The Top Drills for Goalkeepers
The best goalies are fearless, agile, fast thinking - and always ready for explosive movements. And the best way to build up those qualities is through goalkeeper training drills.
Whether you dream of starring in the top divisions or you’re just looking to play better in your local league, building some drills into your goalkeeper training can have a massive impact on your game.
In this article, you’ll learn what football goalkeeper drills can do for your performance. We’ve also provided guides to five essential football goalkeeping training drills
Why every keeper needs to do training drills
If you only ever train in the same way, you’ll never get any better. Football goalkeeper training drills force you to develop a range of goalie skills. These will then help you keep more balls out the back of the net.
The key benefits of goalkeeper training drills
Improve reaction times: Practicing drills trains your muscle memory, so you can respond to attacks without needing to think.
Boosts agility: To be a better goalie, you need to be able to move fast. Many goalkeeper training exercises focus on footwork and speed.
Better decision making: Doing goalie drills helps you figure out the best response to different kinds of attacks.
Learn new skills: If you’re less experienced as a goalie, training drills can help you get more confident with all kinds of moves - from safe dives to punching away corners to ball distribution.
Makes you more adaptable: In a match situation, you never know where a shot is going to come from. By doing hundreds of training drills, you’ll have more experience dealing with shots from different angles, speeds and heights.
5 goalkeeper training drills you should be doing
There are hundreds of ways to practice your goalkeeping skills. But we’ve chosen five core goalkeeper drills to get you started.
1. The three cone drill
This is one of the classic goalkeeper drills for beginners. It trains you to be agile and move with fast feet. It also boosts your spatial awareness, and forces you to respond to changing gameplay situations.
Lay out three cones in different colours along the edge of the six yard box, with about a yard between each cone. You will need a shooting partner and a few balls to practice with.
To perform this drill, the keeper starts in position in the centre of the goal, and the shooting partner stands at the penalty spot.
The shooter calls out the colour of one of the cones at random
The goalkeeper has to rush forward to ‘defend’ the cone.
Once the keeper reaches the cone, the shooter runs up to take their shot.
The goalkeeper has to backpedal to the centre of the goal and save the shot.
2. Power saves
Power saves are one of the best football goalkeeper drills. They force you to adapt rapidly, and respond to shots from two different angles. That’s a common scenario during an attack.
You will need two shooters to practice this drill with you, plus spare balls.
Shooter One stands on the byline at the corner of the six-yard box and does an overhead throw towards the goal.
The keeper stands perpendicular to the upright, leaps and pushes this shot away.
Shooter Two stands at the top quarter of the six-yard box on the same side, and kicks a ball at goal.
The keeper blocks or catches this shot.
3. Goalkeeper footwork training drills
Good goalkeeping is all about your footwork. Being able to rapidly adjust your position with fast steps will improve your spatial awareness. It also means you can change position without needing to look where you’re going.
To do this football goalkeeper drill, you need to place four cones in a square, about two metres apart, directly in front of the goal line. You’ll need a partner with a bag of footballs.
The keeper starts on the goal line, then rapidly moves their feet around the back left cone, into the centre of the square and back to the goal line.
The partner throws a ball at the keeper, who catches it and throws it away.
The keeper then circles around the front left cone, and back to the goal line and receives the thrown ball.
You carry on going around all the cones in the square.
4. One cone drill
This is another great goalie drill that trains you to adapt to fast-changing conditions on the pitch.
You begin by placing a cone at the edge of the six yard box, directly in front of the centre of the goal. Your shooting partner will place balls in an arc around the penalty area (but outside the goal box).
The keeper runs from the goal line to the cone as if closing down an attacker, then backpedals to the goal line.
As soon as the keeper has reached the cone, the shooter moves to the ball on the far left and takes a shot.
The keeper adjusts their position to block or catch the shot, jumps up and runs to the cone again.
In the meantime, the shooter has moved on to the next ball in the ‘arc’ and shoots from this angle.
You continue until all the balls have been struck, from left to right.
5. Corner dives
This is one of the most basic goalkeeper drills, but is still one of the most important. The focus is on helping you perfect your dives into the corner of the goal - since this is one of the hardest areas to reach.
You’ll need a bag of footballs and one or two shooters to train with.
The shooter lines up balls about 12 yards out from the goal, in line with both corners of the goal itself.
The keeper starts in the middle of the goalmouth, and practices diving to block shots from both sides.
The shooter (or shooters) alternates sides, speed, power and height of the shots.
Recovery time between shots should be short - the keeper should jump up, return to centre and be ready to dive again in under five seconds.
Better gear means better goalkeeper training
When you’re doing goalkeeper training drills, you need tough gear that can handle repeated dives. It’s got to be flexible, and not restrict your movement. And it needs to give you the support you need, whatever the weather.
Under Armour football gear for men, women and youth players gives you a complete range of performancewear and football boots for your training sessions. Using our most advanced technologies and durable designs, this is gear you can rely on for every single drill.