Overview
Mockingbird Valley Soccer Club is proud to offer our goalkeepers a professional training environment with the Goalkeeper Academy. All of the goalkeepers on a select traveling team ages Under 10 through Under 18 will have an opportunity to train at least one time per week with the club’s Goalkeeper Coaches.
MVSC Goalkeeper Academy divides the players into two categories with separate focuses. Players ages U10-U12 are considered Youth Goalkeepers, where considerable emphasis is placed on proper development. Players U13-U18 are considered Older (Elite) Goalkeepers, where focus is placed on reading the game, and using the techniques learned as a Youth Goalkeeper in a more game-like environment.
Youth Goalkeeping Focus
Young Goalkeepers cannot be thought of as a complete goalkeeper. The child playing in the goal has not yet developed the mental and/or physical attributes that many of the older goalkeepers have spent years developing. The focus in developing the youth goalkeeper is to stabilize his/her motor and coordinative abilities. In addition, it is important to develop the child as a soccer player first, creating a higher comfort level with their feet, and a goalkeeper second. Some of the skills that will be focused on in developing these young goalkeepers will include:
- Proper Technique – Hand Positioning, Balance
- General Catching (high, low middle)
- Coordination, balance, hand-eye coordination
- Overall comfort dealing with any ball (cleanly)
- Proper Positioning – Angles, Near Post, Playing off the Goal Line
- Develop an understanding of position in reference to any ball in play
- Communication with Defenders
- Staying in tune with the game (when not under pressure)
- Cutting off angles
- Distribution – Bowling, Punting, Throwing
- When/how to release the ball
- What are “risky” options in terms of distribution?
- Achieve better aim and overall comfort releasing the ball.
- Effective punting/throwing
- General Rules, Game Understanding
- When to use hands
- Communication with players.
Elite Goalkeeping Focus
The older goalkeeper has had time, and likely experience enough to have developed through the stages that the youth goalkeeper focuses on. Thus, with the U13-U18 goalkeepers, more emphasis is placed on developing the players’ tactical ability. In this stage of development, the goalkeepers are placed in more game-like (pressure) situations. While there is a great deal of work on technique and “how-to” make the proper save, goalkeepers are challenged to “think the game”. In addition, a considerable emphasis has been placed on the modern goalkeeper’s ability to be comfortable with the ball at their feet and develop many of the same foot skills as field players. Some of the things that will be focused on with the older goalkeepers include:
- Footwork – Developing Quick Feet
- Review of why footwork is a vital piece of goalkeeping
- ***Getting Set***
- Ladders
- Plyometrics
- Quick feet
- Developing Goalkeeper fitness
- Proper Technique – Hand Positioning, Diving, Breakaways, High Balls
- Review of different catching techniques
- Proper diving technique (collapse, low, extension)
- How, when and why to attack the ball (diving, breakaways, high balls, and diving)
- How to deal with rebounds (reaction saves) when given up
- Diving – Teaching the high, low and extension dives
- Attacking the ball
- Diving as a last resort
- The “complete” save (no rebounds)
- 1 vs. 1 – The Effective Breakaway Save
- How to make the GK “big”
- When to leave the line and attack the ball
- Proper technique in making breakaway saves
- Patient goalkeeping in split-second, pressure situations
- Crosses – Reading Wide Play and Owning the 6-yard Box
- Positioning during corner kicks
- Extending range to cover all of the 6-yard box
- Collecting the ball at the highest point
- Reading the difference between lofted/floated balls and driven balls (point of attack)
- Reaction Saves – Giving the Goalkeeper the Best Chance to Stop the “Unstoppable”
- Emphasis on getting set
- Dealing with close-range shots (8-yards and closer)
- Pressure Training – Combining Different Aspects of Goalkeeping in Pressure Situations
- Culminating different types of saves and putting them into unique pressure, high pace situations.
- Distribution – Throwing, Bowling, Punting
- What type of distribution in which situations
- Introduce the dropkick
- Repetition in throwing/bowling, emphasis on leading the player with a ball on the surface.
GK Directors
Goalkeeping Directors, Frank Peabody and John Pedro, bring a wealth of knowledge to the table in regards to experience and how to effectively train youth goalkeepers. Their involvement and focus on the Goalkeeping Academy is one of the strongest reasons Mockingbird Valley will become the top club in the state for producing goalkeeper talent. Both Frank and John look forward to directing the focus of the Goalkeeper Academy and creating a higher expectation and performance level all Mockingbird Valley goalkeepers.
Senior GK Director- Frank Peabody
Frank is originally from Louisville and was an All-State GK at St. Xavier High School. He was on the state title team in 2000 and runner-up team in 2001, while serving as captain. He played for various clubs in and around Louisville and ended up winning 2 Kentucky State Championships with Javanon. Following high school, Frank took his goalkeeper skills to Butler University located in Indianapolis, IN. Frank continued to hone his game and his junior year posted the best save percentage and was second best in goals-against average in the country for Division I soccer. He was named team captain his senior year, started 21 matches and was also named to the Athletic Director Honor Roll for the second consecutive season. Frank currently also works with the goalkeepers at Bellarmine University and holds a USSF “E” coaching license.
Junior GK Director- John Pedro
John is originally from Louisville and played for a gamut of Select soccer programs in the city. He attended St. Xavier High School and was the starting goalkeeper from his sophomore to senior years. During this time, St. Xavier also won a state championship (1994) and he was named Kentucky All-State during both his junior and senior seasons. John was also a member the ODP program in this time and was selected as a regional pool player. John took his game to the next level at Xavier University located in Cincinnati, Ohio. John has coached goalkeepers at a variety of levels including the goalkeepers at Sacred Heart for 4 years under Raphael Arauz, and currently with Spalding University. He currently holds USSF “E” coaching license.
