WATCH: Inside the training regime of the modern GAA football goalkeeper amid rule changes

Never before have goalkeepers played as important a role in Gaelic football as today, no longer on the outskirts of play, now they are a vital cog in a team's attack as well as its last line of defence. 

Despite this, specific training is a novelty for most goalkeepers in the country - outside of county setups and big club teams.

“Some managers will have a goalkeeping coach in their setups, some will have a goalkeeping coach stepping in two weeks before the championship to wave a magic wand,”  says Liam Swift who has spent the last 12 years coaching goalkeepers around the country and runs a GAA goalkeeping academy.

Playing in goals himself for many years, Liam remembers the lack of attention paid to goalkeepers as he grew up. “I never got coached when I was a kid,” he says, “no wait, I said it wrong, I got coached once for half an hour.” 

Coaches were contacting him to come and do a session with their players and asking for advice on how to help them improve going forward.

He realised that there was an appetite - and a need - for this type of training in the GAA. “So I made it my mission to travel as much as physically possible to help these kids move forward,” he says. 

With the help of his sponsor, Precision Ireland, Liam started his goalkeeping academy which is the first of its kind that focuses specifically on GAA goalkeeping.

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In academy sessions catering to adults and kids, he works through the basic to more advanced areas of goalkeeping: from footwork to shot stopping, to catching, to fielding high balls, and to striking the ball well from the ground. 

“It’s all one package,” he says, “There is not just one area you have to hit, the thing about goalkeeping is that you have to hit all particular areas in one session if you can.”

He aims to give them all one-on-one attention to build up their confidence in the session and get them talking. “One thing I don’t like is a quiet keeper,” he says, “That's why you will see me with those guys today, trying to question them, the more they are going to talk to me, the more their confidence is going to start to rise up,” he told the Leitrim Observer after a camp in Antrim.

Goalkeeper coaching 

This past season, he worked as a goalkeeping coach for Trillick's senior team and says that having a goalkeeping coach in a set-up is massive for developing a keeper, not only in terms of their skills but in their confidence levels.

“A confident keeper is worth their weight in gold to any team and they will get that confidence through that one-on-one coaching with a goalkeeper coach,” he says.

Moreover, Liam says the relationship between a goalkeeping coach and the keeper is a special one and an important one that gives keepers someone to turn to when they are having problems on the field.

”I have made so many lifelong friends through it because you have so much of that one-on-one contact," he added.

However, he recognises that not every club will have the means to hire a goalkeeping coach for their set-up permanently.

Clubs training goalkeepers

There are currently no courses that coaches can do through the GAA to learn how to train goalkeepers. Liam himself has gotten a number of badges in goalkeeper coaching through the FAI and the IFA, but that route may be impractical for your average GAA coach as they are expensive and take time.

If coaches want to start training their keepers themselves, Liam’s advice is simple: “Get the basics of goalkeeping into (the keepers) first,” he says.

He advises showing them how to move their feet, use their hands correctly, and stop a shot before anything else. After that, consistently doing a bit of work with them is key, a couple of times a month if possible, he adds.

Club coaches with an interest in training their goalkeepers can access a wealth of information on YouTube and elsewhere online, but according to Liam, they are better off getting a goalkeeping coach in for a session, at least once, to watch what they are doing and learn the basics of what to do.

“There are plenty of us out there that managers can reach out to if they do need help but don’t physically want to take you in, you can talk about it or you can send them stuff to do but it’s about getting someone to do it the way that it is supposed to be done,” he says.

More importantly, he says, a goalkeeping coach will be able to provide a tailored approach for the keeper, “What I have learned from doing my goalkeeping badges is the ability to fix the problem, it’s alright being able to do all these fancy drills and the keeper looks great but is the keeper actually learning?”

Goalkeeping mentality

Coaches mentally preparing goalkeepers is extremely important too, Liam says. “They are a different breed compared to an outfield person, I don’t know whether it is madness or what it is, but you have to be that different type of person to be willing to go in and do that, be in that under pressure situation from when the ball is thrown in until the final whistle.”

The position is inherently high-pressured, where small mistakes can have huge consequences on the game. He feels coaches need to teach keepers to let mistakes go quickly not to carry them through the game. 

“It’s a bit like when Tiger Woods was playing his golf and he hit a bad shot,” Liam says. “From when he hit his bad shot until he walked up to his next shot, that was his refocusing part and it is probably the same as a goalkeeper,” he says.

 “A keeper is never going to have a perfect game and I don't believe in people from the sideline shouting at a keeper after making a mistake, it shouldn’t happen,” he adds.

New rules 

This season, the role of goalkeepers will again change as a swath of new rules come into effect, some of which restrict what a goalkeeper can do. First, goalkeepers must kick the ball past the 40-metre arch from the kickout and second, keepers can no longer receive passes inside their half of the field.

Speculation is rife about how managers will adapt and work the new rules to their advantage, and the question of how the goalkeeping will be used this season is a central question, with rumours already swirling that big-name players, like Donegal’s Michael Murphy, could potentially make the switch to nets for this coming season. 

“It’s all a matter of thinking outside the box,” says Liam, “I know of one particular set-up where defenders are in getting basic (goalkeeper) training once a week in case the goalkeeper goes up the pitch and he can’t get back.”

“Some goalkeepers even at the top level aren’t fit to go up and down the pitch so will the manager switch and try and put a square peg into a round hole, as in to make an outfield player into a goalkeeper.”

Despite there being a question mark over how goalkeepers will look in Gaelic football going forward, Liam is excited to see what is coming this season. “I am so looking forward to watching the national league this year to see what these coaches come up with regarding goalkeepers,” he says.