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Evaluated at Showcase Camp - Chicago Girls on 01/17/2022 by Coach Smith of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Skillset Overview

Technical Abilities - 92 / 100
Position Or Angle - Great positioning in anticipation for a shot and takes the proper angles. Makes saves look easy.
Balls At Feet - Comfortable with ball at feet and serving as a safety net for you defender.
Tactical Abilities - 89 / 100
Communication - Great communicator; organizes and directs teammates well and communicates frequently.
Speed Of Thought - Has good ideas and tries to play fast. This will only help future growth.
Physical Abilities - 92 / 100
Endurance - Great work rate throughout camp. Showed endurance that helped effectiveness, especially late.
Vertical Leap - Showed a good vertical. Great job challenging for balls in the air.
Mental Abilities - 95 / 100
Competitiveness - Showed a strong desire to win and seems to enjoy the competition. Keep working hard!
Coachable - Responds well to coaching. Asked good questions and seemed to enjoy the learning process.
Coach's Comments
Kate was awesome to work with! She has a great work ethic, attitude, and passion for the game. She has great natural tools that make her a great fit for the goalkeeper position. Her height and length make her stand out, as well as her foundations in her technical ability. As a 2024 she has a tremendous amount of time to continue to grow! One thing that I loved seeing during the whole day of camp was how coachable she was and took my little tidbits and applied them in the games!
Balance - Balance is extremely important when it comes to goalkeeping. If we aren’t balanced, we will be unable to change directions effectively and efficiently. A couple things that will help your balance is by keeping your feet underneath the frame of your body. You can do ladder work and agility work to help with this. Strengthening your legs and going through movements that may feel uncomfortable will help build the elasticity needed to perform certain functions as a goalkeeper (spread, kick, 1v1 saves). I highly suggest looking to get a sports performance coach so you can work on these things in a safe environment! One thing that I mentioned early in our session is that we need to be "set" when preparing to make a save. It is better to be set and out of position than in position but not set. Therefore, balance is so important and why it is crucial that when we do "set" we have both feet on the ground, that way, we allow ourselves time to actually move laterally and change directions quickly if needed. I think one way to see and observe this is by filming your training sessions. See what your feet are doing right as the shot is being taken. This skill can be tough to develop, and our college goalkeepers still struggle with this because the level of play is that much faster. If we are set and balanced, we will always set ourselves up with the best opportunity to make the save. As a longer person, this is just a little extra harder to develop because you have that much more leg to move!
Defensive Awareness - A lot of this comes from our comfortability of taking time to look at what is not around the ball. As goalkeepers it is extremely important to have a WIDE vision. Having narrow vision and only focusing on what is happening on the ball does not allow us to see the whole picture. Since we are the deepest player, we have the ability to see the entire field. 3 tips to help this. Think of the field in 3 thirds: defensive, middle, and attacking third. In the attacking third we should be talking to our backs about potential runners, forwards making their way across the back line to help us prepare for a counterattack. Same thing in the middle third. We will not have much influence of what is happening on the ball because we are simply too far away for them to hear us. In the defensive third is when our vision may have to narrow but we can still be aware of what is happening along the weak side of the field. One tip to improve on this is to watch more soccer! Not just watch as a spectator but as a student of the game so you can start to see trends in how the game is played, when runners make their runs in the box, etc.
Crosses - Working on our starting position will help with this. You must take note of which foot the ball is on because that will help you better anticipate the trajectory of the ball as it is being served. With each foot and on each side of the field there is what is called an inswinger service and an outswinger service. Depending on both factors will help determine your starting position. If their left forward is serving a ball with their left foot, their service will likely swing away from you so you can be more toward the center of your goal. If you have a left forward cut the ball back to their right foot, the ball will swing faster toward the near post. That means that within the middle third of the goal, you should be closer to the near post. Check this website out for a clearer explanation of each type of cross and why your starting position matters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_(association_football). Next level observation, is to consider your timing when you call keeper on any service in the box. We don't want to go to early because the ball may go over our head and we don't want to go to late because we then risk leaving an open goal if we can't get a piece of the ball.