Focusing on Goalie

[Anonymous]

My 10yr old now exclusively plays goalie in his rec league and loves it and is pretty good at it. He wants to just only pursue this position and move try to move into a more competitive league next year. What should we be doing to strengthen his goalie skills to best help him achieve what he wants to do? He's already taking a goalie clinic through his rec league and has rounded up soccer friends to help him practice shots on the weekends. He has sort of limited himself to one position only but parents in other leagues have told me that teams are often looking for goalies since it's a less popular position, so goalies tend to be in demand. Anyone other parents of goalies and have any advice?

[Anonymous]

Is he likely to be tall when he grows up? If not, he shouldn't focus on goalie.

[Anonymous]

There are some good Facebook group for keeper/goalie parents you should look out for rather than this board.
Goalies can be in demand but as a specific position player they can also get kind of screwed over, if a better/talller/newer #1 comes along (ask me how I know) and may need to find a new team.
Most experienced parents will encourage you not to focus on the position but if a kid loves it then you can encourage it via camps clinics and private lessons.
The best team for a goalie is one where he/she plays all the time, and has a lot of opportunities to practice distribution and shot stopping and communication (for example maybe has a bad defense but not so bad he's miserable).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is he likely to be tall when he grows up? If not, he shouldn't focus on goalie.

OP here--yes he is very tall (99%)for his age -that's why he's goalie and he is on the growth trajectory to be tall (his dad is also over 6')

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some good Facebook group for keeper/goalie parents you should look out for rather than this board.
Goalies can be in demand but as a specific position player they can also get kind of screwed over, if a better/talller/newer #1 comes along (ask me how I know) and may need to find a new team.
Most experienced parents will encourage you not to focus on the position but if a kid loves it then you can encourage it via camps clinics and private lessons.
The best team for a goalie is one where he/she plays all the time, and has a lot of opportunities to practice distribution and shot stopping and communication (for example maybe has a bad defense but not so bad he's miserable).

OP here--thank you this is helpful context.

[Anonymous]

Work on his foot skills. He needs to be able to play balls in the air and also successfully lead a build out the back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Work on his foot skills. He needs to be able to play balls in the air and also successfully lead a build out the back

okay--good advice. he has a good punt! but they're not allowed to punt in rec, but yes working on foot skills for blocking balls in the air is good advice. I am thinking of finding a high school or similar aged goalie to give him some one-on-one time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Work on his foot skills. He needs to be able to play balls in the air and also successfully lead a build out the back

okay--good advice. he has a good punt! but they're not allowed to punt in rec, but yes working on foot skills for blocking balls in the air is good advice. I am thinking of finding a high school or similar aged goalie to give him some one-on-one time.

Not for blocking balls out of air, for confidence on playing pass backs.

[Anonymous]

Call or email into the travel clubs around you and see what they offer for goalies. Some have dedicated goalie coaches and the goalies train part time with their team and part time with just goalie coaches. Other travel clubs treat goalies like field players and they must seek out training on their own. Dedicated goalies at that age are rare so you won't have trouble making it onto a team.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP! If you're considering travel, definitely go and observe practices and keeper training with a few teams. My son switched clubs this year and the difference is unbelievable. He has progressed more in the past three months than over a year with his former team.

[Anonymous]

If you’re aiming for MLSNext at some point for your kid, you should make sure as quite a couple of PP has said here that he’s comforts me with his technical skills, particularly making quick accurate passes from the back.

A few of theMLSNext clubs in this area often play from the back and in front of the goal so you’re going to have to be comfortable and confident in your non-goalie skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call or email into the travel clubs around you and see what they offer for goalies. Some have dedicated goalie coaches and the goalies train part time with their team and part time with just goalie coaches. Other travel clubs treat goalies like field players and they must seek out training on their own. Dedicated goalies at that age are rare so you won't have trouble making it onto a team.

This. Find a club that has a goalie coach and weekly GK-specific trainings, but make sure he still attends team training to develop and grow his ability to play the ball with his feet. Punting gets a lot of "oohs and ahhs" from the parents, but being able to play the ball well with your feet (and hands, ie throwing/rolling quickly and accurately to a teammate) is a much more important skill to develop.

[Anonymous]

Being able to play with the feet is important for the modern keeper. But shot stopping and communication are also important. And so is safety. Also know that 99% of most coaches were field players and have no comprehension of the goalie's skillset or abilities. They usually aren't paying much attention either sadly it's often an afterthought even with a goalkeeper coach on staff.

[Anonymous]

PP here and to add to that, being able to distribute quickly out of the back depends entirely on your defense...which if you're on a bad team is usually being pressed hard and unable to handle quick distributions at this age/younger ages.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all- OP again here. We're mostly familiar with MSI and Brit-Am but what are some good club teams to explore that have good goalie programs or just good programs in general? I hear so many mentioned but honestly it's overwhelming to keep up. Most of my DD's friends who continued to advance ended up doing MSI classic teams. We're in MoCo (Potomac area).