SimpleCoach D3 Soccer YouTube Channel

[Another Mom]

I love these questions! (Well, I'm still fascinated by recruiting).

We parents can probably answer some of these questions. My son was 1st seen by the program he committed to in August after his junior year, and accepted the offer 10 days later (with a campus visit and a preread (16 hours rt) in the middle of that). So one bit f data that players can come on at the last minute!

[jknezek]

Yeah, I've been rather astounded to watch the "evolution" of goalkeeping over the last decade or so. Beyond my coaching years, I was doing some freelance one-off sessions and it was bizarre how many kids in junior high and above that hadn't been taught the "W" and "M" techniques for catching. A lot of slapping and weak parrying and, man, it really bugged me.

I like the evolution or modification on breakaways (staying upright longer, not just diving at the ball no matter what), but the move away from controlling very controllable shots is just weird. I don't get it and I don't like it.

/getoffmylawn

My theory is that it's a combination of things. 

1.  It's a bit of a side effect of the win over development pressure that coaches are under in the modern youth game.  If you ask young GKs to catch, you're going to have to endure some mistakes where the ball goes through their hands or bounces back in front of the goal and the striker pounds it home.  So, if the coaches have a GK coach in their club, they ask them to help "fix" the problem, which usually means showing them how to push or parry it out to the side.  Young GKs aren't that great at that either, but at least they have a better chance of getting it out of immediate danger, which means the coach and the sideline are happier.

2.  The development of finger saves in GK gloves.  That's a relatively new phenomenon and they probably do help save the fingers from getting bent back, but it means the young keepers never develop the muscle and grip strength that comes from having to actually learn how to catch and brace their core and the lower half of their bodies for a catch.  The finger saves mean that the gloves do some of the work for the easy balls in GK training, but with real shots where you need to do more, the kids just can't grip down on the ball and they never develop the muscles to do that as they get older.

3.  US GK coaches who grew up in the 1980s and 90s are aging out and being replaced by European GK coaches or GKs trained by Euro coaches.  In Europe, they do not teach goalkeepers to catch nearly as much as US GKs were taught growing up until recently.  The theory is that the ball is lighter and moves more and therefore setting up to catch can increase the possibility for mistakes whereas being ready to push or parry allows you to adapt to changes in the ball's flight.  I'm not sure that's really true for all but a small fraction of shots (and certainly an even smaller fraction at the youth level), but it's still a heck of a lot easier to learn to catch first, and then learn when you may need to do something different, then not be taught to catch and try to learn it later.

4.  The move to play out of the back means that young GKs, who have a finite amount of time to practice, are practicing the basics less.  It's great that they are learning to play out of the back with their feet, but when a GK could handle every pass back with their hands, the feet were less critical and they could practice catching all day long. 

5.  Youtube and social media are glorifying GK training styles that emphasize all sorts of crazy things that involve leaping and diving over things.  Kids gravitate to goal because they love those things.  Moving your feet to get your body behind a nice solid catch, by contrast, is boring, so GK trainers are doing what appeals to their customers.  Some coaches are also impressed by the top corner saves and they don't understand concepts of catching everything in their bubble etc, so they pick and promote the non-catching GKs, which incentivizes kids to work on those things rather than catching.

+K from me.

[Hopkins92]

Yeah, I've been rather astounded to watch the "evolution" of goalkeeping over the last decade or so. Beyond my coaching years, I was doing some freelance one-off sessions and it was bizarre how many kids in junior high and above that hadn't been taught the "W" and "M" techniques for catching. A lot of slapping and weak parrying and, man, it really bugged me.

I like the evolution or modification on breakaways (staying upright longer, not just diving at the ball no matter what), but the move away from controlling very controllable shots is just weird. I don't get it and I don't like it.

/getoffmylawn

My theory is that it's a combination of things. 

1.  It's a bit of a side effect of the win over development pressure that coaches are under in the modern youth game.  If you ask young GKs to catch, you're going to have to endure some mistakes where the ball goes through their hands or bounces back in front of the goal and the striker pounds it home.  So, if the coaches have a GK coach in their club, they ask them to help "fix" the problem, which usually means showing them how to push or parry it out to the side.  Young GKs aren't that great at that either, but at least they have a better chance of getting it out of immediate danger, which means the coach and the sideline are happier.

2.  The development of finger saves in GK gloves.  That's a relatively new phenomenon and they probably do help save the fingers from getting bent back, but it means the young keepers never develop the muscle and grip strength that comes from having to actually learn how to catch and brace their core and the lower half of their bodies for a catch.  The finger saves mean that the gloves do some of the work for the easy balls in GK training, but with real shots where you need to do more, the kids just can't grip down on the ball and they never develop the muscles to do that as they get older.

3.  US GK coaches who grew up in the 1980s and 90s are aging out and being replaced by European GK coaches or GKs trained by Euro coaches.  In Europe, they do not teach goalkeepers to catch nearly as much as US GKs were taught growing up until recently.  The theory is that the ball is lighter and moves more and therefore setting up to catch can increase the possibility for mistakes whereas being ready to push or parry allows you to adapt to changes in the ball's flight.  I'm not sure that's really true for all but a small fraction of shots (and certainly an even smaller fraction at the youth level), but it's still a heck of a lot easier to learn to catch first, and then learn when you may need to do something different, then not be taught to catch and try to learn it later.

4.  The move to play out of the back means that young GKs, who have a finite amount of time to practice, are practicing the basics less.  It's great that they are learning to play out of the back with their feet, but when a GK could handle every pass back with their hands, the feet were less critical and they could practice catching all day long. 

5.  Youtube and social media are glorifying GK training styles that emphasize all sorts of crazy things that involve leaping and diving over things.  Kids gravitate to goal because they love those things.  Moving your feet to get your body behind a nice solid catch, by contrast, is boring, so GK trainers are doing what appeals to their customers.  Some coaches are also impressed by the top corner saves and they don't understand concepts of catching everything in their bubble etc, so they pick and promote the non-catching GKs, which incentivizes kids to work on those things rather than catching.

All very great points and perspective. Couple of follow up points:

1) As we all know, the area where the US first produced "world-class" footballers were the guys between the pipes. Long before any field players were making a mark in Europe, you had your Kasey Kellers, Brad Friedels and Timmy Howards playing at the very highest level. There's a reason for that success, and it was due to the American sport emphasis on learning really good hand-eye coordination with multi-sport backgrounds from a very young age. It's a shame this appears to be regressing, as more sports are forcing the better players to choose just one sport (and pay ungodly amounts of money to just one club/team, but that's another rant.)

2) I actually played long enough (into my late 30s) to avail myself of the new(ish) goalkeeper tech. I liked the finger savers a LOT, particularly for a few of my fingers (pinky on the left, middle two on my right) that had been popped a few times over the years. I can certainly see why that tech would lead to poor technique if that's all you ever knew.

With that said, I'm such a dinosaur that -- to your point about grip and feel -- I would take my gloves off for at least 1/4 of my drills. I started doing that in high school after a shot skipped off my hands in a game and I realized I was becoming too reliant on the tacky aspect of gloves to catch. I also trained my goalies that way, and they HATED it :-) They did get used to it and saw the value.

[SimpleCoach]

SC, some questions/discussions I would love to see with some coaches (Both men's and women's).   Of course, they have to do with recruiting. Because after going through the whole process for close to two years, I'd really love to know what goes on on their end.  You got some good insight from one of your women's coach interviews (Hoover, I think?) regarding the emailing being critical.   Some things that I have been curious about or would love to hear about:

1) Recruiting websites:  Do you use them and what are their value in the process?   How much attention do you pay to them and what percentage of your contact comes through them?

2)  Would love to hear stories about "The one that got away" or just about players that maybe they thought they had and lost, or a player that wasn't on their radar that came into their view late that ended up being a great contributor.

3)  Tournaments:  How many do you go to and with time constraints, if you only can watch a player for 15-30 minutes, what are you looking for and do you feel you can accurately judge them base on such a small sample size?  Or are you more or less there for "facetime" and introductions? 

4)  High School: Do you even really care if they play it, or are there any scenarios that you have/would go watch a high school  game?

5)  What percentage of players on your squad did you find and recruit to come to your school (And how do you typically find them?), as opposed to players that reached out and were interested in your program and sold YOU that they were a good fit?

6)  To what degree are ID camps a "money grab" as opposed to a talent search?  I know a lot of schools use camps on their campus as their primary recruiting tool.  What about ID camps where multiple schools and coaches attend? Are these worthwhile?

Of course these could use some refining, but you are an expert interviewer now, right? 

@VAFury, I've added these to my script.  Will start asking in one form or fashion.

[Ejay]

Hey SC - Now that you're "in" with a these coaches, has it had any influence (negative or positive) with your son's recruiting?

[SimpleCoach]

Hey SC - Now that you're "in" with a these coaches, has it had any influence (negative or positive) with your son's recruiting?

Hey @Ejay.  Honestly, the reason for going by SimpleCoach is so that I don't have any influence on the recruiting process.  I have spoken to a couple of coaches who I have interviewed about him, only after he has reached out.  And it was usually about an upcoming camp or if they thought he really has the ability to play.  But I really want him to stand on his own merit and desire.

Ultimately, I think he will play, and I think he will play for a pretty high level school unless he goes full academic and decides to go to a school that offers what he is interested in but isn't being recruited.  I will say, and maybe this is me "knowing" more than average, I do find it funny some of the feedback he has gotten from lesser teams.  Not a fit, or just ignored.  Meanwhile there are a number of Top 20 teams who have expressed an interest.  Makes no sense to me.

[Another Mom]

@simplecoach that was our experience too --  interest from some top programs, but couldn't get much lower ranked ones to even reply. My theory is that's one reason they were lower ranked -- they did a poor job with recruiting!

[camosfan]

Hey SC - Now that you're "in" with a these coaches, has it had any influence (negative or positive) with your son's recruiting?

Hey @Ejay.  Honestly, the reason for going by SimpleCoach is so that I don't have any influence on the recruiting process.  I have spoken to a couple of coaches who I have interviewed about him, only after he has reached out.  And it was usually about an upcoming camp or if they thought he really has the ability to play.  But I really want him to stand on his own merit and desire.

Ultimately, I think he will play, and I think he will play for a pretty high level school unless he goes full academic and decides to go to a school that offers what he is interested in but isn't being recruited.  I will say, and maybe this is me "knowing" more than average, I do find it funny some of the feedback he has gotten from lesser teams.  Not a fit, or just ignored.  Meanwhile there are a number of Top 20 teams who have expressed an interest.  Makes no sense to me.

A larger part of the game is opinion, how often we see players getting cut from one team to go someplace else and become a star?

[SimpleCoach]

Just posted another interview.  This time, headed to Iowa and talked to Chris Garcia-Prats from Luther College.

Chris Garcia-Prats from Luther College ... the Norse.... Best logo of D3 so far.

[VAFury]

@simplecoach that was our experience too --  interest from some top programs, but couldn't get much lower ranked ones to even reply. My theory is that's one reason they were lower ranked -- they did a poor job with recruiting!

Really clarified for me why some programs that should be better are not.  Some coaches just seem to see recruiting as a necessary evil or something.

[SimpleCoach]

Just realized I've reached 334 subscribers, which quite honestly I find to be quite insane. I blame the great people I have encountered along the way ... coaches, fans, and general D3 crazies. 

Not sure what I am doing, and I stumble through most of this, but I do appreciate how many people who have chimed in with ideas and thoughts about how to make the channel better.  Whether or not I have delivered on them is on me, but I definitely would have lost steam and focused in on my normal life if it wasn't for you all.  Therefore, I keep stumbling on to my dream of becoming a YouTube influencer in spite of how crazy this all is.

To quote that great American goalkeeper, Robert Hatch ..."This friggin' game is ruining my life."

All Things Division III Soccer YouTube Channel

[SimpleCoach]

So, realize this one is with a women's head coach, but we do discuss women coaching men's teams.  I will be doing a Quick Shot on it but figured I would post the entire video.  Think the discussion is around the 11th minute.

Colleen Pivirotto of the University of Scranton

[SimpleCoach]

Just had a wonderful conversation with Brandon  Grady and his work at Juniata College.

Brandon Grady, Head Men's Coach at Juniata College

[Ejay]

Just had a wonderful conversation with Brandon  Grady and his work at Juniata College.

Brandon Grady, Head Men's Coach at Juniata College

You've made the top news story...
https://www.juniatasports.net/sports/msoc/index

[SimpleCoach]

Just had a wonderful conversation with Brandon  Grady and his work at Juniata College.

Brandon Grady, Head Men's Coach at Juniata College

You've made the top news story...
https://www.juniatasports.net/sports/msoc/index

I know.  Crazy...