Thread by @themoderndaygk, Up in the air but how do they land(Thread)GKs don’t hop to [...]

Up in the air but how do they land

(Thread)

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.

Up in the air but how do they land(Thread)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.

Nearly all GKs will hop pre-shot.

But what I think the main thing that people don’t realise is that when they see a GK leaving the ground, is that they are hopping to “set”.

This is a Misconception...

A GK “hops” to self organise their body to dive and utilise the stretch shortening cycle.

They can also still land from a hop and move their feet. This is like a split step in tennis.

This allows the GK to analyse the shot trajectory whilst in the air so they can self organise their body to be in the best position to make the save.

Eg: before

is hit, there’ll be many cues you take pre-shot which impact what you think will happen next (but not guaranteed).

Around point of contact a GK will hop to release their feet from the floor.

They then have cues to take from the balls trajectory during early flight which can give you a hint at where the ball could be going.

So let’s say we know the ball is going to the left.

First, you land with your right foot (wide). This allows you to shift your body weight towards the ball direction.

You’ll begin the push with the right
(contralateral leg) & then ball side will come under to dictate direction / height / distance of dive.

This has been referred to as “double tap”.

Meaning you get two pushes.

One from CL first and then by ipsilateral leg (BS).

When GKs are moving prior to a save, there’ll be a time where either both feet are off the floor to allow you to split still or you’ll be moving your feet towards the ball and then create the step (push from contralateral leg first then ball side leg)

Depending on the distance of the ball to you and also reaction time available, you may not get that extra push from that ball side leg.

I think the issue with goals within a GKs reach is usually down to GKs guessing / over anticipating / not picking up the right cues / info quick enough / reaction time / getting “done” by a mis hit.

You can see this by Rui example on first tweet and also these recent ones.

I personally believe this is shown by how they land. It tells you everything about where they think the ball is going.

They’ll either land on the ball side leg first which means the weight is shifted to that side and they were expecting to dive the opposite way.

Or they can land both feet at the same time but very wide.

This might be alright with balls centrally as you don’t need to angle the body as much.

But when they a shot is further away from you, you can become “stuck” and then need to try and release the feet again.

People talk about losing time / mis timing the hop but you can see that every GK uses it at the right time (just before / on contact).

When you see a bigger hop that’s a probably a forced hop, it’s either because they know that time allows & starts it earlier.

But here’s a really interesting one!

Watch this from Fabinski. Watch the hop and then the right leg reaching first but then coming back in as it doesn’t plant into the ground.

Does he expect it to go near post maybe due to experience (seeing Greenwood’s finishing near post a lot)?

But then does the readjustment mean he’s able to see things better than others?

So what could be some of the factors that could potentially affect your decision making? There’ll be tactical, physical / technical and psychological factors.

There’ll be visual cues that you’ll take in pre shot (these are just a few):

- Body shape
- Way

is moving to / from player
- Whether they need a touch and where they touch it to or hit it first time
- Environment / situation (position of player / bodies blocking paths)

You’ll also have “your experience” that influences your decision as well as knowing the player (is he on his weaker foot, what has he done before in this situation, how does he like to finish).

Also confidence plays a huge part in how quick your body can make a decision.

When

begins to travel, you rely on your motion perception and depth perception to take info from the

to work out trajectory.

Which then allows you to know how to land.

But then you start to think how do you save it?

Do you hold / parry?

If you parry, how do you parry?

- When and how do you make contact
- Do you have to wait to meet at a later point
- Can you contact earlier
- One

- Two

s
- Direction of parry
- Do you contact the ball with a lot of force
- Do you steer / guide it away
- Over the bar
- Around the post
- Into certain area

Again these are just a few things that are being analysed at ridiculous quick speed.

But this is all happening pre shot and early flight whilst you’re still actually in the air!

But the most reliable cue to a GK is the latest one!

This leads me onto the point of:

How are people differentiating between anatomical and mental errors?

Most always go with the usual anatomical “problems”: hands too low, feet too wide, arm swing, hop.

How do these GKs make it so far with these clear “flaws” then? Surely they’ll concede more than they save

Wouldn’t we be seeing far more “errors” in these gks if that was the case?

I’ve looked and looked and always thought it’s more down to something “mentally” than it is “anatomically”.

I think a huge part comes down to GK intelligence / mental skills

- Experience to that particular shot / scenario
- Visual / spatial awareness
- How well they can focus on the right information and cancel out the irrelevant information.
- Focus / concentration to watch the

& pick up trajectory & also pre shot cues (without over anticipating)

These are just our thoughts so by no means are we saying THIS IS RIGHT

But watch goalkeepers land from their hops. It will tell you where they are expecting the ball to go.

You have to understand just how quick these decisions are being made.

The biggest influence on decision making has to be reaction time available which is influenced by all those things.

The game is becoming quicker and quicker, are GKs being exposed to True match like service (speeds / quality / trajectory / situations) and having similar decisions to make?

How natural is a hop and also the timing?

Here’s clips of outfield players going in goal and...

They Hop too and their timing is spot on

Does this not prove it’s an instinctive reaction that we just know to do?

Players who never had GK training before do it and time it right

There’s also some slight arm swings in there too..

But the big difference is the “goalkeeping” part for some

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