How do I support my goalkeeper as a team coach/goalkeeper coach/parent?

Today's entry is intended to serve as a small guide for coaches, goalkeeping coaches and parents to support their protégé/child on and off the pitch.

As a goalkeeper, it is essential to have people you can rely on to support you… and it is even better if you do a lot of things right from the start .

team coach

As a team coach, you are not specifically responsible for the goalkeeper, but you are of course an authority figure for him.

It is important to know that you should be careful about criticizing your goalkeeper, especially during games, as in this position, it is more important than perhaps any other to feel comfortable in the position and to act with confidence.

In training, of course, it's a different story... if your goalkeeper is less motivated than in a game, you can certainly point this out. A tip advocated by many sports psychologists is to remind the goalkeeper what they're capable of when they're fully focused. The benchmark should always be the goalkeeper's highest level, NOT the performance of a teammate or competitor.

Goalkeeper coach

As a goalkeeping coach, you are also an authority figure for your goalkeeper, but I firmly believe that the best goalkeeping coaches are distinguished not only by their high level of expertise, but above all by their social qualities such as empathy and enthusiasm. You have to make your goalkeeper feel like you are giving him your 100 percent attention and energy during training and that you are also supporting him beyond that, whether it's with problems off the pitch or with things like criticism from teammates, coaches, or anyone else.

This way, you'll quickly win over your goalkeeper completely, and regardless of whether he's ambitious or not, he'll always try to give his best. Again, if this isn't the case during training, feel free to talk to him about the qualities he's missing due to a lack of concentration.

If you work together very intensively (several times a week), it is also important to incorporate your goalkeeper's assessments and thoughts on his abilities into your training plan and, above all, to coordinate the unit with him during the last training session before the game. Because, as already mentioned, it is important that the goalkeeper goes into his game with a strong feeling of confidence... and this confidence can often be achieved by doing his favorite exercises at the end of training!

Parents

Parents naturally play a central role as supporters and even if it is often not shown, their authority is the greatest and their words carry the most weight, especially in a child's subconscious.

There has long been a consensus in (sports) psychology: Parents can and should support, parents can and should express their honest opinion about a child's achievements, but parents should NOT constantly criticize a child's/goalkeeper's attitude or ability, and they should NOT constantly point out mistakes. One thing is clear: The motivation to achieve any goal can only come from the child themselves. This is referred to as intrinsic (internal) motivation, where motivation is primarily derived from the activity itself.

With too much pressure, which is inherent in football and especially in the goalkeeper position, you run the risk of falling into extrinsic (outward-directed) motivation. This may release a lot of energy in the short term, and mottos like "Today I'll show everyone" may carry a motivating vibe… but in the medium to long term, it's inevitable that even the most passionate goalkeeper will lose the fun with this type of motivation, and with it, at some point, the energy and fire that was within them before.

That's why it's all the more important as a parent to give your child the feeling that you love them not for their achievements, but rather for themselves. Because true motivation, true ambition, and true peak performance never come from the passion of the parents, but always from the enthusiasm of the child!

With this in mind, let us work together to support our children/protégés the way they deserve.