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.