Goalie skills and activities.pdf

Goalie Skills list 

• The Basket catch. a catch where the arms bend to lock the ball to the chest. The hands, arms, and chest create a cradle for the ball. Best for mid area shots. 

• Overhead diamond catch. Used for chest height or higher balls. The thumbs and index fingers create a diamond shape to keep the ball from falling through. Jumping and keeping a knee up keeps players off you. 

• Receive a ball with your whole body behind it. Footwork is key for goalies. Try to stay facing the ball and avoid crossing feet while shuffling.  

• Collecting a ball on the ground. Keep the body behind the ball. Lean and scoop the ball to the chest. Land on the forearms so the ball is locked to the chest.  

• Collapse dive. It begins by taking a step towards the ball. Collapse on top of the ball while keeping your body behind it. Step, put your knee down, and lunge towards the ball. Lock the ball to the chest.  

• Punching. Sometimes it is better to redirect the ball's momentum away from the ball and punching the balls is the safest way for your arms and hands. 

• Bowling a throw. For close teammates using a bowling throw is the most accurate. You want to limit the amount of bounce the ball has so the receiving player can control it easier. This should be the preferred play un U8.  

• For longer throws, a slingshot, side-arm throw is more effective. Use the whole body to throw the ball to protect elbow and shoulder ligaments. Step into every throw. Keep your eyes on the receiver. 

• Short-arm throw. For mid-range throws, use an overhand, baseball style throw, pushing the ball straight forward. Pull the ball back towards the ear and release as you lunge forward. 

• To punt the ball, take a step into the punt. Hold the ball out in front and drop the ball onto your foot, don’t throw it. Strike with the laces and follow through. Dropping the ball and not tossing it up is the hardest part for most players. Call this a “drop kick” so that they get away from the word punt to reinforce the dropping motion. Punting is not permitted in U11 and under.  

• Punt variations: You can vary a punt by allowing it to drop on the ground first and kick it on the way back up from the bounce. There is also a sidewinder punt where you drop the ball out to the side and try to line drive it. Both are about mastering the timing and striking solid with the laces.  

Warm up 

Players move from touchline to touchline  

1. Get moving - Jogs: Out around the last disc to the return point.  

2. Stretch hip and groin - Hip outs or open the gait: Players take 2 steps, raise their right leg so knee is bent at the hip and swing their right leg from in front of them out to the side, while lifting the knee towards the hip. Take 2 more steps and repeat with their left leg. Repeat all the way to the last cone, then go outside and jog back to the start.  

3. Hip ins: Players face towards the line of discs and take 2 steps and swing their right leg from behind them to in front of them, while lifting the knee towards the hip. Take 2 more steps and repeat with the left leg. Repeat all the way to the last cone, then go outside and jog back to the start.  

4. Lunges: Player’s jog two steps forward then bend one knee towards the ground while keeping their chest and head up. Jog two more steps forward and bend the other knee towards the ground.  

5. Forward and backwards: have the players run up the outside of line of discs, then side shuffle across the second disc, then turn and jog backwards to the 4th disc. 

6. Tosses and tick tocks (goalie edition): Place a ball at the 2 cone and at the 4 cone. Players sprint out to the first ball, pick up the ball, do 10 toss up catches, set the ball down, then sprint to the second ball and do 10 tick tocks (passing back and forth overhead with the hands), set the 2nd ball down, then jog back to the start.  

Warm up Activity (tennis balls) 

To get players warmed up to catching and watching the ball into their hands, have tennis balls with different numbers wrote on them in a container. The coach stands 5 yards in front of a goal. Players line up on the right and left of the coach. Have a line of balls ½ way between them and the net that they have to hop over, run to the net, get set, and receive a tennis ball toss from the coach. They need to read out the number on the tennis ball and toss it back to the coach, then sprint out behind the other line. Throw different tennis balls each time so the players don’t know what # they are going to have to read. 

Line pair tossing 

Set up 2 rows of discs evenly spaced about 5 yards apart. Players should be in pairs. Players start inside the discs using the bowling throw and lean and scoop catch. After 5 catches each, they back up to the middle discs and use the short-arm throw and basket catch, 5 repetitions each. Finally they back up to the far discs and use the slingshot throw and diamond catch or continue with the basket catch depending if the throw is high or low. 

Goalie Rondo 

5 players. 4 make a circle and the 5th is in the middle. The goalie in the middle tries to dive catch the ball to gain possession or knock the ball out of the circle. Players making the circle can only roll the ball on the ground to other players or bounce it off the ground through the middle. If the goalie gains possession or knocks a pass out of the circle, the person trying to make the pass becomes the goalie.  

Getting square to the shot