Is USSDA The Best Way to Develop Keepers?

Any advice on DA being the best way to develop a keeper? It seems with the restriction of one game per day coupled with the fact that there are 2 keepers per team it doesn’t sound like the best way to develop due to lack of minutes. Do “keepers need to play”, or can a lot of practice with top talent offset lower minutes in game situations?
 
Our limited experience with the DA keeper training is that it was excellent, much better than what my boy received from his club. I'm in the minority regarding keeper development in that I like to see my boy play on a team that sucks. He's had opportunities to play with teams that would have him stand 28 yards from goal watching and watching. We have been fortunate enough to have chosen teams with weak defenders that have allowed shot differentials of 3-1 putting him in the action more than the typical USSDA keeper.

Here we sit in June and my U16/2003 who two years ago was a U14 playing on a U14 flight 3 team, then the following year as a U15 moved to a U16 (2002) Flight 2 (up 1 year) and now this fall will be on a U18 (2001) (2 years up) Flight 1 team.

I believe that the best development occurs during GK training and practices. With the average GK getting less than 10 minutes of actual game involvement (i.e. shots, corners, etc.), I don't see the games as contributing towards the major part of development, unless the team is weak, then the keepers is going to be in the action a lot.

So in my opinion the USSDA should result is excellent development, not because of the games, but because the keeper training should be excellent and the keeper will have significant development during the 4 practices a week. The games won't and don't add much to the overall development of keepers, but merely allow the keeper to hone and demonstrate skills learned during training.
 
Our limited experience with the DA keeper training is that it was excellent, much better than what my boy received from his club. I'm in the minority regarding keeper development in that I like to see my boy play on a team that sucks. He's had opportunities to play with teams that would have him stand 28 yards from goal watching and watching. We have been fortunate enough to have chosen teams with weak defenders that have allowed shot differentials of 3-1 putting him in the action more than the typical USSDA keeper.

Here we sit in June and my U16/2003 who two years ago was a U14 playing on a U14 flight 3 team, then the following year as a U15 moved to a U16 (2002) Flight 2 (up 1 year) and now this fall will be on a U18 (2001) (2 years up) Flight 1 team.

I believe that the best development occurs during GK training and practices. With the average GK getting less than 10 minutes of actual game involvement (i.e. shots, corners, etc.), I don't see the games as contributing towards the major part of development, unless the team is weak, then the keepers is going to be in the action a lot.

So in my opinion the USSDA should result is excellent development, not because of the games, but because the keeper training should be excellent and the keeper will have significant development during the 4 practices a week. The games won't and don't add much to the overall development of keepers, but merely allow the keeper to hone and demonstrate skills learned during training.
Have you seen a lot of back passes on those teams or is it a lot of shot stopping? I have the same opinion that a keeper will develop faster through more action because of a weaker team. So is there a DA that offers keeper training 4 times a week?
 
There are various age group DA games on YouTube. Being that my GK is an G03 , I looked for games in her age group to see what the "next level" GKs play like. LAGSD vs SoCal Blues. I was hugely disappointed to see the Blues GK punt EVERY ball she got her hands on. Not one ball played out of the back. I'm not sure if she was the starter or backup..not that it should matter. But I was expecting to see much better soccer development from one of the leading clubs in the Southwest Conf for G03 DA. I can't say how/why the style of play was like that but either they allowed that style of play or encouraged it.
Also, the club my kid plays for has a great GK trainer. Two GKs from a local DA club come to train with him. As do many others from other clubs. I asked one dad about the GK training at their DA club and he said it was only about 45mins (can't remember if 1x or 2x per week)
I won't state either of the clubs for obvious reasons. It'd be all too easy to figure out naming just one to know the other and I don't want anyone getting thrown under the bus.
The way I see it DA parents are doing whatever it takes to ensure their kid gets adequate GK training. Even if it means going outside of the DA.:eek:
With al that being said..it looks like GK development once again is an afterthought. Just my .02
 
My opinion it isn’t the DA specifically that is the best opportunity as much as what the DA provides... being, as aforementioned, high quality GK training multiple times a week and then that same coach at games. Even if time is split, the training and then feedback is where the growth happens... if you can find that elsewhere, sure...
but, I haven’t seen it consistently outside of the DA. Plus, there is a lot of benefit to the influence of the older GKs on the youngers.... and an older GK showing up to practice having just signed his LOI... or being called into a YNT camp... creates goals for the youngers too.
Now, there are some great training opportunities through SCSG (Tackett) or Big Joe... but that doesn’t guarantee high caliber peers like a DA would.
Just my ramblings and it is subjective so, some will disagree.
 
My opinion it isn’t the DA specifically that is the best opportunity as much as what the DA provides... being, as aforementioned, high quality GK training multiple times a week and then that same coach at games. Even if time is split, the training and then feedback is where the growth happens... if you can find that elsewhere, sure...
but, I haven’t seen it consistently outside of the DA. Plus, there is a lot of benefit to the influence of the older GKs on the youngers.... and an older GK showing up to practice having just signed his LOI... or being called into a YNT camp... creates goals for the youngers too.
Now, there are some great training opportunities through SCSG (Tackett) or Big Joe... but that doesn’t guarantee high caliber peers like a DA would.
Just my ramblings and it is subjective so, some will disagree.
That’s what I’m hearing is a lot of the problem... Keeper training once or twice a week, no keeper coach at home games, and no feedback from team coach to help the keeper coach tailor training to the keeper. I’ve heard that MLS DA at least goes over the videos, but i haven’t heard if the keepers get that level of attention or if it is just a team film session to make a point before a practice. So much wasted opportunity to better the keepers if they weren’t an afterthought. It takes money to hire a keeper coach, but it would be nice for the DA clubs to collaborate and send their keepers to one coach and split the costs of the coach. Keeper union could solve this dilemma.
 
That’s what I’m hearing is a lot of the problem... Keeper training once or twice a week, no keeper coach at home games, and no feedback from team coach to help the keeper coach tailor training to the keeper. I’ve heard that MLS DA at least goes over the videos, but i haven’t heard if the keepers get that level of attention or if it is just a team film session to make a point before a practice. So much wasted opportunity to better the keepers if they weren’t an afterthought. It takes money to hire a keeper coach, but it would be nice for the DA clubs to collaborate and send their keepers to one coach and split the costs of the coach. Keeper union could solve this dilemma.
I’m confused. I was stating that our DA team does have multiple days of training, a present GK coach and then uses Hudl for video... thus making it the best current option available.
 
I’m confused. I was stating that our DA team does have multiple days of training, a present GK coach and then uses Hudl for video... thus making it the best current option available.
I was only saying that the mass feedback has been that isn’t the case at the majority of DA’s. Most of the kids we train with are still paying a private keeper coach.
 
I was only saying that the mass feedback has been that isn’t the case at the majority of DA’s. Most of the kids we train with are still paying a private keeper coach.
Wow. What’s the point then of the $2K for the DA if you lose the coaching? Sure, there’s other benefits but that’s the main one.
 
My son played 3 years DA and here is what happened....
At U14 he was the only keeper and his coach told him that he needs him to be at training, since they practice a lot of plays out of the back using keeper. So there was NO specific goalkeeper training for him for a year from the club. Besides the fact, Academy director strongly believes that keepers don't need training as long as they are getting a lot of shots during team training.
Next year he was still the only keeper, new coach came and said: wtf? how come your keeper is not doing keeper training? So he started doing keeper training once a week with few other keepers, which was waste of time.
The year after, finally went with 2 keepers, new coach came and back to NO keeper training, lets' just practice with the team. Once in a while keeper training with a group. Playing one game on - one game off. No subbing for keepers since don't want to waste a sub for that.
I don't know if it's a similar structure for a keeper at every DA club, I hope not.

During his time at DA, he did a lot of private training since it was not provided. Because his team played a lot out of the back and not very successfully, he is very good with his feet and had a lot of action in goal.

I always stayed away from it all, until my kid finally understood that coaching was mediocre and not what he needs.
Kids figure things out, once they get older. So, he left DA, found a good team with a good coach and good goalkeeper trainer (provided by the club).

Did it help him playing DA? I think so. I believe he learned more than few things. Exposure, playing top competition, year long season, great fields, good referees, traveling.
 
For training, it depends on the club. My son has played 2 years DA so far. His first year we were promised goalie training. That only happened sporadically in the first few months and was discontinued. Then we had no keeper coach at all for the rest of the year. With the extremely inadequate overall coaching situation at that club, we probably should have walked early, but we wanted to set the standard for him that you finish out your commitment.

This year with a new club, he has had a great keeper coach with multiple options per week, he was there for all home games and even some away games.

It's hard to make a decision when you ask the right questions and the club isn't forthcoming with all of the answers. Make sure you do your research.
 
Have you seen a lot of back passes on those teams or is it a lot of shot stopping? I have the same opinion that a keeper will develop faster through more action because of a weaker team. So is there a DA that offers keeper training 4 times a week?

For the last few years my boy has been on teams that all adopted a philosophy of playing out of the back. The 50/50 "punt" was discouraged, but dropkicks or side kicks that were intended to place the ball at teammates feet encouraged. As far a back passes, it really depended on the defender mentality and maturity. When the defenders were repurposed mids or forwards, they almost always went for the glory of trying to beat the 1-1 situation by turning and putting some move on the opponents forward. With experienced and older defenders they were intelligent enough to pass back and get open.

I think there is 1 major negative to the direction we have gone, which is the boy's maturity trails his physical development. When his plays with kids his own age, his confidence is higher, more vocal and the opposing players are appropriately intimidated. When he is playing with/against the 17/18 year olds he tends to give his defenders the benefit of doubt and figures that they know what their doing.

Ultimately, your keeper will develop at a faster pace with a good dedicated keeper trainer and having a team coach that incorporates game situations and drills that benefit keepers as well as field players is the best scenario.
 
Side Note: You can also look at the game sheets on the DA Academy site (At least you can with the girls) to see how often and at what age the Keeper trainer is at games.
 
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