1v1IsolatedMovement
Block shape without a ball
Build the block shape and safe sideways landing without ball or attacker, so the mechanics are sound before speed and decision-making arrive.
Choose a session and the exercise is added to today’s plan.
Load
- minutes
- 5
- Intensity
- Low
- Sets and reps
- 3 × 6
Microcycle days it fits
MD+1, MD+2, MD-4, MD-3, MD-2, MD-1
Each bar’s height is that day’s dive ceiling.
Setup
- Goalkeepers
- 1
- server
- 0
- outfield player
- 0
Space: 8 × 8 m
Equipment: Markers
The coach serves and manages the breaks.
1 steps
On the coach’s cue, the goalkeeper drops into a block on the indicated side, makes themselves big, and lands safely. No ball, no attacker, no goal — just the action.
Exercise sequence
Coaching points
- The blocking surface is the whole body sideways, not just the arms — legs together, no gap between them.
- Bottom arm extended along the ground, top arm covering over the ball.
- Drop, don’t jump: an effective block is low and wide, not high.
- Land on the side of the body, elbow tucked — the same principle as the diving landing.
- Head behind the line of the hands, never in front: that is the difference between a block and a facial injury.
Progressions
- Announce the side only at the moment of the cue.
- Start from a lateral movement rather than standing still.
- Add ball and attacker, moving on to progressive block mechanics.
Regressions
- Execute from the knees, isolating the final shape only.
- Agree the side in advance and always repeat the same one.
Sources · 3
- BookVaggelis Lappas, «Goalkeeper Training Methodology»
- StudyData-driven strength and conditioning, and technical training programs for goalkeeper’s diving save in football (2022)
- StudyShoulder injuries in soccer goalkeepers: review and development of a FIFA 11+ shoulder injury prevention program (2016)