FUTSAL GOALKEEPERS TRAINING

As I already commented in my first post, I have assumed the goalkeepers training role at Manchester Futsal Club during the season 2011-2012 due to several reasons, while delivering the S&C sessions too. Although last season (2010-2011) I was not the goalkepeers coach, I also carried out quite a few sessions with the “goalies”, especially during the final months of the season. I started to search for exercises, drills, tasks, trainings, books, etc. and realised that the resources are quite limited and that it is very difficult to find something really useful.

These are the main reasons why I am writing this post. If we want to develop English futsal, the teams need to work as professionally as possible. That means they need to work specifically on fitness with a S&C coach, and the goalkeepers must train with a goalkeepers coach. The main objective of this post is to show you some adequate resources to train with your futsal goalkeepers.

The first thing that has to be clear is that, if a futsal goalkeeper is not the same as a football goalkeeper, a futsal goalkeepers coach will not be the same as a football goalkeepers coach. In fact, a futsal goalkeeper is more similar to a handball or a hockey goalkeeper. Having said this, we can now start.

Basically, my main resources come from two futsal goalkeepers coaches – probably the best two goalkeepers coaches in the world, and I have been lucky enough to work with them. One of them is César Luis Arcones de la Calle. He was the assistant coach and the goalkeepers coach for Caja Segovia F.S. (Spain) from 2004 until 2010, when he quit the club to work full time for the Spain Futsal National Team. Also, he has collaborated in the goalkeepers training of Fuchu Team (Japan), Thailand Futsal National Team, Vietnam Futsal National Team, and Japan Futsal National Team. Last year, he fulfilled one of his dreams when his DVD “El portero de fútbol sala: entrenamiento específico (The futsal goalkeeper: Specific training)” was released.

The DVD cover: El portero de fútbol sala: entrenamiento específico (Arcones de la Calle, 2010).

In his DVD, César L. Arcones de la Calle shows excellent work with more than 30 exercises classified in: exercises for legs (warm-up and training), exercises for arms (warm-up and training) and mixed exercises. All the exercises include different perspectives/shots (front, rear, side) to see them clearly. Some of the “goalies” that have collaborated in the DVD are Cidao, Arrivi and Mordi, as well as female Spanish international goalkeepers Eva and Sonia, and male and female Spanish international players such as Nano Modrego, Andreu, Lin, Daniel Ibañes and Natalia. If you wish to buy the DVD, you can send an email to dvdporterosfutsal@hotmail.com or dvd@futsalcoach.es.

As an appetizer, if you click on the next link you can see the session that César L. Arcones de la Calle perfomed on 3^rd July 2008 at the clinic held at the University of Cádiz (Spain). The session is more than 80 minutes long, with the first 25 minutes dedicated to theoretical aspects and the rest of the session focusing on practical exercises.

The second goalkeepers coach I mentioned before is Marcus Vinicius da Silva Bianchi “Guaiba”. He is a Brazilian coach who has been coaching ElPozo Murcia F.S. (Spain) since 1991, as well as the Brazil National Team. He was the first goalkeepers coach that started to work with a team in the Spanish National League (LNFS), and he has tried to join the Brazilian School/Methods and the Spanish School/Methods. During his ten years in Murcia, not only has he worked with the first team goalkeepers, but also with the second team and the grassroot/academy goalkeepers.

The England Futsal National Team was fortunate to work with him at the camp held in Murcia (Spain) last September. Besides, “Guaiba” got the two ElPozo Murcia F.S. goalkeepers to do the sessions with our “goalies” and gave them some professional advice.

From left to right, Tony Elliot (England GKs Coach), Rafa (ElPozo Murcia F.S.), Dafydd (England Development Squad), James (England Senior Squad), Chico (ElPozo Murcia F.S.), Curtis (England Senior Squad) and “Guaiba” (ElPozo Murcia and Brazil GKs Coach), 8-10-2011, Murcia (Spain).

You can see his methods, exercises and drills on his website Guaibaporteros, which features a number of training videos and photos. In addition, he has a YouTube channel that includes 14 videos with drills and exercises performed by the ElPozo Murcia F.S. goalkeepers and the Brazil Futsal National Team goalkeepers.

Recently, he has announced that he is leaving his club and Spain to go back to Brazil so that he can be closer to his family. All the best for your new projects, my friend!

Finally, I would like to introduce briefly three more resources. The first is a series of interesting videos with exercises and drills, featured on goalkeepers coach Xavier Álvarez Herrero’s blog, who trains the F.S. Villassar de Mar (Spain) goalkeepers. He may not be as well-known as César L. Arcones de la Calle or “Guaiba” but he definitely is a great professional. The second resource is a short video edited by UEFA.com (2008) about the specific training performed by Luis Amado Torodo (Inte-Movistar and Spain National Futsal Team) with Juan José Rodríguez Navia “Cancho”, former goalkeepers coach and assistant coach of the Spanish Futsal National Team. The last one is a fantastic blog written by José Antonio Valle Gallego, assistant coach and S&C for Carnicer Torrejón F.S. In his blog you can find a lots of exercises classified in several categories, click in “Portero” to see the goalkeepers section.

After doing some research, I could not find a single goalkeepers training resource in English. That is a big handicap and something that should change! For those of you who do not speak Spanish, although in the above mentioned videos you can observe the exercises and understand them, due to them being in Spanish you may miss some important information or instructions. I therefore thought I would let you know about two videos I have discovered recently, which may be useful. One is the Goalkeeper Skills DVD (produced by England Hockey Board consultant goalkeeper coaches John Hurst and Roger Newcombe). The other one is the IHA Core Goalkeepering Skills DVD developed by Irish Hockey Association. I am still exploring these DVDs but, as I said before, the futsal goalkeepers’ skills are quite similar to those of handball and hockey goalkeepers, so hopefully the DVDs will be applicable to futsal training too.