Which club runs the strongest internal GK training?

[Unregistered]

NEFC just look at the NT pool of keepers

I love that someone would attribute the success of those players to their most recent club...rather than the private GK training all of those GKs have done for years, including prior to joining NEFC.

[Unregistered]

Parent of a keeper.

We've had good luck with Revs RDS goalkeeping, as a supplement to club keeper training.

It's really hard to find a club with a good team coach, team with good chemistry, and a good keeper program.

We're currently at GPS. Overall not happy with the club/program. But keeper training has improved. The keeper director is good, as are several of the keeper coaches.

GPS is so huge that they have keeper training in several locations, and you can go to any/all of them. Non GPS players can also pay a fee for keeper training.

I can't comment too much on NEFC, except to say that any time we've attended a practice or tryout as a guest; I got the impression that the coach was not a keeper coach but a fill in. Could just be bad luck.

Strikers, small club in Acton, uses Revs RDS coaches. Keeper training there was great, but they focus more on U13 and under.

If your kid is young, don't worry about private training too much. However, I do think it's good for older dedicated keepers.

[Unregistered]

Whatever happens...please do not discard your regular training. Keeper training should be an addition, not a replacement. Yes, that means extra time. I get it. But, a keeper has to be a player too. They touch the ball 2x time with their feet than hands. They have to know what to do with it.

[Unregistered]

Whatever happens...please do not discard your regular training. Keeper training should be an addition, not a replacement. Yes, that means extra time. I get it. But, a keeper has to be a player too. They touch the ball 2x time with their feet than hands. They have to know what to do with it.

This really gets to the heart of being a young keeper. Honestly its twice as much work so young kids need to be prepared to learn the traditional keeper skills as well as become as proficient with their feet as their field playing teammates. While it is true that young keepers need spend as much time working on their footwork as they do anything else, it is important to note that it is a different type of footwork that focuses more on receiving and delivering passes than dribbling and moving with the ball so a lot of the drills that are done in a typical team session, while not hurting development, aren't really advancing the specific skills that a keeper needs.

[Unregistered]

Whatever happens...please do not discard your regular training. Keeper training should be an addition, not a replacement. Yes, that means extra time. I get it. But, a keeper has to be a player too. They touch the ball 2x time with their feet than hands. They have to know what to do with it.

So true. We had to push to keep ours on the field as much as possible, even did two teams for awhile so she'd get lots of field time. Plenty of coaches and clubs are happy to pigeon hole kids in the net early on and it's to their detriment as players (what happens if they decide they hate GK after a year or two? They're woefully behind everyone else) and as GKs. Making saves in the air is only part of the job.

[Unregistered]

NEFC just look at the NT pool of keepers

As the parent of one of their NT level keepers I can confirm that the training provided was generally very good. I found that Brian Borde did an excellent job with the young keepers when mine was young and John Conlon did an excellent job once she got older. The thing about being a keeper though is it is a lot of work and even with a lot of support from the club we still had to find additional training opportunities above and beyond what the club was offering. When it came to working with coaches outside the NEFC umbrella my daughter always liked working with Matt Davison from the Stars.

[Unregistered]

JC from NEFC is good for older. MD is probably one of the better ones. Everyone else is ok and average and trying to make money doing their own sessions on the side. Nothing substantial. My observations as a parents on field players and a goal keeper.

[Unregistered]

The bigger question is how many keeper training sessions should a young keeper have a week in addition to their normal team sessions. My thought is that they should be doing as many keeper sessions as they do team sessions. At the older ages at least 1 of those keeper sessions should be an individual. The problem with threads like this one is no one is really asking is which club has the proper manpower resources to give keepers an appropriate frequency of training as well as an appropriate level of training. After all it makes no sense to mingle developmental levels in one session. No club would do that with teams, why do it with keepers?

[Unregistered]

The bigger question is how many keeper training sessions should a young keeper have a week in addition to their normal team sessions. My thought is that they should be doing as many keeper sessions as they do team sessions. At the older ages at least 1 of those keeper sessions should be an individual. The problem with threads like this one is no one is really asking is which club has the proper manpower resources to give keepers an appropriate frequency of training as well as an appropriate level of training. After all it makes no sense to mingle developmental levels in one session. No club would do that with teams, why do it with keepers?

Ours is two per week. Usually one of those will overlap with a team practice but it means 4 practices a week total. GK training is split into two age groups

[Unregistered]

Mass City have brought on board the Boston Breakers goalkeeper coach as the director of goalkeeping, or that is what they said on their face book page.

[Unregistered]

Every player is different. Some GK's are good shot stoppers, others are better at distribution. Technical skills are important, both field and GK, but the position requires a balance of positioning, timing and aggressiveness and vision that is very difficult to perfect and difficult to emulate with typical keeper training that is more technical based. Most coaches don't do enough scrimmaging or shooting for keepers to get enough touches on the ball in practice and, from what I've seen, most coaches aren't interested in building from the back and having the keeper be the 11th field player, whcih is also important in development.

My suggestion is go outside your club for additional training and play in as many games/scrimmages you can with different coaches and different styles of play. Revs RDS GK training is excellent and high intensity. Futsal should be mandatory for keepers in the winter... many more touches on the ball, 4 seconds to distribute, high number of shots, etc. Basketball shouldn't be overlooked either.

[Unregistered]

Mass City have brought on board the Boston Breakers goalkeeper coach as the director of goalkeeping, or that is what they said on their face book page.

I've referred a couple of GKs to NC for private training over the years and the feedback was always quite positive.

[Unregistered]

FC Stars consistently turns out top quality GKs and NT keepers. My daughter is there now and the training is the best we’ve seen. Training is twice a week in addition to team training. The groups are small and the drills are varied and tough.

[Unregistered]

FC Stars consistently turns out top quality GKs and NT keepers. My daughter is there now and the training is the best we’ve seen. Training is twice a week in addition to team training. The groups are small and the drills are varied and tough.

If you don’t mind can you name a couple nation team keepers MD (stars) helped to get to that level ?

[Unregistered]

Providence College’s Shelby Hogan. Check out the PC women’s web page.
MD is really good. My kid plays for a rival club. There is no shame in recognizing another club’s coach as being very good.