The bouncer

The bouncer is a position, which is very useful if the ball moves behind your goal. It enables you to slide from one post to the other with a minimum of effort. Strikers with a ball behind the goal are always a tough challenge. They can change directions fast, as apposed to us goalies having to twist our head from one shoulder to the other (and not the full body). Your body always points towards the field, as this is the dangerous area to score from. As soon as we lose the ball out of sight, the goal is open and we are vulnerable. Nevertheless, a goalie should still cover as much goal as possible in this dangerous situation. This post explains you the positioning and movement of the bouncer.
We call this position bouncer, relatable to the bouncer in front of a club. A bouncer makes himself big in front of the goal (door) and stays close to the goal, just on the goal line in this case. The bouncer does not want that people go through the door behind his back.

How to do it?
The striker is situated behind the goal and moves from the right side to the left and back but staying behind the goal. Than he plays a pass to a striker in front of the goal, which is out of the slot on the right side and ready for the shot.

• Starting point
• Position yourself on in the middle of the goal line
• Your feet are in the goal, knees are shortly above the goal line
• Torso points to the field – NEVER twist your body to the side even though a striker has the ball behind the goal. If you twist towards the ball behind the goal too much, the strikers in front of the goal are more dangerous and are just waiting for their pass and scoring opportunity. A twisted torso minimizes the cover ratio from your body in the goal and the ability for fast movements between the posts.
• Put your hands down at the sides of your body
• Head is turned towards the ball and your focus is on the striker and the ball behind the goal
• The shape of your body simulates a triangle
• Movement
1. Action
• Striker is behind the goal and runs to the right
• Goalie does a knee step to the right until his right hand touches the post
• Do not nestle your whole arm and the shoulder to the post – it is an uncomfortable position and decreases your reaction speed, when the striker does not try to score. You are in a perfect positon to react and you signal him that you see them and scoring is not an option!
• Observe the striker over your right shoulder – watch through the net
• If the striker tries to score at the first post by twisting the stick around it, you only have to do a little additional move with your right knee to the post
• If the striker does a bow to shoot from a short distance, you push your body with the left hand towards the striker – torso points directly to the ball to cover as much of the goal as possible. If it is a very small bow, stay at goal line and go into the initial sideway position (link)
2. Action
• As the striker realizes that this post is no option for him, he runs to other side
• Goalie keeps observing the striker above his right shoulder until the striker passes 2/3 of the goal with his body – NOTICE : if you would change the view over your shoulder when the striker is about halfway, it is very easy for the striker to get out of your view by changing back to the original direction of movement and overcome you, as you have less time to find him and react.
• You move between the posts with the knee step movement and adapt your position to the movement of the striker
• Like at the right post, the goalie covers the left post with his hand on the floor
3. Action
• Striker moves from the left side back to the right
• Goalie does the same like in bullet point 2
4. Action
• Striker sees no option to score by his own and passes the ball to a second striker outside the slot on the right side
• The second striker does a direct shot to the goal
• Goalie scans the field during the slide to the right side and the turn of the head from the left to the right and already realize the danger striker before the passes happened
• Once the striker passes from behind the goal, you know the destination of the pass, push yourself out of the goal to increase the depth, and increases the cover ration of his body thereby.
• A strong push with the toes and arms is needed, as well as a solid full position (not just the triangle position anymore)
• Final point
• Goalie blocked the ball of the striker and is ready for the rebound