Internet goalkeeper coaching

When working with young goalkeepers, it’s essential that you teach them proper basic goalkeeper technique.

This sentence is my coaching “mantra”, and I have repeated it thousands of times in every lecture and training session. But I just can’t get over seeing online so many problematic things about goalkeeper training. I actually miss those good, old times, before the internet and before people were able to upload whatever they want on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or TikTok.

Of course everyone has the right to upload whatever they want. But when speaking about handball goalkeeper training (or any other kind of training), proper technique and methodology should be the core of presented material. This is where Internet goalkeeper coaching becomes both a blessing and a challenge for our sport.

The thing is that I have seen lately on the internet a lot more videos about goalkeeper training, which is good, but most of those videos are presenting very poor technique or wrong ways “how to do it”, and that’s very bad. The quantity of content has increased dramatically, but the quality hasn’t kept pace.

This topic has bothered me for a very long time, and every time it would pop up again, I wanted to write about it, but then I would give up. Now somehow I feel like I have to react. The worst of all is that I have seen some video materials showing poor goalkeeper technique from some known handball goalkeeper coaches, and that I can’t stand. If experienced coaches are putting out content with technical problems, what chance do less experienced coaches have to learn correctly?

Key Takeaways

• Quantity doesn’t equal quality: The explosion of online goalkeeper content means more resources, but also more misinformation. Coaches must learn to evaluate what they’re watching critically.
• Proper technique comes before “cool” drills: Complicated, impressive-looking exercises are worthless if they’re built on wrong fundamentals. Master the basics first.
• Know the difference between technique and style: Technique is the correct mechanical execution that all goalkeepers should learn. Style is the individual expression that develops after proper basic technique is established.
• You can’t teach what you don’t understand: Before being able to coach a proper goalkeeper’s technique, the coach must first understand and know what proper technique looks like and why it matters.
• Steps of progression are really important: Skipping developmental steps to get to advanced drills faster creates problems that become harder to fix over time.

The Problem with Internet Goalkeeper Coaching

Our “mission” as goalkeeper coaches is to present and teach proper ways to do things in goalkeeper training. We are such a small community that we should try to keep together, try our best, learn from each other, exchange ideas, and keep the materials we share online at a very high level.

But here’s what’s actually happening with Internet goalkeeper coaching: there are so many videos with poor basic technique, and if we don’t point that fact out (or at least mention “this looks problematic, but here is something else you can do to improve it”), then we create a ripple effect of poor coaching spreading through the handball world.

Think about it. A coach who never had a chance to be a goalkeeper finds a video online. They’re doing their best to help their team’s goalkeeper improve. They watch the video, see an exercise that looks interesting, and copy it exactly as shown. They try their best, but they miss a very important point: correcting the potentially wrong things the goalkeeper in the video was doing.

The exercise gets reproduced with the same technical flaws. The goalkeeper practices those flaws. The flaws become habits. The habits become limitations. And it all started with someone uploading content without attention to proper technique.

This is why responsible Internet goalkeeper coaching matters so much. The content we put out doesn’t just affect the people watching it directly. It affects everyone those viewers will eventually coach.

The “Cool Looking” Trap

And for goalkeeper heaven’s sake, when you do have time to give attention to your goalkeepers in training, PLEASE do not put up some very complicated, “cool looking” exercise or combo drill while ignoring the principles of correct progression in goalkeeper technique!

The point is not to make it look complicated or “cool”. The point is to help your goalkeeper perform correctly all the elements of goalkeeper technique, and after they are able to do that, THEN you can add some more speed and dynamic into exercises.

I see this constantly in Internet goalkeeper coaching content. Someone posts a drill with seven different movements, three types of equipment, and goalkeeper reactions in multiple directions. It looks impressive. It gets likes and shares. Other coaches see it and think, “I should do that with my goalkeepers.”

But what they don’t see is whether that goalkeeper has the foundational technique to benefit from that complexity. They don’t see whether the movements being practiced are actually correct. They just see activity that looks sophisticated.

Here’s what I’ve learned from decades of coaching: the most effective training often looks simple. A goalkeeper working on proper foot positioning for low saves might not make an exciting video, but it builds the foundation that everything else depends on. Internet goalkeeper coaching that prioritizes impressiveness over effectiveness does a disservice to everyone watching.

Why This Matters for Young Goalkeepers

To be able to teach, improve or identify mistakes in elements of goalkeeper technique, the coach first has to become familiar with the elements of proper technique!

This is especially critical for young goalkeepers. The movement patterns they learn early become deeply ingrained. A young goalkeeper who learns incorrect technique will have to unlearn those patterns before they can learn correct ones. This unlearning process is much harder than learning correctly in the first place.

When you’re working with YOUNG GOALKEEPERS, you really want to give your best to take care that they are performing correctly proper GOALKEEPER TECHNIQUE. After learning proper basic goalkeeper technique, every goalkeeper will develop their individual GOALKEEPER STYLE.

This distinction matters enormously. Technique is the correct mechanical execution that all goalkeepers should learn. It’s based on biomechanics, physics, and what actually works for making saves. Style is the individual expression that develops after technique is established. It reflects the goalkeeper’s body type, personality, preferences, and strengths.

Internet goalkeeper coaching often confuses these two concepts. Someone sees a professional goalkeeper with a distinctive style and tries to copy it directly, skipping the technique foundation that style is built upon. Or worse, they teach that style to young goalkeepers who haven’t yet developed their technical base.

To be able to guide this development, you as a goalkeeper coach have to know the difference between technique and style. You have to be the one who will help them detect which style would be the best for them, based on many important things that you have to understand first.

Questions Every Coach Should Ask

So please, just think about few things when making goalkeeper training and when consuming Internet goalkeeper coaching content:

Is my goalkeeper performing proper technique?

This seems obvious, but it requires that you actually know what proper technique looks like. If you’re not sure, that’s a signal to invest in your own education before trying to teach others. There’s no shame in not knowing something. The problem comes from pretending to know when you don’t.

If they’re not performing properly, how can I help them?

Identifying a problem is only the first step. Do you have the tools and knowledge to correct it? Do you understand why the correct technique works better? Can you explain it in a way your goalkeeper will understand? Can you design drills that will help them make the change?

What can we do to correct wrong learned things?

Sometimes you inherit a goalkeeper who has already developed poor habits. Changing ingrained patterns is difficult work. It requires patience, specific drills, and often a temporary decrease in performance as the goalkeeper transitions from their old (wrong but familiar) patterns to new (correct but unfamiliar) ones.

Is this exercise connected to a situation the goalkeeper would have in the game?

Training should transfer to performance. If an exercise looks impressive but doesn’t connect to actual game situations, what’s the point? Every drill should have a clear purpose related to what goalkeepers actually need to do during matches.

Am I ignoring proper technique for the sake of a “cool looking” exercise?

This is the most important question when evaluating Internet goalkeeper coaching content. Does this drill sacrifice fundamentals for visual appeal? If so, it’s not worth doing, no matter how many views it has.

You have to know what, when, and why you are doing things. Without this understanding, you’re just copying movements without grasping their purpose.

How to Evaluate Online Goalkeeper Content

Since Internet goalkeeper coaching is now an unavoidable reality, coaches need to develop skills for evaluating what they find online. Here are some principles I use:

Look at the fundamentals, not the complexity

When watching a goalkeeper training video, ignore how complicated or impressive the drill looks. Instead, focus on the basic technique being demonstrated. Is the goalkeeper’s stance correct? Are their movements efficient? Are they using proper mechanics for saves? If the fundamentals are wrong, the drill isn’t worth copying, no matter how elaborate it appears.

Consider the source

Who created this content? What’s their background? Have they worked with goalkeepers at high levels? Do they have formal education in coaching or sports science? This doesn’t mean only experts can share valuable information, but it should factor into how much you trust what you’re seeing.

Look for explanation, not just demonstration

Good Internet goalkeeper coaching includes explanation of why things are done a certain way. If a video just shows an exercise without explaining its purpose, the correct technique, and common mistakes to avoid, it’s incomplete at best. Coaches who truly understand their craft can articulate the reasoning behind their methods.

Watch for red flags

Certain things should immediately make you skeptical: goalkeepers practicing at speeds they can’t control with good technique, complex drills with young goalkeepers who haven’t mastered basics, focus on impressive visuals over correct execution, and absence of any correction or coaching feedback.

Cross-reference with multiple sources

If you see a technique or drill you’re not sure about, look for other sources covering the same topic. Does the information align? Are there respected coaches or organizations teaching the same thing? Consensus among knowledgeable sources is a good sign. A technique that only one person teaches and no one else supports should be viewed with caution.

The Responsibility of Content Creators

I really appreciate the effort of all goalkeeper coaches and all the other people who are helping and working hard on having more videos and materials about goalkeeping online. Internet goalkeeper coaching has made information accessible to coaches who would never have had access to specialized goalkeeper knowledge in the past. This democratization of information is genuinely valuable.

But with that opportunity comes responsibility. When you put content online, you’re potentially influencing thousands of coaches and young goalkeepers you’ll never meet. You’re shaping how people think about goalkeeper training. You’re either raising the standard of coaching in our sport or lowering it.

I am not criticizing anyone with this text. I am trying to point out some really important things about goalkeeper training, so we would all be able to make things a little bit better in the future.

If you’re creating Internet goalkeeper coaching content, consider these questions before you upload:

• Does this content demonstrate proper technique?
• If there are technical issues, have I acknowledged and addressed them?
• Have I explained why this drill or technique matters?
• Would I be comfortable if thousands of coaches copied this exactly as shown?
• Am I contributing to higher standards in our sport?

What We Can Do Together

This brings me to a question I’ve been thinking about for a long time: what can we do to improve the quality of Internet goalkeeper coaching across our sport?

Education for coaches

The more coaches understand proper technique, the better they can evaluate online content and the better content they can create themselves. Investing in coach education pays dividends across the entire system.

Community standards

As a goalkeeper coaching community, we can collectively promote high-quality content and provide constructive feedback on content that has problems. This doesn’t mean attacking people, but it does mean not staying silent when we see things that could harm goalkeeper development.

Mentorship

Experienced coaches can mentor newer coaches, helping them develop the critical eye needed to evaluate what they see online. This personal guidance is often more effective than any other form of education.

Dialogue and discussion

Instead of just consuming content passively, or instead of just criticizing, we can engage in discussions about technique, methodology, and best practices. These conversations help everyone refine their understanding.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this topic. Have you noticed the same or similar things? What can we do to change this? The comments section is open, and I genuinely want to hear from coaches who are navigating the world of Internet goalkeeper coaching.

The Path Forward

The internet isn’t going away, and neither is online goalkeeper content. Internet goalkeeper coaching will continue to grow in volume. The question is whether it will also grow in quality.

I believe it can. I believe that as more coaches develop critical evaluation skills, as more content creators take their responsibility seriously, and as our community holds itself to higher standards, we can make Internet goalkeeper coaching a genuine force for improvement in our sport.

But it requires effort from all of us. It requires being willing to learn, to question, and to hold ourselves accountable for the quality of what we teach and share.

The young goalkeepers coming up through our sport deserve coaches who know proper technique, who understand progression, and who prioritize their development over impressive-looking content. Let’s give them that.

Stay well and happy! 🙂

Ready for Proper Online Goalkeeper Coaching?

If you’re looking for quality online coaching that prioritizes proper technique and individualized development, I offer Individual Online Goalkeeper Coaching designed specifically to address the concerns I’ve raised in this article.

Unlike “generic Internet goalkeeper coaching content”, my individual program provides:

• Personalized analysis of your technique based on video submissions
• Customized drills plans built on proper progression principles, based on your goalkeeping needs
• Direct feedback from an experienced goalkeeper coach
• Focus on fundamentals before advancing to complex drills
• Clear explanations of why each element of technique matters

Whether you’re a goalkeeper looking to improve your game or a coach seeking guidance for your goalkeepers, this program offers the quality and attention to detail that random online videos simply can’t provide.

Learn more about Individual Online Goalkeeper Coaching →

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