Saturday 4 May 2013

Tip of the day: stay in the play!

As promised, I'll try and write some tips into the blog. Quick and easy ones to start with mainly given I write more in-depth articles on other sites and don't want to simply repeat myself all the time! The title sounds pretty poetic really with the rhyming scheme, weirdly! Guess that what happens after you've studied creative writing and poetry at university, becomes robotic!!

Anyway, one important thing when dealing with consecutive shots after a save, is the need to 'stay in the play'. Whilst you will need to rush across sprinting like anything if you are now out of position after the initial save when challenging to stop, you want to be 'square' to the shot as they say. Try and get across to cover and stay in the play! Don't quit on it and keep going! Any coach wants to see their players never quit and making the effort is better than none at all!

But, there is also an extra side to this. The clip below is a great example of this! As you can see at 0:13 USA's goalkeeper Tom Sheridan doesn't give up in the play, scrambling and clawing his way across with all his will. He is also pushing across horizontally so that he is covering the open space of the goal (so reducing shooting space of the 'open goal'!). This also cuts the movement time as he rushes across versus trying to attack the shot wherein he would be moving out off the line to cut the angle. Then he manages to dive rightly to block. An amazing save! And he then gets back up to cover the next possible shot on goal.


So, whenever dealing with secondary or more chances, make sure you are in front of the ball, behind the shot, as you move. This way you are getting behind the shot and covering more of goal for the save. Better than getting out of place or turning away, in the first place!!


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