Choosing a Goalkeeper Camp

What should a goalkeeper should look for in choosing a keeper camp? I believe that the first factor in this decision is the age of the keeper. If he/she is High School aged and has plans to play college soccer, there are two things to consider. First, does he/she have an idea of what College he/she would like to attend? If he/she does then it would be an excellent idea for her to attend the camp of that college’s coach. This will give her an excellent opportunity to be seen by the head coach and the staff as well as give the keeper an opportunity to experience the staff’s coaching style. It’s one thing to hear about a coach’s style but another thing to see it and experience it up close and personally. For example, if I was a junior in high school and I was interested in attending Harvard University I would try to attend a Harvard Soccer Camp. If they did not provide adequate keeper training, or were disorganized in the running of the camp, then I would have to give a great deal of thought to whether that was the type of organization I want to be associated with.

If you are selecting a camp without regard for college exposure and experience the most important factor to consider is the training you will receive at the camp. Fancy facilities and swimming pools and things like that are nice, but they won’t affect the training at all. It really comes down to who is doing the training and what exactly they’re teaching. I’ve been to some big well known soccer camps where the keeper training was completely inadequate. The first day of camp, I have seen keepers diving over each other to show their ability to extend on dives when these keepers didn’t know how catch the ball properly. The uneducated observer might think it was pretty cool to see the keepers doing that but I believe it’s borderline negligence. If the coaches don’t coach within the capabilities of the campers then they are not doing their job. In choosing a camp, check out the keeper coaches. Are they qualified? Are they simply college players with no background in coaching who are following a schedule without regard for the level of the campers? Are they capable of coaching different players at different levels at the same time? Unfortunately, none of these are easy questions to answer. What makes a coach qualified? Certainly not coaching licenses since there are too many coaches running around with A licenses who don’t know a damned thing about keepers (or about field players for that matter). I guess the best indicator is history. Has the keeper coach successfully coached quality keepers in the past? In using history as an indicator, there is always the qualifier that is used in investments "prior success does not guarantee future success" but it is probably the best determination. If at all possible, check out the keeper coaches in a training situation prior to signing up for a camp. I realize this is difficult to do but it’s the best thing I can think of at the present time.

One of the difficulties with some of the big camps out there is that the "name" coach doesn’t show up often or doesn’t do any of the coaching. This does not mean it’s a bad camp but rather it just means that you have to do more research to find out who will be doing the training and find out about them. If you contact a camp to find out who will be doing the training and the camp wont tell you then in my opinion; this speaks volumes about the camp.

There are a lot of arguments for and against isolated keeper camps Vs keeper camps connected to field player camps. Rather then getting into it here, I will simply say that you need to determine what is best for you. I have worked at both and think both types can be very effective if done properly.

When it comes to talking about big keeper camps, there really are two. They are Tony DiCico’s SoccerPlus and Joe Machniks Number One Goalkeeping Camp. Both are very intense, high level camps that are also very expensive. I believe most people leave the camps feeling they were worth the cost but when I say they are expensive, I am talking about $600-800 dollars per week.