Ted Papadopoulos

GK Coach and Performance Analyst

how can performance analysis accelerate player development?

“You play soccer with your head, and your legs are there to help you.” - Johan Cruyff

Todays video technology gives athletes an advantage to accelerate years of their player development process through performance analysis feedback. Pro clubs and Academies now have a performance analysis team that is dedicated to provide this necessary and crucial feedback for players so that they can study their performance off-the-field. When watching themselves perform, this feedback not only brings upon more engagement from the player, but it also accelerates their maturity by helping the player process the information that they’ve learned over the years through the visual perception sensory. Sport is visual and the visual perception sensory is a critical learning component for all players in order to mature and develop their game, especially with Goalkeepers.

Utilizing today’s innovative video technology tools can accelerate goalkeeper development and help them mature quicker on the field.

It all started when I was 4…

My dad would kick soccer balls for me to dive at on the carpeted floor in our basement. When I saw the article hanging on the wall that my dad held the record at City College of New York for most goals scored in a game (6) against Brooklyn College, and how my dad was the most sought out attacker while playing against LIU (who was then coached by All-American great Dr. Joe Machnik) and became immediately drawn to the spotlight - but instead to stop goals. I became a student of the game, living and breathing playing and watching soccer. I was fortunate to have access to his library full of VHS recorded World Cup matches going back to Spain 82’, and I became obsessed with the GK position after watching the heroics of Argentina’s goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea in the Italia 90’. Watching, playing, learning, obsessing… Repeat. The visual learning component is what helped me later connect all of the dots among the technical training pieces I had learned over the years, and it all eventually clicked. In hindsight, I was an actor, an imitator, in the art of goalkeeping. I would then find my own way of doing it.

I was fortunate enough to have the ultimate soccer dad, and so passing down the passion and love of the game to the next generation is certainly a goal to keep.