I believe that you are pretty aware of that fitness is an important part of your training but let’s start with this question:

How many times have you arrived to a practice session and started to throw yourself after the ball without warming up (probably too many!)?

Beginning your practice without warming up will sooner or later result in a serious injury.

It is also common that your coach says that you should warm up by yourself and never tells you how to do that.

I mean, shouldn’t they at least give you some instructions on what type of exercises you should do? Don’t worry, I have you covered!

As a goalkeeper you need to be very fit, if not fitter than your other teammates. This takes us to following question; how to develop your fitness?

Well, you could walk to your local library, find some goalkeeper books and study them or you could make your life easier and read my following guidelines.

Warming Up is Crucial

Proper warming up and stretching is vital for your fitness. By doing this you will not only prepare your body for hard physical activity, you will also avoid serious injuries.

Before starting a practice or soccer match always make sure that you have gone through your set of stretching and warm up exercises.

A good idea is to get a teammate (if he/she is a substitute and not starting the game) to assist you.

A good way to know if you have warmed up properly is to check if you have any sweat on your brow. If you’re sweating, then you’re doing it right, I promise!

Endurance Training

Don’t think just because you spend most of your time standing on the goal line that you should not develop your running abilities.

The best way to do this is to involve endurance training as an important part of your fitness.

During a soccer match you are required to move through short bursts of explosive effort and have ability to recover from these quickly.

In other words, there is no reason why you should not participate in the regular endurance sessions of your team.

Strength Training

As a soccer goalie you need to be strong in the air, your goal kicks need to be hard and you need to be able to release the ball quickly with a strong and accurate throw.

So, how should you increase these soccer skills? The answer is strength training. This type of training is a core component of your conditioning regime.

What type of strength training you will participate in will depend on how old you are and your development as a goalkeeper. For example, you should not participate in intense weight training sessions.

As a goalkeeper you need to have good upper and lower body strength while your teammates (field players) will usually concentrate on developing better lower body strength.

Summary

Besides all of the above requirements, you’re going to need to have good reflexes with both your hands and feet in order to play as a goalkeeper.

To develop your reflexes you should participate in the sprint practices of your team training. Don’t accept if your coach tells you to step aside during the sprint sessions of your team practice.

Instead, tell them that you truly feel that this is an important part of your fitness and you really need to participate for your own sake.