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Soggy conditions provide the chance to work on this topic.

We worked on attitude of winning the ball during our game of "skid ball"

We then broke down the techniques and came up with the following things that us goalkeepers have to deal with in a split second.

We distinguished that the most important thing we had to do was get a 2nd barrier behind the ball and this is accomplished with quick feet movement.

Methods of saving include.

Note that although the "Long Barrier" save is useful, when used when the ball is skidding creates a conflict as the goalkeeper is moving down when the ball is coming up.

We regressed the diving saves by being on knees and pushing off to discourage any turning of the body and ensuring that we have our elbow out to make a goalkeeping dive rather than a swimming pool dive (although that might have been appropriate yesterday!)

Three choices the goalkeeper had.

This exercise gave us the opportunity to work on a rare save. The "top hand save" is seldom used if the goalkeeper has good technique. When diving, if the ball rises higher than the dive you are making, it may be necessary to break the "handcuffs" and raise the "top hand' to get either the tip or the parry.

We finished on a highly contested game of skidding throws & kicks in which some miraculous saves were made by all goalkeepers in a match situation.

Probably the most famous skidding save would be that of Gordon Banks of England against Pele in the 10th Minute of their World Cup match in 1970. (below. see also the video section)