Anonymous wrote:right. and what happens when another kid joins the team whose dad was a goalkeeper in college and has been training him since age 5...

Good goalies are always in demand, so moving, though inconvenient, should not be a problem.

right. and what happens when another kid joins the team whose dad was a goalkeeper in college and has been training him since age 5...

Best way to pigeonhole at age 10

Our U-11 goalie plays full time goalie. At our games the goalies seem to stay in goalie 100%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exclusive GK means different things to different clubs. Are we talking game/playing time, or training? I don’t think exclusive GK at that age in training is good even if they end up as GKs in the end.

+1
The goalkeepers I know at U11 do 1-2 days a week of goalkeeper training and the other days they work out with the regular field players.

Yeah as long as that GK training is done in the same time as the regular practice. Its messed up to ask the GK to do extra separate training when your not asking you strikers to do extra finishing shot training. Get where I'm going with this? My point is a good coach run a great training session with all positions involved together.

Anonymous wrote:Exclusive GK means different things to different clubs. Are we talking game/playing time, or training? I don’t think exclusive GK at that age in training is good even if they end up as GKs in the end.

+1
The goalkeepers I know at U11 do 1-2 days a week of goalkeeper training and the other days they work out with the regular field players.

Specializing in the goalkeeper position at U11 is fine, but they should still play 1/2 of the game in goal and 1/2 of the game in the field. Today's goalkeepers must be proficient with their feet. U14 is the right age to play full time in goal.

At what age is the consensus for specializing in GK? When you get right down to it. GK is the hardest to learn and teach properly. Most field position are similar enough to interchange with each other. GK is a separate game all together. I think U11 is fine to start the specialization if you can provide proper training as well as coaching. Its up to the coach to implement the GK into the practice plan with the field players in other ways than just defending shots.

Exclusive GK means different things to different clubs. Are we talking game/playing time, or training? I don’t think exclusive GK at that age in training is good even if they end up as GKs in the end.

A year ago I would have said to go for it. Our son was in the same boat at tryout time last year (he’s currently u11). He started u10 50% in goal but by the end of the year he rarely saw the field. Several coaches talked up his natural ability in the goal and he seemed to love it. Unlike your son, he wasn’t as strong on the field mostly due to lack of aggressiveness. He was offered a spot this year that required him to specialize. We encouraged our son to go elsewhere because we worried about specializing too soon and had already seen a decline in field skills as goalie time increased over the previous u10 year. But he wanted to play for that team and made it clear that he wanted to be a goalie and was quitting soccer if we didn’t let him play. He said he enjoyed the goal and felt intense stress and anxiety as a field player. He seemed to have a good year and I thought we had made a good choice until our son received a very negative player eval from the coach a few weeks ago that made it clear he won’t be invited back. So now my son will have to find a new team and he hasn’t played anything but goalie for a year. The coach kept him in goal for every practice. And guess what? Now he says he doesn’t want to be a goalie exclusively. We have an uphill battle finding a team. I wish I had honored his wish to pursue goalie but with a coach who had a broader view of development.

I think at most clubs at U11 kids have to choose a path - goalie or field player. I think if your loves it and has the physical build go for it!

Height also matters. Are you and your wife taller? Realistically, if you are average or short, then he may find himself sidelined in high school if he doesn't become a reasonable size.

Certainly not the only consideration, but what does your son want to do?

Depends...personally I think learning the field can only help a goalie. Keeping in mind, the goalie is moving defenders like chess pieces and unless he/she knows that well, it's just a player that can use their hands.

Our DS is currently U10 and going through tryouts -- on his travel team this year he generally plays 1 half at GK, the other as a midfielder. His field skills are improving - heck, he's had games where he scores and there is only one or two other goals scored in the game...and he plays strong defense too BUT he loves playing goalie and is pretty good (looking across the age group where we play).

They are looking for him to move up for the fall and there has been some talk of him becoming a "full-time goalie" -- SO -- question is --

Is it to "early" for him to be specializing at this age??

Again, he does love GK and has even guested on the higher team where he played exclusively goalie for a couple of games - I'm just not sure he should be "limited" at such a young age...

TIA!