Question:
Wondering if you have any drills for warming up goalies and training drills that involves the goalies.
Answer:
Rachel has a good tip on warming up on file with the web site. I don’t have any great drills, every keeper has different philosophies about what they want out of their warm up. I’ll do two laps of the field, and stretch out of pads. I work our keepers through some footwork drills (pattern grids) out of pads, short distance, lots of changes of direction, no one distance over 5 yards, no more than 40 yards total. If I have a couple of keepers, I rotate them through, if not, the rest is time off for time on, five sets. Then they’re in pads.
I like keepers to warm up in pairs kicking. Five minutes over 15 yards. If I have a third keeper, I’ll have them kick in a V pattern, see kicking drill coming next week, with the two keepers kicking straight on to the keeper at the base of the V, who has to change the angle of their clear. If it’s a game, I’ll then take the starting keeper and work balls to her around the circle and expand it out so that he/she is also taking balls from the sidelines, like crosses. Finally I’ll do 3/4 pace shooting from the top of the circle before we build our way up to finishing from the field players, 15 minutes before the game.
All in all, our warm up takes 70 minutes. Every keeper is different though. Your keepers might not take that long. Try different warm ups and judge your keeper’s effectiveness in a game. That’s your best warm up.