The Goalkeeper Pre-Game
Warm Up
Dan Gapsar - ICA Goalkeeper
Specialist
Leave an elastic ban in the freezer overnight. Take
it out the next day, and pull on it hard. What will
happen? It will snap. If you take it out of the
freezer, put into the refrigerator and than into
room
temperature, you now have prepare the elastic ban to
be stretched to its maximum. Your body and
mind are no different.
It is vital that you standardize your pre-game
warm-up. This warm-up should be yours. Design the
warm-up to fit your specific needs. The warm-up is a
reflection of your personality. A solid warm-up
provides consistency in your game. Too often,
goalkeepers warm-up according to the competition or
importance of the game. The result: You play well
against good teams and play poorly against average
teams. We tend to be more motivated to play against
top competition. The very best keepers are
considered the best because they consistently
deliver good performances. The factors that are
critical
to address are mental and physical preparation. If
you appear to know what you're doing, even before
the game, you have already established yourself as a
professional! Players, coaches, and spectators
admire a quality warm-up. Get the pre-game edge.
When I was the Portuguese National Team keeper
coach, Vitor Baia, was rated as the second best
goalkeeper in the world. We both designed a detailed
warm-up to meet his needs. It took time,
experimentation and work to assemble a warm-up that
helped him be ready for the international arena.
Regardless, if he was playing in Italy
or Estonia,
the warm-up was identical. By the way, Vitor gave
up the fewest goals during the World Cup
qualification process!
Here are the factors we needed to consider.
Calculated the length of the warm-up
Matches were televised around the world. Therefore,
we needed to make sure we were on time. It took
us exactly 23 minutes to complete the warm-up.
We calculated the length of the warm-up, so that
there was enough time for Vitor to complete his
warm-up and return to the dressing room to put on
his game jersey. He had two sets of clothing,
pre-game and match.
Rehearse
The high level of noise required us to choreograph
the pre-game warm-up the day before. This was
necessary so that we did not have to verbally
communicate instructions because we could not hear
each other. Our body language provided us with the
clues to know what was next.
Establish a rhythm
It was very important to establish rhythm. This
allows things to flow.
It cannot be accomplished
unless
it is trained on a regular basis. It needs to be
mastered. If you do not establish a proper sequence,
you
will not be smooth and the spectators will sense
that and jump all over you.
Comfort zone
The warm-up provided a comfort zone and a needed
level of confidence to handle anything.
Visualize
His warm-up began before he even entered the field.
Mentally, he was visualizing before the match.
Even his dressing was very methodical. Vitor would
begin to visualize. He would play the game in his
mind’s eye before he actually played. This is a very
powerful tool. We sat down and recalled his best
saves and moments in exquisite detail. It involved a
series of different saves as well as effective
distribution and communication. So when the game
began, he had already played it and was ready to
confront any situation. He was relaxed and ready to
perform. One of his trademarks is
how cool he
remains even
when the action gets hot.
Follow these links to
see the entire Goalkeeper Warm Up step by step.
Step One:
Stretching.
Step Two:
Getting a feel for the ball.
Step Three:
Serve skipping balls.
Step Four:
Progress to two servers.
Step Five:
Two shooters each side.
Step Six:
Crosses and distribution.
Step Seven:
Close range serves.
Step Eight:
High serves edge of box.
Step Nine:
Two shooters edge of box.
