The last line of defense is the goal keeper. So you can understand the importance of the position. To do full justice to the position, the keeper must have impeccable skills such as being agile, quick reaction, ability to think, and of course, be a good shooter of the ball.

If you are looking to improve the skills of your goalkeepers, there are several useful drills that you can employ. In this article, I shall discuss with you certain drills that are great for goal keepers. You will learn how to play the keeper position right, focus on catching, punting, punching and much more. Without further adieu, let’s start:

Soccer Goalkeeper Drill- Arc Drill

Equipment

Keep a lot of balls handy and ask the goal keeper to take position. Have a few other players act as shooters and make them stand in an arc to the corner of the corner of the penalty area.

Instructions

Instruct the players to dribble across the top of the penalty area. As the dribbling player moves across the penalty area, the goalkeeper must move along the imaginary goalkeeper’s arc 2-6 yards from the goal line while keeping their body positioned between the goal and the ball.

Ask the dribbler to shoot at his own free will so that the goalkeeper is alert all the time. The keeper should make the save and quickly move in place along the arc for the next shooter who starts immediately.

Important points to remember

• Goalkeeper should drag the feet quickly without crossing them.
• Goalkeeper should maintain a good position on the arc between the ball and the goal.
• Goalkeeper should keep a good distance of 2-6 yards from the goal line and never on the goal line.
• He should be always on the move trying to anticipate every move.

Soccer Goalie Drills – Side-to-Side

Equipment

Again, make sure you have a lot of ball handy. Ask the goalkeeper to shuffle from side to side and post to post in the goal along the goal line.

Instructions

On the coaches command, the keeper should drop to the ground in a push-up position and quickly jump back to set position. The coach should toss a ball to the goalkeeper who should catch the ball and repeat. Continue for approximately 1 minute and rest.

Variations

• As a variation, you can instead of tossing the ball, serve the ball into the goalkeeper.

Coaching Points

• Goalkeeper should drag the feet quickly without crossing them.
• Goalkeeper should get up quickly, get feet set and get ready for shot
• Goalkeeper should stay on toes leaning forward slightly when set in order to quickly react to throw.

Equipment

Goalkeeper sits in the center of the goal about 3-5 yards from the goal line. The coach should stand about 8-10 yards from the keeper with a supply of balls.

Instructions

When the coach instructs, the keeper should quickly stand, set their feet, get into ready position, and catch the ball that is tossed towards the goal by the coach. The keeper immediately returns the ball to the coach and returns to the seated position. Repeat this for about 2 minutes.

Coaching Points

• Ensure that the goalkeeper gets off the ground quickly.
• Ensure that the keeper is aware of their position and location in front of the goal.
• Ensure that the keeper should get set and ready themselves for the shot quickly.

Leave your feedback below!

Yours in soccer,

Andre Botelho

Andre Botelho’s Soccer Coaching Blog

Awesome Team Name and Logo

The importance of choosing an awesome name for your soccer team cannot be underestimated. In one fell swoop, you convey a host of things to your opponent:

• Is your team funny? Maybe you should choose “Crazy Clipping Cleats”

• Do you have an air of confidence you’re not afraid to show? Perhaps “Badditude” is right for your group

• Are you serious soccer players that want to reflect a professional image? How about something tried and true like “Arsenal”?

• How about girls soccer teams that play with country at heart? “All American Bad Girls”

Since soccer is all about positive energy and enthusiasm, think about team names that reflect your team’s identity. This single name will unite the players and inspire the crowds. Teams can rally around the team name when in time of need…say with five minutes left and desperate for a goal. Are you going to be proud yelling out this unique team identity? Will your team be psyched about a pre-game cheer before they take the field?

If you can’t find a team name that you like from below, check out this fun tool we found that serves as a Soccer Team Name Generator. It’s a fun tool to play around with and actually generates some clever ideas for you.

Over the course of our career, we’ve seen tons of clever soccer team names. Here is our All-Star list of names.

Adult Soccer Team Names

ANNIHILATORS
ARSENAL
AVENGERS
BADDITUDE
BALL BLASTERS
BOMB SQUAD
DIRTY DOZEN
GUNNERS
HAMMERHEADS
INFERNO
INFLICTIONS
KRYPTONITES
MERCENARIES
MIND TRIP
NAVY SEALS
NO FEAR
PULVERIZERS
PUNISHERS
PURE INSANITY
REVOLUTION
RUFF RIDERS
TOTAL NIGHTMARE
TUFF-E-NUFF
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE

Funny Soccer Team Names

BLACK & BLUE CREW
CALIFORNIA KICKERS
CLEATS ON FIRE
CRAZY CLEATS
D-FEETERS
FLAME KICKERS
FRAZZLE DAZZLE
GOAL BUSTERS
GOAL CRUSHERS
GOAL DIGGERS
GOALS-R-US
GRASS RATS
JALAPENO PEPPERS
KICKER INSTINCT
PULVERIZERS
PURE INSANITY
RADIOACTIVE REPTILES
ROYALTY GIRLS
SCORCHERS
SNOT ROCKETS
STINKY CHEESE
STONE CRUSHERS
SURF MONKEYS
TAZMANIACS
TOTAL NIGHTMARE
WATERMELON BLASTERS
YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE

Girls Soccer Team Names

ALL AMERICAN BAD GIRLS
ALMOST ANGELS
ANGELS WITH ATTITUDE
BURNING BABES
CHICKS WITH ATTITUDE
CHICKS WITH KICKS
DIVAS
FEISTY CHICKS
FIRE & ICE
FLOWER POWER
GOAL DIGGERS
GROOVY GIRLS
HEARTBREAKERS
HER-RICANES
HOT CHIKCS
JUST PEACHY
KICKIN CHICS
LADY LASERS
RADICAL CHICKS
SPARKLE GIRLS
SPICY GIRLS
SUNFLOWER GIRLS
VELOCE CHICKS

Youth Soccer Team Names

AMBUSH
ANNIHILATORS
ARSENAL
ATOMIC FIREBALLS
AVALANCHE
AVENGERS
BAD BOYS
BADDITUDE
BALL BLASTERS
BARRACUDAS
BLAST
BLAZE
BLUE BOMBERS
BLUES BROTHERS
BOMB SQUAD
BULL DOGS
CELTICS
CHAOS
CHILI PEPPERS
COBRAS
COMETS
DAREDEVILS
DRAGONFLIES
DYNAMITE
EAGLES
EARTHQUAKES
ECLIPSE
FURY
FUSION
GALAXY
GENERALS
HAWKS
HYPERACTIVE
JAGUARS
LITTLE FOOTS
LITTLE GIANTS
OUTLAWS
PIRATES
RAGE
REBELS
RHINOS
ROUGH BOYZ
SHARK ATTACK
SHOOTING COMETS
SHOOTING STARS
SLAYERS
TIGERS
TITANS
TORNADOES
WARRIORS
WOLVERINES

Tell us what your favorite team names are that you’ve seen out on the pitch! What is your team’s name?

Soccer Classroom

What if I told you that selection of the players is a very important step in the tryouts soccer process? The two things that decide the selection of a player into the team are: the team’s requirements and the eligibility criteria of the soccer team.

Coaches expect nothing but the best from the newly selected players and current players that are retained in the team. Coaches play a very important role in the development and the leadership of youth soccer program and that’s why much care is used in the review, test, and selection of kids in the tryouts.

The following guidelines define the principles that guide the selection process and provide direction with respect to the formation of select teams.

It is the responsibility of the Port coach to ensure that players, for all ages and competitive levels, are selected in a fair and unbiased fashion based upon their qualifications, skill, approach, commitment, participation, and philosophy.

Soccer Training

The coaches should make the players aware of both the short term and the long term objective of the team, league by explaining the level where the coaches want to place to the team and justifying it.

The coach, after reviewing the application, may choose to interview the candidate if there are questions, issues or suggestions. The coach should make a deliberate attempt to observe the candidate during a practice session.

The coaches take the help of the soccer association to interview the players of the select teams to assess their skills and to transfer the knowledge on the policies, guidelines, and expectations of the club.

The following are few of the expectations that the coaches expect out of their players irrespective of the age group of players they train.

The coach should ensure two things: to encourage the players and to make that that self-esteem of the player and the player’s parents are not affected at any time. One should build an open, strong, productive relationship with the league, parents, players and the referees, during the tryouts soccer program.

By making sure that he is cooperating well with others, a coach can ensure that the program is efficient to all the kids involved in the session.

Consider them as the agents of the Board and that they will follow the Board’s guide, philosophy, and further the agenda for the League as laid down by the Board.

Show the way by being an example in determining acceptable behavior patterns whether in the end, your team wins or loses.

It is important that you should be both understanding and appreciative of the team you are managing. Respect the decisions and the point of authority of the referee in the soccer tournament. Don’t miss any mandatory coaching and safety workshops on soccer coaching.

Practice your leadership role but let the players decide the result of the game.

The must need to be a tryouts soccer coach is to have some significant experience coaching the youth. The minimum of three to five years of experience is required to be a soccer coach. To know more about selection tips in soccer tryout sessions, subscribe to our youth soccer coaching community and get inexhaustible information.

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice.

Coaching Soccer Drills

Soccer Uniform

In soccer training weight training soccer plays an important role in creating tougher and quicker muscles, this you might have heard a lot of times. The program of soccer fitness talked about in this article will aid you make your players ready for playing soccer at an advanced level.

The new theory of soccer weight training is to have strong and fast muscles with higher stamina rather that to keep on adding pounds of muscle bulk. Though the importance of upper body weight training for soccer is not as much as the legs, we still go on with it for general conditioning and strength.

I think fitness training should start with the legs. Start with squats. After a light warm-up set, load the bar to a weight you think your players can get 20 reps with. Let’s say they are pretty strong, so tell them to begin with 220 pounds. The exercise involves getting under the bar then placing it on the upper back and finally standing up with it.

They should then get out of the stands and stand with their feet and shoulder width apart. They must hold it as they go down until their hips are slightly lower than the top of their knees. At this point in weight training soccer, players should quickly rise to the full standing position and exhale. They should be motivated to do this for 20 reps even when they are totally worked out.

Soccer Fitness

A 5-10 minutes break should be taken before moving on with the leg curl machine to work on hamstrings. They are required to perform 4 sets of 15 reps each. In between each set of Leg Curls, they’ll also be doing 4 sets of 15 reps on the Stiff-Legged Dead lift. Hamstrings are vital for players speed, thus we would want them to be strong enough.

The leg exercises will be completed with 3 sets of 25 reps on the Standing calf-raise machine.

Now for the upper body work out begin with the Incline bench press.
Once the players have performed the warm ups, tell them to carry on by putting more weights such that the next set of 10 reps get harder. The players must repeat the 5 sets 10 times with weights, while stretching their chest and shoulders and at the end of each set stop and relax for 2 minutes.

The second exercise for this portion of the soccer strength training is pull-ups. Players should do this with their palms facing their body to work their biceps as well as the back. The final part of the upper body work out involves working on abdominals and doing 5 sets of 20 or more reps of leg raises. The final exercise is sit-ups, complete 5 sets of 50 or more.

In conclusion, weight training soccer is only a small part of the overall training necessary to develop great soccer players. You are welcomed to our youth soccer coaching community coming up more information about various weight training exercises relevant to the game of soccer; it also has videos, articles, pod casts, and newsletters available for you.

Andre Botelho is known online as “The Expert Youth Soccer Coach” and his free ebooks and reports have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Learn how to skyrocket your players’ skills and make practice sessions fun in record time. Download your free ebook at: Soccer Practice.

Tryouts Soccer