Goalkeeper Drill: Colored Shots

This drill improves a keeper's footwork and positioning. No matter how spectacular a save looks, it's obeying the same basic laws of physics - a solid object (some part of the keepers anatomy) intersects the trajectory the goal bound ball is travelling along and prevents it from reaching its destination. It doesn't take a professor of physics to realize that positioning as much of this object in between the player striking the ball and the frame of the goal will do most of the hard work before the keeper even has to react to the shot - the great Danish keeper Peter Schmeichel was renowned for this, with opposition forwards often complaining that even in one on one situations they simply could not see any of the goal available to aim for.

Lay out four different color markers in and around the edge of the penalty area - with at least one at an acute angle to the goal. At each cone position a different player who will be shooting on goal, with a decent supply of balls to hand, and two additional players if you can spare them to retrieve wayward shots. Warn your keeper to expect five minutes of intense activity.

The drill begins at the coaches' first command, which is to call out a color corresponding to one of the markers loudly and clearly. The keeper must quickly prepare himself to face a shot from this angle and the player at the assigned cone attempts to drill the ball past him into the net. Once the shot has been taken the coach calls out a second color and the drill continues, mixing up the points randomly to keep the goalie guessing his next move. Shots should be regular but not so frenetic that technique is sacrificed - what we learn well in controlled conditions will serve us well at tempo in a match, the key here is to bed in correct responses.

Coaches should watch for keepers who maintain lively footwork throughout the drill, are always on their toes to aid with springing, position their weight correctly and have covered as much of the goal as possible.

To vary the exercise, require shooters to delay their shot for a single second once their color has been called and encourage your keeper to use this second to move off their goal line toward the player, thus reducing his range of angles even further.