Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Bristol City, david James, England, goalkeeper, Portsmouth, sessions
Watching one of the Under-12s goalkeepers at my local club this week picking the ball out of the net seven times I was reminded me of an article I had read by David James, the former England stopper who is now at English Championship club Bristol City.
When the 41-year-old was playing in the Premier League with Portsmouth, he once suffered the humiliation of conceding 10 goals in two games. Recalling that and other similar events, he said: “I try to get on with it; I take the dogs out for a walk. I try to move on and prepare for the next game. I have a debrief with my psychologist…” Psychologist?
Now that is where the similarities end…!Coaches of youth teams don’t have psychologists at hand when they lose a game, and neither does the poor lad whose goal has been under constant bombardment. More likely is that said keeper will be in the car home getting a pasting from his dad, your words of comfort a distant and fading memory!
But that’s the problem for keepers… their errors are highlighted every time the ball goes in the net; they have nowhere to hide. That’s why you must not let your keeper take the blame because, trust me, if you do, he won’t be your keeper for much longer! Protect him and nurture him so he wants to play in goal no matter what the score is.
At training nights make sure he joins in with all the fun bits – the match, skills, fitness – before you move him between the sticks for some designated keeper practice. It is important for you and the team that he feels part of it all. You can also get him to be vocal at training – to shout at his defenders and order them around, if necessary. Not only will this give him a unique status, but it will cement his value to the rest of the team as a leader and organiser on match day – someone who can survey all that’s in front of him with ease.
And encouraging him when he makes a mistake rather than criticising means that most of his team mates will do likewise.
At the end of the day keepers are vital to your team and their influence is stronger than you may realise. Let’s make sure they don’t go home crying.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: david James, England, Frederico Macheda, Lazio, Manchester Utd, Tom Whalley
How are England going to create players of the future if the future players are churned out like one big supermarket churns out ready meals?
And that’s not my opinion but the opinion of ex-Watford youth team coach Tom Whalley He reckons young players are not given enough time to enjoy the game, and they are not looked after in a way he thinks is important. In the words of David James the England goalkeeper “Football shouldn’t feel like a job to 8-year-olds.
These are the facts – some of the teams in the Premiership have up to 250 8-year-olds on their books. That is astonishing. How on earth do they keep up with 250 players. And these are just ones from England. When they get older they then have to compete with the players that are bought in from abroad. Players like Frederico Macheda, who came over from the Lazio youth system. He has got ahead of the young strikers who have been at Manchester Utd since they were eight.
And what happens to all these bright young players? Of the 250 eight-year-olds that start out how many get left on the way?
I lost a player once who went to an academy and a year later came back, the shadow of the player he had been, low on confidence and low spirited. He hadn’t made it.
Liverpool have 62 first team players – I was worried when I upped my squad to 17 last season, how would they all get a game!
The numbers that now go through the system in England is huge – I just hope these players are enjoying playing football as much as I did when I was 8.
I saw this video and thought it set out well the goals a coach like you and I should be looking for…
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer Skills, Soccer Training, Uncategorized | Tags: david James, England, Goalkeeper training, goalkeeping bloopers, goalkeeping blunders, goalkeeping errors, goalkeeping mistakes, Portsmouth, what to do with your goalkeeper
They are different to all your other players… goalkeepers are a law unto themselves. I was reading the reports on England goalkeeper David James who has let 10 goals in, in just two games for English premiership team Portsmouth. He says in the past he would have been unable to speak to anyone for days. I can sympathise with that – if any of my teams lost two games in a row badly then I was like a bear with a sore head.
But now James says “I try to get on with it, i take the dogs out for a walk and try to move and prepare for the next game. I have a debrief with my psychologist…” PSYCHOLOGIST… now that is where the similarities end.
Coaches of youth teams don’t have psychologists to hand when they lose a game and neither does the under 12 goalkeeper. The goalkeeper will be in the car getting a pasting from dad while your in the bar bemoaning your luck.
But that’s the problem for goalkeepers… their errors are highlighted every time the ball goes in the net, they have nowhere to hide. You cannot let your goalkeeper take the blame or he won’t be your goalkeeper much longer. Protect him and nuture him so that he wants to play in goal no matter what the score is.
At training nights make sure he joins in with all the fun bits – the match, skills, fitness – before you send him into the goal for some goalkeeper practice. It is important for you and the team that he feels part of it all.
You can also get him to be vocal at training to shout at his defenders so in matches you can hear him bossing everyone around.
If you encourage him when he makes a mistake rather than criticise most of the players will pat him on the back and support him… have a go and they will crucify him.
Goalkeepers are vital to your team let’s make sure they don’t go home crying.
Here’s a few goalkeeping errors to show that it happens to even the very best…
