GK 1v1: Spread & Smother

The 1v1 decision tree: stay big and delay, spread at the touch, or smother the loose ball.

Goal and keeper. Strikers run onto through-balls from 30 yards, arriving 1v1 at pace.

1. Server releases a through-ball; the striker attacks it, the keeper plays the 1v1.
2. Keeper reads: big touch = attack and smother; close control = stay big, delay, force the decision.
3. Score: keeper points for saves, smothers and forcing wide; striker points for goals.
4. Ten 1v1s, rotate strikers; track the keeper's decisions, not just outcomes.

• Move WHILE the ball travels; be still when the striker strikes.
• Stay big as long as possible — going to ground early is a striker's gift.
• Attack the big touch without hesitation — half-commitments get chipped or rounded.
• Spread: hands and feet wide, chest facing the ball, head behind the line of the shot.

• The keeper goes to ground at the first fake — patience; the striker must commit first.
• Backpedalling at the strike moment — set and still when the shot comes.
• The smother is feet-first and reckless — lead with hands, body behind the ball, head protected.

• Angle the through-balls wide for harder positions.
• Add a recovering defender the keeper must communicate with.
• Striker may pass to a trailing runner — keeper must read it.

• Slower serves, striker limited to finishing inside the box.
• Keeper starts further off the line.
• Walk the decision tree with a frozen striker.

• The keeper must make a clear decision every rep — drifting halfway is the only wrong answer.