The game has certainly evolved to the point where goalkeepers are now asked to do much more than just sit back and save shots. That’s something that’s been troublesome for certain goalkeepers. Even keepers that were great in their era had some trouble transitioning to the modern game. Iker Casillas is one that comes to mind. Iker, despite being a bit on the short side for a goalkeeper, was one of the best between the sticks goalkeepers of his era. To the point where he was considered the greatest goalkeeper on the planet in certain spots during his career. That was mostly because he was one of the best between the posts goalkeeper. So between the posts goalkeeping is far from dead, will never be dead.
At the end of the day you can be a great on the ball goalkeeper, but if you can’t make that save on the line when your team needs you, are you really a goalkeeper? My answer is no, and that’s one of the reasons why you’ll read references of how bad Guardiola is at picking goalkeepers all throughout this site. That’s a topic for another day though. What does it take to be at least competent at between the posts goalkeeping? For one, you need to be standing in the right place more often than not. That doesn’t mean standing right on the line, but good positioning is going to be key. Good reflexes, and decent hands won’t hurt. There are a lot of things that go into being good between the sticks, let’s get into everything.
You Need Good Reflexes To Be Good At Between The Posts Goalkeeping
This is a given that’s why I hadn’t really mentioned it. Reflexes in goalkeeping are going to determine how you react to a ball that’s hit in your direction. A lot of times you see certain goalkeepers on TV making some incredible saves, and you may think that you’re never going to have the awareness to put your body in the position to make those saves. You know what? You may actually be right! I don’t mean to discourage anyone from standing between the sticks and trying to make these saves. The reality of the situation is though that a lot of what we call “reflex saves” are just innate saves. Since the shot is coming in from a short distance you don’t have the time to think about how you’re going to react to the ball.
Why do certain goalkeepers make more reaction saves than others? At times, it just comes down to, like I said, an innate ability to find a way to put your body in the right position to make the save. This is perhaps the only part of goalkeeping that can’t be taught. Again, this is not meant to discourage anyone. There are of course training exercises that are going to help you react better to these types of shots. That doesn’t change the fact that some keepers are going to have it down day one and some others are going to have a little more trouble. That’s actually why it’s super important as a goalkeeper coach to work on exercises that are going to force your goalkeepers to improvise.
Positioning Is Half The Battle
Since the ball is going to be coming in from close range you’re not going to have a lot of time to take multiple steps and then dive to the ball. Arguably you’d still be a between the sticks goalkeeper if you made saves on long shots standing right on the line. In this scenario though I am referring to plays where the shot comes in from close range. In any case actually if you’re closer to the ball to begin with you’re going to have a better chance to make the save. First things first though, you usually never want to be standing right on the line. For the most part, you’re going to want to stand a few feet off the line.
When a shot is about to come in you may want to step towards the shooter to make sure that you’re reducing the distance between the ball and yourself. If you’re closer to the attacker that means that you’re going to have a shorter distance to cover to make an impact on the ball. A lot of times it doesn’t seem like a few steps forward are going to make that much of a difference, but trust me they do! Don’t be afraid to play off your line a bit! That’s why you want to train by setting up a semi circle of plates that can serve as a guide for where you need to be at any point in time as a goalkeeper. I’ll get to specific exercises though to get better at positioning in a bit.
Knowing What To Catch, What To Deflect, & Where To Deflect
When the ball is coming in too hot you don’t want to try and make a clean catch only to see it slip between your fingers and find the back of the net. At the same time, if you decide that you’re just going to deflect the ball you need to make sure that you’re doing so away from the goal, never to the middle where you’ll end up giving second chance opportunities on an empty net. This is another one of those issues, though, that makes between the sticks goalkeeping really complex to perfect and even to teach. I say this because I can’t tell you how hard a shot is whether you should catch it or deflect it. For one, if you’re much younger than me or less experienced what a hard shot looks like to you may not look the same to me.
There’s the other end of the spectrum as well. I’m not someone who is terribly confident when it comes to catching shots cleanly. Therefore, I’m probably going to look to deflect some shots that others would catch. I would admit that making the clean catch is better because you end the play then and there. The next best thing though is to make sure that you’re deflecting the ball usually out towards the side. What you want to do to deflect is push the ball towards the side of the goal that it’s already headed towards. If you’re diving towards the right side that’s where you want the ball to go. Also, standing a few feet in front of the goal is going to allow you to make deflections that are less likely to still find the back of the net.
Your Feet Are Also Going To Come In Handy
Using your feet to make saves between the sticks is also going to be an option. It’s a hard issue though to talk about. A lot of goalkeeper coaches don’t love the idea of training this type of technique. Especially in the way that we see futsal goalkeeper trains. I go back to what I mentioned before about reflex saves a lot of times you just react to the shot, and you’re going to throw your body out there however you see fit. Sometimes you won’t end up using the best technique. What matters though is that you make the save. As a goalkeeper coach what I like to do is put my keepers through drills that force them to just react. Some are going to be more prone to use their feet than others.
What I usually don’t want to do though is try and correct them all that much during these drills. Unless you see that they are very clueless to react. When you see that then you want to slow the speed of the drill down by a lot. Then you may want to jump and make certain suggestions about how to react. In those changes it may make sense to go ahead and suggest that they use their feet a bit more. If you’re training keepers that already have a certain set of skills, and you’re just polishing them off you can allow them to react more freely in some of these drills. I’ll go through some of my favorites below!
Can You Develop Good Reflexes? – Best Drills
To develop reflexes and truly start to feel comfortable as a post goalkeeper there are a couple of drills that I would say are different steps you want to take. The simplest one starts out with different shoots within the box at set locations that are going to force the goalkeeper to run through the gauntlet. What you can do is have different levels in this drill. The first time you go through you want the shooter to put the ball right in the hands or the belly of the keeper at a catchable speed. What we’re doing here is trying to get the goalkeeper used to positioning and walking across the goal. That’s the first step that you need to take.
In the second go around you want the shooter to put the ball within the frame where the goalkeeper can react to the ball, but have them go in knowing that they need to react the ball is not just going to come down the middle. You can keep going different rounds picking up the intensity, and speed how you see fit. Some young keepers are not going to be ready to run the gauntlet at full speed. You need to recognize that, or you’re going to have some complaints from parents.
Other good drills can involve the use of rebounders to force quick reactions. You can do one I like a lot which involves putting a bunch of things in front of the goal that can change the trajectory of the shot. That’s going to force the goalkeeper to develop those innate reactions. You have to get it out of them sometimes!
Between The Posts Goalkeeping May Hurt
I just got done talking about running the gauntlet of close range shots and how you as a coach need to make sure that you’re shooting at a speed that your keepers can handle. At one point or another though they have to be thrown in the deep end. You know what’s going to happen? You’re going to get hit in the face and other parts of the body where it’s not fun to get hit in. The thing is, that’s extremely game-like. I don’t care if I get hit in the face or down low as long as I make the save. I go into the game and into those particular plays knowing that’s a possibility and I don’t back down.
This is not something that I bring up that yeah I’m super tough or whatever. It’s a reality of the position. If you can’t grasp that reality and be ok with getting hurt because you have to put your body in between the ball or someone’s foot and goal you can’t play between the sticks. It’s better to find that out early in the process it can save you a lot of money on goalkeeper gear.
Who Are The Best Between The Posts Goalkeepers?
Heading back towards more friendly territory one of the cool ways that you can improve in between the post goalkeeping is by watching how pros do it. You may not be able to replicate their exact move, which is something I talked about already. Some have certain innate abilities that are hard to duplicate. Marc Andre Ter Stegen comes to mind with those one hand stabs. They are not necessarily the best technique, but they work for him. It could be a cool add-on to your game. Right now for taller goalkeepers Courtois is the benchmark. He does a lot of his best work taking steps off the line and forcing close range shots. If you’re that big, get up close to the shooter, they’ll have less of a chance to score.
Yann Sommer is one of the best at between the posts goalkeeping, he’s super athletic and uses his feet to widen his range. You can go watch Memo Ochoa’s game in 2014 against Brazil that’s a literal clinic on between the posts goalkeeping. When to hold your ground when to move up on the shooter. Tim Howard had a game similar to that in that same tournament. That’s a good example of how to use your range between the sticks. There are a ton of examples to look at!
