Activities

Goalkeeper Warz Activities

Over the last few months, Goalkeeper Warz has been working hard to define and articulate our philosophy, and what the ‘Goalkeeper Warz experience’ really means.

Working with goalkeeping consultancy Goalkeeping Intelligence, the full philosophy can be found here, whilst a summary can be found below:

Community

Community is at the heart of every decision made by Goalkeeper Warz, and its importance can not be understated in the context of developing the ‘Goalkeeper Warz experience’ and a vehicle through which young people can enjoy their football.

In addition to the philosophy itself, there are also a number of different activities, games and session designs that Goalkeeper Warz use that you might not have come across before. Carefully crafted to be both evidence-based and great fun, Paul explains in some more detail some of the favourite games from the Goalkeeper Warz session syllabus and what they mean.

Handball

A great sport for developing hand-eye coordination, making saves in different situations and maximising contact time with the ball, this small-sided game can be adapted in a multitude of different ways to bring the most out of any given goalkeeping theme. Whether it be diving at feet to maximise one-v-one saves or introducing wingers to amplify the number of balls coming into the box, it provides an intense, chaotic and enjoyable way to work on a number of goalkeeping skill sets, both technically and psychologically.

Elimination

If you ask any Goalkeeper Warz goalkeeper what part of the session they are most looking forward to, ‘Elimination’ is undoubtedly the answer. Based on pure shot-stopping and with exciting competition, the game is both match realistic in its development with rebounders and a great way for goalkeepers to have fun and implicitly reinforce many of the themes they’ve been working on throughout a session. Once more, it can be adapted, manipulated and constrained according to the needs of the participants, and is a fantastic finish to any Goalkeeper Warz session.

Bombs Away

Combining distribution with handling, communication and cross-taking, Bombs Away is a game that works very implicitly with goalkeepers across a number of different themes. Its characteristics and outcomes can be easily adjusted using STEP principles (for example, a long and narrow pitch will provide more opportunities for accurate distribution and vertical movement to claim the ball), whilst never detracting from the simplicity of the game itself, which is always well received by the Goalkeeper Warz sessions!

Technical

As outlined in our manifesto, more isolated technical practice - in parallel to whatever theme might be the focus - is also an element of Goalkeeper Warz sessions, as coaches work to build confidence in goalkeepers and help them to recognise and associate the vocabulary they’re using during small-sided games with a more ‘easy-to-understand’ context. It’s not to detract at all from our focuses, beliefs and philosophies, but instead to be a small part of developing the best possible goalkeeping experience where goalkeepers have their explicit learning wants met, as well as the implicit development through our deliberately designed games.