PATRICK MORRISON: Raise your standards


By Patrick Morrison TO reach the top and become the best takes a massive amount of time and effort to perfect your goalkeeping. You will spend hours and hours refining your skills with the aim of improving your performances between the posts. Ultimately, it is important to understand that perfection is unattainable. That is because […]


PATRICK MORRISON: Goalkeeper conditioning


WHENEVER I am coaching different teams and/or individual goalkeepers during pre-season, I complete their goalkeeping conditioning. They regularly ask me ‘What is goalkeeping conditioning?’ After praising them for being brave enough to ask the question I then answered it for them as best I could. By now, the GAA fraternity have become accustomed to the phrase […]


PATRICK MORRISON: The forgotten man/woman


By Patrick Morrison IN a previous article, I have focused on how teams need to put more concerted efforts into providing adequate structures in place in regard to their goalkeepers and more specifically their youth goalkeepers. I have outlined the importance of getting the correct training methods specific to the position while also stressing the importance […]


PATRICK MORRISON: Levelled progression – part two


By Patrick Morrison IT is the role of the goalkeeping coach to ensure that the goalkeeper is developing in a positive fashion. They must be able to understand the abilities of the goalkeepers they work with as well as being able to recognise their limitations. Once the coach understands these then they can decide what […]


PATRICK MORRISON: Levelled progression – Part One


By Patrick Morrison OVER the next two articles I will delve deep into the various developmental stages of goalkeeping. These stages can help both goalkeepers and coaches in their continuing quest for progression. They can be used as a kind of map or set of signposts to show where exactly they or their goalkeepers stand in […]


PATRICK MORRISON: Building resistence


By Patrick Morrison HAVING confidence is vitally important for all goalkeepers to perform to the best of their ability especially nowadays, when the position has become one of, if not, the most important on the field of play. Goalkeeping has certainly been catapulted into the spotlight with the actions and decisions of a goalkeeper being […]


PATRICK MORRISON: Train to play


GOALKEEPING is a very specialised position. A goalkeeper must have a good basic skill set just like every other position on the team, but they also need to develop specific goalkeeping traits, skills and movements to be able to play the position competently. Like any sports person that is truly serious about improving at what […]


STEVEN POACHER: Beggan will be key


I HAVE long been an advocate of trying to create overloads in a game of football. What I mean by overloads, is trying to manipulate a situation within a game where you create a 2v1, 3v2, 4v3 or even 3v1, 4v2 type situation anywhere on the field where you try and overload the opposition and […]


PATRICK MORRISON: Effective communication


By Patrick Morrison WHAT is Effective Communication? Communication is any form of information that is relayed between two interfacing entities. Whether it be audible, visual, hand signals or even just body language if it sends a message to be received it is deemed as communication. Goalkeepers are in that precarious position of play developing in […]


PATRICK MORRISON: The goalkeeping persona


By Patrick Morrison WE all know that the goalkeeping position has evolved immensely over the years especially over the modern era of Gaelic football, a change that is now also occurring in the hurling game as well at present. Long gone are the days that the role of the goalkeeper was to merely perform their […]