The short answer is no, they don’t. Can they benefit from becoming decent at it? Yes.

I don't think they are looking at that in tryouts at all for goalies.

Anonymous wrote:Juggling shows that your kid practicing at home. I think this is why coach's like it.

Sure thats true, but the benefits are obvious on the field if you have been putting in the work juggling, and if you have soft feet coaches will notice. First touch or soft feet can only come from juggling period, passing off a wall can be good too but not instead of juggling. Just practice it 10-15mins a day along with some other things that may seem more fun. Mundane is the name of the game in tecnhical skill development, so if your kid thinks is boring and mundane, start thinking about somewhere else to throw your money.

Juggling shows that your kid practicing at home. I think this is why coach's like it.

Anonymous wrote:No one needs to be able to juggle, but it shows dedication, and coaches like that.

You have to be able to juggle at some point for the reasons PP listed above as well as just to develop touch. But it’s more important that you incorporate that learned touch into practical skills on the field. It’s easy to confidently juggle the ball hundreds of times with no pressure, harder to juggle/control the ball under pressure during a game. Likely why the best juggler may still not make the best team.

That said, I don’t think it has to be learned as early as some parents make their kids do. There’s other ways to develop touch that’s more fun at certain ages.

But U11-U12 is a good age to do it if they’ve struggled in the past. Assuming ur kid is alrdy comfortable with the ball in general, the learning curve is not steep at all by this age.

No one needs to be able to juggle, but it shows dedication, and coaches like that.

My GK wasn’t a good juggler at that age and still had offers. From u9-u11 his “good” club never had the kids juggle at all so he couldn’t figure it out and grew frustrated. I once asked the coach who said he felt it was overrated. Of course many of his teammates still developed the skill as they learned elsewhere. I do remember he went to tryout for one particular club around u11 and it was very awkward as all the kids warmed up by juggling. After that, we watched a lot of YouTube videos to learn some tricks for success and eventually he became adept enough at it. He’s now u16 and except for that one tryout, it’s never been an issue again. But he’s always had good footskills. The key was he always did the same footwork warmups and drills as field players, used a rebounder at home and practiced dribbling between cones in the yard.

Interestingly, by far the best juggler at his original club was placed on the 3rd team. This kid could juggle endlessly and do some really cool tricks but it didn’t get him on the A or even B teams. So there’s more to life than juggling. As a GK, make sure your player is very comfortably receiving the ball when it’s played back.

Juggling is also about balance.

Goalies need touch and juggling is a demonstration of touch. When a goalie receives the ball with their feet, the can not make a mistake, so they need to have some foot skills

At u12 I don’t know if you have to be able to juggle as a goalie but it certainly would be a good thing to practice as goalies are expected to be comfortable on the ball in the modern game. Practice every day over the next year and she’ll be fine for 11v11 u13 tryouts next year where coaches will want to see a gk comfort with the ball. Every club my kids have been on have had a goalie who could technically hang with field players and could do all the ball work drills to warn up before breaking off to work with goalie coach. I wouldn’t trust a club’s development philosophy if their goalie can’t play with their feet, this comfort all players starts with juggling, goalies included.

Goalies are hard to find, so if they were notified of this, it probably won't be an issue.

My preteen/rising U12 went to a few try outs in the spring, and in hindsight we should have flagged in advance she was a goalie, because when kids were warming up by juggling, she can only do 5-10. She didn't get a call back despite playing as a goalie in the small sided matches. Does she need to worry about juggling improving as a goalie to get seen in the future?