GK High Ball: Catch at the Top
Catch the ball at the highest point you can reach, hands in a W above the forehead and one knee driven up, the way a keeper claims a cross.
Hear the coach on this drill
Every line the Audio Coach says in this drill, played back to back; the time beside each is when it comes in the 10-minute drill. No account needed.
Set-up
Outdoors with open sky above, soft grass underfoot and clear space a few steps around the keeper. Not indoors: the drill needs height.
What you need
- 1 soccer ball
The ground: 15 × 15 ft (about 5 × 5 m). One child can run it alone in a backyard. The space and equipment check lists every drill that fits the ground you have.
How to run it
- Set up. Open sky above, soft grass underfoot, and nothing within a few steps.
- Standing w. Toss the ball a little above the head and catch it high in a W, thumbs touching behind it. Ten.
- Knee up. Same toss, but drive one knee up as you catch. The knee protects the body in a crowd. Ten each knee.
- One step and jump. Toss it higher and a step in front. Step, jump off one foot, catch at the top. Ten.
- Bring it in. After every catch, pull the ball down and into the chest before landing.
- Count it. Twenty high tosses with the step and jump. Count clean catches held at the top.
Coaching points
- Catch at the highest point, in front of the head where the eyes can see the hands.
- Take off from one foot with the other knee driven up.
- Thumbs together behind the ball, then bring it straight into the chest.
What to watch: Waiting for the ball to drop instead of attacking it at the top, and taking off from two feet. One foot, one knee up, hands high.
Common mistakes
- Waiting for the ball to drop instead of catching it at the top
- Jumping off two feet
- Catching behind the head where the eyes cannot see the hands
- Thumbs apart so the ball slips through
- Landing with the ball still held out at arm's length
What good looks like
A good target: 16 of 20 caught cleanly at the top, off one foot with a knee up.
Progressions and variations
Making it harder
- Level 1: Standing catches above the head
- Level 2: The knee driven up on each catch
- Level 3: One step and a jump off one foot
- Level 4: Tosses from a sibling, left and right
- Level 5: Lobbed crosses from the side
- Level 6: Twenty of twenty held at the top
Alone, with a sibling, or in a group
- Solo: toss straight up, step, jump and catch at the top, out of twenty.
- Sibling: one tosses gentle arcs from a few steps away, varying left and right.
- Co-op: a parent lobs from the side like a cross while a line of keepers takes turns to claim it.
Adjusting it by age
- U14: Standing catches and the knee up only, with low tosses, until the W above the forehead is natural.
- U18: Lobbed balls from the side like crosses, and a sibling standing close to give the keeper a body to rise above.
For the parent running it
- Outdoors, with open sky above. Toss the ball up in a gentle arc a little in front of the keeper. Watch that the catch happens above the head, in front, with a knee up, not with the ball pulled down to the chest first.
On their own: Toss the ball straight up, take one step, jump off one foot and catch it at the top in a W, knee up. Count clean catches out of twenty.
Safety
- Soft grass and open space; never indoors
- A sibling standing close stays still and never challenges in the air
More on training safely at home: Safety at Home.
Related drills
GK Handling
Basic shot-stopping: set position, W-grip, collapse dive.
Catch and Throw in Four
Catch a ball and throw it out to a teammate breaking wide inside four seconds: the futsal goalkeeper's job of turning a save into a counter-attack before the other team can recover.
GK Footwork: Shuffle and Set
Side-step across a goal-width line of cones, stop in a set position, and catch a dropped ball cleanly before shuffling on.
GK Distribution: Roll and Throw
A keeper starts the attack with the hands: bowl the ball along the ground through a near gate, then throw overarm into a far target zone.
Run it with the Audio Coach
In Spatrian the Audio Coach talks your player through this drill while they play it, and each run goes on their own training record, which their coach or personal trainer can read and, for a homeschool family, counts as PE time. The beta is opening to a small first group of players and families.