Have you ever been in training or a game, and you’ve been forced to dive to one side, and you feel rather awkward doing it? This can be a strange feeling when you first realize it. The more you think about it though, the more sense it makes. It’s just that in many ways goalkeeper diving, weak side or otherwise is just such a unique motion that you have to do. I could dare say it’s not necessarily a motion that is replicated consistently enough in other sports or activities. That’s why we goalkeepers are the only ones who realize that there is a weak side.
The goalkeeper diving weak side is typically the side of your “handedness”. So this means that if you’re right handed your right side is the goalkeeper diving weak side. I’ve recently explored this issue with my current group of goalkeepers that I train with. In fact, all of their weaksides are the right side, (all of them are right handed). In my case my weak side is the left side. I’m left handed. In doing some drills I was trying to figure out what causes this issue. Ultimately what we all agreed upon was the fact that diving to one of the sides just didn’t feel as natural. Imagine how hard it would be to have to learn to play golf or tennis with both left and right handed stances. That’s essentially what you have to do in goalkeeping. Particularly, since you can’t dictate which side you want to dive to!
Why Do We Have A Goalkeeper Diving Weak Side?
This is actually a very interesting question, and I’m going to try to answer it in goalkeeping terms. What I mean by that is that you can’t really expect a thorough medical answer for this question. It does come down to pretty much the same reason why most humans have a preferred hand that they write with or kick with. With the goalkeeper diving weak side you’ll notice that effectively your weak side is the side that you dive to where you have to push off with a leg that you may not be all that comfortable with. There’s not necessarily a direct correlation with your goalkeeper diving weakside, and your handness. For me personally, as a lefty my weak side is actually my left side. I feel more comfortable pushing off my right leg as the lead leg if you will when I dive.
I have seen that most righties have the same feeling at times. In the sense that their weak side is actually the side of the hand that they write with. As I mentioned though, there’s not necessarily a direct correlation between the two. For kids there are a ton of different things that come into play. The same thing can be said for adults, but kids are a better example because they are in the development stages of life. So what happens is that if they feel more comfortable with a particular motion to one side they are more likely to favor that side rather than force themselves to the side that they don’t like. That can actually hamper the development of muscles on the other side of the body which is not ideal.
Finding Your Goalkeeper Diving Weak Side
Is there a way to find your goalkeeper diving weak side? Well, it’s actually a feel issue. At least that’s how I’ve experienced it. Also, your trainer, or whoever is playing with you should be able to tell rather quickly which one is your weak side. As mentioned before, the diving motion to a particular side is usually going to feel more natural than doing the same motion on the other side. It’s just like a golf swing or even punting the ball in soccer. You’re going to feel more comfortable with a motion that favors the side of the hand or the foot that you are more inclined to naturally use.
Naturally the big challenge that goalkeepers have that is in certain cases unique to goalkeeping is that you can’t only pick one side to dive on. It’s like a backhand in tennis. With most people they are going to feel more power, and more control with their drive. Then they’ll even use two hands on their weak side. The problem though with goalkeepers is that you can’t really dictate where the shot is going to be coming from and what side you’re going to have to dive on. So you have to put in the effort to even out your abilities if you will. That can be a bigger challenge for some people than for others.
How To Mitigate The Problem
This is an issue that is potentially present in all goalkeepers. Number one don’t feel bad when you see that you’re having trouble diving to one side. It’s just a sign that you’re going to have to work a little more on that particular side. This is something that goalkeeper trainers really have to be aware of. The worst thing that I’ve seen plenty of them though is just breeze through the basics of goalkeeping. Even at certain levels, you can’t just assume that you know. I’m approaching my 30th birthday and I recently went back to active training. Diving to my weak side has been a constant struggle for me.
Really what I’ve resorted to is getting back to the basics, dive from your knees to that side to get the feeling right. Slowly work your way up to diving from a standing position. What I would say is try and look for drills that allow you to practice without putting too much strain on your body and forcing you to adapt to odd positions. The best way to do that is to use a live ball drill. Yes, start by diving to a dead ball on the ground to that side. Then in the same session go to a live ball drill. Why is this important? So that you can find your natural diving technique. Even though we always strive to do things by the book it’s also important to let each keeper find what’s working for them as a natural body motion.
Should You Adapt To A Different Style of Diving?
As I mentioned before I think we all start trying to dive with a very textbook style. There are definitely certain motions that you’re going to want to mimic. When you get in the game though, you’re ultimately going to dive however you see fit in that particular situation. I had Adrian Martinez, a long time goalkeeper for Santos Laguna, and San Luis tell me this once, “In a game it doesn’t matter how you make the save just as long as you make it. Here in training though, you have to strive to dive the right way to then make those saves in the game.”
For me I’ve always interpreted that as there’s a reason why there are textbook style dives. This technique has been the most efficient way to get things done that we’ve come up with. In anything that you’re trying to learn, going with the textbook version as a starting point should be a must. From there though, you’re ultimately going to have to find what works for you. It’s about comfort, and it’s about the type of body motion that you find you can naturally replicate. With the right type of practice for an extended period of time this weak side dive situation should be a non issue. It can take, though, plenty of blood sweat and tears to get to a point where you find that motion that you replicate and that you feel comfortable with. It’s just another element though that proves goalkeeping isn’t easy.
Does It Hurt More To Dive To One Side or The Other?
In the general sense the answer to this question is that it shouldn’t. This is because in an ideal world you should find diving motions to both sides that you can replicate with minimal pain. I’ve said this on other parts of the site, but there is no real no pain approach to goalkeeping. The toll that goalkeeping can take on the body is significant. Coming back to training at almost 30 years of age, and overweight, I can tell you that pain is something that you have to deal with. Ideally though, you’ll be able to create a diving method that doesn’t hurt. Also, once you’ve been in goalkeeping for a while you’ll know what’s regular pain, and what is out of the ordinary. When that happens of course, you want to stop and take a look at what the problem is.
Sometimes the issue is a bit out of your control. Let’s say that you’re playing in a rough field and you land on a rock or a hard surface. That’s obviously going to hurt, and the problem with that is that it can alter the way you dive. The reason though why it hurts to dive more to one side than the other in that situation is a freak accident. If it’s something that is consistent and that is happening to you with regular diving drills it’s definitely worth looking into. I would argue that a good coach should be able to realize what you’re doing wrong just by looking at you. It kind of goes back to the textbook example that you want to replicate. No matter what your age is working with someone who is willing to offer corrections and tips is always ideal.
Will You Always Be Able To Tell The Difference?
With kids that exhibit essentially no fear whatsoever it can be hard to really distinguish what their goalkeeper diving weak side might be. What you’ll be able to tell though, most of the time is that they may have a tendency to do a very frontal dive to one side. With their dives to the other side being way more technically sound. That’s actually not all that bad if you’re able to correct them on the fly without necessarily making them think too much about how they’re diving and what they are doing wrong. The best way to correct on the fly may just be to do live ball drills and force them to dive accordingly to get to the ball.
You’d have to be an ambidextrous freak athlete to be able to drop into goalkeeping without really knowing what you’re doing to just dive the same way from day one. Of course, there are kids that are freak athletes, and their progress is going to allow them to essentially dive to both sides with equal ability. Even if you don’t think that you or your kid is a freak athlete with the proper consistent training the progress for diving techniques on either side can be almost identical. In my personal experience what really gets me is time off. Once you’re back in the flow you can even out rather quickly. If you spend time off though, diving to the weak side becomes more of a challenge.
Goalkeeper Diving Weak Side Conclusion
The key thing to remember here is that it’s not just a you problem. For many of us it can get frustrating getting back out there, and feeling like you’re not where you need to be or there’s a major hole in your game. It’s just something that you have to work on and you want to be patient with. There’s really no magic formula that’s going to work to get you to dive equally well on both sides from one day to the next. It’s about keeping at it. At the same time if you’re having a lot of trouble the worse case scenario is to keep training in a very hard field! There are times when you really don’t have much of a choice, but ideally when you’re learning to dive you’ll want to play somewhere that’s not as hard.
I keep coming back to the analogies with other sports, I think there’s not much else to compare it to. The idea is to create a motion that you’re able to comfortably replicate. With goalkeeper diving another key is to make sure that you’re falling the right way. Certain parts of the body have to hit the ground first, and these are things that you have to practice, practice, and practice again.