05 January 09 - 14:42HAPPY NEW YEAR! Keeper Academy returns Sat 10th January'09

Just to let all of our keepers know that the Broad Oak & Horam GoalKeepers Academy returns to action THIS SATURDAY 10th January - 9am prompt start, until 10.30am, at Horam. 

Please bring plenty of waterproof/warm clothing - maybe spare gear if you are playing straight afterwards and want to dry off first.

Parents please note - if the pitches are frozen or waterlogged then we may well move the academy training to Sheepsetting Lane next to the Community Centre instead, SO PLEASE KEEP AN EYE ON THIS BLOG as I will post any change of venue on this site by 8am Saturday. No message by this time, then it will be at Horam as planned.

 So spread the word - 11-a-side keepers too - GK Academy is back with lots of fun, quality training and keeper skills every two weeks from this weekend!!

See you then,

Tim, Joe, Clive and Theo.

Tim -

28 November 08 - 10:41URGENT MESSAGE - SAT 13th DEC SESSION IS CANCELLED!!

Hi guys,

 Please note that this Saturday's GK Academy session is CANCELLED in view of the very wet conditions. We also don't want to wreck any of the training areas either, and having reviewed how cold and wet the keepers got after 20 mins last time we have decided it wouldn't be fair to put them through it again when many were clearly struggling or stopping altogether. We will therefore cancel this session and meet again in the new year in JANUARY - date still to be confirmed, which will be posted on this blog and also cascaded out through your team manager.

So have a great Xmas and see you next year - hopefully alot drier!

Tim, Joe, Clive and Theo.

Tim -

17 November 08 - 12:24Sat 15th November '08: "Mudnificent Keeper Conditions..."

Mud, glorious mud - and plenty of it this week. Whilst several age groups are now unable to train at Horam in view of the state of the pitches, our keepers are in their element! Naturally we are training them away from the pitches, however the soft surface is excellent for the young ones to dive on, it helps their confidence enormously, and they love it!

Despite Theo undertaking his FA level 1 assessment and Tim called in to travel to Chipstead with an U10's squad, Clive led a great session of drills this morning with Joe's support - culminating in a fantastic game of keeper wars I understand! An Academy shirt went out to Ryan Marston this week - well done Ryan - and we will all be back together again in two weeks on Sat 29th November at 9am sharp. Let's see more of those 11-a-side keepers - "come and av a go if you think you're good enough....!"

 See you then!

Tim, Theo, Clive and Joe

Tim -

03 November 08 - 00:42Sat 1st November 08: "Perfect Keeper Weather!!"...

A big well done to all those keepers who braved the wet weather to train this weekend - 13 of you in all, and great to see plenty of older keepers training as well.

An action packed session saw the squad try some new drills that I had picked up from the Ajax Keeper Academy in Holland - practices that worked on tip overs, diving, quick reactions and footwork as well. Some of these drills were quite difficult, but the younger ones did extremely well in very wet conditions, which required everyone to be using their towels and spare gloves in the heavy mud! For those that have games or more training after such wet & muddy sessions, I would strongly recommend what I do with my lad Finlay, and that is to bring a towel & spare dry training clothing for changing into in the clubhouse changing rooms, so that they are happy and raring to go again - rather than cold and shivering.

Keeper of the Week this week went to Emily Baldock for a top class session all morning - some wonderful handling and always in the set position for the next shot.

Save of the Day  - and there were quite a few belters this week - went to Sam Abbott for some superb tip overs when back peddling towards goal - awesome saves Sam!

Next session as always will be in two weeks time - 9am sharp - on Sat 15th November - so see you then!

Tim, Clive, Joe and Theo

Tim -

18 October 08 - 19:03Sat 18th October'08: Another 'Scorchio' Morning!

Once again the sun shone as brightly as our Academy Shirts, as our budding keepers were put through their paces by Joe, Clive, Theo and myself...

 Having gone through our warm-up drills, our goalies lined up behind the Academy banner to have their annual photo-shoot. We then moved on to working on our shot stopping techniques, then our diving skills, and then we split into two groups. One group did narrowing the angle with an oncoming strker, whilst another group worked on 1-on-1 situations. After 20 mins the keepers swapped over, and then we ended with a reminder about our keeper bags (and what they should contain -i.e. cap, drink, small towel and spare gloves.)

Keeper of the Week goes to James Murray (U7's) who really concentrated on his goalkeeping all morning, and really put in a huge amount of extra effort this week, so fantastic stuff James - well done! (Reckon it's the wicked haircut myself!)

And then Save of the Day goes to Sam Beeney, who pulled off some fantastic saves when doing the Narrowing the Angle drill. With five different angled shots flying in he did well to quickly reposition himself and keep the shots out with some fantastic diving saves, so well done Sam -superb stuff!

Certificates next time to both of you. In the meantime, where were all the 11-a-side keepers this week? Only a couple this session, so hopefully we'll see some more in two weeks time on Sat 1st November - a reminder, 9AM SHARP - cheers all!!

Tim, Joe, Clive and Theo

Tim -

05 October 08 - 00:27Sat 4th October 08: Another Giant Leap for the Academy....

A FANTASTIC session this morning - four Academy Coaches, ten mini-soccer keepers - and for the first time ever an incredible SEVEN 11-a-side keepers who came along for coaching as well - another big step forward for the Academy!

So this week, the theme running throughout the session was "Making a Noise" - with your defenders and your penalty area. Having warmed up together, Joe and Clive took the mini-soccer keepers, while Theo and I took the older ones. This split worked really well, and allowed the senior keepers to be really stretched this week as they worked in full size goals. The boys were coached on crossbar tip-overs, defending freekicks by co-ordinating walls, shot-stopping and basic diving techniques. We also went through what should be contained inside a basic keepers kitbag - thanks to Joshua Irwin for a great example - nice one Josh!! The boys attacked their drills with massive enthusiasm this week, and the older guys in particular were made to really sweat with some hard effort put in on quick reactions as shots rained in, tipovers were required and freekick walls quickly lined up - guys, you were awesome!

Save of the Day this week goes to ZAK who threw himself into several tremendous saves following some diving coaching he was given - truly incrtedible stuff Joe tells me, so really well done Zak, who got his Academy shirt today as well - so a great day for you we reckon!

Keeper of the Week we felt should go to ALEX MURRAY, who had a superb morning of shot stopping, full of tremendous saves and really great effort. We're never sure if you're better in goal or defence Alex - you are definately MAGIC at both, so well done on a super morning!!

That's it for another Academy session - we'd love to run them every day if we could, but there you go! As always, see you in two weeks on Sat 18th October at 9am sharp for more keeper practice. All you 11-a-side keepers - please keep on coming along if you want to lose some of your bad habits and replace them with the correct techniques we all showed you, and it would be great to see the GIRLS next time - first time ever since we launched a year ago that we had no girls showing the boys how it's done!

Catcha later.....

Tim, Clive, Joe and Theo

Tim -

23 September 08 - 02:09Sat 20/09/08: Good numbers again...

A warm sunny morning saw another 12 goalkeepers put through their paces this week. The session recapped the basic saves we went through two weeks ago, and then moved on to concentrate on the basic technique of diving -quite important when your put between the sticks!

We then used this skill to move on to narrowing the angle & sprinting quickly off your line, and it was this drill in particular that really stretched the keepers as both Clive, Theo and I had them running back to their line, checking their positioning and then racing out to block the next angled shot - very tiring for them all! We also practiced two basic throws, along with dead ball goal-kicks and kicks from our hands as well.

Keeper of the Week went to Beth Newson for her fantastic workrate and effort put in all morning - some great saves Beth, so really well done!

Save of the Day this week went to Adam from the U14 A squad, who pulled off an absolutely superb one handed save during the 'Narrowing the angle' drill, so well done mate. Certificates for you both at the next Academy session.

That's all for this week folks - a great session that went very quickly - see you in a fortnight at 9am sharp on Sat 4th October for more shot stopping fun!!

Tim, Joe, Clive and Theo

Tim -

22 September 08 - 21:40Clive's password & username now set.

Clive -