Colchester Utd visit Sept.13

Having spent all my playing days in local football, the only taster I got of what it may be like to be a professional goalkeeper was when I attended pro lead goalkeeping schools by Mick Payne (artofsaving.com) and Simon Smith (England FA Development GK Coach).  The levels of coaching were far and above anything I'd come across and despite being flooded with information in short spaces of time, these courses really benefitted my own playing and understanding of the position if only in a small way.

Following on from my own coaching badge I've wanted to explore more within the professional game and thanks to a friend and a chance meeting I got the opportunity to spend some time with Ademole 'George' Bankole and the Colchester United goalkeepers late last summer.

George had a decent career as a lower league goalkeeper and joined up with Colchester as GK coach in 2008 following Aidan Davison's decision to retire and relocate to the U.S.A.  

Firstly I have to say the facilities at Colchesters new training facilities Florence Park, were superb with in house gym, catering, media facilities, physiotherapy dept. and five training pitches.  Compared to what I've been used to this was a world away, and I'm fairly confident there aren't many lower league sides with facilities as good as this with the players well looked after and catered for all in house.

Florence Park - Colchester Utd's new training ground
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Training for the GK's started earlier than the outfield players with George taking a short but intensive gym session of around 45 mins.  The focus of the gym session was to build strength and explosive power which is a key area for the pro goalkeeper's game, but the session was also to get their bodies warm and prepared for the training session once we'd moved outside for the football side of the days training.  

The session started with a range of exercises involving the swiss ball to build and maintain the goalkeepers core strength.  Following on from this they went into a more circuit based routine using free weights and Olympic style dead lifts.  At the time of my visit the U's squad had just undertaken their first yoga session as part of their new training regime.



My mentor for the day - George Bankole
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Out on to training field, we were again out before the main squad allowing George to get his goalkeeping work done before the goalkeepers re-joined the main squad to go through their paces ahead of the weekends game.

Again the session was quite intensive and the pace of the session surprised me with all 3 goalkeepers being worked hard with very few breaks. Many of the drills were focused around the goalkeepers moving quickly around the drills.  An example of this was a coned triangle set up requiring the gk's to step and dive making a catch, recover and up back onto their feet, move around the corner of the triangle and repeat. George also did a variety of drills within the goal where the U's keepers would face a variety of quick fire deliveries. 

Being new to coaching officially, naively I'd expected more technical input from George, although on reflection the session was not a technical session and the reality is these guys are well drilled compared to what I had dealt with and were unlikely to need a lot of correcting, where minor faults occurred George reminded them of the correct techniques and the session moved on.

Once the main goalkeepers Walker and Cousins had joined up with the U's squad to prepare for the Saturday game, Bankole did a more leisurely session with young 1st year pro Shaun Phillips, before wrapping up and going to watch the two goalkeepers in the training match before the mornings training ended.

I thought this was my very enjoyable morning done, but after lunch George took me back out onto the training field to watch the afternoon session with the U's scholars.  Shaun Phillips was involved again with u18's goalkeeper James Bransgrove.  During the drills it was plain to see the major differences between these younger guys and the two senior goalkeepers and there was more in the way of coaching for these two than there was in the morning session with George stepping in with both demonstrations and delivering technical information.  

I found the whole day very rewarding and enlightening,  the contrast between the three levels from where I coach at grass roots, to the U's scholars and up to the first team was huge.  The level that the first team goalkeepers work at surpassed my expectations and I have a new found respect for how strong they are and how hard they work to become league goalkeepers.  The morning session also showed me the benefits of working at high intensity and the speed required for goalkeepers to move around their goal.

Unfortunately this blog has been written many months after when I wanted to write up the day spent at Florence Park, and I've tried to be honest and write about how I felt at that time watching on. 

 

Sept.13 - Spending time with the U's Goalkeepers