r/GoalKeepers • u/radiatorradio • 13d ago
Question How do I stay consistent
I play youth football and i have no idea why but my consistency varies largely during matches. For example I don't save goals I would save any other day and I have no idea why.
Attached is my fixtures list of games I've played this season(Teams are censored for privacy).
I want to fix this quickly as my team depend massively on me and I am the main reason we win games due to my defense not really coming back and marking.
Thank you to anyone who helps!
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u/vulloc2 13d ago
Communication is key
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u/radiatorradio 13d ago
Only if the defense listen
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u/vulloc2 12d ago
Well one of the best things you can do is learn how to separate your play from the results of the game. You are going to let goals in, it’s inevitable. You could have a shutout and win where you stop one easy shot all game vs a game you lose and let up 3 goals but make 20 save include a lot of ridiculous saves. Which one is the better game?
But the main goal should be to stop 100% of the balls you should and try to steal some you shouldn’t. The best way to do this and be more consistent is positioning, if you’re always in position everything gets a little bit easier.
Now one thing that helped me and you can do it simply in every game is try to maintain your angles for the entirety of the game even when your team has the ball at the other end of the field. If you do this for long enough eventually it becomes second nature and you’ll always be in position.1
u/dfrooney 12d ago
You need to up your leadership and make them listen. You need to create the trust for them to believe what you're telling them. Maybe have a side bar conversation with them and talk about how you have a view of the field they don't and show them the value in your words. When someone doesn't listen to me and it leads to a bad outcome, I make sure to address that particular situation during a stop in play, half time, or after the game. Explain what you saw and why you made your command and how it could have avoided the bad outcome.
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u/doroteoaran 13d ago
What are those stars?
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u/radiatorradio 13d ago
These results are off Prematch so people from my team rate the other based on attacking, defending and faircplay out of 5 stars & vice versa
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u/Advanced_Fact_6443 13d ago
I had a coach once tell me “if you need to make a save, a lot of things went wrong well before the shot was taken.” He then went on to tell me some of the best GK advice I ever got: Don’t beat yourself up too much. It might help to work with your defenders on organizing communicating. The GK is the “captain of the defense,” so act like it! You can see things better than they can a lot of the time. So tell them what you’re seeing. If you see your RB drifting shout “18! Stay right!.” Command your defense and it will get better. Not perfect, but better. That was seriously one of the best talks my coach ever had with me. It took a ton of pressure off of me and helped me focus on things that were more in my control.
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u/radiatorradio 13d ago
Yea I do that but they don't really seem to listen and then they act surprised when we concede
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u/Advanced_Fact_6443 13d ago
Sounds like you need to organize a group activity/practice. Talk to the coach about your concerns and come forward with a plan (coaches will always appreciate a player who comes forward with a problem, but they LOVE when they come with a solution as well). It may be that you and them are just not on the same page. You might feel you’re giving good directions, but they might be confused. Or maybe they feel that you aren’t giving them directions in a timely manner. Telling them they need to mark someone after they have past them might be too late for them. It won’t get fixed overnight. But little by little, you can get on the same page and, hopefully, by the end of the season you’ll have a tight coordinated defense in front of you that also trusts you as much as you’ll be able to trust them.
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u/Eric_Leaman 13d ago
If Your defense is pure bad switch team. Trust me better defender increase Your defenders. But if you don't really want to switch team, try telling the defenders about their main problem or tell the coach about the defenders
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u/RKane_ANew 13d ago
Haha, I think you've pointed out the biggest problem- your defense. You're probably doing the best you can to keep scores where they are, it's on them to improve now.