Elite Goalkeeper Academy – Review of 2016
Elite Goalkeeper Academy has seen yet another huge year of growth in 2016, it has been an incredible year where we have been able to offer a wider range of services along with being able to offer more hours of coaching throughout the year. Whereas 2015 was a year of discovery for Elite Goalkeeper Academy, 2016 was a year of growth and cementing our place as one of the leading providers of goalkeeper coaching in the North East.
One on One Training
From January, we have consistently provided one on one coaching throughout the year (where the weather has allowed), this has seen us week on week provide a minimum of 6 hours per week one on one training on weekends, which would peak at 20 hours per weekend. During the Summer, we made more sessions available and were peaking at 40+ hours per week with each session being a different goalkeeper or even goalkeepers working in smaller groups of 2-4 goalkeepers due to demand. One on One sessions this year have been conducted primarily by Steven Rodden, but he has also been supported by; Dan Gourley, Steve Brass, Ross Morecroft and Lee Burrell.
Club Coaching
2015 seen us start the year with only 3 regular clubs receiving regular coaching from Elite Goalkeeper Academy, 2016 seen us grow to 6 regular clubs which has now grown to 8 regulars, with an additional 3 clubs who have also received coaching from ourselves. The club coaching has been an area of great success for Elite Goalkeeper Academy, with well over 100 goalkeepers per week receiving coaching that has been supplied by their clubs.
The results have been fantastic, with young goalkeepers from all over the region gaining recognition week on week with MOTM awards, being recognised by Professional Clubs and players also becoming more effective as goalkeepers, not only using the technical knowledge they have gained on a regular basis but also using the psychological side of the training more effectively to read games better and to put themselves into positions to make impossible saves. A lot of our goalkeepers also received end of season awards such as; Most Improved, Player of the Season, Players Player etc.
Holiday Camps
In 2016 we offered our services throughout the School Holidays and this year seen us run camps during each of the School Holidays. Each camp was very well subscribed and saw us coach a minimum of 200 goalkeepers through the course of the year. We used the great relationships we’ve built up with organisations and venues over the years to be able to run these camps at some fantastic facilities, which increased the quality of our sessions. Each camp took on a different appearance (Technical, Tactical, Game Based) with Head Coach Steven Rodden utilising a large variety of coaching styles and session structures to ensure each goalkeeper took as much away from each session as possible.
Group Coaching
This is one area that hasn’t been focussed on as much as others throughout 2016 due to time restrictions to our coaches. However, towards the end of 2016, Head Coach Steven Rodden started up a weekly group session in Alnwick in conjunction with Longhoughton Rangers and ran a small focus group for 6 goalkeepers aged u12-u16 in Newcastle. Our Alnwick session has so far been a success with a minimum of 6 goalkeepers (rising to 11) attending on a weekly basis. These sessions are going to continue into 2017 and have already seen a spike in interest for this session. Our focus group was also a success and this is another session that will continue monthly whilst offering out sessions for different ages over the course of the year.
Coach Development
Here at Elite Goalkeeper Academy our coaches not only work hard on the training field but away from it also! We pride ourselves in not only developing our goalkeepers but also ourselves as coaches.
In 2016 all our coaches have attended several coaching courses and put in a lot of hours CPD to ensure you are getting the very best coaching in the region. Our coaches have attended and completed courses from; FA GK B Licence, UEFA B, FA Youth Module 3/ FA Youth Award, FAW GK Level 2, FA Youth Module 2 and FA Level 1. On top of that we also have 2 coaches who are completing Masters Degrees in Teaching (PGCE) at Sunderland and Durham Universities.
The year was complete when our Coaching Apprentice passed his driving test at the first time of asking.
2017 Overview
2017 is going to be another year of great growth for Elite Goalkeeper Academy, we are going to stick to our values of offering top class coaching at reasonable prices to goalkeepers across the North East.
We can now offer out more hours of coaching to grassroots football clubs, open group sessions, one on ones and several other means of support we already offer to clubs, coaches and goalkeepers in the region.
We plan to offer out a great number of School Holiday Camps and are also looking to work in conjunction with some of the fantastic Football Coaching Companies we have in the region to offer a greater challenge to our goalkeepers during our Game Based exercises.
Head Coach Steven Rodden is also in the process of sourcing a suitable venue to run a large Summer Residential Camp specifically for Goalkeepers, this camp will not only be affordable with fantastic facilities but we will also be bringing in staff with different areas of expertise to offer our attendees an all round experience.
To continue our fantastic relationship with HO Soccer we will be inviting them up on a number of occasions to run our very popular Pop-Up Shops throughout the year. These Pop-Up Shops are of great benefit to all our goalkeepers as they can purchase HO Soccer’s fantastic range of products at great prices! We will also continue our great relationship with CrazyCatch and will be inviting them up at similar times of the year to display and sell their products to our goalkeepers.
Finally, we are also able to provide a new feature to Elite Goalkeeper Academy – Goalkeeper Match Analysis (prices and packages available soon!).
