Author Archives: Life of a Goalkeeper: Fitness and Drills

Essay #2

I wanted to build my publication around goalkeeping because it is what I typically do when I am not doing homework. I thought it would be fun to share some of the different drills and fitness that I have to do as a goalie I didn’t really think about my audience mostly because of the fact that it could interest a variety of people. Even those who are not necessarily athletic people or didn’t know a whole lot about soccer, it’s still a topic that could make anyone second guess skipping to a different site. When it came to the design of my website I wanted to portray that yes I am an athlete, but I am a female and I enjoy a lot of girly things, so when it came to the design I wanted the color theme and the layout of my website to show that femininity side of me, and I really enjoyed the result of the looks of my website.

As the term moved on, it became less about the fitness and drill aspect and more on what goes on inside of the head of a goalkeeper in different situations. I tried to plan out how I was going to film when it came to practices but there were times where we didn’t have anyone on the side to film, or the weather prohibited us from filming. Down the road if I want to continue to post on site, I think I would plan a little better and organize how and what I will film. In Shelby Carpenter’s article, she explained the difficulty in keeping up with content and how much to put out before you eventually run out of ideas. The way that I viewed this for my site, is that there are an infinite amount of drills and ideas for drills to put out onto the internet where it can be viewed by other young or older goalkeepers. It doesn’t just have to stop at goalkeepers or even athletes in general, there are people that can scroll and find a person who is flying through the air and catching a ball, falling on the ground with no hesitation towards the repercussions for their bodies. It is just a matter of whether the producer of the content can keep up and get the videos out there.

When the term publishing came to mind for me in the beginning of this term, I could only think of books and their publicists, movies, and businesses. After taking this class I didn’t realize that publishing could be such a broad term and are needed almost everywhere. Not to mention that I thought that I was pretty good at technology in the beginning of this semester and after having to create and manage a website, I found out that maybe I’m not the greatest. I found it interesting considering that these days we use technology in almost everything we do and to be offline is like going away to Mars (Mod). When it came to producing content it seemed like a good idea to view it as a social media account. Because everyone can attest to going onto various social media platforms a lot. My only problem was that I don’t post a lot on my social media accounts, I just go and browse to see what is going on in other people’s lives and have found a lot of respect for those who can just write so much content and stay on top of it.

I have not received any comments but I would like to keep it open because I think it could really help shape my website and people might bring up some good ideas. Of course there are going to be situations where people might comment some not so very nice things to say. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and have their own ways of carrying out what they want to say, technology has provided a way for us to say things with some anonymity therefore making it easier to say some things that probably shouldn’t be said face-to-face. That being said, after reading “The dark side of Guardian comments” I have seen ways to handle certain comments if they should ever get out of hand which I certainly hope they don’t.

Looking back I would say that I had this crazy way of thinking that publishing was this narrow term that applied to books and movies, etc. and it was more a peer review. Now I see that it is way, way broader than that and can be used in so many different aspects of lives. Moving forward my goal is to try and find time to continue to blog because it involves doing something active and fun for me. Overtime if the website turns out to be a success maybe I can get some sponsors like showing off goalie gloves, athletic wear, etc. I had a lot of fun experimenting with my website and seeing other classmates create great content too.

References

Carpenter, Shelby. “The Toast Is Toast: Literary Humor Site Shuts Down Over Ad Revenue Woes.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 May 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/shelbycarpenter/2016/05/13/the-toast-is-toast-and-its-devastating/?sh=15630d0948f6.

Gardiner, Becky, et al. “The Dark Side of Guardian Comments.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Apr. 2016, www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/12/the-dark-side-of-guardian-comments.

Mod, Craig. “How I Got My Attention Back.” Wired, Conde Nast, www.wired.com/2017/01/how-i-got-my-attention-back/.

Goalkeepers Have to Have Short Term Memory

Almost all of my keeper coaches have taught us a form of thinking where we need to have a short term memory in order to play our position. A lot of people see this and have to think about it for a second because it is not something that is discussed a whole lot. It is easy for a forward to make a little mistake and either correct it or get it the next time the ball comes their way. There are times where goalkeepers don’t get a whole lot of action and if we make a mistake that one time something gets kicked at us, it can be a deciding factor in a game situation.

I always talk about how if a goalkeeper makes a decision that is not the correct one, it is more costly than a forward or midfielder making a poor decision. But like all humans, we make mistakes and we cannot dwell on it otherwise it can lead to more goals being scored on you. It can be very difficult because when a goal is scored, the goalie is the last line of defense so it can be very easy to look at the keeper with the slightest bit of contempt.

Trust me, there are times where when I let in a goal, I tend to blame myself, always thinking “why didn’t I do this instead?” or “why did I approach it like this?” This is where the keeper coach starts telling us to forget about it and move on, have a short term memory, because once you go down the rabbit hole about what you should or shouldn’t have done we start to second guess ourselves and make more mistakes than necessary.

Peer Review #3

For this week I will reviewing Chii’s Sweet Home linked here: http://chiisweethome.com/

I was very excited to browse through this website after seeing that it was another food website and I do love food. I was intrigued when noticing that it would be Asian cuisine with a Western style added to it, this I think would entice their directed audience and create an eagerness to try something new. Food is something that anyone can relate to but as a college student and an international student, I think that this kind of site would target the college or high school students well. Especially since we are all pressed for time and could use some ideas for cooking!

According to Shelby Carpenter from the Forbes website, it can be hard to maintain and keep creating content for the site. Food I think is something that could really last a while if you really put your mind to it. There are so many recipes and different types of food that can be made and posted. And like Chii explained in her About section, she will include recipes that you can make when you don’t want to put a lot of effort into cooking or don’t have a lot of time, it is just a matter of getting creative.

I love the pink background with the white boxes and different shade of pink text. It pops, demands attention, and the different shades of pink work well together. Another thing that I liked, was the different pictures of foods at the top of the pages when clicking on different categories, this too goes well with the color scheme and layout of the website. It again would capture the audience’s attention and pique their interest to linger.

The categories on the side of the site allow for an easy way to navigate through the site instead of just scrolling up and down, if flows smoothly so the audience won’t get frustrated and give up.

One thing I might recommend is the About section. This picture is also lovely, different, and also matches the color theme. It did take me a little while to figure out that I actually had to click on the picture to take me to the About page so I would recommend putting a little description on the bottom saying “Click Here” or something like that! 🙂

Overall, I love the idea and uniqueness of this website! There is still work to be done and I can’t wait to see what other content they create.

Process Post: Peer Review Response #2

This peer review response had a lot to do with the layout and design of our sites. I really liked Angelika’s feedback, it gave me a nice little road to take in order to make my website look better!

She first talked about using a dropdown menu in order to better organize the layout of my website and take a minimalist look which I agree with and am still trying to sort out.

Second, she talked about the incorporation of media into my site and I actually had none. After sorting through the plugins I was able to find one that puts a social media menus bar on the right hand side. And then add some extra posts that are taken from social media like Instagram videos of different keeper workout drills.

Overall I am really glad that she liked my website and was able to navigate through it easily while giving me some really good constructive feedback that will help better my website.

Peer Review #2

Today I will be reviewing Angelika’s website titled “Traditional Russian Cuisine” which let’s me know exactly what it’s about and I was very excited to explore her website because I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about Russian food so I was really curious and wanted to know more! Her website is linked here: http://cookingrussiandishes.com/

Her site is very beautiful, the images she uses are very colorful and flow nicely and she has a lot of white space. It was very easy to navigate through her website and I do love food so I was very interested, not only that but the images she used really draw you in. Her site is very usable and fun to explore especially with all of the colors which really gets your attention and keeps you curious. And honestly who doesn’t love food?

There is some integration of social media on her site, like a little side menu with links to platforms like Facebook and I think one link to Instagram.

One thing that I would recommend would be the placement of her “About” boxes which are located on the right of her Home Page, and the rest of her posts are located on the left. I was thinking that since the writing for her posts are centered, it might be a good idea to move the “About” boxes to the bottom of her page and see if she can center the pages so that it correlates to her writing setup.

Angelika is doing a really good job with her website and I can’t wait to see what else she provides for us. You can tell it is something she is really passionate about and is a very unique that piques your interest!

Process Post: Audience

I know that my main audience wanted to be directed at those who are around my age, either in high school, college, or maybe just graduated from college. It didn’t really matter to me whether or not they were athletes; if people in the audience were athletes, I hope they would still find my website interesting because my position is pretty unique. When people think of soccer they tend to think of the goal scorers or the defenders and not really the goalkeepers.

Because of this position I tend to think differently about certain situations so I wanted to outline my thinking process the most with my blogs. In addition, goalkeeping is pretty intense and requires a lot of strength and can be perceived as a more masculine position and while I am very strong and athletic I also have a very gentle personality. So I went with more of a girly theme because it stood out to me and I liked it. I had also hoped that it would draw more girls to my site as well and keep them curious, considering the title of my website speaks for itself about what it’s all about.

Process Post: Response to Peer Review

Today I am posting my response to Vanessa’s review of my website. I am thrilled that she enjoyed my idea and appreciated her constructive feedback, especially about the theme of my site. I was able to switch themes that I think better suited my website. I am sad to say that I fell behind on my posts so she didn’t have a lot to work with and the site was a bit of a mess.

Once I got my theme sorted out I was able to map out my site more effectively and organize it a lot more. I know I still have a lot of work to do and things to figure out, but I think at this point it is a matter of playing around with the different settings.