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Goalkeeper time Under 7s

Daniel Hudson

Good morning,

I coach an under 7s team and we don’t have a dedicated goalkeeper. At the moment the boys are taking turns and this is causing a discussion around game time.There is a view that playing in goal is stunting their development and shouldn’t be classed as game time. My view is that they are still developing some skills in goal and it should still class as a percentage of game time.

I proposed that playing in goal should class as 50% of the time being out. This hasn’t be received too well as the strong view is it shouldn’t be classed as time at all.

has anyone else had this problem? If so, any advice?

  • 0

    I had a similar scenario many years ago with the girls side that I ran. We didn’t have a dedicated goalkeeper and so every girl spent equal time in goal over a chunk of matches.

    I would also equalise everyone’s on pitch game time when young to give everyone the chance to develop equally. Essentially everyone then played the same amount of time over a period of matches. Some parents didn’t like this as much as others and it’s always the way as you can’t please everyone all the time. I would make sure taht you treat your child (if your child is in the team) equally and so they do time in goal and on pitch. Don’t treat them favourably or as I have done in the past unfavourably as they’re easy to take off or put in goal because they’re yours child. 

    As the girls have got older (now U15) the commitments is that everyone plays a minimum of 66% game time over the season (thankfully I have a dedicated GK now!!!).

  • 0

    hi Daniel i coach u16's and this is the first year weve had a dedicated goal keeper, we always used to have 3 lads that would share a half over the season, but they also played a half in the game, in esscence they were playing outfield a full game every other in time

  • 0

    Hi Daniel,

    I can only speak from inhouse matches, but working with a similar age group, I haven't had the push back you describe - and some kids actually volunteer to go in!

    What we have been doing during our practice matches is to number the players, e.g. 1 to 5. Then when their number is called they go in goals (and we don't call the numbers sequentially so they never know when they will be called). This usually equates to a single stint in goals.