There are a couple of things that you need to be a goalkeeper that you can get from other activities. Things like speed, strength, even flexibility are a given. Ideally, if you have those skills, you are going to be able to improve your game. What I want to talk about in this article though are those skills that are specific football goalkeeping skills. For one reason or another, a lot of these basic skills go underdeveloped. So much so that you can actually see keepers in the pros having trouble with some of these. On a personal level, I would say crosses are a big hole in my game. Goalkeepers like Jan Oblak, Iker Casillas, and Guillermo Ochoa have this same problem!
These football goalkeeper skills are what you could call fundamental to the game. In most goalkeeping academies or team training, you’re going to go over these pretty much every day. That’s great, but it’s also important as a goalkeeper to understand where you could be lacking. So that you can put in the extra work and build those weak spots into strengths. Crosses are the perfect example of this. A lot of times they go underdeveloped as a skill because you only work on them once a week! I’m already giving away too much. Let’s go over, then, the football goalkeeper skills that you need to develop to heavily improve your game.
Improve Your Catching Skills
This is one of the most underrated skills out there. It’s one thing to be able to make a clean catch from a shot coming in directly at your position. In most goalkeeper training drills, you’ll find yourself having to make those catches. As I always say, don’t just go through the motions in these drills, make sure that you are putting your hands in the right position to make the catch. Ideally, you want to point your two index fingers towards each other and get your two thumbs under the ball. There are of course other catching techniques, but you could say that’s the traditional way to do things.
Really, when I’m talking about improving your catching skills, I’m mostly referring to making diving catches. A lot of goalkeepers are guilty of this. They don’t have the confidence to try and make a clean catch when diving. What you ultimately do is take the easy way out and punch the ball away or just make the average save. Obviously, when you do that, you run the risk of giving away second chances to shooters. The best way to train diving catches is literally just to try to make them in game speed during drills. Ideally, what you want is to find your range. In the sense that you know how hard of a shot you can catch cleanly and what you need to just push outward. Again, the only way to find your range here is to deal with more and more shots that you deliberately try to catch.
In these situations, technique and confidence have to come together. In my experience, the confidence level that different goalkeepers have in their catching technique is the main difference between a good goalkeeper and a great one. That’s why Manuel Neuer is world-class, or was on his day. While someone like Ochoa is really middle of the pack! That can be the difference with just simple goalkeeper skills.
Train Close Reaction Saves
This was something that wasn’t a common skill that we trained all that much back in the day. Even announcers in games will often say that a lot of these saves are instinctive. In this sense that some goalkeepers are able to react and make saves in closer shots, while others just don’t. This is actually true, there are some goalkeepers who have better body control, and they are going to have an easier go with close shots. Then again, if you’re not someone who is good with close shots, you have to train yourself to be able to move your body correctly in these situations.
When you train in drills with tennis balls, with rebounds from a wall, trying to react to show that you see late, or just with a bunch of cones and other things in front of goal that can alter the trajectory of the ball you’re going to find that you’ll body will react better in a game. In a tip that I gave in another article, I talked about not being afraid to use your feet to make saves when you have to. That’s part of “instinctively reacting” to a shot. As I mentioned, some of these reactions are going to come naturally to some goalkeepers. Others are going to have to train them a lot more. If you train hard enough for an extended period, you’ll find yourself making more saves on close shots, for sure!
What To Do In Crosses & Long High Balls
Talking about instincts, there are also some goalkeepers that have a knack for reading this. More goalkeepers though have trouble with coming out to cut crosses or high pointing a long high ball. It looks like one of the easiest things in goalkeeping, but I assure you that it’s not. A ton of goalkeeper coaches just throw the ball up in the air and have their kids jump up and get the ball. How, is that game like? There are certain rebounds where you could get such an easy shot. For the most part, though, crosses and long shots are going to be coming in much harder and towards the goal. You can get really nervous.
With these types of situations, all that you can do is take in shots and crosses from different angles again, and again. What makes this so difficult is that you have to judge the ball flight right, and then clean up your footwork to make sure that you can get to a spot where you’ll be able to high point the ball. If you want to get better at this, though, you can’t just work on crosses on Friday’s or literally before the game and hope to feel super confident during the match. Again, coaches focus so much more on diving and other things, and for some reason forget this!
Having the ability to high point crosses and incoming passes is another one of those parts of goalkeeping that you need to have the confidence to do. As I mentioned, there are some top pros that you can literally see never had the confidence to do this constantly. That’s probably because they don’t train the skill enough or properly. Developing this skill can really help you in your career. Whether you want to go into the pro game or just play at a better level. Coaches are usually suckers for this skill. To the point where you can be ok in other aspects of the game, but be great at this, and you’ll find a spot on the team!
Know How To Dive To Low Shots
Diving is a super important part of goalkeeping. Knowing how to do it properly is going to keep you safe for the most part. In reality, having to throw yourself on the ground isn’t something that you can do with 0 pain. I’ve talked about this in other articles. Goalkeeping in general hurts! With proper technique, though, you’re going to be able to minimize the pain, and reduce the risk of injury. Diving to middle height or high shots is something you’re going to be able to do more naturally even without as much training. I really feel that low running shots are some of the most difficult to adapt to. In a sense, you’re going to have to drag yourself to the ground.
What you don’t want is to start out really high and not be able to lower your hand enough to get to the low running shot. Hand placement is also super important here. Ideally, the hand that is sure that you’re diving to is the one that you’re going to drag through the ground. Then you come with the other hand over the top to be able to make the catch. I have more info on diving in another article. I do think though that low running shots are the toughest to deal with because again you’re not naturally going to want to drag yourself through the ground. That’s one of the biggest football goalkeeper skills that you need to develop!
Why These Are The Key Football Goalkeeper Skills You Need To Develop
I didn’t talk about goal kicks, pass back skills, speed, or other things, not because they aren’t important. I do feel for example things like goal kicks you can work your way around them. You can get someone else to kick when you want to go long if you don’t have a great leg. Even diving to high balls is probably not as important to “develop” per se. Since it can be something that comes naturally, particularly if you’re working from the ground up. I’ve talked about speed as well on other parts of the site, and it’s something that you can develop through the drills that you’re doing to develop these main skills.
When it comes to things like catching the ball cleanly, this is something that should be common knowledge. However, many coaches let their players get away with punching away very catchable balls. That’s ok in a game you need to get out of the predicament however you can. In training though, you should typically be looking to try and catch a lot of those harder shots. The training pitch is the perfect spot to try and do things that make you uncomfortable. I’ll talk more about that in a second.
The skills that we talked about can help you add a new dimension to your game and really make you stand out as a goalkeeper. Anyone can punch a ball out, not everyone can make a clean save. With crosses, it’s the same thing, if you have a goalkeeper who is confident in these plays you’ll limit second chance opportunities in different types of plays. These skills can make the difference for you. It’s hard to really stand out as a goalkeeper and go to a better team or even get a chance to play if you don’t develop these skills. I’ve mentioned there are world-class guys that are lacking in one category or the other. Ideally, though, being at least ok in all of these departments is best!
Football Goalkeeper Skills – Goalkeepers Need Extra Training
Should you be looking to get a personal trainer to improve a lot of these skills that I talked about? Honestly, the best way to go about becoming a better goalkeeper is going to specialized goalkeeper training. The problem is, it can be an expensive endeavor in some countries. There are a ton of things though that you can do on your own to improve your game in these particular areas. Oddly enough, having a wall that you can bounce the ball off can help a ton. A simple drill like forcing yourself to react to a ball that was just kicked off of a wall can improve that reaction time. Just kicking the ball against the wall and catching it can go a long way.
If you do get a chance though to get personal training, there’s no question that you’ll have a better opportunity to improve your skill set. Here’s an important tip though, if you’re paying for special training sessions be way more proactive about the things that you’re getting taught. Talk to your coach about what you feel is lacking in your game. Tape your games and go over them with him or her to see what could be lacking. Don’t just go through the motions in drills. Train like you play is something everyone says. In goalkeeping, it’s very true. In the beginning, if you’re intense, you’re going to run out of gas quickly! Training tired is also important to know your limits.
Football Goalkeeper Skills Conclusion
There are other football goalkeeper skills that you certainly need to develop. Ideally for example you’ll have good ball striking abilities for goal kicks and pass back situations. I would say, though, these 4 skills are things that you can base your game around, and you’d have a pretty well-rounded game. In developing these skills, you’ll work on things like speed and positioning in goal. Which are things that are important to goalkeeping as well. If you’re going to look for specialized goalkeeper training, which is a good idea if you can, make sure to be proactive. Talk about your weaknesses in your game with your coach so that you can put the extra work in. Sometimes, when there are too many goalkeepers per session, it’s hard to really put in the work that you need! Ideally, look for smaller groups and personalized attention!
