Inbetween Seasons Training

With this years season finishing in April and the next season not starting till September I am looking at various drill/training that I can do to keep my fitness up whilst keeping my reactions up to scratch, footwork still fast and etc.

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on how they keep themselves going over the break or any drills/training sessions that they would recommend I try?

Thanks

The Mental Aspects of Goalkeeping

A great resource download for all you amazing people on staying sharp between the ears!

Here is a great resource for all you amazing people….its written by Francesco Staps who’s tried to help all goalkeepers “stay sharp between the ears!”

Francesco’s 18 page PDF has been written in Dutch and also translated with some help from Keepers Resources writer Dan Pilgrim and Marjolein Kamstra.

This great resource even has its own website – www.mentalgoalies.com and some download links to the PDF’s are below…

Downloads

Great work Francesco!

Dealing with sunlight

A simple tip, but taping your helmet above the eye line will help block out the sun, which can otherwise be a distraction.

If you play in a distinctly hot and sunny climate, glare is going to be a continuous problem and bane to your playing abilities. Rather than standing around with your glove put over your eyesight to try and block out the sunlight, it’s better to have something to maintain the coverage against glare. With summer hockey now upon most western european countries (like the UK), the sun becomes more of a prominent issue when trying to perform at your best. The basic method of blocking out sunlight is to tape the top of the helmet you wear. You will often seen internationals doing it when it is particularly sunny (like Australia’s goalkeepers did in recent tournaments), so even the best use its simple methodology!

Taping the helmet

A simple, but really effective way of keeping the sun out of your eyes is to tape the top of your mask, above the eye line. By doing this, you cut off the light showing down on you, eliminating the sunlight that would otherwise get through to your eyes. You want to tape over the bars of the helmet, to make sure it blocks out the light, before taping the ends onto the sides of the helmet, to keep it on.

‘Gaffer’ tape (which is cloth based tape used for stage production) will give your a bigger coverage, so you do not have to do multiple layers in order to block out the sun. Insulation/duct tape (used to insulate electrical wires) makes a great alternative (it is less likely to leave behind a gooey stain!), but due to its thin width, it often requires a few layers to get good coverage (just simply tape below the original line to get another). It is also good to know about the colour you use. Taping with white tape will reflect the sun light, rather than absorbing it (like black or a dark colour), making it easier to see.

A goalkeeper with a mask taped with 'gaffer' tape to block out the sun's rays.

One Day to Go!

With one day to go at the World Cup Qualifier event in Chile the Hockeyroos have the world cup in sight. We have won 3 from 3 games now after beating Chile 3-0, Malaysia 9-0 then a close 2-1 win over Scotland yesterday. I have been fortunate enough to have played both the Malaysia and Scotland game and really enjoyed being apart of it all. Tomorrow is our final game against Ireland which if we win or draw will secure us a spot at the World Cup in Argentina. The weather has been beautiful for our last few days and hopefully tomorrow will be the same. Today, being a Saturday, there were heaps of people at the ground. Im sure tomorrows games will attract similar if not more supporters so we are all looking forward to a bit of atmosphere and excitement.

The girls are all doing a bit of last minute shopping before we head home but of course there is one more bit of business we must take care of and thats smashing the Irish tomorrow.

By for now

Rach Lynch