Soccer Goalie Low Diving Drills and Training

Low diving saves or shots require more control, confidence, and timing for goalkeepers of all ages. Some youth and developing goalies love to throw the body about. Others need a little time and progressions to gain the confidence. The two goalkeeper diving drills are for developing to intermediate keepers. To build confidence and target certain goalkeeper techniques we started with services to one side.

When working on services from one side concentrate on a few coaching points. Drive those home. Remember pros get beat by low balls. Give your goalkeeper time and repetitions before stopping the session to tell them everything you know about the diving technique.

A balanced ready position.
Step as an elevator to bring the goalkeeper closer to the ball.
Projection of head and hands forward.

Watch the youtube video and make the save with them. Focus on a few of the points, their successes, and development opportunities but dont over analyze.

The second progression in the goalkeeper low diving techniques reinforces the timing and control needed to make the save. This is still very much a controlled environment to build confidence but a far cry from a stationary ball used to introduce a goalie to diving. Keepers tend to dive back due to a few factors such as distribution of weight once a step has been taken and timing of the step. Building from more simple to complex helps train the brain to react quicker.

Introduce a few techniques at a time:

Get shoulders and head down and behind.
Dont just fall!
Step creates room for the hands to shoot to the ball.
Do you have time for footwork based speed of the shot?
and many more….

We used middle school to high school aged goalkeepers with varying experience levels. Modify the drills based on the ability level of the goalkeepers. Remember build confidence. There a lot of coaching points to help you control the ball. Simple to complex. There is no such thing as advanced goalkeeper training. Simple goalkeeper drills can me modified to challenge the most experienced GK. Progress to faster services, closer shots, a bouncing ball, to name a few.

Use your imagination. Practice makes permanent!