Goalkeeper’s Psychological Training

In recent years, many football clubs involved Psychologist in their teams, either at First Division or children’s and youth levels.

In the introductory note of this section we listed the psychological skills expected for a goalkeeper: motivation, concentration, self-confidence, decision-making and the ability to overcome errors.

In this article we present a four phases plan to improve the Goalkeeper psychological performance.

First phase. Assessment of the goalkeeper’s Psychological needs. Identifies what aspects need to be worked on. It can be achieved through different techniques, such as interviews and tests.

Second phase. Psychological skills training. The psychologist makes the goalkeepers familiar with the techniques that best suit their needs and apply them in training session; initially in closed spaces, like a classroom or office. Once the Goalkeeper is adapted, sessions move to the field. Each technique is specific for certain aspect (concentration, motivation, etc.). The time for each activity depends on the results of the previous evaluation and the time it takes the goalkeeper to learn the technique.

Third phase. Competition. The aspects trained are applied in specific competitions. .

Fourth phase. Evaluation of the plan. It is evaluated whether the plan was appropriate for the goalkeeper’s needs, if it had positive effects on its performance, and if the goals have been achieved. If they were not, the plan should be reformulated.

If the goals were achieved, a new plan is outlined to increase the demands for improving the acquired skills and others that was not necessary to train before.

At CEFARQ we design specific exercises for the psychological skills of the goalkeepers. Among other things, to work on concentration we use plates with letters, numbers or geometric figures of different colors, and a programmable light system described in a previous note. For example, in different exercises the goalkeeper must identify colors responding with a pre-defined action.