Goalkeeper’s

keeper’s explosiveness.

Frequently, when working on fitness,or speed and agility i coach things like working on long distance conditioning, but not on the explosiveness that is so important for keepers.

It’s the reason I believe so strongly in keepers doing a lot of plyometrics.

Another way for keepers to work on their explosiveness and their ability to jump (and then jump again) would be by using a simple hurdle to jump over prior to making a save.

For example, start with a small hurdle perpendicular to the goal line with the keeper standing to the right of the hurdle.

The keeper starts to the right of the hurdle and jumps over the hurdle and then jumps right back to land in the same spot they started.

As soon as the player lands a ball is struck and the keeper must catch the ball.

The height of the hurdle will vary depending upon the age, size and ability of the keeper, but any type of hurdle is fine as long as it has some give in case the keeper hits it by mistake.

You can also set up the hurdle so the hurdle is parallel to the goal line.

The keeper starts in front of the hurdle (so the hurdle is between the keeper and the goal line).

The keeper jumps back over the hurdle and then forward over the hurdle again at which point the ball gets struck and the keeper makes the save.

By having the keeper make two quick jumps over the hurdle (or more if you would like to have the keeper jump over and back and then over and back again) it works on quick jumps, explosiveness, balance and agility.

There are numerous variations you can do to work on this explosiveness training and the only real limitation is the coaches imagination.

Remember it’s more important for the keeper to go quickly then to jump over the highest hurdle possible.

This will give coaches of all levels something to take back to the practice field and use right away