Using glasses that create partial vision, tennis balls, and size 3 balls to create an excellent shot stopping and blocking session! By using the pinhole glasses (I found these on Amazon for cheap), we dive into the Gestalt law of closure, a principle in which the brain will complete an image even if there are parts of it that are incomplete or missing (look it up. It’s fascinating!). We use smaller sized balls to help with tracking the ball all the way into the hands, onto the foot, onto the leg, and body. The purpose of the session was to be active without being over technical. Just a simple session with good flow, progressing from small to big.
The Activities!
1. WARM-UP: LATERAL FOOTWORK AND EASY HANDLING –
Here we simply get the keepers moving and introduce a thrown service for the keepers to adjust to wearing the glasses.
2. HAND-EYE COORDINATION, BALANCE, AND VOLLEYS –
With partially obscured vision, we challenge the brain here to maintain good balance and body shape, whilst introducing tracking the ball onto the feet and into the hand. This is important for when we go live without the glasses.
3. CORE, HAND-EYE COORDINATION, AND LOW DIVE –
A simple compound exercise here that works the obliques, continues to work on hand-eye coordination, and also forces the keepers to adjust their perspective with the low collapse dive. The activity is from a seated/prone position, so that the keepers can maintain full focus on the ball throughout without the footwork.
4. COACHING POINT: RESPECT
Simply showing here how keepers should interact during drills, despite the competition for the same position. Encourage your keepers to show each other a little love during a session!
5. TENNIS BALL AND SIZE 3 SHUFFLES –
We resume light movement here with a little prep step and set either side, first saving a tennis ball that is thrown in and then resetting for a volleyed service with a size 3 ball. We are shifting the keepers perspective with the movement, forcing them to maintain good upper body shape in transition, and adding greater power and distance to the service.
6. ONE TOUCH PASS AND SAVE –
Here we lose the pinhole glasses and focus on bigger movements, activating with a one touch pass with a size 3 ball and moving across the goal to make a save on a tennis ball. Any save is a good save, especially as the green tennis ball is tough to see given the environment that we are in (trees, bushes, and grass as a background!)
7. KICK SAVE AND BLOCK –
The keepers make an initial kick save with a tennis ball before transitioning to a block save on a size 3 ball. The foot that makes the kick save becomes the plant foot to drive the keeper up and across to make the block. Tracking the ball on to the foot is key here.
8. SHOT STOPPING: SIZE 3 AND SIZE 5 BALLS –
The initial shot from the angle is with a size 3 ball, and any service can be hit. The second shot from central is with a size 5 to get the keepers ready to see action in team training. We are also simulating a second save scenario off of the initial shot and continue to groom the quick recovery to feet.
9. LET THE KEEPERS KNOW WHAT YOU SEE –
There were zero technical coaching tips in this session, intentionally as this was an any save is a good save session, but after a couple of similar goals given up in the last round, I chatted with Akira about what I saw in one particular technique that might have contributed to the inability to make the save. Filming each session is a big advantage, as we can look at the video and really break it down
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See you next time, then!
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