Goalkeeping in water polo is one of the most demanding and dynamic positions in the sport, requiring quick reaction time, great leg strength, and smart body positioning. Learn from the best by watching some of the world’s top goalies in action: 🇭🇷 Marko Bijač, 🇭🇺 Soma Vogel, 🇺🇸 Ashleigh Johnson, and 🇪🇸 Laura Ester Ramos. Watch these athletes to improve your game and try some of the following tips and drills to improve your goalie skills.
This water polo goalie training guide offers:
- Reminders and tips
- Training videos
- Goalie practice drills
- Lunge technique
- Exercises
6 Goalie Training Tips
- Join the swim sets, but only for about 25% of the workout. Goalies should emphasize breast stroke and kicking when doing swim sets. Since goalies are often using short bursts of energy
- Technique and form > strength and speed. Especially for newer goalkeepers, focus on perfecting your treading and lunging techniques. Even advanced players should regularly revisit the fundamentals to maintain form under pressure.
- High knees = higher jumps. Train your leg strength to boost your jumps by focusing on keeping your knees high when treading.
- Coaches should give goalies individual attention. Offer personalized feedback and 1:1 instruction to really help your goalie out.
- Maximize practice down time. Use any breaks in practice to work on ball handling, leg strength, or flexibility.
- Stretch to avoid injury. Regular stretching helps prevent injuries and keeps you agile in the cage.
Fundamental Goalie Drills
It’s helpful for goalies to work in pairs or small groups. If there is only one goalie on your team, it would be beneficial to rotate players working with the goalie. Try these drills to work on positioning, strength, reaction time, and blocking ability.
- Pull downs: Also known as rounders, this drill simply involves another player shooting at the goalie so that the goalie can work on blocking and controlling where the ball lands.
- Fire starters/Firewalk: Can be done with a teammate in the water or a coach standing on the pool deck. Essentially the goalie and their partner use two hands to catch and toss a ball back and forth with their partner while moving laterally. Keep the ball dry and in front of you. Tread up and pass at your highest point.
- Closeouts: Tread across the pool, jump with both arms, hold that position for a second, then breaststroke kick forward and bring both arms together.
- Cone/Directional Drills: Coach gives directional signals to the goalkeeper on which direction to lunge; left, right, forward backwards, or vertically. Can also set up cones to jump to.
- Cage Drill: Goalie starts in the center of the cage and starts by sprinting to the 5m line. Goalie then backstrokes back into ready position in the goal, immediately doing lunges to each corner of the goal.
- Headers: Goalie keeps their hands behind their back. Partner tosses the ball towards the goalie, who then jumps to head the ball back to their partners. This drill is great to work on overcoming the fear of blocking the ball and building muscle memory for leading with your head.
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- Tennis Ball Work: For dryland workouts, goalies can toss one or two tennis balls at a wall and work on catching them with both hands. Goalies can also try blocking shots from players throwing tennis balls or smaller balls to hone in on their hand-eye-coordination.
- Cage Lunging: Goalies get in the ready position in the center of the cage. Lunge to each corner of the goal starting with the bottom left, then top left, center cage, top right, then bottom right. Repeat in the opposite direction.
- Cage Ball Roll: Start on either side vertical post of the cage, roll the ball up to the corner, then across the top bar, and down the other post. This will build endurance, lateral movement ability, and dexterity.
- Lob walking/Defending the lob: Goalie starts in ready position in the center of the cage and then lunges to a side as if blocking a lob. This involves your torso going over your hips and reaching with your opposite arm i.e. lunging to the right means your left arm is out of the water. (watch these videos for a clear visual example)
- Long passes: Spread out with a partner to make long distance passes that land without skipping. Coaches can set up hoops in the water for goalies to aim at or have players swim in different directions to receive passes while on the move.
- Double ball passing: Pass with 2 balls with a partner, either alternating hands or throwing one as a lob and the other direct. This can help goalies improve their hand-eye-coordination.
Proper Lunge Technique
- Head to the ball
- Light hands
- Keep your chest up
- Follow through with jumps
- Watch the ball all the way to your hands
- Wide legs
- Slightly forward for every jump
- Trail hand should push water
Water Polo Goalie Essential Exercises
Not sure what to work on at practice? Pick some of these skills and exercises and incorporate them into your next workout.
- Freestyle swimming (strong kicks)
- Breaststroke (regular and triple kick)
- Sculling
- Vertical breaststroke kick
- Hands out of the water
- Hands behind your back
- Eggbeater laps
- Forward, backwards, sideways
- Lunges
- Lateral
- Diagonally
- High and low
- Jumping jacks
- Both arms
- Single arm jumps
- Jugs
- Weight belts
Reminders for Goalies from Olympian Genai Kerr
- Improve Your Lateral Movement
- Improve Your Leg Strength in the Water
- Improve Your Reaction Time
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