Tips and Tricks: Soccer Coaching

Whether you coach a junior team, amateurs or semi-professionals you can never stop learning more about the beautiful game.
Each week, we will share some tricks and tips to up your coaching ability.
Let’s kick off with goalkeeping. This is arguably one of the most important positions on the field, also the position that carries with it the most pressure. The goalkeeper is the last line of defence against the attacking team. Let’s look at the physical attributes that make a good keeper. Although this is not a prerequisite, it’s a good starting point. It is advantageous to have a keeper who is big, strong and tall. A tall goalkeeper, in theory, can save more shots, especially high shots, as well as claim the ball in his hands over players’ heads.
Being big and strong allows the goalkeeper to look and feel intimidating towards the opposing team.
Three important (but not always essential) qualities to play in goal are:
1. Reactions – being able to think quickly enough and react to a shot
2. Anticipation – to anticipate where a shot might be going or intercepting a through-ball from the opposing team
3. Shot-stopper – being brave in the challenge, strong enough to clear a ball and confident to claim the ball over team-mates.
These are all traits that can be coached. Let’s look at a few drills that can be employed to teach young keepers the basics of being a good goalkeeper. These drills are good for beginners but more advanced players can use them as warm-ups.
The Standing Goalkeeper Stance
The player should be standing with their feet shoulder-width apart. Their hands should be up around the chest, fingers open and out a little way away from the body. Their body weight should be forward with knees slightly bent.
Now, get the players to move around the area in a side-step motion in this position. Their hands should remain still and knees bent.
Whilst side-stepping, bring one foot toward the other but do not let the ankles clash against the other to avoid injury.
Sideways Dive
The next important thing for a player to learn is the sideways dive. Demonstrate this in 5 stages:
1. Have a soccer ball to your side and show the goalkeeping standing stance.
2. Take a big sideways step toward the ball with one leg keeping the furthest-away leg still.
3. Bend at the knee of the leg closest to the ball and get your hands out towards the ball.
4. In one motion, allow yourself to drop sideways and put both hands on the ball, landing on your side.
5. The last part of the sideways dive is to lift the leg up that is furthest away from the ground to balance yourself. This would naturally happen if done at speed.
When the players are happy with this and their solid goalkeeping stance, then the players can have a game. Get the players to sideways step around the area again. This time, the coach will shout ‘BALL!’ and when he does so, the players must dive onto the ball using the sideways dive they have just been shown.
Barrier Stop
This technique is also used in cricket. Whilst facing forward, a player would need to twist with both feet to the left and go down on their right knee, ensuring no gaps between the feet for the ball to go through.
Drills in Pairs
It is good to start with simple drills in pairs, such as:
– One player kicks/passes the ball toward the other player who must do a sideways dive to catch the ball.
– The players throw a ball to each other (some high / some low) and the player must catch the ball with both hands.
– One player rolls the ball toward the other who does a long barrier stop and picks up the ball. Swap turns.
– Goalies take it in turn to kick a ball out of their hands and for the other player to catch.
These are some keeper drills for beginners. Next week, we will look at more advanced drills for keepers.