Academy One Goalkeeping Reference Material

These are documents or reference material for all the Academy One members to help them to be their best. They range from personal to physical to administrative to psychological. All are meant to assist a part of the whole goalkeeper, but can be used individually.

College Questionnaire

To help AOG members with their research in finding the best possible college academic situation, the best possible college social situation and best college soccer situation to meet their needs. An Academy One staff person would be able to go over an individual's answers and help to start the process of college recruitment. This would be done in accordance with the AOG member and family college meeting done during the freshmen, sophomore or junior year of high school.

College Coach Introduction Letter

This letter is the first letter one should send to a college coach or coaches of a school of interest. Make sure to be accurate and honest with all the information.

Goalkeeper Pre-game Warm-Up

    Too often the warm-up is overlooked for a goalkeeper. This is a great mistake, especially when many college coaches don’t have the time to watch goalkeepers in matches, but will closely observe their warm-ups with regards to a goalkeeper’s recruitment.
    A warm-up can vary depending on the time and space allowed. The biggest factor is whether the keeper is allowed on the field a half hour before their match. Here is a whole warm-up and then you can adjust depending on time and place:

Goalkeeper Home Workout Exercises

These exercises are part of a program to develop, improve and maintain the important muscle groups for a goalkeeper that are rarely worked by most soccer specific fitness programs. Flexibility, explosive movements and reflexes are the focus. In the following document, one will find a list of the exercises and a description for each. 

Goalkeeper Home Workout Schedule

Here is the schedule for the exercises listed above. The schedule is broken down into three groupings. The first group is for exercises or activities to be done every day. The second group is for the exercises that are to be done three times a week. The last group is for fitness testing to mark progress. The exercises are to be done at a serious level of intensity, but not too hard to cause injury. These should be somewhat strenuous, but at any time that an athlete is doing these exercises, they feel strain to the body, the athlete should stop immediately and rest for a day or two.   

Goalkeeper Goal Diary

The goal diary is an important tool for a goalkeeper's growth. By keeping track of every goal a keeper allows, and most importantly, the strategy to prevent the goal from happening again, the goalkeeper mentally sees patterns to correct and begins to instinctively react in the best way. It is important for a goalkeeper to not dwell on any goal as a way of beating oneself up, but to see it as a learning experience in the long process of development. How to use the diary. Date, Opponent and Field Conditions are self explanatory. Goal Type refers to whether the ball was scored on a shot (Long shot, point blank, low shot, high shot, chip etc.) or header (Point blank, low, high etc.) or free kick (Direct, indirect, bending, deflection etc.). Goal origins relates to how the play that led to the goal came about. Did the shot or header come from a long cross off of a through ball or a short chip off of a several pass build-up from the back. The most important section to the Diary is the Improvement section. This is where the keeper must formulate a better way to deal with the situation. The best way to do this is to go through the checklist of goalkeeping laws (See Articles). Was the keeper in a proper stance when the ball was shot? Was the keeper set BEFORE the shot? How was the keeper's positioning when the ball was shot? These three questions will almost always yield the answer. Then the keeper goes through other aspects about whether the keeper should have organized their defense better? or how was their communication? or how did the surroundings or opposition effect the path to the ball? When used with the attitude of learning, the goalkeeper will see improvement in their thought processes.

Personal Goals and Assessment

It is critical for a young person to understand the importance of planning their future and understanding their strengths and weaknesses. The best way to do that is to have them write out their goals and strengths and weaknesses and post them where one can read them on a daily basis. 

Winning Attitudes Self Exam

An excellent test to get an idea about the individual's attitude toward themselves and competition.