The Fundamentals of The Goalkeeper (Part 4 of 4)

The following article was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine. Was written by Marco Stoini, Director of Coaching for San Luigi Calcio Trieste and Technical Director for the Ascoli Soccer Academy. The article was translated by Antonio Saviano.

The concept of the psychological and technical FUNDAMENTALS of today’s goalkeepers should have a solid base for “attacking the ball”. What ever movement is put into effect, the idea must never be to endure the ball, but to foresee the ball direction, either in a cognitive sense as well as in a geometric sense; the advantages should be visible, from different points of view.

While the technical fundamentals are easily noticed, for the tactical fundamentals to be noticeable, coaches would have to look at the goalkeepers attentively. The tactical decisions goalkeepers make are different from technical executions.

In general, it can be said that every time the goalkeeper makes a decision (i.e.: position in goal, body position on the field, where to send the ball with his feet or when to come out to clear the ball, how to psychologically condition the opponent and help teammates in their positioning on the field, etc.), he performs a tactical behavior that often alone can save a goal. All this may not seem to influential, because many goals are avoided and because most of the time the intelligent and careful goalkeeper makes good decisions.

Just as the technical qualities make a difference, the tactical and attentive aspects also make the difference between goalkeepers. There are many goalkeepers teaching schools and each one of them has a clear and very specialized connotation on how to teach: it is sufficient to look the significant differences of the technical formulation between goalkeepers, in particular between those coming from various areas.

Obviously, all body movements need to be developed because they are part of that technical base, of which it cannot be absolutely left out. The only applicative limitation in the course of the years is constituted by the age of the student, but at the end, the adult goalkeepers must manage all the technical abilities and possibly have good tactical understanding.

The following is a review of the technical and tactical base fundamentals for the goalkeepers. In many of the following seven points you will find different tactical elements. In particular in the following points: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

This article was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine.

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