Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Last week I wrote about some
specific drills for indoor training. This week, I want to write about
conditioning for keepers that can be done indoors.
While field players have to work on sprints ranging from 5-50 yards, keepers
should be working on much shorter distances, (5-15 yards) as well as jumping for
explosiveness.
The first thing I would recommend you do is continue the plyometrics program
I mentioned in an earlier newsletter (go to
http://goalkeeping.hypermart.net/cond1.htm
see the program). Another thing to do would be to run "doggies" A
doggie is where you put 6 cones down 5 yards apart and run from the first one to
the second one and then back, then to the third one and back and on till you get
to the last one and then return to the first one. If you are working in a
group of three, you can have one person run a doggie while the other two rest
and then the second person goes and then the third. A well conditioned
older youth male should be under 31 seconds in completing one doggie while a
female should be around 34 seconds with a ratio of working one and resting two,
you should be able to do 5 of these with partners in 5.5 minutes and if all are
under 31 seconds, you will have a good start to your conditioning program. You
must touch each line with your hand before turning. Doggies are excellent
for working on quick changes of direction as well as acceleration.
Another thing is to work with a partner and server and work on acceleration
drills. The two workers stand next to each other with their feet
side by side and don't move until the server claps his hands. The server
is only 5 yards away. The first progression is upon hearing the clap,
start to fall forward trying to keep your body straight. At the last moment,
catch yourself by taking a big step forward and sprint past the server. Do this
a total of six times working on catching yourself three times with your right
leg and three times with your left. This is not a race as you want to see
who can fall further without going all the way down. The next progression
is to have both players sit down besides each other. Upon hearing the
clap, they must get up (without using any part of their arms or hands) and
sprint past the server. Unlike the last thing, this one should be made
into a race. Next, have them stand side by side and upon hearing the clap,
they must take a big step away from the server and then spring past the server.
Again, do this three times with each foot. Next, have one ball for each
runner and have them place the ball to the side of their feet. Upon
hearing the clap they must jump over the ball 6 times and then sprint past the
server. Each of these can be done as many times as you choose and there
are many other variations that you can come up with. These can be
done either indoors or outdoors and require very little space to do.
There are many types of conditioning programs that are quite scientific and
quite effective but the one that I have a hard time finding anything as
effective and easy to do is jumping rope. You can use a normal jump rope
or a weighted one that will help your upper body as well (recommended) and
simply jump 100 times on your right foot then 100 on your left foot and then 100
using both feet. Go as quickly as you can without losing control and
try to keep this series up for 10 minutes (at a fast pace). Do this
3 times a week for a couple of weeks and you will see a noticeable difference in
your conditioning.
These are just some things you can do to work on conditioning in confined
spaces. If anyone would like to share some of their ideas I would love to
hear them and pass them onto others.
