His current coaches limit him to half a game at keeper and then move him to outfield where he is also a strong player. Previous coaches tried to specialize him at U8 and U9 and he hated it and burned out. You really have to look at the mindset of the player. He’ll do anything for the team, but only to a point. I know if he were specialized now he would burn out again.

My approach has been to keep him focusing on footskills as a field player, and 95+% of his backyard work is footskills and juggling. We occasionally do 10 mins or so of keeper footwork and technique, but usually just play catch for fun. We use everything from soccer balls, footballs, tennis balls, golf balls, and nerf footballs. Any ball that is difficult to catch and develops soft hands will work, especially nerf footballs.

He’s never attended a club keeper training session, but has had 11 private sessions over the last 4 years–not much training. And the training was because he got a big head and became uncoachable! So I’m coming from the parent of a good keeper who is trying to develop a soccer player and let my son have fun and love playing soccer. So far so good.

Our growing problem is that his team has no other good keepers, so we lose games because of cheap goals going in when he plays outfield. Yes, you’d like to have 3 or 4 good keepers, but what to do if you don’t? He doesn’t want to lose, but doesn’t want to play whole games at keeper.