how to become a good futsal goalkeeper

In futsal goalkeepers play a very important role, even more important than in football (soccer). In an 11 a side game the pitch is very big and there are 22 players on it. If a team is much better than their opponent the goalkeeper usually won’t have to make any saves. In futsal things are different. The pitch is small there are only 10 players on it and the goalkeeper can throw the ball in front of the opposite goal which means that a team can play very low defense and make counter attacks with their goalkeeper throwing the ball on the other side of the pitch. Some experts say that a very good goalkeeper is half of the team in futsal.

A goalkeeper is a very special position and has to be trained different than other futsal players. Back in days a goalkeeper role was to preventing the ball entering into the goal. In modern futsal a goalkeeper needs to be much more than that. He has to be good with his feet too, he has to act like a fifth defender when it comes to long balls and he has to even participate in some attacking plays. Today if we look at a futsal match we see that the goalkeeper is actively taking part in the game.

As we can see a goalkeeper has to be good with his hands for keeping the ball away from the goal and he has to be good with his feet for helping his teammates in defense or when setting up an attack. And there is something else a good futsal goalkeeper has to do and that is helping positioning players in defense. That is because he can see all players on the pitch in front of him.

Achieving all above mentioned skills is very difficult and demands a lot of training. It is important that trainings consist in exercises that improve different goalkeeping skills. But I will recommend that at the beginning we make more emphasis on proper positioning on the pitch and stopping the ball with his arms and when achieving the basics we start introducing passes (with hands and feet) and defense play. But we must not forget that even after achieving some level of goalkeeping skills we have to train them constantly in order retain or improve them.

A good drill for improving players shot and goalkeeper skills. Players position their ball approximately 10m away from the goal. Players start shooting one after another (when first player shoots the next player starts to run). The goalkeeper has very little time between shot and he has to be concentrated all the time. He has to stop as many shots as he can. The drill can be done in two ways: players shot one after another from left to right (or opposite) and players shot one from left then one from right side (or opposite). The drill is more difficult when players re alternating shots from left and right.

Players are positioned on the left or right side of the pitch. They have to try to score by dribbling the goalkeeper which has to come toward them. The drill is good for improving both players and goalkeeper skills. For making the drill more difficult we can allow players to choose between shooting from distance or coming closer to the keeper so the keeper has to be prepared for both situations. This drill is good for improving goalkeepers’ reflexes. We position two tables at the posts. When shooting on the goal we shot in the left or right table so the ball changes its direction in front of the keeper. We shot at different angles so the keeper doesn’t know where the ball will go. This drill improves keeper reactions and simulates real game situations when the ball touches someone in front of the goal and changes its direction.