If you want to be a professional goalie, you should read this article. Think about what kind of skills a goalie needs. You would probably think about jumping height, reaction time and short sprint power. Surprisingly, skills like jumping, reaction time, and other athletic activities are NOT just what professional soccer academies are looking for.
One study compared 6 goalies from different leagues and found that;
But Athletic Skills Are Important
The authors noted that once a goalie has sufficient athletic skills, other skills become more important. Every goalie should possess athletic abilities, but once you have enough athletic abilities, priority is given to other skills. Goalies are usually the tallest and heaviest of all field players and need that dominance to be the boss in the penalty area.
What Athleticism Does A Goalie Need
A review of goalies found that a goalie should have certain attributes. A goalie should be at least 180 cm tall and at least 77 kg heavy. Furthermore, goalkeepers usually have a fat percentage of between 12-14%. This is slightly more than field players. An elite goalie walks 73% of the time, covered about half the distance of the other field players. Furthermore, a goalie does about 10 actions with high-speed actions. Goalies save about 80-90% of all shots on goal and about 70% of 1-on-1 situations. Unsurprisingly, goalkeepers have less conditioning than field players. Goalkeeper has lower VO2 Max. That a goalie needs to be athletic, can be seen by the fact that goalkeepers can jump higher than field players. A goalkeeper has fewer injuries than field players.
What Are Soccer Academies Looking For
There are many things soccer academies and scouts are looking for. Most things are obvious like reaction time, savings skills and jump height. For a total overview look at the photo below.
Psychological Qualities
Looking at the qualities of an elite goalie, you might notice the quantities of physiological traits are needed. Items like vision, body language, attitude, and organization are just as important as your shot-stopping and reaction time qualities.
Some studies actually show that mental psychological traits are more important. The goalie is the player on the pitch, who has the most rest and time to think and has the best view on the field. While all other field players are always busy and are in the midst of the play, goalies can act like secondary coaches on the pitch. This means that vision, communication, and organization are some of the best qualities a goalie can have.
What Kind Of Goalie Are You
The famous goalkeeper coach Frans Hoek divides goalies in R(eaction)-type and A(nticipation)-type. While R-type goalies are the typical goalies that perform saves, A-type goalies are an extra field player on the pitch. Frans Hoek explains that A-type goalies
While the R-type
This is an important distinction for you as a goalie. If you play in an offensive playing soccer team, you want an A-type goalkeeper. While if you are a defensive playing team, you want an R-type goalkeeper. If you are a goalie that is great on saving shots and are not great in organizing, you might want to consider to play for a defensive team. While if your skills as a goalie are vision and dribbling you want to be part of an offensive team.
Become A Pro-Goalie By Training Your Confidence And Vision
Several studies have shown that goalies have a low confidence level and higher levels of anxiety. This is a missed opportunity as goalies have a unique opportunity to bring confidence to a soccer team. As one of the authors noted;
While another scientist found that coaches and scouts are looking for other qualities than ball saving actions. These actions include;
tactical understanding, positioning, perception and anticipation
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