Combo Drills for Saves of Shots From 9 Meters
Here you can find a few options of combo drills for saves of high and low shots from 9 meters. As always – please make sure that your goalkeepers are capable to perform all separated elements of every combo drill, and only when they can do properly all separated elements, then you can proceed to working on the whole combo drill.What is the Vestibular System Activation?
The vestibular system is a key part of our inner ear and brain that helps regulate balance and spatial orientation. When we talk about vestibular system activation, we’re referring to stimulating this system to function properly. This activation can involve various movements or exercises that encourage the vestibular system to process balance information more effectively. These might include head movements, balancing tasks, or other physical activities that challenge your sense of equilibrium. The goal is often to improve coordination, help with issues like dizziness or balance disorders, and support overall physical stability.
It’s an interesting field that ties closely with how we physically interact with our world, maintaining balance and orientation as we move through different environments and activities. This is especially important in handball goalkeeping, where a good spatial awareness and a good balance in every moment equals having a good starting position to perform any kind of save reaction.
Vestibular System Activation
The vestibular system, located in the inner ear, plays a critical role in maintaining balance, coordinating movements, and spatial orientation, all of which are very important for goalkeepers. Activating this system through specific training exercises can significantly improve a goalkeeper’s ability to maintain equilibrium and stability during quick movements and save reactions.
Exercises that stimulate the vestibular system include balance specific and challenging positions with slow or dynamic head movements, with addition of proprioceptive drills in more advanced versions of exercises.
Applied Neuroscience
This field applies principles from neuroscience to enhance the cognitive functions related to sports performance.
For handball goalkeepers, this means improving reaction times, decision-making under pressure, and visual tracking of fast-moving objects. Techniques such as neurofeedback, cognitive training principles, and sensorimotor training exercises are some of the ways used to sharpen these cognitive skills.
Integrating vestibular system activation and applied neuroscience into goalkeeper training can lead to visible improvements in performance. Goalkeepers can react faster to shots, adjust their positioning with better accuracy, and maintain focus throughout the game.
This holistic approach not only enhances physical capabilities but also optimizes mental processing and decision-making, crucial for the split-second judgments required in goalkeeping. The combination of vestibular system activation and applied neuroscience in handball goalkeeper training offers a modern, scientifically backed method to boost performance.
By focusing on both the physical and cognitive aspects of goalkeeping, coaches can provide their athletes with the tools needed for success on the court, making saves that were once thought impossible and elevating their game to new levels.
Vestibular System Activation and Applied Neuroscience in Handball Goalkeeper Training
In the demanding role of a handball goalkeeper, quick reflexes, exceptional balance, and spatial orientation are extremely important. Recent advancements in sports science have highlighted the significance of the vestibular system and applied neuroscience in optimizing these attributes.
In the context of handball goalkeeping, activating the vestibular system is quite important because it involves a high degree of balance, agility, and spatial orientation – all of which are directly influenced by the vestibular system.
Here are a few reasons for why this is important for handball goalkeepers:
Fast Positioning and Balance
A handball goalkeeper has to frequently adjust their position quickly to effectively react to different shots from various angles. This requires excellent balance and spatial awareness to maintain stability and orientation even after sudden movements.
Save Reactions and Fast Recovery
When a goalkeepers make save reactions, they have to react properly and effectively, and they also need to recover quickly to be ready for rebounds and potential next shots. This repeated cycle of positioning, making save reactions, and returning to a ready starting goalkeeper position can be challenging for the vestibular system, which needs to quickly recalibrate after each movement to prevent disorientation and confusion.
Tracking the Ball
As the ball moves quickly across the court, goalkeepers have to track its speed and trajectory accurately. This involves fast eye movements and head adjustments, which are coordinated by the vestibular system to ensure that the goalkeeper’s perception of motion remains accurate.
Training Drills
Specific training drills that involve rotating, jumping, and maintaining balance can help in strengthening the vestibular responses. These might include exercises like 180 or 360 jump turns, spinning and stopping suddenly to focus on a specific point, or practice drills that replicate the quick changes in direction required during a game.
Activating and training the vestibular system can significantly improve a goalkeeper’s performance by improving their ability to remain balanced and oriented in the highly dynamic and physically demanding situations in handball games. This aspect of training is essential not only for peak performance but also for injury prevention, as a well-trained vestibular system helps maintain stability and control during high-intensity situations.
I have started using principles of applied neuroscience in my handball goalkeeper coaching about 10 years ago, and I have noticed big improvements amongst the goalkeepers I have worked with. I really enjoy talking about this part of my coaching work when I lecture around the world, as these are some more advanced, and newer ideas in goalkeeper coaching that many coaches are curious about.
Video – Vestibular System Activation in Saves of High and Low Shots
Video – Combo Exercise With the Resistance Band for Saves of Low and High Shots
In the video below you can see one of the combo drills versions for save reactions of low and high shots. This combo drill has many progressions and options, depending on what you want to work on.
Just keep in mind that you should always take care that your goalkeeper is performing a proper technique and that you should adjust the complexity level of this exercise to the level of your goalkeeper. Besides that, you can be creative and add as many different versions and options of it as you want.
Video – Combo for Saves of Low and High Shots From 9 Meters With a High Cone
In this video, you can see a combo drill for save reactions on low and high shots from 9 meters with a high cone. This exercise has many progressions and options, depending on what exactly you want to work on. This combo drill has a fun element to it that is very good when working with young goalkeepers. They love having a “target” or an additional task to do (external focus), so picking up the high cone and placing it on the other side of the body always works well when we want to get our young goalkeepers to make a little bit deeper side step for a low save reaction. As you can see – there is a flat cone at the place where the goalkeeper is starting in the basic stance. But if you want, you can add flat cones on each side, as a point on which you want a goalkeeper to place the high cone – thus making a deeper or shorter side step.
Just keep in mind that you should always take care that your goalkeeper is performing proper technique and that you should adjust the level and complexity of the drill to the level of your goalkeepers.
Video – Shooting Combo Drill for Saves of High and Low Shots
This is what happens when players and head coach need the whole court and I have only small corner behind the goal to work with goalkeepers. In this video you can see a combo for saves of high and low shots from 9 meter, shots in hands and shots between the legs.
This is a very effective combo drill to work on after your goalkeeper is able to perform properly movements for saves of high and low shots. You can always break this combo in more simple elements, and use slower pace of shots, depending on what your goal is with the exercise.
To add more agility and power in the movements, we have used SKLZ Recoil 360™ All-Position Resistance Trainers.
Video – Warm-Up Combo for Saves of Low and High Shots From 9 Meters
In the video below you can find some of the warm-up combo drill ideas that combine technique for saves of high and low shots from 9 meters, and you can use them in the warm-up phase of your training with the goalkeepers.
Video – Combo for High and Low Save Reactions With a Medicine Ball
In the video below, you can see two combo drills with a medicine ball (heavy ball) that can be used in handball goalkeeper training either during the pre-season or during the competition part of the season but at the beginning of a micro cycle.
Important to note: Both high and low save reactions in this video are performed faster and in a shorter range of motion than they would be performed normally and this is because the main focus was on the speed.
Low save reactions without a medicine ball in the video are not done with a deep side step, and high save reaction without medicine ball are “shorter” and faster than they should be. This is also because the main focus was on the speed of goalkeeper specific movements in this combo drill.
Video – Options for Working on the Side Push Off Step in Saves of High and Low Shots
- OPTION 1 – Side step deep low reaction with the middle step, with the resistance band around the waist
- OPTION 2 – Side step deep low reaction with the middle step
- OPTION 3 – Lateral push off high save reaction from the place, without the middle step, with the resistance band around the waist
- OPTION 4 – Side step deep low reaction to shots, with the fast middle step, after touching the opposite side post
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