November 25, 2006

   

This week's chat will be a sort of continuation from last week. This week I wanted to chat about getting as much of your body as possible behind the ball, and the important parts of the body for catching the ball.

By a continuation of last week's chat I mean simply that if you dive or go to ground needlessly, in most cases, you do not have as much of your body as possible behind the ball as you should, therefore making the handling a bit more dangerous. If a keeper is ready and on their toes as well as positioned properly it will reduce the amount of times they have to go to ground as well as make handling the ball much safer.

Now, as far as the parts of the body important to catching; The hands - everyone gets that one as it is quite obvious but some of the answers I get regarding the other two range from the arms to the chest to the abdomen. For me, the next important part are the feet. The feet are what get you behind the ball so that you can catch it safely with your hands. Even if you had the best hands in the world you have to get to the ball in order to catch it.You can always pick out the really good keepers, they are the one's that use their feet to get them behind the ball. And last but not least the third part is the eyes. I say the eyes because it is very hard to safely catch a ball that you are not watching or cannot see. One way that I use to convince keepers to look the ball into their hands is to have them look the ball into the hands and then after catching the ball they count to 2 or 3 while still staring at the ball. This will get them into the habit of looking the ball into their hands as well as double checking their hand shape as they catch. The form of the keeper pictured shows that she has 1. used her feet to get her behind the ball 2. gotten her hands into the proper shape for receiving the ball and 3. as you can see she is looking the ball right into her hands. With this kind of concentration any keeper will be able to have much safer hands.    
                     

That's it for now, keep the comments and questions coming. Until next week's chat.

Gary

   
                     
         
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Last Updated November 18, 2006