Additional Post 5: Downtime and Realizations

The "Fall" season for club ended earlier this month.  Everyone started high school and CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) doesn't allow players to do both high school sports and be on another team at the same time.  This means that club divisions aged 14 and older can't practice or hold tournaments until January or February (depending on local team standings).  I have been practicing with my goalkeeping coach Kim since my coach can't hold a full team practice.

As a senior, this upcoming season is bittersweet.  It will be the end of an era for me.  From here I can coach, which is definitely something I will seek out.  But of course that isn't the same.  I've been playing with a lot of the same girls since I was in 7th grade, some of them even longer.  It hasn't really hit me until now, but when that final game comes I will be leaving the team forever.  It will be my own special senior farewell since I didn't play high school sports.  I will likely be the only one leaving the team.  We are allowed to play after we graduate high school, but I plan on moving up north for college. This realization is hard, but a necessary step to further my progress to success.

Additional Post 4: Getting Past a Slow Learning Curve

During training your only goal is to improve yourselves and the others around you.  For a goalkeeper, that usually means getting extra training because team training isn't enough.  That is the case with my Under 14 AYSO keeper.  She started training with my team's goalkeepers to help her improve faster.

Now.  For a goalkeeper there are a lot of things to focus on and work towards.  For example.  When you're diving you have to:

• Be aware of all non-moving surroundings (especially the goalposts)
• Know where both the defense and the offense are
• Keep your eye on the ball
• Protect yourself
• Land properly to prevent injury
• Catch the ball properly to prevent a loose ball
• And in game scenarios, dive forward so when you catch the ball you don't bring it into the net with you.

You can't master a dive until all of the components are understood and working.  This means working towards each one individually if you are having a problem.  During MY training the other day I was working on tipping the ball over the net from a ball that is directly overhead.  This is more difficult than it sounds for someone that is 5'0'' and still can't reach the crossbar. 

Picture this.  A keeper is in the net about 6 yards off of their line in the center of the goal.  A ball is chipped directly over the head of the keeper, but if she get back quickly enough she can do a backwards dive and tip it out.

I started out doing a drill doing exactly what I mentioned.  I missed every single one and wasn't getting the dives down properly.  Kim, my goalie coach told be to go on my knees and do it that way.  By starting from my knees she isolated the diving component of this drill.  All I had to do was follow the ball, tip it, then fall backwards.  I now have aced that, and the next practice I will be working from my feet again.

EQ

Content

1.  I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2.  Review the following EQs:

Before I answer any of these I would like to start off by saying that all of them are approved essential questions that were used last year.  So, shouldn't my answer be yes to all of them?

 a.  What is the most important factor in healthy weight loss?

• I feel this almost an EQ.  It isn't very specific, and I feel the wording could be changed.  It needs to define weight loss better.  Sure, there is a stance they could take.  Depending on how this is done, credible sources could be lacking.  (However, this too is a question from last year.  What I said is just personal opinion.)

 b.  What is most important to securing a conviction in a criminal investigation?

• Yes, this is an EQ.  Great wording not only structurally but also aesthetically.  It's specific, and opens up a ton of questions that allow for a stance to be taken.

 c.  What is most important in creating a hairstyle that best satisfies a customer?

• Yes, it is an EQ.  It's specific because it include customer satisfaction on a topic that is terribly subjective.  It allows for research because 

 d.  How can an Anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?

• Yes, this is definitely an essential question. (I'm pretty sure I watched this presentation last year...)  It's definitely specific because it includes definable terms.  There is such a wide breadth of treatments; there definitely is room for exploration and finding a side.

3.  Based on your review of the rule of 3 and your experience with assessing four EQs, please write another draft EQ for your senior project.

Working EQ 2:  What are the most important skills a goalkeeper must possess to produce a clean sheet?

• My current problem with this new EQ is the word "skill."  Skills in my mind are the technical side of the game.  It's something you focus on in each training session.  Concentration (like from my 10 minute) for example, isn't a singular topic you focus on during a training session.  You work on it with other skills at the same time, like diving or catching.  Perhaps that's just something I see and I'm digging too far into it.  I'm not sure.

• I dislike my other EQ because it isn't specific enough.  I used the wording, "to become a higher level athlete."  In my mind it was any sort of jump in progression, whether from recreation to club, or college to professional.  However, throughout my mentorship I haven't really focused on getting players to become professionals.  I'm helping them improve for their next game.  I'm focusing on skills that they can use to help them become better athletes.  There are so many factors included in becoming a professional that don't require raw skill that using it in my EQ doesn't really work.  I'm not their manager; their confidante.  I focus on skill sets.

Additional Post 3: Repetition, Practice Makes Perfect

In order to improve yourself as a goalkeeper, you need to practice.  The practice you participate in needs to be meaningful and productive, otherwise you won't get anywhere.  In order to improve upon a skill there is a level of repetition that is necessary to break a cycle.  If you aren't very good at something, you do it over an over again until you get it right.  I'm going to relate it to my 1st grade class, and more specifically, when we were taught penmanship.  If your handwriting wasn't very good, or you forgot to put your name on your paper you had to write your name 100 times until you stopped forgetting your name and penmanship on your papers.

With goalkeeping, it's the exact same thing.  During my mentorship with Kim Nemeth on October 21st I was working one-on-one with one of the keepers.  She had proven herself to be worthy of the position and will likely be our starting keeper for the remainder of the season. However, she, like everyone else, needs work; most importantly, she needs to work on catching the ball better.  When the ball comes to her she often either pops it up and catches it on the second try or just misses completely.  I had tried everything, different drills, different hand positioning, and small things like wetting her gloves.   NOTHING was working.

Finally, Kim came over and told me to have her bounce the ball (A drill I knew well because I had a similar, albeit not as serious, problem.) for 20 minutes straight.  I went over to the keeper and told her the guidelines.  She had to bounce the ball and catch it every time, no basketball dribbles.  She had to push the ball down with as much force as she could handle catching, use the correct hand positioning, and stay on task the entire 20 minutes.  This required her focus intently on the ball so she wouldn't miss it.  I supervised for the 20 minutes and gave her pointers when she seemed to get frustrated or when she messed up.  By the end of the structured time her arms were exhausted, but she wanted more.  That's the best mentality to have in a keeper.  There is nothing better.

Coming out of that practice she had the knowledge (and hopefully the muscle memory) to catch the ball in the game.  She was tested that Saturday, and the repetition worked.  She caught many balls and even made a few spectacular saves.

I've watched her take a big step as a goalkeeper, and can't wait to see her make more.

Research and Working EQ

Working EQ: What are the most important skills a goalkeeper should possess in order to produce a clean sheet during a game?

• A keeper with a high level of focus and concentration will always be ready for a ball even if the shot or pass was unexpected.  A high level of concentration allows the keeper to be on their toes even if the ball isn't in their own third of the pitch.
• Keepers should be taught how to command and communicate to players in and around the goal box.  This skill stops players from going for the same ball, no one going for a ball, and the opposing team being able to score a goal.

My mentor, Kim Nemeth, has been my best source of information.  I've learned from her not only through my mentorship, but during my practices when she is my coach.  Her knowledge about the position is extensive, and she is always looking up new things and finding out more information if there is something she's unsure about how to tackle.

My mentor is Kim Nemeth.  I am currently helping her coach a group of girls, and more specifically goalkeepers, in the Under 14 age group through the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). Working with Kim not only relates to my EQ, but doing the hours has even help me come up with a better EQ.  The EQ asks what skills are most important.  Kim's training sessions generally will cover 2 or 3 topics per night, and going to her sessions for 4 practices a week shows me a lot of skills over time.  I can really tell the difference between the skills that need to be exercised more during a game from those that are less important.  The more important skills always are brought up again in later training sessions even if just as a reminder to do that skill correctly.

Independent Component 1 Approval

Content:

1. I plan on playing games and attending practices with my club team, Legacy.

2. To obtain the required number of hours for this component I plan on attending every practice, twice a week, and every game.  We practice for upwards of 3 hours per week and including the training before the game starts, hours for games can range from 2 to 4 hours per game.

3. Coaching goalkeepers is one thing, but training as a keepers is something else.  I am constantly learning new things during practices and overcoming new situations during games.  Researching the game as a player is just as valuable as the reading material I've gone through.

Additional Post 2: Competing as a Team, a Tie and Learning from Mistakes

Coaching is extraordinarily rewarding.  Not only do the players have fun, but the coaches do to.  This is especially true if the team is doing well.  You get to watch a group of (in this case) girls, join together to preform in front of their parents, their friends, and coaches.  They warm up, get their heads in the game,

and score goals.  As teammates they rely on one another to keep the ball out of their half of the field, their third of the field, and most importantly, the penalty area. 

Pre-Game Warmup

" I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion."

-Mia Hamm, former Women's National Team player

Referring back to the penalty area, it is the goalkeeper's job to defend it.  It is their house; their home.  It is the job of the goalkeeper to keep the ball out of the net.  If you ask anyone of us about our least favorite sound on the field, it will always be the sound the ball makes when it hits the back of the net.  To prevent that noise from happening a goalkeeper is required to communicate, be in good form, and be aggressive.  I am putting a lot of stock into the keepers.  There is fault in that.   During play there are 10 other players on the field capable of stopping the ball before it even gets into the penalty area.  Those players are there to prevent goals.  In fact, I was once told by a wise individual that 99% of goals scored aren't the fault of the keeper, but the other 10 players that allowed the attackers to get close enough to score.

"The goalkeeper is the jewel in the crown and getting at him should be almost impossible.  It's the biggest sin in [soccer] to make him do any work"

- George Graham, former Arsenal head coach

The team I am helping coach had a game today, 9.21.13.  I went through last minute pointers with the keepers that took the field and then left them to their own devices.  A good coach doesn't scream at the players on the field, but lets them play and learn from their mistakes.  That is exactly what happened today.  The girls were ahead.  A girl from the other team controlled a ball after a corner kick and took a big swing.  She got lucky, and it went in.  Now we were tied.  After half time the opposing team scored again.  There was a new keeper in for us now.  She hasn't been at practice and hasn't benefited from any coaching.  She let in a goal at the near post.  A poor mistake, but one she'll learn from.  It took us until the last minute of the game to tie it up again.

The elation on the girl's faces after they scored that second goal that tied the game was unmatched.  There is a raw happiness that comes from the girls that you don't see very often.  There is no faking the happiness they feel when they come back from the bottom.  I remember that feeling, and I experience that still today.  But that's for a later post.

After today, the girls know they need to forget about the game, yet still learn from their mistakes.  Kim and I made the plan for the next practice.  We know what needs to be done, and together we will make the team better.

Second Interview Questions

Kim Nemeth is my mentor.  She is self employed as both a swimming coach and a goalkeeping coach. Of course, I will be focusing on the goalkeeping part of her job.

Interview 2 Questions

1. What prior experience have you before you started training keepers?  And how is it currently helping you?
2. What do you love about coaching goalkeepers?
3. What kind of experience do you think is most important to be qualified enough to coach goalkeepers?
4. Have you done anything important, or something that sticks out more than other things since you've started training keepers?
5. What experiences have you gained from training different aged keepers?
6. What originally got you in to training goalkeepers?
7. Has training goalkeepers improved your game as a keeper?
8. Do you believe there is something you do that sets you apart from other goalkeeping coaches?
9. How long have you been a keeper yourself? 
10. Obviously at different levels of soccer the level of competitiveness changes.  Do/Would you change the drills and level of training for a 15 year old club player vs. a college athlete?
11. From a training perspective, how was playing for Cal Poly different from your high school team? Different from the adult league you currently play in?
12. How has the world of goalkeeping changed since you started playing?

Blog 5: Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon:

1. I have gained a lot of new knowledge from Jeff Tackett because his training style is different from Kim Nemeth's style.  Jeff focuses more on the broad skills, assuming the small skills will trickle in.  During a normal training session, Kim will focus more on an individual skills like hand eye coordination or diving for high balls.
2. Source 3 so far has been the most interesting article.  It has provoked me to research the experiment that occurred, and I found a lead to see if I could obtain the doctoral thesis done by Gabriel Diaz, a doctoral candidate at Renssaeler Polytechnic University The article explained how penalty kicks can be defended by more accurately.  The PK has an extremely high chance of going in (numbers vary between 80% and 90% depending on the study), and are rarely blocked.  The experiment touched base on the psychological side of goalkeeping which prompted me to look more into it.  I've always realized that a goalkeeper needs to have a strong and extraordinarily calm mind to get through a game, but I've never thought about it in the psychological sense.  The entire article with the experiment gave me so many different avenues to explore.
3. Finding new ideas about goalkeeping is totally a plus.  I've never thought about the position with so many different angles.  Psychology, agility, running a clinic, and so many other ways to go.
4. With all the different avenues I've opened I'm not sure which way to go.  It's given me so many options.
5. Working EQ - What are the most important skills a goalkeeper needs to become a higher level athlete?
• For mentorship I have been helping Jeff Tackett train several groups of young goalkeepers and I am the assistant coach/ goalie coach for Kim Nemeth's Girls Under-14 team.

Additional Post 1: Hands, A New Breakdown of Positioning

During my mentorship over the summer I was watching Jeff Tackett explain hand positioning to a young goalkeeper (probably about 10 years old).  She was still in the beginning stages of her training focusing on hand positioning, foot skills, and agility.

Keeping in mind that I've been a keeper for approaching 8 years, ever since I learned hand placement, I never changed anything.  It's always worked, and if done correctly never fails.  During one training session Mr. Tackett explicitly explained the hand positioning showing her up close not only using her own hands, but also from other perpectives using his hands.

This picture shows the hand positioning for catching a ball above the waist.  This is how I learned it when I was still a kidlet.

The hands are arranged in a "W" position to give the catcher a strong hold.  With the hands in this position the ball can't continue it's forward momentum into the keepers body, or worse, the goal.

Another advantage to this hand position is that with small hands (like me and the young girl) it gives you a lot of coverage over the ball.  Your hand is touching much more of the ball than if you were to just put your hands out as if you were trying to tell a large vehicle to stop.



This hand positioning is also for catching above the waist, however, this is how many younger goalkeepers are being taught to handle the ball.

This hand positioning is more similar to catching a hand-egg (an American football).  The hands are a little further apart, but if the fingers were touching they would resemble a diamond.

I asked Mr. Tackett why he chooses to teach the younger group this style of hand positioning, and he said because it gives you even more surface area on the ball.  The positioning also has less chance of the ball going over the "W" since the hands are closer together at the top.

Although not the best choice, if a keeper decides not to wear gloves in the goal this would be the better option.  I would normally try to keep up with the changing status quo in the game of soccer, but hand positioning is something that I no longer think about.  It just happens and trying to change things messes everything up.  However, for new keepers, like the kidlets I've been helping Kim train will certainly benefit from the altered hand positioning.

Blog 4: Interview Preperation

1. I plan to interview Kim Nemeth.  I have chosen her as my first interview because she is not only my main mentor, but is also a very skilled goalkeeper.  She has been a goalkeeper herself for a long time, and has improved my game tremendously over the several years that she has been my trainer.

2.  My additional questions:

• Do you plan on trying to make coaching young goalkeepers a full time job? Or just a part time hobby?
• How long have you been training keepers individually?
• How would you describe you coaching style to a new client of yours?
• I grew up in the AYSO system playing soccer.  It was very rare that there was anyone other than me that wanted to play in goal full time, and the number of competent young girls (and boys) wanting to play the position seems to have declined.  What training and advice would you give a group of young kids to get them excited rather than terrified of the position?
• How many years of keeper specific training did you have before you felt you were completely confident in goal? 
• Did you even have keeper specific training along with team training before you made the college team?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Semester 1 ESLR Goals

1. Soccer Goalkeeping

2.

• To better myself as an iPoly citizen I plan on being a part of numerous activities and senior committees.  I am a Co-President of H.O.P.E Club and plan on help making the club much better and more involved than it has been in the past.
• To be an effective learner I plan to take my organization to a better level so I have more time for studying or doing homework rather than looking for a paper I misplaced.
• I will be an effective user of technology by using my laptop LESS.  By staying off the internet I can have more time for project work and homework.  By being on the internet for a shorter period of time each day will allow me to complete my tasks in a more timely manner.  I always use technology when it's needed for school work, but sometimes I just use it too much.
• In the past I haven't been the most effective communicator because I don't like talking on the phone to not only say a group member, but also to someone who could help me like a possible mentor.  I would much rather talk in person or through email or text.  By being able to make phone calls when it's important I can make better connections and put my self in a better situation.

Summer Mentorship Component

Literal:

1. This is my mentorship log outlining what I did at each training session.
2. Kim Nemeth, Personal Goalkeeper Trainer and AYSO Coach, 909-573-6378
    and Jeff Tackett, Southern California School of Goalkeepers Director and former Cal Poly Pomona       Assistant Coach, 909-229-7929
3. What direction do I want to head with this as my senior project?
    Do I want to do the training side of goalkeeping, or the athlete side of goalkeeping?

Interpretive:

4. Coming into contact with the number of goalkeeping coaches that I did this summer is perhaps the         most valuable thing I have gained from this experience.  Not only Jeff Tackett, but all of Kim                 Nemeth's trainers, and Jeff's colleagues.  I have so many people I can outreach to if I need help with       something.

Applied:

5. Being on the field several times per week helping to coach goalkeepers has not only showed me that     I am really passionate about the position, but that there are a million and one things I can continue to       learn.  Helping train goalkeepers of all ages has shown me an inside look at the progression I took         when I was younger.  That birds eye view has helped my game on the field, but it is also an                   interesting perspective of the game that I've never really seen.  I can't wait to continue helping Kim         Nemeth and Jeff Tackett with their training for the rest of the year.

2013 2-Hour Presentation Reflection

1.  Here is the list of presentations I attended from May 28th to June 7th, 2013.

• Soccer Player - Sal
• Wood Working - Sebastian
• Interior Design - Natalie
• Locksmithing - Tony
• Child Life Specialist - Alicia
• Clinical Social Work - Brittany
• Healthy Mexican Food - Manny
• Yearbook - Emma
• Firefighting - I played Risk.
• Running a Skate Shop - Eric
• Political Campaigns - Angel
• Animal Control - Cherokee
• Physical Fitness - Jocelyn
• Anesthesiology -  Zhailah

2.  Questions?

• What exactly is an independent component?  I heard the seniors reference it several times.
• Is there a limit on the number of mentors we are allowed to have?
• Is it necessary we have a book as one of our sources?  Or can they all be from the mentor and the internet?

3. I felt the most important aspects to senior presentations included the content presented and hitting time.  It seemed the only reason people had to re-present was because they either didn't hit time or the content they provided wasn't up to par.

4.  I am planning on doing soccer goalkeeping as my senior topic.  Goalkeeping is something I am extremely passionate about and I would like to learn everything possible to better not only my game, but my fellow teammates' game as well.  There are not enough goalkeepers in my age group and younger, so by learning how to give a proper training session perhaps I can help a younger player be good enough to end up playing professionally.  I am too old and too short to be called up to a development team, but I would love to see someone I taught end up there.