Very basic Goalkeeping practices/drills for U7

Hi everyone,

I'm doing my first stint as a coach and have taken on my son's new U7 team. I've done the introduction to coaching course and have run weekly sessions through the summer for the team which have gone well. We have played several friendlies and I rotate all the players in goal. Out of the 10 players, half of them love playing in goal and one boy, in particular, wants to be the GK.

It's this area where my knowledge is pretty much zero and we have done nothing aimed at the GK position. I've looked for some basic GK drills to include in training but those on the Bootroom for example are just way too advanced for U7, my U7's anyway. 

Does anyone have any links or advice on where to start, they are basically starting from zero. Ideally, I'd like some fun practices to help develop/encourage basic GK skills and ball handling. 

Parents
  • Hi Mandy

    Thats great you’ve started with an u7s team and that you’re thinking about the goal keeper position.

    I have found with this age group, I’ll do GK sessions with team for 10 minutes as part of the arrival activity, then whoever is in goal on that match day, I’ll put them in goal for the session. I’ll then rotate each week.

    Example arrival activity, you could play a game of Simon says but change it to your name, or you can give each exercise a number. This supports social and psychological development, are they listening, can they remember!

    You might start with a ball each or work in pairs or small groups. 1 might be throw the ball in the air and catch. 2. Try to roll the ball between your feet. 3. Roll the ball to a team mate and do a collapsing dive and stop the ball with your hands. 4 pass the ball with your feet to a team mate, try to chip it in to your team mates hands for a goal. This supports the technical and physical development.

    Then during the session, give the GK individual tasks, it might be on goal kicks you give them a player to pass to.

    You might mix up their distribution from hand, a roll or a throw or kick from hands. I’d always link a point system to this and praise the intent.

    Let me know how you get on

Reply
  • Hi Mandy

    Thats great you’ve started with an u7s team and that you’re thinking about the goal keeper position.

    I have found with this age group, I’ll do GK sessions with team for 10 minutes as part of the arrival activity, then whoever is in goal on that match day, I’ll put them in goal for the session. I’ll then rotate each week.

    Example arrival activity, you could play a game of Simon says but change it to your name, or you can give each exercise a number. This supports social and psychological development, are they listening, can they remember!

    You might start with a ball each or work in pairs or small groups. 1 might be throw the ball in the air and catch. 2. Try to roll the ball between your feet. 3. Roll the ball to a team mate and do a collapsing dive and stop the ball with your hands. 4 pass the ball with your feet to a team mate, try to chip it in to your team mates hands for a goal. This supports the technical and physical development.

    Then during the session, give the GK individual tasks, it might be on goal kicks you give them a player to pass to.

    You might mix up their distribution from hand, a roll or a throw or kick from hands. I’d always link a point system to this and praise the intent.

    Let me know how you get on

Children
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