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| Photo: GETTY IMAGES/PA |
It's been a long time coming, as I've pondered over what to actually write in this white box. I've wrote and edited this many times already this evening, and after the umpteenth start - I think for this first blog I'll keep it very simple !
Over the coming months I hope to share my goal keeping thoughts and experiences as a football fan, player and GK'ing coach of limited experience. I might even throw in the odd glove review seeing as I go through them on a pretty regular basis.
I guess I should write a little bit of back ground about me, I've played in goal at Grass roots level for best part of 20 years now and was very fortunate when I was given the opportunity this summer to undertake my first GK coaching badge by my current club Coopers Edge FC. I thankfully passed the course and am now on the first rung of the coaching ladder with ambitions of gaining more badges and coaching experience in the coming years. The end of the summer saw another opportunity arise when I got the chance to join up with local Skrill Premier League Side Forest Green Rovers and assist the Academy Goalkeeping coach this season.
The coaching side of things has always been a particular interest for me being a goalkeeping geek, and this spurred me on when I attended various courses as a player that were ran by Simon Smith (Newcastle Utd, LA Galaxy and current England Development GK coach), David Coles (Southampton, Portsmouth & West Ham) and Mick Payne (currently England 'C' and Crystal Palace Academy). Their knowledge was obviously fantastic, but I found them engaging to talk to and listen to as they explained the theories behind what they were coaching and the game in general.
Part of my feedback from my FA course was that I needed to get out and watch good quality coaches to see how they coach their players, I've written to a few clubs and GK coaches and will hopefully get the opportunity to go and watch some of them in action and pick their brains on the beautiful art of 'keeping.
So that's me and my prospective future blogs.
Thanks for reading.
Ian
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