here again playing back to the keeper uh that close, you know, from the top of the 18,
7:30 but just as an that extra player, you're always outnumbering the other team when that happens.
7:38 Again, play back, play forward. just unlucky. But just in this clip alone, he's now had three or four touches as the keeper uh as a field player. Uh such
7:49 an important skill to have as we as you go forward in the game. And you can start this again at U9 and U10 and go from there. And lastly, right here, I
8:00 just want to wanted to highlight this with the ball, you know, they're facing their own goal and they've got pressure behind them. Instead of trying to twist
8:08 and turn, simple pass. uh center back kind of takes the wrong turn that because that was the right center back and they went to the left side but it
8:16 works out calm under pressure play the ball up playing that player on side and again this is a second goal just in this little chunk that started at the back
8:25 and ended up in the back of the net okay I hope that's helpful in terms of seeing uh some live game action of really high level from both U8 U9 to U10 to U11 and
8:36 I hope you noticed that the most common action really was distribution If we watched all that video together, you would have seen 20 or 30 passes to to
8:46 one save. Um, and really that's really the skill that we need to worry about.
8:50 Uh, and we can work with our youth keepers in our programs to be effective with, right? Passes with the feet. But then also there's other things you can
8:59 work on your starting position. You can get your players comfortable with getting up and out of off the goal line.
9:04 You can even start to get them to start working on communication because that's such a huge part of the backline from the keeper and the center backs. You get
9:12 that player who understands the game, understands your directions from practice and can now help you on the field, direct their teammates. Such a huge thing. And you can foster that
9:21 autonomy in practices and games by encouraging them to be vocal and to use their eyes and tell their teammates what they see. Um, and in the U1 game
9:32 especially, you saw so many examples of them being used as that ninth field player to outnumber the players in the back to keep possession. And how many
9:40 times did a play that ended up with the keeper end up in a couple more passes back up the other side of the field and in the back of the net, whereas in other
9:49 circumstances, maybe they lose possession, they give away a corner or a throw in and the ball is in their end.
9:54 So, those are things we can definitely can work on with our players because most of what you saw there besides all the fancy saves early on was just good
10:04 soccer playing by a good soccer player that happened to have gloves on. So, let's take a look at some of the specific skills you can work with your
10:12 players and we can talk about what to train at U10, U12, and U14. Okay.
10:19 In this next little bit, uh my youngest uh son, who also plays keeper every once in a while, he's did us a favor to demonstrate some of the basic uh
10:28 handling skills that you can work with.
10:30 And we'll break it down uh on these videos. I'll slow it down for you, but basically, we're going to see the basket catch is basically catching a ball out
10:37 of the air from, you know, between the knees and your shoulders as it comes looping down. Uh it can be used for lower balls as well, but we're going to
10:43 look at a different technique. It's a little safer for uh younger, inexperienced players, especially because we all seem to play on crappy grass fields with bumps all over the
10:52 place and not silky smooth turf. Uh we're going to look at the ground ball scoop as I just talked about. And then we're going to look at the diamond catch
11:00 or the W catch, which is the that catch, that classic keeper catch you see, but modified for smaller hands. Uh it's also the same hand shape as a throwin, and
11:09 we'll talk about that in a second. Uh, also briefly, he's going to demonstrate, not on this slide, the high catch, where you bring your knee up to protect
11:18 yourself. And that's a skill that you're going to start looking at at U12 to U14.
11:23 And we'll take a little brief piece of that. Um, but again, the biggest piece of working with your players is working with them during your practices on goal
11:31 kicks. Uh, you sweeper positioning, getting off the goal line, and again, having that equal time. So, that's the U10 in a nutshell. Let's take a look at
11:40 the skills and then we'll look at U12 and U14 additional things we want to look at. So this first basic technique is the ground ball block. Um it's used
11:48 for any balls that are kind of bouncing on their way. And the important part about this technique is right here. It's the body position. They've basically made a figure four between their legs.
11:59 You can see his chest is over the ball.
12:01 So even if it bounces up and so you can works on either side and then his hands go under the ball and scoops it up into his chest. You can see even for a
12:09 bouncing ball there, um, he starts to get down, but you see it hits his chest.
12:14 So even if it's a bouncy surface, it's safe and controlled underneath. So again, it's that leg bend down, chest over the ball, arms underneath, and then we scoop it together. And next here is
12:29 the basket catch. So this is for a ball that's somewhere between the knees and the shoulders, looping down. And you can see why it's called that. You're
12:36 catching it in the basket. The important part is to keep the elbows tucked and then when the ball comes in, catch it in the arms and hands and then wrap it to
12:45 the chest. This last rep that he does actually makes a common mistake is that he lets it hit his chest first, which can be dangerous. But because he's got
12:54 the wrap and he's got his arms all the way tucked in, he's able to control it right here. You can see it hit him before it got to his arms. And that's a
13:02 common mistake. Next, we have the modified W catch or the diamond catch for smaller hands. And he's holding the ball to try and show you how his hands are behind the ball
13:13 and how they're also very similar to a throwin feel. And so, it's a great exercise to have players just basically throw the ball like a throwin to each
13:22 other, catch it, and then throw the ball like a throwin again back to each other.
13:30 Here is just we're able to look at from the backside. You can see he's got his thumbs behind the ball. His hands are a little bit bigger, so he doesn't quite
13:37 make the diamond, but again, you can see that big W. Uh, and in that position, that's what he's trying to show you.
13:45 There is the diamond catch. And lastly here, a little bit more advanced. This is claiming a ball. And this is using the sort of modified W catch with the
13:58 proper jumping technique where he brings up his knee to help protect himself from players near him. Uh, that one kind of got away from him a little bit, but you
14:07 can see the technique. We'll slow it down here a second where he pulls his knee up. He's a little small and young, and you can see the common mistake. He
14:15 just jumped with both feet. It's important to get them to learn how to jump off and push with that leg and bowl that knee up because it does help
14:23 protect them when you're in a crowded All right, I hope those examples help you in like visualizing the skills that you can show. Uh, three of those four
14:32 for you, U10. Uh, the catching one, that's definitely advanced for a U9, U10 player. Great if they can start to work on it and learn that technique, but
14:41 really we need that in the next age group and really in U13, U14. So now in U12, U 11, U12, same basic stuff, ground ball scoop, diamond catch, uh basket
14:55 catch, those are still, you know, still developing those hand eye coordination.
14:59 The ball's going to come in a little bit faster, bigger net. Uh still real important to reinforce those basics over and over again. We're going to start
15:07 looking a little bit more at throwing the ball as a manner of distribution and rolling the ball out longer distances.
15:12 Uh rolling is always better than throwing because it's just easier for your field players to control that ball versus taking one out of the air, but the distance is a little bit bigger. So
15:22 being able to take throw that ball overhand is something you can start to work with as well. As well as 1 v one, as we talked about in the video examples
15:30 of my son playing, that need to come and close down space is important for defending across the field. And keepers need to do that, too. And that's really
15:38 a big part of the 1v one if they're being broken in on at net, not to stand there and be frozen on their goal line, but to come out, cut down the angle, and
15:47 make themselves as big as possible. Uh, still the advantages probably with the shooter, although at that age, it's probably 50/50 because, let's be honest, the uh strikers aren't that great
15:58 As the field gets bigger, some of these other things now become more magnified.
16:01 Sweeper positioning, they need to get further and further away from their goal line to be effective. for their goal kicks. They need to have more variety.
16:08 They need to start to be able to both play short to medium to long to mix it up. So, while we're playing out of the back, as teams press further and further
16:15 up, now your keeper needs to have that confidence to play the medium ball over the top or even a further longer ball to mix things up and make it a little bit
16:23 harder and less predictable to press against your team. Communication plus.
16:27 Now, this is where players are a lot more social because they never shut up at practice. And this is a point where you can get them to say, "Hey, don't
16:34 just be chatting on the sideline or during the practice. This is where you can actually use your words to be helpful." And so we want them and the
16:41 backline especially to start to be able to vocalize what they see. Hopefully they're taking on that information in practice and you give them the ability to do that. Corners are a great place to
16:50 start that getting them to get players to mark up once you've taught them what you want them to do.
16:57 Again, same thing. Equal time in the field. Although you're now going to have a couple players that probably are starting to gravitate a little bit more.
17:03 So in a pinch, you know, you might have a player who's like, I'm okay with playing the whole game. But it shouldn't be the rule. It should be the exception.
17:11 And now's a time where if you can find some time to have keeper specific skill practice outside of team practice, this is where it starts to become valuable. I
17:19 run it for my town sessions. I do an hour uh for four weeks every other week and I alternate. So I'll do U10 one week U12 U10 U12. give them two weeks to
17:29 practice those skills and it's just an hour and it's just more time to work on some of those basic skills with more repetitions than you're going to get in
17:38 your team practice. And then lastly, our keeper candidates, U13, U14, all the same skills. It's just magnified on a bigger field. Um we now start to look at
17:49 um a little bit more 1v one because you really have to close down the angle on that big net. you can start to look a little bit at the diving, especially the
17:57 collapse dive where you drop your inside leg. We saw my son do that and as you tendame to get to that ball that's close by and down by your knees, uh it's a
18:07 skill. Uh as well as learning how to push off with the right leg when you're pushing uh for diving if you uh are so inclined. Um you start to do more of
18:17 that aerial work where you're claiming the ball because now teams can head the ball. So being able to claim the ball in the air before a header comes at you is
18:24 a really important skill. Takes some bravery, but again uses that technique my younger son showed you getting that knee up to protect themselves. And now is a time where you do spend a little
18:34 bit of time with the punting. Uh again, it's not as still that effective. It is a bigger field, but let's be honest, there's not that many uh 12 and 13 year
18:43 olds who are going to stick their head under a ball that's traveled 75 yards in one direction and 70 ft in the air uh to put their head on it. A, they don't
18:51 aren't a great judge of the ball, and B, they're still scared as heck about putting their head on a ball like that, if you can get your keepers to start to
18:58 learn to um do the side winder, the side uh driven punt where it's more of a driven pass versus a lofted pass, that can be a skill that can work. Again,
19:08 sweeper positioning even more important on the big field. Having that variety of ability to your passing range honestly of being able to like every field player, short, medium, and long passing
19:19 range is super important. Communication is now even more important. There's more players, bigger field to organize stuff.
19:24 These players are now, you know, seventh and eighth grade. They should be able to do a better job at talking to their players and their teammates and
19:31 directing that back line. Uh corners and claiming, you know, yelling, making sure that other players know they're coming from the ball. Always important at all ages. Equal time in the field. Uh
19:43 obviously, again, uh you're going to start to creep into players who you might only have like one or two players who are comfortable in net at this age.
19:51 And so you're going to start to creep into maybe those players play a little bit more often than not. But really, we're still trying to train soccer
19:59 players, not necessarily goalkeepers here, but you're now going to start to swing that pendulum for those couple of players that maybe this might be their thing. This is where you start to
20:09 identify it because once they get to high school, a lot of times if they play keeper, that's kind of what they play uh for better or worse. Um, and again more
20:17 keeper specific to start to really refine some of these things if it is the position of their choice as they go All right, so I hope that you stuck
20:28 through this video and the other one and really got a sense of really what the expectation should be for what you should expect with your players. You've
20:37 seen kind of a high level and let's be honest, that's probably not what we get at Wreck and Town level soccer. my focus. If you're a little bit higher,
20:45 maybe you're lucky you get that unicorn, right? But don't take a kid who exhibits those things and pigeon hole them early because you just don't know. What you
20:54 really need is a great soccer player back there who happens to wear gloves.
20:58 Because if you saw in all the clips, so much of this game was positioning, communication, and playing with their feet. And that just requires a really good soccer player. It doesn't
21:09 necessarily need a really good goalie.
21:11 And if your team can have a few of those players who are comfortable enough to go into net and can do the communication, the distribution, and the communication,
21:19 then everything after that, whether the ball hits them or not, is just secondary because your team is going to be in a much better spot because you have a
21:28 player back there or players back there.
21:29 that just add to your team. Comfortable with the ball, gives your team more options, and then you're able to play that ball in lots of different ways
21:38 besides just lumping it forward, hoping for the best and keeping it as far away from you as possible. Appreciate all the support, the likes, the shares, the
21:48 subscriptions going up. I love it. Thank you so much. It helps other people find this content. So, until next time, thank you so much. We'll see you real soon on
21:55 the fields. Bye-bye.
