My DS loves to play goal. He does specific goalie training for it. The problem is his technical foot skills are digressing because his coach only ever puts him in goal during practice and scrimmages but then he plays half the game in the field during real games. I am frustrated as last night for example he was bored and played goal the entire 60 min scrimmage when the ball was primarily on the other side of the field. He got nothing out of it. We had this same issues last year with his old U8 club and it's repeating itself after I had specifically told the coach I don't mind if he plays goal during games BUT I need him to develop or he'll be stuck with no footwork, etc. Any advice or how do other goalie parents feel?
We have talked to the coach before but either he's trying to develop the other kids and my son needs less work but I feel like communication is key. I told my son to not play goal this weekend in games and to say I want to play in the field next week during practice but it's hard as he also wants to do what the coach asks him. We have a 24 hour rule before we can talk to the coach following practice or game issues so looking for advice. |
That's ridiculous. Even our U15+ keepers still do rondos and other technical work during the beginning of practices. U9 should not have full time keepers anyways. I would definitely speak to the coach further about it. |
If you want to improve footskills the kid should be playing futsal year round. Just sign him up as a field player and don't tell anyone he plays keeper outdoors. |
This is why even though I played keeper for a while for my club team years ago, and I suspect my kids might be good at it, I do not allow them to play keeper at a young age. Coaches tried to do the same thing to my DD, and I wouldn’t allow it.
My recommendation is to push back hard on this. No more than half of every game in goal, your kid should play the other half (or close to it) on the field, and should get plenty of field practice and scrimmage time. Any goalie training should be incremental to the field practice the rest of the players get. This changes after a couple of years, but should hold true at least for U9-10 |