Goalkeeping: Create your unique selling point

Those of you that are familiar with business concepts, or even simply Dragons Den addicts, then you will be well aware of the term – USP.

In order for someone to buy your product, it ideally requires a Unique Selling Point which sets you apart from the crowd. For many products this is a difficult task in a crowded market place, but those that manage to discover their USP, flourish!

How does this apply to goalkeeping? Simple, find a skill that sets you apart from your competition and chances are, people will start talking about you.

We spend hours and hours fine tuning our all round skills, striving to become the perfect goalkeeper but we also neglect to focus on the one thing that we desperately need – our reputation. What do people know you for?

For me, it was dealing with one on ones or any sort of pressure in the box. I excelled at standing up, making myself big and low and pouncing at the right moment. Delaying the play really was my forte but similarly I was fearless when attacking the ball.

If the attacker had just turned my centre back then one of my strengths was predicting the play and being on top of him as he turned. Quite often it would mean a simple block with my hands behind the ball or even the slightest of finger flicks to take the ball out of his stride, but all of this meant that I generated a reputation for these situations.

It got so that when training, the players saw it as a scalp if they ever managed to beat me during the shooting in the box drills. It is the old school drill (that many grass roots junior coaches deliver religiously still) where the players pass to the coach on the edge of the box, he lays it off and the player runs on to shoot – or dribble around the goalkeeper.

I excelled at reading the lay off, could I make the ground up or should I stay put? Can I make it to the ball first? The players enjoyed the challenge and were always relieved when the other goalkeepers went in (though they had other strengths so it was swings and roundabouts for the strikers at times!).

It would be suicidal to neglect the areas that you are weak on, and these must be worked on, but sometimes because we concentrate on what we are not so good at – we end up neglecting the development of what we actually have the skills in.

It is fun to train at what you are brilliant at, I used to love when we worked on close range striking so develop your best skill, become as near perfect as you can at it and you will soon create yourself a reputation that will follow you through your career. (And please don’t class shot stopping as your USP, I haven’t yet met a goalkeeper without this skill!)