Depth Perception
This visual skill is of critical importance when trying to make a save. Timing when jumping up to catch or punch the ball at just the right moment is a skill related to good depth perception. The goalkeeper must be able to judge the speed and spin on the ball as well as how quickly other players are moving toward or away from him/her. Everything in soccer is in almost constant, relative motion. Thus, there are many visual equations that the brain must constantly and quickly solve.
Techniques for improving depth perception (depth perception can not be improved directly, but by working on other visual skills one can enhance his/her depth perception):
1. You will need two people for this exercise. Get a twenty foot long piece of thick kite string and 4 or five beads of 3/8" to 3/4" in size and of different colors. Thread the beads onto the string and tie a knot at one end so that the beads cannot slide off. Have the person assisting you hold the end of the string with the knot at full arms’ length either above their head, down toward their waist, out to the right or out to the left. You will hold the un-knotted end
of the string up to your nose at a distance great enough for the string to be taut between the two of you. The person assisting you will call out a bead color and you will immediately look at that bead. You should be aware of two strings which appear to meet at the opening of the bead.
If you notice the strings meeting in front of or behind the bead try to get them to meet at the bead by using your eyes. If one of the strings disappears you are only using one eye and probably have poor or inconsistent depth perception (see an eye doctor who specializes in sports vision training). With practice you should be able to spontaneously and instantaneously get the strings to appear to meet at the opening of whichever bead you are looking at.
2. You will need two people for this exercise. You will also need a pickup stick and a straw (a normal straw, not the large bore ones available at McDonald’s!) for this technique. You will hold the pickup stick in your preferred hand while standing approximately two feet from your assistant who will have the straw. Your assistant will hold the
pickup stick at your eye-level, parallel to the front of your body. You will then hold the pickup stick at a distance of four inches from the straw so that if you were to move it directly toward the straw without moving it closer or further away from you, it would end up inside the straw. Once positioned, you will move the pickup stick directly toward the straw without fine-tuning the distance from you that you are holding the pickup stick. If your eyes are working properly together the pickup stick should go directly into the straw without even hitting the side of it. Now put the pickup stick back down at your side and have your assistant reposition the straw, still at eye-level but at a different distance from your eyes. Repeat this technique twenty times and keep track of the “hits” and “misses”. With practice you should consistently be able to get at least eighteen “hits” in twenty tries. If you cannot master this technique even after practice you probably have a problem with the eye-teaming mechanism in your brain (see an eye doctor who specializes in sports vision training).
Courtesy Dan Gaspar - Star Goalkeeping Academy.
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