At Blue Eagles last year we had Chris Higgins and he was fantastic with different abilities and age groups. (correct)
I heard his son is now at Raiders (correct last time I heard)
Is he coaching at any other clubs now ? Adelaide City and Western Strikers I believe and still his GKing Academy
A question for Junior coaches
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Re: A question for Junior coaches
I think (don’t hold me to this) Chris is doing a sat morning clinic at Adelaide City (Oakden ground) mainly for the guys/lads who play Sundays. Was working with the Gawler keepers last year, but don’t know about this year.
Getting back to the topic of this thread I think many clubs are recognizing that the position between the sticks has changed over the last decade or so, when some clubs (and we have all seen it) put the kid who was the largest or the slowest on the pitch in goals so he could play (that was how got in goals
). Now the keeper is expected to play as a sweeper in instances and at the very least to be pretty good with the ball at his feet and to have a sound technique, it’s this last point that I think clubs have a problem with. Its great that a young keeper pulls of a great save but he should be able to pull that save of time and time again, sound technique is going to help him/her to do that. I’ve seen many instances in which a young keeper will try to make 3 different saves to 3 nearly identical balls with a little bit of coaching he would know to make the saves according to the situation. Remembering though the aim is to save the ball from going into the back of the net so any save is a good save, but sound technique will make that harder save a fair bit easier. Now some clubs out there get the keeper coaches (or in many cases the senior keepers) in to install that into the younger keepers but many especially the larger clubs that have lots of teams, the only coaching the keeper gets if he gets any is by the team coach who might know stuff all about keeping and worse still might be just a parent who doesn’t know much about coaching at all.
It could be argued that the fed clubs who have higher fees (justifying them by the high level of training) have a duty to have specialised coaching for their keepers as the parents are paying for it. The field players have special drills for skills do their keepers have the same? Or are they just there to have ball kicked at them when there is a shooting drill or a training game.
How important is the warm up before a game, do you think? I think it is extremely important, but I’ve seen too many cases of the poor keeper in the middle of the goals having a line of players just kicking balls at him and the lad has picked the ball out of the net 15 times before the game starts, just great for his confidence. I guarantee a club that has a keeper training programme won't do a warm-up like that.
Anyway thats my veiw
Getting back to the topic of this thread I think many clubs are recognizing that the position between the sticks has changed over the last decade or so, when some clubs (and we have all seen it) put the kid who was the largest or the slowest on the pitch in goals so he could play (that was how got in goals
). Now the keeper is expected to play as a sweeper in instances and at the very least to be pretty good with the ball at his feet and to have a sound technique, it’s this last point that I think clubs have a problem with. Its great that a young keeper pulls of a great save but he should be able to pull that save of time and time again, sound technique is going to help him/her to do that. I’ve seen many instances in which a young keeper will try to make 3 different saves to 3 nearly identical balls with a little bit of coaching he would know to make the saves according to the situation. Remembering though the aim is to save the ball from going into the back of the net so any save is a good save, but sound technique will make that harder save a fair bit easier. Now some clubs out there get the keeper coaches (or in many cases the senior keepers) in to install that into the younger keepers but many especially the larger clubs that have lots of teams, the only coaching the keeper gets if he gets any is by the team coach who might know stuff all about keeping and worse still might be just a parent who doesn’t know much about coaching at all.It could be argued that the fed clubs who have higher fees (justifying them by the high level of training) have a duty to have specialised coaching for their keepers as the parents are paying for it. The field players have special drills for skills do their keepers have the same? Or are they just there to have ball kicked at them when there is a shooting drill or a training game.
How important is the warm up before a game, do you think? I think it is extremely important, but I’ve seen too many cases of the poor keeper in the middle of the goals having a line of players just kicking balls at him and the lad has picked the ball out of the net 15 times before the game starts, just great for his confidence. I guarantee a club that has a keeper training programme won't do a warm-up like that.
Anyway thats my veiw
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paul merson
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Re: A question for Junior coaches
To answer your warm up question Prelfy, ask Purger!
I assisted his study on how much impact a good warm up is to your game.
I ended up with a lot of answers that contradicted themselves from week to week.
I personally think a lot has to do with the state of mind you're in when you get to then ground and also your early involvement in the game, but Im sure Mr Purger can fill us in more on his findings.
As for Chris higgins I believe his is coaching the Adelaide City keepers this year so look out on his website for Coops!
http://goalkeepingsa.com.au/
I assisted his study on how much impact a good warm up is to your game.
I ended up with a lot of answers that contradicted themselves from week to week.
I personally think a lot has to do with the state of mind you're in when you get to then ground and also your early involvement in the game, but Im sure Mr Purger can fill us in more on his findings.
As for Chris higgins I believe his is coaching the Adelaide City keepers this year so look out on his website for Coops!
http://goalkeepingsa.com.au/
