Seeing as me and Steve have had some experience at a reasonable level I thought i'd start a topic so we could pass on some tips to coaches.
I think goalkeepers are probably the single most important players on the pitch, if you have a useless one you will not win many games. I also feel there are not enough coaching oppurtunities for goalkeepers at grass roots level. Goalkeepers are often taken for granted from an early age, the most coaching most youngsters get is put in goal and have players fire shots at them, or to just stand in the goal and act as a destraction. I think if you want to have a successful side you need to get a goalie coach in and that's why I thought it would be good to have a goalkeeping topic. Even if you only do ten minutes with a goalie a week at training or something it's better than nothing. Also I think it is important a goalkeeper gets a proper warm up before a game, not just stuck in goal while someone drop kicks footballs at them and rifles them into the top corner, that is going to help noone. So I will add little bits each week and hopefully steve will give some input just to give you managers and coaches some tips on how to improve your goalkeeper and make him feel more of a team member, it is easy for a goalie to feel left out!

Cheers hoopy i wholey agree with u mate i will start a wee bit of advice for you.

1 tip i was told when i was younger is too improve reactions and awareness is to:

get a full pack of cards name the card of your choice flick through the cards as quick as you can and see if you can stop on that card.

That's quite cool actually! Never would have thought to do that, reactions is one of my best attributes so I would enjoy doing that, id hope I was quite good at it.

If you can get your hands on a reaction ball do! They are brilliant, what they are is football with bobbles in, so when it hits the floor from a shot it has a funny bounce and they really do help! They aren't particualry expensive and they really are great!

Sounds cool hoopy i am willing to pay anything i am in the same boat as my cousin and he is 2yrs younger he has got in the unibond league at the moment with bamber bridge so i know i can still play at a good level as a keeper at the age of 21

Yeah go for it mate, I will get you a link for one if you like so you can check it out yourself and see what you think. I hope you get to the level you want! I still hope to make a decent keeper one day. A strange thing I found was when I quit in goal for a while as you did yourself when I came back I felt twice as confident and feel like im playing better, not sure why but since the little rest in goal i've come back stronger what was it like for you getting back in goal?

Yeah i feel the same mate playing outfield gives you a different prospective of what they think so i have looked at my goalkeeper game adjusted it a wee bit and i feel better than i did b4

Yes you can see it from a different view, go back and alter it.

Here are a couple of links:
Not the one I was thinking of but similar thing

awesome site
Ill try find what I was looking for in a minute.

Eeeh hoop's they are class andi will invest in them both just bought some new gloves today off ebay brand new

Sells dual Adhesion thermo gloves

Nice, I have had sells adhesion plus for the last two years as I didn't need gloves for half of last year and half of this year but I plan to get the new Reusch gloves before next season. They're so nice.

These babies

They are well sweet mate
im looking for another pair as training gloves dont wanna mess up my match gloves

can you recommend anything

Depends on your preferences, I know some people like myself would not use a certain brand. I hate Nike and will never use them but i'll give you a link to a few good ones for training.
Selsport These were £40 last year and were well good so at £19 id say they'd be a great buy for training.
Special offers Id also reccomend checking out as many sites as you can and looking for last seasons clearance items

When I coach goalkeepers at the youth level, I start off by teaching them to think about preventing scoring opportunities more than stopping shots. If you can get a young player to think about aggressively going for loose balls and challenging attacking players, then you have a good start toward developing a good goalkeeper.

Let's face it, little kid / big goal. A kid is not going to stop a lot of shots.

Once I have them "owning" the penalty area, then we start working on angles and positioning and technique. There is no point in teaching too much of this earlier because if a keeper doesn't have that "swagger" then it doesn't matter how quick they are.

The easiest shot to stop is the one you prevent from ever being taken.

coaching a youth goalkeeper the ready position is the most important aspect of coaching a goalkeeper above any other aspect of goalkeeping, without a correct ready position a goalkeeper will not reach their potential

I have a test on goalkeeper coaching on Monday, so some coaching tips would be nice.

Most goalkeeping errors are due to either poor technique or poor decision making, and both should be coached in all keepers of all ages.

Technically this means teaching goalkeepers the correct stance, the technique for picking up a ball, catching a ball, how to close down an opponent, how to dive, and also how to clear the ball with a punch, kick, or deflection. I think these techniques are best taught by drilling.

Goalkeepers should also be coached in basic decision making with regards to such things as where to position, and in deciding when and when not to close in, etc. I think these are best taught by running drills which frequently put the keeper in game-like situations and alerting the keeper to the possible and likely outcomes of each situation, and the best action to take. Goalkeepers should be aware that attackers generally have 3 options, to dribble, shoot, or pass, and should position themselves accordingly to best prevent a goal being scored. I think goalkeepers should also experience playing as an attacker in these drills to gain a better awareness and understanding of these attacking and goalkeeping options. Thus if you're coaching two or more keepers I think it is best to rotate them between the goalkeeping and attacking positions.

Anyone agree or disagree, or have any specific coaching points or drills?

I agree with Ben about the starting position and you about the decision making because the goals are so big so if you are small and you are slightly out of position now way are you getting that ball if it's struck well.
I like the aggressive approach you take, I think that is one problem with coaching when I was growing up, well I never had any for a while but when I did I was never taught about coming off my line, coming out for crosses properly, everyone can stick you in goal and fire crosses from either side and make you come and get them but that is more a revision excercise before games and to warm up your hands, you need to be tought how to do it under pressure and coming through crowds of defenders/attackers to get the ball first otherwise revising it has no point.

tip for keepers during penalties

im a regular penalty taker and despite looking strange and funny dancing on the line is a really good method of putting the taker off.

Another good method is by bouncing a small bouncy ball from the floor on to a wall and catching it, sounds easy but is not as I make my keepers get quicker and throw the ball harder so its much faster. Very good for improving reaction times

Darren-The more advice and tips you post on here the better, I would really like to here some more, they would be appreciated by both me and steve i'm sure
Also do you do fitness with your goalkeepers?

Yes mate I do but not too much as its not all that of a necessity more on reaction times and flexibility

Well I want to bulk up a bit, you have any training programmes or advice you could give moi?

Well as I said, always do techniques to sharpen your reaction times. Also, make sure you go to the gym and work on upper body strength so your very agile

Will do

Good Lad

As being a goalkeeper its frustrating as i can make some superb saves and i get lots of praise and then as soon as i let one goal in my mates call me crap and this mucks my experience up a lot and another thing is when im playing over the field there aint no goals so we use bikes and when its miles over they say its in lol.

Mate lads are always gonna be like that with goalkeepers, you just got to ignore what they say, pick yourself up and get on with it. Unfortunately a lot of places do not have any goals but I have been getting a paper together to my local council to ask for our parks to have them. Maybe this is something you should look into as well, if you need any help just ask

Regards,