SOCCER

Introduction

Leave an elastic ban in the freezer overnight. Take it out the next day, and pull on it hard. What will happen? It will snap. If you take it out of the freezer, put into the refrigerator and than into room temperature, you now have to prepare the elastic ban to be stretched to its maximum. Your body and mind are no different.

It is vital that you standardize your pre-game warm-up. This warm-up should be yours. Design the warm-up to fit your specific needs. The warm-up is a reflection of your personality. A solid warm-up provides consistency in your game. Too often, goalkeepers warm-up according to the competition or importance of the game. The result: You play well against good teams and play poorly against average teams. We tend to be more motivated to play against top competition. The very best keepers are considered the best because they consistently deliver good performances. The factors that are critical to address are mental and physical preparation. If you appear to know what you're doing, even before the game, you have already established yourself as a professional!

Players, coaches, and spectators admire a quality warm-up. Get the pre-game edge. When I was the Portuguese National Team keeper coach, Vitor Baia, was rated as the second best goalkeeper in the world. We both designed a detailed warm-up to meet his needs. It took time, experimentation and work to assemble a warm-up that helped him be ready for the international arena. Regardless, if he was playing in Italy or Estonia, the warm-up was identical. By the way, Vitor gave up the fewest goals during the World Cup qualification process! Here are the factors we needed to consider:

Calculated the length of the warm-up

Matches were televised around the world. Therefore, we needed to make sure we were on time. It took us exactly
23 minutes to complete the warm-up. We calculated the length of the warm-up, so that there was enough time for Vitor to complete his warm-up and return to the dressing room to put on his game jersey. He had two sets of clothing, pre-game and match.

Rehearse

The high level of noise required us to choreograph the pre-game warm-up the day before. This was necessary so that we did not have to verbally communicate instructions because we could not hear each other. Our body language provided us with the clues to know what was next.

Establish a rhythm

It was very important to establish rhythm. This allows things to flow. It cannot be accomplished unless it is trained on a regular basis. It needs to be mastered. If you do not establish a proper sequence, you will not be smooth and the spectators will sense that and jump all over you.

Comfort zone

The warm-up provided a comfort zone and a needed level of confidence to handle anything.

Visualize

His warm-up began before he even entered the field. Mentally, he was visualizing before the match. Even his dressing was very methodical. Vitor would begin to visualize. He would play the game in his mind’s eye before he actually played. This is a very powerful tool. We sat down and recalled his best saves and moments in exquisite detail. It involved a series of different saves as well as effective distribution and communication. So when the game began, he had already played it and was ready to confront any situation. He was relaxed and ready to perform. One of his trademarks is how cool he remains even when the action gets hot.

Courtesy Dan Gaspar - Star Goalkeeping Academy.