Scooping Ground Balls
Sprint the outside of the grid, set your feet, scoop the ground ball clean — then backpedal home, shuffle across, and go again up the other side.
Clean pickups start before the ball arrives — hips square to the server, quick feet that never cross, and a ready stance already set.
Starting at Core — your team is set to mixed.
10 min tonight · One keeper at a time (coach serves)
- Ages 9+
- One keeper at a time (coach serves)
- 10 min as the drill is written
- Cones, balls
Grab Cones and a supply of balls.
Build Build a 5-by-10-yard grid.
Place The keeper starts on one end of the grid. You stand about 5 yards off the opposite end with the balls.
- 1
Organize the players
Put the keeper on the start end of the grid and take the ball supply about 5 yards off the far end.
“You start down there. Every ball comes from me.”
- 2
Show the jobs
Walk the loop — on your command, the keeper sprints along the outside of the grid to the top, gets into the ready position, scoops your ground ball and returns it, backpedals to the start, then shuffles across the 5-yard end line and runs the same trip up the other side.
“Sprint up, get set, scoop it clean, give it back. Backpedal home, shuffle across — same thing up the other side.”
- 3
Play
Serve each ball directly to the keeper on the ground as they arrive at the top. Run it in sets, with ample time to recover between them.
“Hips to me! Hands ready before it leaves my foot.”
Look for Hips facing the server the whole way around — sprinting, backpedaling, shuffling — with the feet never crossing.
- 4
Switch and repeat
Give real recovery between sets, and rotate keepers through if you have more than one.
“Rest it — fresh legs keep the feet clean.”
If the footwork gets sloppy, stop a loop and ask the keeper where their hips were pointing — let them say it, then run it again.
Go deeper · 3 notes
Why it works
The loop strings the keeper's movements together — sprint, set, scoop, backpedal, shuffle — with one habit underneath all of them: hips facing the ball, quick feet, and a ready stance that arrives before the serve does.
What they learn
Goalkeeper footwork, scooping ground balls, and a fast ready position — knees slightly bent, on the balls of the feet, hands up, eyes on the ball.
What's next
Shuffle Dives — the shuffle now ends on the ground, ball in both hands.
Where does this come from?
SoccerXpert — their published drill library.
A published drill library. Useful and widely used, but not a governing body — so it fills gaps rather than leading.