My Goalkeeping System

"The last time we did this focus training, you had both Ciro Martinez and Kyle Pellegrini shooting at me from the edge of the box and told me to save the one with a green crystal on it, that was pretty intense if you ask me," Dave said, looking around the empty pitch.

"Yeah and still you weren't able to get the hang of it, that's sad because we're moving to the intense version anyway," Catherine said.

"That first one was pretty intense if you ask and if this one is going to be worse than it, it should be termed as extra intense, but with that said, I'll have to see it first before I can make my final judgment." The goalkeeper expressed.

"That's fine by me." Catherine before the goalpost popped up behind him with him standing on the goal line.

He wasn't putting on his gloves before but they were on his hands now.

As soon as everything was set, Catherine vanished as two balls appeared apart from each other twenty yards away from the goalpost.

"So which players am I getting this time? I recommend....."

'I'm sorry but you won't be needing anybody this time, anybody that you can see.' Catherine said, cutting him short before he could finish what he wanted to say.

"Why not? I need to study the body positioning of the players to know the best places to go and ensure a successful save." He said.

'Trust me, Dave, that won't be necessary for this training session.'

"And do you mind explaining why that is the case?" The goalkeeper inquired.

'This.'

As soon as he heard that from her, the ball shot out toward him, the ball was heading toward the bottom right side of the goalpost and Dave thought it was going to be easy save as he dived toward the area as fast as he could but just before the ball could reach the area, it hit an invisible force and rolled into the goalpost from the middle and there was nothing Dave could do about it.

'Now do you understand what I'm talking about?'

"What the heck just happened?" The goalkeeper asked after getting up from the floor.

He moved closer to the spot where the ball had hit whatever and reached out his hands to see if he could feel whatever the ball had hit but he wasn't able to feel anything so he had to turn to the only person who could give him an answer.

"What's going on, Catherine?" He asked.

'I told you you didn't need to know the player's body positioning to save these balls.'

"Yeah, you've made your point, now do you mind explaining what just happened? How did the ball hit something invisible but when I reached my hand in the area to find out what it was that the ball hit, I couldn't feel anything?"

'That's what you should have done in the first place, you should have asked what the training was going to be about before jumping into recommending players.'

"Okay, I've asked now so go ahead and explain it." The goalkeeper said.

'In the last focus training we did, you had to find the ball with the green crystal on time and save it but this time, you'll have to keep your senses high because the ball is likely to hit a barrier and when it does it will deflect and you'll have to be ready for that.' Catherine explained.

"What are these barriers and why is it that I can't feel them?" Dave asked.

'Well, the barriers are football players.'

"Football players?"

'Let's just say they're human figures because they'll be acting like robots to be your barriers.' Catherine explained.

"Okay, and how many of these invisible players are in this area?"

'Five of them.'

"Okay, and why is it that I can't touch any of them?"

'Try again.' Catherine said.

Dave did as he was told and reached out for the area and this time she could feel somebody but the person wasn't moving.

"Really smart, Catherine." He said, slowly nodding his head. "What do you mean by the players acting like robots?"

'I thought you were never going to ask.'

"And if I didn't, you wouldn't have said anything about it."

``Of course but since you've asked, what I meant by the players acting like robots is that each player the ball deflects off will take two steps in a random direction so that things will be more difficult.' She explained.

"Wow, it really deserves that extra intense title."

'I knew you were going to say that, now let's see how well you'll do. Explaining all these things to you has taken fifteen minutes which means we only have ten minutes left to see what you can do.'

After she said that, the ball in the goalpost disappeared and appeared where it was before and now it was time for the training to kick off.

'Just so you know, you only have three seconds to get up and get ready for the second ball after the first ball has either been saved, entered the goalpost, or gone over the line.

The first ball was sent flying toward the left side of the goalpost and Dave didn't attempt to dive toward the area as he knew the ball was going to deflect and head off to the middle but it didn't deflect in the way he expected.

The ball hit the player in the area on the head possibly and instead of deflecting off in a different direction, it just went up a bit and continued heading toward the same direction, the left side of the goalpost.

Dave was a bit slow to react to this, he stretched his hand and reached for the ball but he wasn't able to get to it on time as the ball flew past his hand into the back of the net.

"That wasn't what I was expecting." He mumbled.

'Three seconds, Dave.'

The goalkeeper quickly got up from the floor and got ready for the next ball which was sent flying in the same direction.

Dave was standing on the left side of the goalpost which meant that if the ball was to get deflected toward the far right side of the goalpost, he won't be able to reach it on time.

Dave wasn't bothered because he believed that the ball would be deflected somewhere close to him but how wrong he was.

The ball hit one of the players and was sent rolling toward the place where he feared the most for it to go, he quickly dived toward the ball but he wasn't able to get to it on time as the ball rolled into the goalpost.

'Well, that's a bummer.'

The training continued as he kept getting humiliated even by the simplest deflections and even after adding an extra five minutes to his time, he only managed to make just two saves, the first one being an easy save because he didn't move and the ball just came to him and the second one coming from a dive to the right to make a mid-air catch.

"You said it was going to be intense and you delivered." The goalkeeper said after opening his eyes. "I guess I'm really that bad at handling deflections." He added before sitting up on his bed.

<No, you just lack focus>

'Yeah, we'll try again tonight.' He said subconsciously before getting from his bed to stretch.

<Of course>

'The reason why this dream training turns me off sometimes is that I wake up with my body telling me that I got a good night's rest and my mind telling me that I didn't sleep at all.'

<You'll just have to get used to it>

'I know.' He replied. 'Hey, regarding my current training, there's a skill that I haven't unlocked yet called focus right?'

<Yeah, I was going to talk to you about it soon>

****

Happy new year everyone!! I just want to say Thank you to you all for making this a memorable year for me by giving my story a try and supporting it too.