That’s what so many coaches from all over the world say, and you know what? They are totally right, you must be a tiny little crazy to be a goalkeeper. That is why so many young keepers pull out from the role before the age of 13 and rather play on the field.
When we host our Goalkeeper Camps both in the Summer and Winter time, we can see after just a few minutes of training who will become a solid goalkeeper and who will most likely drop out. The most common signs are young keepers that overdo it during training, like if they have something to prove to the coach and the other goalkeepers at the camp. Or another red flag is when a goalkeeper thinks that their ultimate goal is to play for his/her high school team. Not knowing that High School soccer is actually damaging (for the development) and very dangerous (way too many cheap shots).
I have to admire the goalkeepers that are capped, where they have no more points of improvement in their development, but still try hard day-in day-out. I know of many and it breaks my heart to tell them that they’re not going to play the big game or at the very most they’ll get to play on a DIII college team.
The true goalkeeper is brave but not reckless, it’s the goalkeeper that knows their limits and where they could get seriously hurt and are ready to pull from the save.
Don’t get me wrong, as a goalkeeper you are going to get hurt time after time and if you’re crazy enough, you’ll get back up on your feet and you’ll keep on playing. You’ll forget about what just happened and you’ll keep making the saves you were trained to do.
When I say Goalkeepers are Crazy I mean they are on the field. Most goalkeepers are very sociable people like everyone else and have a regular life… it’s just when they put on their gloves and stand among the posts…
