Session Review: Crossing (17/08/21)

I wanted to take some time today to review last night’s pre-season training session, which focused primarily on dealing with crosses.

Session Aims

  1. To cover the basic techniques around catching, punching and dealing with crosses in general
  2. To examine the decision making process when it comes to dealing with crosses and making the right call
  3. To build towards match-realistic crossing scenarios

Warmup

As with any session, I always start with a warmup or activation process. I try to keep these fairly generic, focusing mainly on basic footwork and handling to get the ‘keepers into their rhythm and ready to deal with the upcoming topic.

This session’s warmup process featured three different practices.

We started with two cones and two servers. The goalkeeper who was first “in” would side step between the two cones, whilst the servers would throw him the ball and he would “bat” it back to them before stepping to the other side. This was intended to activate the feet, requiring quick footwork and movement with an emphasis on the change of direction with the addition of hand-eye co-ordination. This practice was evolved by increasing the variation in height and placement of the serves as well as the speed of them.

From here, we moved the servers further apart and evolved what we were doing slightly. To get basic ball handling “up to temperature”, we started with one server throwing the ball to hands, which was returned, before asking the ‘keeper to sidestep and catch a slightly harder volley to hands, repeating on both sides.

Finally, to tune our warmup to be relevant to the session, the volley aspect of this was replaced with a high thrown ball which required the ‘keeper to claim it at it’s highest point, as if catching a corner or a cross, but in a non-competitive way for this stage in the session as the catch is un-challenged for now.

Core techniques

Once all warmed up, we moved into the first part of the “session-proper”, focusing on the core techniques around dealing with crosses. As a goalkeeper, when the ball is crossed into your area, you have a split second to make your decision about how it’s going to be dealt with from, what I personally see, as the four possible outcomes:

  1. Claim the ball by virtue of a catch
  2. Punch the ball clear
  3. Instruct the defence to clear the ball
  4. Leave the ball as it’s going out of play/danger

For this section of the session I had another three practices for us to work on.

Firstly, we looked at dealing with cross-shots, something that is perhaps not considered as a technique that needs working on, but that does happen in-game and requires quick and efficient decision making. The goalkeeper, starting on the 6-yard line, would receive a ball to hands, which he’d throw back to the server before a second ball was looped over his head towards the top corner of the goal, requiring him to back-peddle whilst underneath it and deal with it accordingly. This forces the keeper to decide whether he needs to tip the ball over the bar, catch it or leave it as it’s going over, whilst trying to run backwards towards the posts, challenging their ability to make difficult decisions under pressure.

From here we moved into a practice which saw the ‘keepers slalom through some poles, as if making their way through bodies in the box, before dealing with a high thrown ball, where they were instructed to either catch or punch. When punching, they were encouraged to explore the different techniques involved in this, from a more guided but less powerful two-handed punch to the more distance-effective but less accurate one-handed punch. This practice was then evolved but adding an additional body around them whilst completing the action, to simulate an attacker attempting to win the ball.

Finally, as we edged towards match-realistic situations, we moved into the goal, where the keeper was served a volley to hands at the near post, before the the ball was looped high over his head to simulate a cross, which he had to deal with accordingly whilst under pressure from an additional body in the penalty area.

Match-realistic situations

The final part of the session was to take the techniques we’d worked on and apply them in match-realistic situations. With just myself and two ‘keepers, it was difficult to emulate this fully, but we still applied two practices as best we could.

Firstly, we dealt with static crosses, such as corners and free-kicks, which allow the goalkeeper time to assess his area, figure out where the threats are and prepare to deal with the cross. The ball was floated in, with one person and two poles in and around the 6-yard box to emulate potential attackers, whilst the goalkeeper would deal with the cross however they saw fit.

From there, we finished off the session by removing the element of preparation and working with more dynamic crosses. This meant focusing on a mixed service forcing the goalkeeper to make their decisions quickly and in a shorter space of time. The server would dribble down the side of the penalty area, with one player to aim at in the box, and would play a variety of different cross-types in (from high, floated balls to low, driven ones and everything in between) for the goalkeeper to deal with.

Session summary

Overall, I am happy with the session as a whole. I believe it featured a good, natural progression from establishing expectations with core techniques through to utilising these in match-realistic situations and did so with an appropriate learning curve along the way. Participants were aware of the trajectory of the session from the outset and were clearly engaged throughout.

We stuck to the allotted time frame well (1 hour) and covered all the topics that I wanted to.

In terms of improvements, particularly when focusing on something as technical as crossing, it might be quite useful to have access to one or two outfield players who specialise in crossing, which would benefit both them and the goalkeepers, whilst allowing the latter to focus on the more important aspect of their game.

From my own perspective, I still have much to learn with regards to delivering sessions and feel that I can improve in a few areas, such as engaging more with the participants throughout, garnering their feedback on how the session is progressing and whether there is anything they would like to address or change as we go. Additionally, I think I also need to work on delivering feedback and adapting sessions as they progress, whereas I currently perhaps focus too much on following my own set structure and not considering the finer details of what we’re doing.

That said, on the whole I am very happy with how this session went, as I feel it was beneficial to all parties involved.