Non-league football is demanding, but many goalkeepers only get the chance to train with their team a few times a week. How do goalkeeper coaches keep their shot-stoppers sharp on part-time schedules?
One of the hardest jobs in football is to be a goalkeeper coach of a semi-professional side.
Being semi-pro often means that players and coaches combine their love for the game with a full-time day job, meaning that clubs have to train in the evening. If they’re lucky, they get two training sessions per week.
One point that needs to be made from the outright is that non-league football is a tough world. The level is good. The players are physical. Whilst from the Premier League rafters and the semi-pro game looks a long way down, the standard is well, well above any amateur Sunday League fixture. If the levels were really that far apart, how on earth could Macclesfield beat FA Cup holders Crystal Palace?
This is why proper preparation is important - and even more of a challenge to maintain. As Phil Hogg, the goalkeeper coach for Northern Premier League East side Blyth Spartans describes, keeping part-time goalkeepers sharp can be tricky due to various factors.
As he explained to Goalkeeper.com, “We only train twice a week. We train on a Tuesday evening, and we train on a Thursday evening.
“Obviously, the winter nights make it tougher to try and get a facility. Fortunately, we've got a little bit of a connection with the juniors, they've got a massive 3G facility, so we get use of that, which is really good.
“With the goalkeepers, it's really tough because I want to coach them, and then I've got the manager tapping us on the shoulder saying, I want them in here, because I want to practice on some set plays, or a bit of shape or anything like that.
“So of course, it's hard to try and carry more than one goalkeeper; only one can play. We've kind of chosen a number one, and the commitment I made to him was that your training sessions will never dip.
“I went and created a pool of younger goalkeepers, who we've got on the books, and we've dual registered them, so they're playing in the Northern League. They're still getting that little bit of experience in the Northern League. But the commitment I made to them, and our number one goalkeeper, is that you still come and train with me. So, we've got at least three on a Tuesday and at least three on a Thursday. There could be different goalkeepers, but our first-choice goalkeeper is always there.
“I get a minimum of half an hour per session, one-to-one, all goalkeeper training. After that, it's sort of into what the manager wants and then, you know, the small-sided game at the end. In an average week, they're probably getting an hour maximum. So, when you say you're training twice a week, it then comes and knocks down again because of the other stuff."
Hogg has a four-part rule for making the most out of sessions with his goalkeepers.
"We always try and make it quick, make it busy, and make it enjoyable and realistic; those are the four things we look at. Now, by bringing in the extra goalkeepers, that one-to-one training isn't very realistic in a game situation. We do a lot of different variations on drills and movements to go to the next stage. So, you might make a save, and then what's next?
"We're always trying to push it on. We always play in a live format. So, if we're serving and the goalkeeper drops one, we're always playing for rebounds, to make them sharp, to try and keep them on their toes all the time.
“We always look at areas to improve, and I think that has definitely come on in the last 10 to 15 years with analysis now.
“It's very rare you don’t see a game not being videoed on VEO, or something, which, when I played, thankfully, there weren't any cameras, because let's be honest…there are two sides to that! One, the videos are superb for analysis. There are things you can work on, and there are also things you can see that we’ve worked on that last week and say look at that save you've made.
"'The other side - which affects mindset as well - 10 or 15 years ago, if I made a mistake, it was seen by 300 or 400 people in the ground. How many times does a video get watched by fans? So, you've got to be willing to have the mindset that everybody's seen that mistake now. How do you react? What do we do to make you comfortable to go on and be able to not make those mistakes?
“So, there's definitely a mindset within the individual that you need to have", he admits.
Hogg acknowledges that the goalkeepers themselves have a key role in ensuring that limited training sessions are used productively. He references Blyth Spartans' current goalkeeper Callum Dobson as good example of this. But training is, of course, only one aspect of a goalkeeper coach's work, as the bulk of Hogg does at semi-pro level comes on a matchday.
Speaking about a typical matchday schedule, he starts first thing in the morning. "It's the text, how are you? Are you feeling fresh? Are you okay? You're not sick, you're not poorly. I don't need somebody else and then, generally, I'll get to the ground around about the same time as our goalkeeper.
“We'll have a sit-down, we'll have a chat, we'll do some analysis of the other team. Do they play a long ball? Have they got a big centre forward? Do we need to be aware of playing a bit higher? So that analysis, again, comes in that way, looking at the other team.
"Then a little bit of preparing mentally. But you've got to trust him to do that. That's where the element of trust comes in.
“Then it's the warm-up and just constant reassurance, just making sure that everything I do is for the benefit of the goalkeeper. Warm-ups, I tend to go by what he wants, because it's up to him to get himself set and what he feels he's comfortable in having.
“During the ninety minutes, I don't really watch the game. I kind of sit and look at him, and then as soon as the halftime whistle goes, I'm not in the dressing room, I'm straight across to him, and we're already having a little analysis or a debrief coming off the pitch before he gets to the changing rooms.
“So that is the end of the week, and then we'll start again on the Sunday, and analyse again.”