Catching a high ball cross or corner kick is an important skill for goalkeepers of all ages. Timing of your jump, judging the flight of the ball and dominating your area are vital aspects of this soccer goalie technique. High ball training for keepers should be trained regularly but is not in most club or team environments. Here we have plenty of soccer goalie high ball sessions for you to add into your weekly training.
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Crosses are hard for goalkeepers at any level from youth to professionals. Goalkeepers during training must play crosses as if it was a game adjusting angles and positioning with each pass and touch.
No matter the age or ability level soccer goalies struggle with some aspect of crosses. The keeperstop.com goalkeeper training session uses coaching sticks and weighted equipment to increase the difficulty of the drills.
A high ball session for soccer goalies focusing on footwork, the drop step, and catching techniques. The goalkeepers used in the video ranged from 13 - 17 years old. The goalkeeper training session begins with footwork through hurdles to increase the goalkeepers footwork with varying services to warm up the feet and handling
These are two flank tactical situations for soccer goalkeepers to understand and for coaches to created training environments to help the goalkeeper recognize the situation, take up proper positioning, know how to organize the defense. Once the goalkeeper put these tactical situations into their “reading the game” skill set, they will have a good idea of what the best options are for the attacking team so they can anticipate and make the play.
You can watch Christian Benjamin teach the high ball warm up HERE
Most goalkeepers will tell you that their biggest weakness is dealing with crosses. How do we prepare our goalkeeper to be confident to deal with any high ball situation that might occur? I use following session to help build a goalkeepers confidence with crosses
The task of handling crosses by a soccer goalkeeper has grown increasing more difficult due to the player’s ability to serve balls with more velocity, spin and accuracy. In preparation, the technical ability of the goalkeeper must be sound, but the overall effectiveness of the goalkeeper will truly lie in their tactical positioning and decision making.
A youth soccer goalie drill for catching high ball crosses under pressure from opposing football players.
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