THE PRODUCT: Championship Productions teamed up with Sean Nolan to put together an instructional video for the water polo goalie titled Becoming a Champion Water Polo Goalie. The content and instruction throughout the video comes entirely from Sean Nolan and the skills, drills, and techniques are those that he has used to hone his abilities as a goalie and those that he uses to coach his players today. The video has a running time of 92 minutes. The video retails for $39.99 plus $8.99 shipping from www.championshipproductions.com and checkout with PayPal is available.
THE SYNOPSIS: Coach Sean Nolan’s instructional video focuses on the most important aspect of a goalie, and that’s BLOCKING THE BALL. This is job #1 for the goalie and arguably the most difficult for any coach to instruct to their players. Coach Nolan starts at the very beginning of player development with the Eggbeater kick and continues to develop the goalie’s ability from there, with a continued emphasis throughout the video on leg performance and continuously building on previous skills.
THE SOURCE: Sean Nolan is currently the Olympic Development Program Director for Goalkeepers, Assistant Coach for UC Berkley Men’s Water Polo Team, and was a member of the 2000 Olympic Team. Coach Nolan has undoubtedly sifted through years of instruction and has put together a condensed and concise knowledgebase of instruction for today’s goalie to help make them a better shot blocker. There are very few people in the water polo community today that have this list of credentials as a player and coach and are willing to share this type of instruction to anyone and everyone out there.
THE INFORMATION: The video’s format, as well as the instruction within, is progressive. There are seven (7) segments for the video which constantly build on each other as you watch. What also continues is the terminology used by Coach Nolan throughout, again, building on the very first segment to develop the goalie’s positioning and abilities to become an effective shot blocker. You combine the on-deck and voice-over instruction from Coach Nolan as well as the in-pool demonstration from some of his very own goalies, it provides all of the aspects you are looking for in comprehensive instruction. These segments include:
The Eggbeater – Coach Nolan starts the player with absolutely no idea on what the eggbeater is or how to do it and walks you through several steps to go from sitting on the deck and supported to being in the water and just using your legs. His mantra which starts at this very first segment and carries throughout the video is “high and wide.”
Base Position – In this segment, Coach Nolan and his in-water goalies show you what the base position looks like, how to get there, and how to use it effectively. There are several drills presented in this segment that are used to help reinforce the base position for the goalie. The instruction through continues to emphasize the reliance on the legs of the goalie, a concept that continues throughout the video’s instruction.
Step-Lunge Fundamentals – Here Coach Nolan looks at lateral movement of the goalie, again keeping the legs in charge of the movement. Drills continue, with a drive to work lateral movement and putting the legs in awkward positions, getting them used to being the driving force in all goalie movement in the water. This also shows one of my favorite drills from the entire video, “Dinosaur Hands.”
Block the Ball – Coach Nolan the his goalie ensemble take all of the skills that have been instructed in the first three (3) segments and bring them together, using the same terminology that was established in those segments as well. It’s the development of the early skills that help feed the abilities to block the ball in this segment.
Living in the Triangle – This segment is focused on outside shooting and uses great tangible tools within the pool to help the goalie visualize the path of travel that the ball can take from any position in the pool. And in using these tools, the goalies and Coach Nolan work to find the best position the goalie needs to be in to both block the outside shot as well as deter against the Lob shot. And the Lob shot block is also examined and instructed in detail.
Movement in and Around the Goal – This segment looks at several shooting drills which utilize ball movement prior to the shot in order to emphasize goalie movement around the goalie in order to make the shot. Again, Coach Nolan looks at utilizing the skills and abilities built in earlier segments to execute within these drills.
Putting It All Together – This segment is a slide-show presentation with a voice-over by Coach Nolan, highlighting the instruction within the video, again using the same terminology that was carried through from the very beginning.
THE REVIEW: How many times have we gone trolling the web for information on training goalies, only to come away with maybe a handful of drills, some of which we don’t know the rhyme or reason behind it, only that it features goalies, and come application, it’s more like “drilling for the sake of drilling.” That’s NOT the case with “Becoming a Champion Water Polo Goalie.” Everything, from the very first segment of the video, works to building a goalie from the ground up, starting with the eggbeater kick, through the base position and into shot blocking, providing progressive drills along the way. And for the whole time, Coach Nolan continues to use the same terminology, which reinforces the skills that were taught in earlier segments has actual shot blocking application.
How do you instruct the basic eggbeater? Coach Nolan shows you how, starting with very novice movements and set positions, and progressing until the player is eggbeatering all by themselves with no support. I put this particular instruction to the test, and wouldn’t you know it, my eggbeater was lacking just a little, and with a bit of adjustment, I was higher and more stable in the water, and I was using less energy doing so. This is just one example of the type of instruction that even a seasoned player can take away from this video. And that’s just the first segment. The same approach to instruction occurs throughout the video as well as with the drills.
Coach Nolan keeps such a high emphasis on legs, base position, and lateral movement by the goalie that you don’t even see a water polo ball for segments 1, 2, 3 and part of 4, which accounts for the first 30 minutes of a 92 minute video. And that isn’t even to say that the other 60 minutes has all ball-used drills, because that’s not the case either. But when there is ball-used drills, they are very pointed and effective in training and instruction your goalie.
The video also offers an exceptional amount of views of practically every drill and skill presented. Between above water, water level, and below water, as well as several camera angles with them, this production gives the viewer a complete visual of what everything the goalie is doing should look like. Additionally, the voice over commentary and coaching points that are presented throughout by Coach Nolan work fantastically well together and Coach Nolan’s explanations are very easy to understand and follow. To go along with the multiple camera viewpoints presented, Nolan and the goalies also give “Incorrect Technique” examples to call out not only that it IS wrong, but also WHY it is wrong, putting to sleep any argument that could come out against a certain skill. One of the most outstanding segments comes from “Living in the Triangle” as this not only gives the goalie’s perspective but also the shooters perspective, which allows the viewer to get an understanding of the shot from all points of view.
This video doesn’t cover EVERYTHING that goes into goaltending. So don’t look for any discussion on the communication or outlet passing aspects of playing goalie. Additionally, there is no pointed instruction on defending shots from the 2M, post-up positions, or breakaways either. This video looks at perimeter shooting and is all about keeping the ball out of the back of the cage from it. And this isn’t entirely bad. With the rules and condition of today’s game, there are fewer shots coming from the 2M position, and even less coming from drives and breakaways, thus the bulk of shooting comes from perimeter shots. The skill set that this video works at mastering focuses specifically on that.
Another thing that can become distracting to the viewer is the whistles and game play that can be heard in the background. Some may call it ambiance, others may call it “production value,” and yet others may find it annoying and distracting. But these sporadic whistles can also engage the attention of the viewer, whether intended or not, as the water polo player has become so trained on the whistle that the brain will perk up at every one heard, either when playing, or even when viewing this video. Happy accident???
IN CONCLUSION: The information presented in “Becoming a Champion Water Polo Goalie” is top notch, coming from one of the highest ranking coaches within the USA in the sport of water polo today. The instruction is very easy to follow both in explanation as well as in viewing and you can see the application of the skills presented as the video continues. And this isn’t just for the goalie to view but should also be owned by EVERY coach and viewed every season and continually worked with throughout a players career. Coach Nolan often refers to drills that he does with his goalies daily as well as ones that he would do on a regular basis as a player. This is a top notch goalie clinic that players would pay several hundred dollars to attend and it has applications for the novice as well as the advance goalie, and this can be utilized by several goalies for one low price, thus saving on the compounding price of sending players to a camp or clinic, so the value of the information is exceptional. Not only that, Coach Nolan offers up his personal e-mail at the end of the video for anyone that has any questions or require clarifications on the information presented. I can’t stress enough, this video is a MUST HAVE for every coach and goalie out there in the sport. If you want to give your goalie the edge on the outside shots, Coach Nolan and “Becoming a Champion Water Polo Goalie” are the keys, and you will be keeping the ball out of the back of the cage.
