Garlick: The first true goalkeeper coach was Phil Parkes, formerly of West Ham, Ipswich and QPR, who I met at a soccer camp growing up and who remains a friend to this day. I also had some non-goalkeeper specific coaches such as Luis Dabo, who helped me at an early age. The true soccer coach focused on technique, angles, and starting position, which will never change.
Ammann: I had the luxury of having my brother come to Cal State Fullerton and coach me my sophomore year following his professional career. Having a dedicated goalkeeper coach is essential as they are not just providing training but the constant reminders of your technique. Having a former pro who understands the little things that make a big difference and doesn't allow you to get into bad habits was critical to my growth during college. During college I also met Zak Abdel who had arrived from Egypt. Zak was fantastic to work with even though I was never more tired or sore than after one of his sessions. He put power into my game. He focused on being brave, aggressive and explosive. Every session was a challenge and between my brother and Zak they prepared me for life at the next level.
At the professional level I had 2 goalkeeper coaches that were influential for me, Alan Mayer and Phil Wheddon. Alan was not just a coach, he was a friend, father figure, and mentor. He was such a good athlete and worked with me in a racquetball court, tennis court, boxing, and the gym to become more athletic in my movement and footwork. He was extremely committed to helping the goalkeepers and was fun to work with. Unfortunately I didn't have more time to spend with Phil. Phil was a master at planning training sessions around what you needed and always had us sharp. I had the luxury of playing with a young Tim Howard at the time and we could not have been more different goalkeepers/athletes. Tim was just slightly more athletic than me *laughs* and you would think that would be a challenge for Phil to tailor sessions to meet both of our requirements. He was the master of it. I was more about positioning, organizing and reading the game. If I tried to play the same way Tim did or if Phil coached me the same as him I would have failed. He could work on the same topic but have different coaching points for each of us. He was extremely creative and taught me a lot about preparation and being ready to play.
Hartman: When I first started playing the position around 12 years of age, I was hooked. I sought out specialized training and it was not easy to come by in Southwest Virginia. I learned that Dr. Joe Machnik’s No. 1 Goalkeeper Camp would come through my area once a summer, and I lived for that brief five day period. The coaches were inspirational and pushed me to new levels. The curriculum of the camp was well laid out and addressed everything from proper techniques to the tactical situations in which they would be used. I owe a lot to that staff and the lessons that occurred both on the field and in the classroom.
When I moved to California, I had the opportunity to train with David Vanole, one of our Olympic and National Team goalkeepers at that time, regularly. He enjoyed the game as much as any human that I’ve seen play. He was larger than life, passionate, and was able to get so much out of the other players on the field, I wanted to understand how he was able to do it. Whether it was a compliment, a sarcastic quip, or an emphatic shout, he knew the buttons to push for every player that he worked with.
Dodd: I would probably say that guy would have to be Eric Vaughter. Eric was my goalkeeper coach at Duke. I was fortunate that I had a lot of head coaches that happened to be former goalkeepers so I got a lot of the fundamentals down. I had a lot of guys give me the basics for sure. But when I got to college, Eric was really somebody that was more than a coach. He was more a mentor and is still now a close friend. He just really instilled in me, I guess if nothing else, [the mentality of] “you’re the last line here and you have to take charge.” He really got us to embrace that so that when the game was on the line, and as I got later on in my career, I wanted that responsibility. He also really taught me how to work. I mean, hard. It was tough. He really pushed us to a level that *laughs* I’m not sure you could do in college anymore.
What is the difference in goalkeeper training from when you first started compared to now?
Garlick: There is a lot more thought in it now, which I am not sure is so great. I think sometimes we are turning goalkeepers into “robots” a bit, when the truly great ones play the position by a combination of technique, tactics and instinct. In other words, we have improved training “drills” over the last 30+ years, yet Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton, Schumacher, Pfaff, could all play today, assuming they worked on their feet some.
The position is about being a backstop to the team, now infused with the ability to be good with your feet, a leader, and someone who can begin the offensive portion of your team’s game. Goalkeepers now seem to be getting physically bigger, with an emphasis on making the spectacular save.
Ammann: How has goalkeeper coaching sessions changed since I played is a great question and I think you will get many different answers. The beauty of goalkeeping is that there is no ideal as much as people want to think there is. In your mind you can wish for a goalkeeper that is 6'4, powerful, fast, agile, great with both feet, a leader, communicator, calm presence, great teammate, great in training, off the field leader, etc etc. Well good luck finding it. Goalkeepers come in all shapes and sizes with various skill sets. That to me is why it's so great.
The best goalkeepers I have seen and coached are the ones that are the best athletes. I encourage kids to play multiple sports for as long as possible. Playing basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, tennis, jumping on a trampoline in your backyard, anything at all is going to help you become a better goalkeeper. Kids with hand-eye coordination and core strength and balance are always going to have a shot at being successful goalkeepers.
How other sports help you as a goalkeeper in my eyes:
- Basketball - hand-eye coordination, court awareness, footwork
- Volleyball - timing for high balls, footwork, quickness
- Lacrosse - communication and organizing players to mark up, stamina, footwork and hand-eye coordination
- Tennis - footwork, agility, and hand-eye
- Trampoline - core strength, balance, and agility
I don't think any one sport is going to hurt your abilities to become a better goalkeeper. I don't agree that you need to specialize in a position or sport until it's time for college. You can argue that the best goalkeepers the US has produced in years past were multi-sport athletes. The US has been the leader in producing goalkeepers on a global level and that is because of the variety of sports we play growing up. I'd hate to see us get away from that and I personally encourage parents to allow their kids to enjoy as many sports as possible to avoid burnout but to also allow their child to figure out what their best sport or most favorite sport and position is.
Hartman: When I began playing goalkeeper in 1984, goalkeeper training was in its infancy. The resources were few and far between. I was happy to have been able to find a few books at the library! At that time, America’s youth were playing multiple sports and many of those involved hand-eye coordination. Our youth had a head start over goalkeepers from many different countries based on the fact that we were playing baseball, basketball, and football.
American goalkeepers also reaped the benefit of a number of prominent goalkeeper camps looking to find a leg up in a competitive niche market. The lengths of the days got longer as each camp wanted to be the one that offered more hours, the quality of the special guests rose, but the revamped quality of the goalkeeping information was transformative. Many nuanced approaches from top European academies were introduced to young American goalkeepers in the early and mid 80’s. The elite goalkeepers that found themselves with a special coach, were well positioned for a long run professionally.
US goalkeeping thrived in that era, as well. Goalkeepers such as Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel became heroes in the Premiership. We have struggled to relay the lessons from generation to generation within US goalkeeping. The lack of any national goalkeeping direction since 2007 has left our country in a position where we are hoping that Tim Howard, who is now 38, can stick around for another World Cup. A country that was once regarded as the best country in the world at producing goalkeepers is losing our position. In a domestic league that once scoffed at the idea of going abroad to search out a more highly paid goalkeeper now sees that as a necessary solution. Both Atlanta United and Minnesota United went international as they began developing their goalkeeping corps. That speaks directly to the current state of domestic goalkeeping.
With that said, the expertise to change our course exists. The game has evolved and goalkeepers must be trained differently, by a coach with relatable experiences. Many similar lessons must be relayed, but the process is much more dynamic. With periodization, GPS, and heart rate monitoring, the coaches have adapted to working hand-in-hand with the physical conditioning experts. Training itself is more refined. From a technical warm-up to a scenario-based exercise to match play, the flow is more seamless. Vision training, cross training, and goalkeeper-specific plyometrics are a part of every top keeper's regimen. Goalkeepers spend much more time playing with the ball at their feet and nutritionists have now not only nixed many of the post-game libations, but defined the focus of preparation and performance in new ways. As the game develops further, the need for additional collaboration between the head coach and the goalkeeper coach, in terms of more of a total team training concept, increases. When I started playing the position, I trained alone with my coach, and more and more moving forward, that the coach and goalkeeper and team will train together.
Dodd: I think it’s evolved. I wouldn’t say it’s drastically different but there are areas that have evolved, just like the game has. But I would have to say that really in years past, goalkeepers spent a lot of time with ultra-high repetitions and things like that. What I think what we’ve realized now is that the goalkeeper’s position, why certainly you want to be in top shape, is about short bursts, agility, and quick movements. I never in a game probably ever had more than four saves in a row, quick back-to-back. I think now the focus is, and should be, on quality repetitions. Working on your quickness and explosiveness and agility, instead of ultra-high repetitions.
Bryant: Goalkeeper coaching became more common later in the 1980s. People like Joe Machnik and Tony DiCicco built companies around goalkeeper camps. I think the biggest difference between then and now is that now we try to make coaching much more game-realistic, whereas back then, the idea was training goalkeepers in a very high-volume, high-intensity workload. Lots of drills were designed to work the goalkeeper into exhaustion. That's something I've gotten away from, as I don't feel it reflects the demands of match-related actions, and puts the goalkeeper into a physiological state they are never in in matches.
