047: Defending the 1v1 with Jillian Loyden

After a standout college, professional and national team career, Jillian Loyden now dedicates her time and attention to training goalkeepers and studying the position with The Keeper Institute. One of her areas of focus has been the 1v1 save, a topic that she breaks down on this week’s episode.

Jill makes it clear that The Keeper Institute is as much a school as it is a training facility, emphasizing the study of the game and the position. Most training exercises at TKI – including those related to the 1v1 save – are extensions of research done by Jill and her collaborators. One study, in particular, charted every touch taken – across an entire season – by three different goalkeepers, to identify attacking and defending trends and the effectiveness of different techniques.

Related to 1v1s, Jill and her staff have broken their strategy into three phases, which she outlines in the interview. She also discusses the different approaches that keepers should take to each phase, as well as how to incorporate these strategies into training exercises (two of which are featured below).

Special thanks to Jillian Loyden for joining me!