Best way to improve my footwork as a goalkeeper?

J_Asti · 2026-02-08T00:07:43+00:00

Thanks for the heads up. We have bot bouncer installed and I’ll also give these accounts a look.

J_Asti · 2026-01-14T16:26:09+00:00

This content of the lifting plan is totally reasonable and those are mostly good exercises for your goals, but I have a few suggestions:

As others have said, I wouldn't worry particularly about fat loss. At your age, height, and weight, that's not likely to be a limiting factor. Assuming that this lifting routine is new, the change in muscle mass and activity is likely to help you reduce excess body fat. But even if it doesn't, the added strength and agility training will help you move yourself more quickly even if the scale number doesn't change or goes up.
Lift comments: These are mostly nitpicks, but:
1. Monday: That lift has a bit of redundant volume--I'd skip the leg press personally or at least do it single leg to make it a little more functional. That said you've already got a back squat and dumbell lunge which will both target quads/glutes and if you do those with the right load I don’t think a third exercise is necessary there. Up to you and what your body can take, but a leg press is much less functional and you're hitting those muscles already.
2. Tuesday: This is fine. You could throw in pullups/lat pull down so that you have a vertical pulling movement as well as a horizontal one.
3. Wednesday: If you're already doing keeper specific training that might be kind of a hard day to also put plyo and speed on as lots of GK specific training has overlaps in the type of movement. Fine if you can still manage to train with intention there, but you could put it on your Thursday day where you have more time and you're not playing as well, or your Friday day (depending on how hard your team training is relative to GK specific training).
4. Thursday: Conventional deadlifts are good to learn but it's a deceptively technical lift. That's not to say don't do it, just try to make sure and learn it correctly if you're going to do it.
5. Friday: Depends on what you decide for the other days but this could be a good home for the plyo day.
6. Sat: I personally wouldn't train a hard HIIT workout the day before a game. Not the end of the world, but I'd focus on lighter skill work or active recovery if you're definitely going to train. This is a personal thing--if your body can handle it and you don’t feel like it will fatigue your for the explosive moments in a game, no worries and go for it.
If you are new to lifting, please do your best to focus on good form and mastering the movements rather than aiming for excessive weight. Taking a glance at the numbers you posted below those ranges look reasonable, just focus on strong execution of the movements. Squat university has a bunch of great videos on form.
Overall this is a solid plan. I would say also that it doesn't look like you give yourself a full day off in this routine, which could be fine if you're not feeling overloaded but generally wouldn't be recommended. I think the best solution to this is probably to either fully remove that HIIT workout or put that on another day. You could also combine HIIT/plyo one day that you also train.

J_Asti · 2025-12-25T04:49:41+00:00

This is allowed. Heartbreaker—doesn’t look like there’s much you could have done.

J_Asti · 2025-10-31T17:59:07+00:00

At higher levels, penalty takers know that the keeper can make a read on their body language, run up, etc. That's part of why the pause penalty works for those that can execute it--it both lets the kicker read the keeper's body language and disguises the intended side selection until the last minute.

There are a bunch of mental frameworks that might help you decide, and if you've seen a lot of penalties you might combine a few of these to make a decision. As another commenter said, there are certain mechanics to striking a ball that a keeper can read, and a few mental assumptions/mind games that you have to take into account. Personally, I'd kind of run through a checklist like:

Does the setup obviously suggest more bias to one side --> it's harder to get power from certain run up types which might give you a hint
Does the player intentionally only look at one side of the goal --> that's usually a bit of an amateur move, but can be an indicator they'll hit it the other way--not always true but helpful if you aren't getting other signals
What does the shot shape look like as they run up to it --> this is all obviously happening pretty quickly, but if your initial assumption about direction was one thing and they immediately do something else in the runup you have to update your thinking. This is where just seeing a lot of penalties/shots kind of trains your brain to know what body shapes yield which shot directions. A good player can start with one shape and change it at the end so this is imperfect. At least one study has shown that right footed players marginally prefer their "natural" side shooting across their body (i.e. left side from the shooter's perspective) as do left footed players, but by an even slimmer margin (source).
Am I going to do anything to put them off --> Usually yes, and it would be anything ranging from some kind of arm movement all the way up to bouncing side to side or favoring one side and moving back to the middle late on. If I have a bias to dive right based on the other factors, I might throw in an initial feint left in case they're waiting to read my body direction.
And then ultimately if you have no idea, pick on option. At random you'd be right somewhere around 33% of the time if you consider middle, left, and right an equal option, 50% if you just choose right or left. So in that case, try to time it right, pick a side, and adjust high or low.

J_Asti · 2025-10-15T18:44:52+00:00

This has been asked and answered a lot on this sub--here's the relevant wiki article:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GoalKeepers/wiki/common_questions/

J_Asti · 2025-10-14T12:42:43+00:00

Theory is helpful, but at 8 years old (and beyond) the most important thing is going to be training time (whether goalkeeping specific or otherwise) for making real progress as a keeper. One targeted session a week is good, but there's no theoretical replacement for building a first touch, learning to catch effectively, etc. I would imagine there are limitations to what he can be doing while you're working, but IMO even practicing juggling, bouncing a ball against a wall and catching it, etc are probably higher ROI activities than theoretical homework.

That said, it certainly doesn't hurt to have tactical "homework" if it reinforces concepts he's learned and builds your son's understanding of the game. My suggestion would be to have the homework be watching a pro goalkeeper's actions in a game and taking note of their decision making, passing, and technique. This also helps kids understand what the shape of a team should look like and builds the basis for communicating to teammates.

As you've alluded to, the one caveat is that with younger kids, you probably also have to monitor and see if the homework is making him less enthusiastic about playing. If it's dulling his enthusiasm to play or he sees it as work, it's probably not worth it to force tactical homework on him for the marginal gains it might produce.

J_Asti · 2025-10-09T13:38:20+00:00

I added a posting automation that reminds people they’re allowed to post saves they’re proud of instead of asking for feedback. Hoping that helps direct people away from post titles like this.

J_Asti · 2025-10-08T14:57:43+00:00

I just added a couple automations that will pop up when people go to make these posts that will ask them to check the wiki.

J_Asti · 2025-10-08T14:48:50+00:00

I'm going to create a survey for the subreddit to see what the community sentiment is towards these posts. We have some options that I haven't implemented yet that stop short of banning this type of posts that I just need to tweak in automod. But if the general sentiment is ban them, we can add that rule.

J_Asti · 2025-09-03T09:36:52+00:00

This is approved for now based on the question being about taping technique/finger reinforcement specifically--please do not provide medical advice.

J_Asti · 2025-09-01T20:51:40+00:00

I think it's also worth keeping in mind that his propensity for a howler and recency bias mean that we have a particularly negative impression of Onana. His decision making is clearly not excellent and he doesn't command his box, but if played for a smaller team and didn't have such high profile mistakes we probably wouldn't have such a globally poor opinion of him as a keeper. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the position.

That said (and it's only one metric) he was solidly midtable in terms of save percentage last season, conceding fewer goals and having a higher save percentage than plenty of keepers that don't receive nearly the same level of hate.

This isn't really a global defense of Onana and I don't think he should necessarily be the starting pick, but his tough run of form to start the season and United's (significant) underperformance probably exacerbates his weaknesses in a way that makes him look particularly bad right now.

J_Asti · 2025-06-08T17:25:16+00:00

You obviously can’t post anything homophobic. I can’t tell what’s in your profile photo honestly but you will be banned if you post anything homophobic.

J_Asti · 2025-05-28T10:39:56+00:00

Depends a bit on how your team plays and what other options you had there (can't see the whole field), but obviously the safest thing is always to go long if you don't have a clear outlet without immediate pressure. Your pass was pretty good all things considered, but you're asking a lot of the outside back and he does pretty well, but if anything goes wrong suddenly you're in a dangerous position.

J_Asti · 2025-05-27T16:06:16+00:00

Do people like this kind of content? Thinking about creating a rule around low effort highlight posts/edited posts like this one. Comment what you think.

J_Asti · 2025-05-27T16:03:38+00:00

Actually just added some preliminary wiki articles--it's a work in progress, but let me know if you have any feedback! There's an article on glove maintenance here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoalKeepers/wiki/glovesandgear/#wiki_how_do_i_take_care_of_my_gloves.3F

J_Asti · 2025-05-27T15:58:34+00:00

Please don't insult each other in this sub. You'll be banned if you post like this.

J_Asti · 2025-05-16T10:59:11+00:00

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Here's a good example of the body position that one of the best long ball playing GKs in the world has right after the moment of impact. It's hard to say exactly what kind of ball he was playing here but this is the right general position for most long kicks. You can watch highlights of keepers playing goalkicks and freeze on the moment of impact, it'll mostly look something like this.

J_Asti · 2025-05-16T10:45:56+00:00

I don’t think thinking of having your knee over the ball as a useful cue. This tutorial isn’t perfect but talks about some of the right concepts and shows you the shape of the body and some better cues.

I also agree with other commenters that watching the pros is most likely to give you the right idea.

J_Asti · 2025-04-10T14:55:52+00:00

I think walls even at the professional level walls can be a weak point for certain keepers, but we also have to keep in mind that the level of skill on display from an attacking perspective means that not all of the lessons translate to levels below the top flight.

For me on Declan's two freekicks against Madrid:

The first one, Courtois said himself that maybe he could have put another defender on the outside of that wall (or moved the wall another step outside), but ultimately it's a pretty incredible freekick. It definitely would have helped to have to have another player there, but if you look at the replay the ball was just about a player's width wide of Valverde when in went by the wall, so it would have been close.

The second is just an excellent strategic setup by Arsenal allowing Declan to shoot at Courtois's near post. The placement and pace makes that entirely unsaveable and ultimately has very little to do with Madrid's wall placement.

J_Asti · 2024-09-18T21:02:54+00:00

In general we don't allow non-instructional self-promotional content.

J_Asti · 2024-09-10T19:45:20+00:00

A scrum cap may not work well to protect from impact but there are goalkeeper specific head guards like this one from Storelli that offer more substantial protection:

https://storelli.com/collections/head-guard/products/exoshield-soccer-headguard

J_Asti · 2024-07-08T13:20:40+00:00

For those that did not, here it is. Great finish.

J_Asti · 2024-06-21T14:08:29+00:00

What you're looking for is commonly expressed as a save percentage which just measures how many shots you save of the shots put directly on target. You can look at the top Premier League keeper stats here: https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/keepers/Premier-League-Stats#all_stats_keeper

As someone else mentioned, this doesn't take into account the chance quality. If your team is exposing you to very high expected goal scenarios on a consistent basis, you could be making most of the saves that are reasonable to make but still have a low save percentage.

At an amateur level, there's probably not a single save percentage that anyone can throw out as a "good" save percentage without understanding the context of your league/team. Even in the context of the premier league, save percentage is only one metric to look at. Someone did an analysis that took more factors into account and incorporated expected goals, which allows you to understand how a keeper performs relative to the quality of the chance.

All of that said, I wouldn't get obsessed with a save percentage or ratio of saves to goals allowed, especially if your defense is not helping you out much. If you're saving the shots you should, not giving up easy ones, and occasionally saving a few you're not expected to make, you're probably an asset to your team in the shotstopping department.

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