This is part 2 of our article “Managing your reputation as a goalkeeper” see part one by clicking here.
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Are you communicating effectively?
It’s important that you communicate effectively during the game. This will show everyone watching that you know what you’re doing, that you aren’t afraid to take control and direct your team whenever necessary.
It also shows that you can step up and be a leader. This is not only a very important asset for a goalkeeper, but also it’s part of what can make the difference between a good team and an excellent team.
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Are you moving up and down the field with your team?
Good movement on the pitch is imperative to making sure that you stay connected with your back line and support them whenever necessary. To a coach this shows that you are aware of all the space on the pitch and that you aren’t afraid to step off your line.
Imagine that you are attached to your last defender by a piece of string - whenever they move up the field, you follow them.
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Are you showing up on time?
On time usually isn’t good enough if you want a great reputation. Get known as the guy or girl who shows up first. Again this will show everyone how serious you are to get to business and will alleviate any worries you have about being late - which can take away mental energy from the job you came to do.
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Are you confident taking your own goal kicks?
It’s surprising how many times you’ll see goalkeepers who aren’t confident taking their own goal kicks. If this is you then you simply need to work on this until you are extremely confident taking kicks.
Not only does this give you more influence over the game but not taking your own kicks makes you seem weak to the people watching you - whether that’s true or not.
This is the same for any area of weakness that you can identify - you just need to work on ironing out the kinks (to an obsessive level) until you are so incredibly confident in your ability that you don’t even need to think about it.
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Do you make it look easy?
It’s all too common to see goalkeepers making their job look harder than it needs to be. You don’t always need to make a dramatic dive for the ball.
Your main aim should be to make your saves look as easy and clean as possible. This will demonstrate your quality and confidence in yourself. Sometimes this means not diving if you don’t think it’s necessary.
In fact, some of the best saves are the ones where the striker has put everything he has into the shot, only for the keeper to effortlessly make the save without a worry.
Of course there’s more to this than what i’ve mentioned in the two parts of this article, but the basic idea is to demonstrate the confidence in yourself and your abilities whilst being able to lead the team and be aware of everything that’s happening on the pitch.
At the same time you should try to eliminate any mistakes as early as possible and recognise what you aren’t doing that you should be.
