Goalkeeper Fitness - GoalKeeping

I believe that you are pretty aware of that goalkeeper fitness is an important part of your overall training but let’s start with this question; how many times have you arrived to a practice session and started to throw yourself after the ball without warming up (probably too many!)?

Beginning your practice without warming up will soon or later result in a serious injury. It is also common that your coach says that you should warm up by yourself and never tells you how to do that. I mean, he/she should at least give you instruction of what type of exercise you should do?

As a goalkeeper you need to be very fit, if not fitter than your other teammates. This takes us to following question; how to develop your goalkeeper fitness? Well, you could walk to your local library, find some goalkeeper books and study them or you could make your life easier and read following guidelines.

• Proper warming up and stretching is vital for your goalkeeper fitness. By doing this you will not only prepare your body for hard physical activity, you will also avoid serious injuries. Before starting a practice or soccer match always make sure that you have gone through your set of stretching and warm up exercises.

A good idea is to get a teammate (if he/she is substitute and not starting the game) to assist you. A good practice to control if you have warmed up properly is to check if you have any sweat on your brow.

• Don’t think just because you spend most of your time standing on the goal line that you should not develop your running abilities. The best way to do this is to involve endurance training as a crucial part of your goalkeeper fitness.

During a soccer match you are required to undertake short bursts of explosive effort and have ability to recover from these quickly. With other words; there is no reason why you should not participate in the regular endurance sessions of your team.

• As a goalie you need to be strong in the air, your goal kicks need to be hard and you need to be able to release the ball quickly with a strong and accurate throw. So, how should you increase these skills? The answer is strength training.

This type of training is a core component of your conditioning regime. What type of strength training you will anticipate in will of course depend on how old you are and your development as goalkeeper.

For example, you should not participate in intensive weight training sessions. As a goalkeeper you need to have good upper and lower body strength while your teammates (field players) will usually concentrate on developing better lower body strength.

Playing as goalkeeper requires beside mentioned above good reflexes both with your hands and feet’s. To develop your reflexes you should participate in the sprint practices of your team training. Don’t accept if your coach tells you to step aside during the spring sessions of your team. Tell him/her instead that this is an important part of your fitness and that you need to participate for your own best.