Tell me about GK training
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GKmom
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| My GK son is looking to move to a club with strong GK training. He’s currently at a club with a wonderful coach and teammates but they offer just one session a week to all ages and levels (mixed gender). He finds this incredibly frustrating as there is no differentiation of skill level. The skills worked on are those he aquired many years ago. The last club was similar though they at least broke it up somewhat by age. It feels like the GK training he has received through these clubs is far below the technical level the teams train at. As a parent, I don’t mind paying for supplemental training here and there but he really should be receiving some regular high level training for our almost 3k/year. Ideally he would like a club that offers differentiated training 2x a week at an advanced level. Does this exist? I’d like to hear from parents of GK about their kids experiences before he starts making the rounds again. I’m particularly interested in experiences at Potomac, Bethesda, Achilles, Arlington and McLean as they are closest to us. |
Dcsoccer23
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Can’t speak to McLean or Arlington but what you’re looking for doesn’t exist at the others. Occasionally a club will hire a trainer who turns out to be pretty good but they don’t last long. My sense is that they realize they can make more and have more flexibility running their own sessions. I don’t blame them but it is frustrating. Achilles has zero GK training. Bethesda and Potomac have something similar to what you described (everyone at the same time or large age groups) and it’s pretty basic. Bethesda also has separate training for its older MLS team GKs and I wasn’t impressed with that either.
All higher level GKs I know in the area have a separate trainer they work with on their own. A lot of high level field players also have separate trainers so it is not necessarily that different but it is frustrating that clubs don’t invest more in it. On the other hand, I also get that a club can handle only so many higher level GKs at the high school level at least (because they all want to play and will leave if they aren’t starting) so you are asking them to invest for a handful of players. So I’m not sure what the answer is. There are some clubs in the Baltimore area that happen to have good GK coaches right now but who knows how long those coaches will stay. If you want quality and challenging instruction, and consistency in coaching, I think you’re going to have to do it on your own. |
GKDad
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| McLean is pretty good. GK-specific training at least 2x a week during the season (spring and fall) at least for the top 2 teams (ECNL/ECNL-RL), broken up by 2 or 3 age groups (sometimes mixed gender). GK coach is good, though we play on RL team and I'm not sure often he attends our games. |
Heloise
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| Not Arlington, they are one day a week for GK training, and even that tends to get short shrift so the serious keepers have private coaches. Arlington isn’t really great with GKs generally (at least not on the boys side), it just doesn’t seem like they take the position seriously. |
GKmom
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| I understand that it’s difficult to hire and retain GK trainers. This is what we’ve been told by the TD at the current club, too. Back when we were at Potomac many years ago, there was good GK training so we’ve always compared clubs to that standard. It sounds like that just doesn’t exist now, except for maybe at Mclean which we will have to check out. Whatever the core issue, it’s just incredibly disappointing that clubs don’t invest in their GKs the way they do other positions. We’ve spent a ton on outside training over the last few years, but we can’t afford to do it weekly year-round which is what he really wants. |
Nutmeg
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| It is hard to find- especially at the younger age groups. The bigger clubs - especially those with ECNL teams- have some sort of weekly GK training. The number of days may vary between clubs but at least it is something. That said my DC still does private training occasionally with someone they have worked with over the last few years |