a) When tipping / parrying / full stretch: Roll upon landing as it can reduce load on hip as pressure will be distributed
b) When holding ball from dive / collapse: Use ball to absorb force upon impact with bent arms
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The thought of returning to the field and diving around to save balls on rock hard ground is something which may cause anxiety for a lot of keepers 😰
The fear of injury 🤕 is completely understandable and is something that even pros are secretly worried about 🤫
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So what can we do? 🤷♀️
🧠 Here’s a few sports psychology tips that might be worth a go from The Goalkeeper Psychology Consultant. Not only has he studied in this field but he’s also a current pro goalkeeper, so he knows the game!
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🔑 The key when dealing with fear is to be honest and confront its existence
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“Inside the Box” is a safe place for us to be open and support one another, so let’s start doing just that 🙌
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It has been shown that on average elite level GKs typically perform 4-10 ‘defensive actions’ per game, all at high intensity.
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💥🚀
These actions are very short in duration, often with long intervals in between them. Therefore, whist physical fatigue may not be the issue for GKs during match-play, the ability to concentrate and focus for those prolonged periods, may be the deciding factor.
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🍌🍓🥔🍗🥩
In my previous post I highlighted that research indicates that GKs energy expenditure was approximately 600 kcal.d-1 less than that observed in outfield players, for example, approximately 2900 kcal vs 3500 kcal per day.
GKs don’t hop to set. They hop to self organise their body to dive.
You see a “mistake” and look at twitter you’ll find countless theories regarding why that GK conceded which always leads to a technical / physical error.
But your body will only produce an action as a reaction to what it perceives.
Is the chosen action wrong because of what the brain is telling them to do as opposed to their body “unable to do something” due to set up?
Set up changes according to situation / what you perceive.
So how do people differentiate between anatomical and mental “issues”?
Remember this is just thoughts! But hopefully this thread can give others something else to think about before jumping to a physical fix.