/Session review – 24/08/22
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This session was the first chance I’d had to get a decent group of the Long Melford ‘keepers together since the start of the regular season.
In total there were six goalkeepers present with representatives from the various different teams across the club, which in itself presented a unique challenge. I wanted my session to be as dynamic as possible, to have a good, consistent flow and to avoid anyone being stood around watching.
To meet these aims, the session was planned in a way that split the group into two smaller teams of three, with both groups working through the same practices simultaneously. All practices involved all three goalkeepers in some way, either in the goal or serving. Those in goal would repeat between three and five sets of each practice before all three would rotate round and repeat. After all goalkeepers had rotated through once or twice, the practice would be progressed to involve a change in action or service to help things fresh and engaging throughout.
The practices
The session, which spanned around 80 minutes, was made up of a warm up and four core practices followed by a more dynamic shooting one at the end.
Warm up

Aims: Activation exercise to warm up body through quick movements and handling through progressively more difficult services.
Description: The goalkeeper moves laterally through the cones, utilising different footwork in order to warm themselves up, whilst taking shots from the two servers at each end. Each goalkeeper moved through the cones five times and took ten services before all three rotated through and repeated.
Progression: After each set, positions reset and the practice was repeated, with the services changing on each occasion to add complexity and slowly ramp up the intensity of the warm up. The first set consisted of simple volleys to the goalkeeper’s bubble, the second set introduced shots off the floor for more unpredictability and the third set saw the servers step further back and hit the ball with more power.
Practice 1

Aims: Build on the skills worked in the warm up to combine footwork and basic handling with a more complex additional save.
Description: The goalkeeper takes a volley service to their hands. They then hop over the hurdle and utilise various footwork techniques to move through the cones. Here they receive a second service, this time off the floor, but still within their bubble. They then dash around the pole to make a diving save from the third service, which comes from the original server.
Progression: The progressions on this practice saw changes in the final service. Options here include diving low save, slow paced collapse, higher dives or claiming an aerial ball.
Practice 2

Aims: To increase pace and intensity of session by working multiple, dynamic saves in quick succession with a requirement for good footwork and positioning to be considered throughout.
Description: Three poles are arranged in an “L” shape, with the two openings acting as goals. Servers are positioned facing each of the goals and the goalkeepers face either four or five shots in quick succession, alternating goals each time and with minimal time to move, position and set themselves. After each set, the players rotate and each goalkeeper faced three to four sets each.
Progression: I chose not to implement too much progression into this session as it was already running at a high level of intensity from the outset. The added difficulty came purely from each goalkeeper repeating their site multiple times with fatigue coming into play the longer the practice went on.
Practice 3

Aims: To provide more of a focus on footwork and to dial back the intensity from the last session, allowing the goalkeepers time to recover whilst still working themselves.
Description: The final dictated practice of the session involved the goalkeeper starting behind two vertically aligned poles. They had to move out from behind the objects to face a service to hands before employing good footwork techniques to touch a cone to one side, before deploying powerful momentum in the opposite direction to reach a low driven service to the far side.
Progression: Again, I chose not to progress this practice too much, though complexity could be added through variation of the second service – pushing the goalkeeper further and forcing them into different types of saves.
Practice 4

Aims: To introduce a dynamic and more match-realistic shooting session to put into practice some of the skills we’d worked on.
Description: Whilst we did not have access to any full sized goals during this session, two small ones were available, so for the final practice I decided to ask the group to conduct a dynamic shooting drill in these goals. Even though not full sized, I find goalkeepers gain greater confidence and identify with a session more when they are surrounded by two posts, a crossbar and a net, so this practice involved the two servers taking a variety of different shots for a few minutes at a time before rotating positions.
Summary
Overall, I was pleased with the outcomes of this session. Splitting the group into two allowed me to step back and observe more, giving me a better overview of the session as a whole as to what I perhaps get when directly involved. I was able to pick out specific moments where interjection was needed and deliver praise to both groups where appropriate.
The two-team approach also allowed all six goalkeepers to be actively involved in the session, ensured nobody was stood around watching and meant that everyone had plenty of time in goal, whilst also having ample time out of goal to recover whilst serving.
Personally, it was challenging at times to manage such a large group. Setting each practice up took a minute or two and keeping the players engaged during that time did prove tricky at times and I feel I still have room to improve when it comes to explaining and demonstrating my practices.
I think this approach worked well and is something I will look to employ again future when working with groups greater than five.