A completely free and volunteer-run training school is aiming to ensure the future of South Canterbury football is in safe hands.
For the past eight-years Bob Ormiston has been running the Aoraki Goalkeeping Kura inviting junior and senior goalkeepers around the region to attend free Sunday morning training sessions at Sir Basil Arthur Park to learn and improve their craft.
Mr Ormiston said the position was one of the most difficult on the field and that by improving goalkeepers, the game as a whole would also be improved.
“We also meet once a month and have a mental psychology of football session. These kids need it because it’s not all just about goalkeeping, it’s giving kids confidence and letting them know it’s OK to muck up.
“The proudest moment of my life was when I was walking around [Sir Basil Arthur Park] to watch some kids and one of the young ones came running up with a big smile.
“I asked what happened and he said they lost 7-1 but he saved 12 [shots]. That’s the difference, changing the mentality to they scored this many, but I saved this many.”
When the initiative started the juniors and seniors trained together, but due to attendance numbers growing, separate senior and junior sessions are now held and each group trains every second Sunday.
At the weekend, the group received new training tops courtesy of the Timaru Host Lions, something they had never had before, Mr Ormiston said.
“It’s great to have the new tops, we’ve been going about eight years and we’d never thought of it. Scouse [assistant coach Stephen Valentine] came up with the idea and said ‘well, perhaps if we had uniforms we’d look a bit more professional’.
“Having some gear makes a huge difference. South Canterbury Football has also been great, they give us balls, mannequins, mark the fields for us and we even have out own separate goal off the fields for training.”
He also wished to thank the parents and children for their continued support.
“The support we get from the parents is incredible and the kids are just great, we probably learn more off them.”
Assistant coach Kassidy Anderson, who started off as one of the first children to train with Mr Ormiston, said the group had grown a lot over the years.
“I started with a really small group, I was 11 and there were maybe five of us. Now there’s usually at least 10 juniors and five or six seniors.”
She said they were very lucky to have Mr Ormiston dedicate his time to coach the training sessions and even beyond.
“Outside of the training he’ll go to a lot of the games to watch and help out, he’ll go to tournaments, some of the kids could be playing in Christchurch and he’ll be on the sideline supporting them.
“He does a lot of rummaging to get gear as well. He’s supplied tops, shorts, gloves and I think he spends a lot of his own money on gear for the kids, which is really cool.
“There’s a lot of good goalkeepers coming through that definitely wouldn’t even be playing in goal without Bob. If he didn’t have trainings, it’d suck.”
Training sessions would begin at 10am and run for a couple of hours covering warm-up techniques, drills, and then working on anything people wanted to improve on, she said.
“If a player’s had a bad game or wasn’t sure how to do something like setting up a wall, we’ll learn how to do it. The sessions are definitely hard work but he makes it fun.
“Anyone can show up, they don’t need experience, there’s kids here playing football for the first time this year. Some of the kids don’t even play in goal, but they still come along, it’s good fitness and skills.
“Bob doesn’t mind if someone’s new and they’re not quite keeping up with everyone else, he’ll take them off to the side and do some basic stuff with them and help them out.”
Anyone interested in joining or wanting more information can do so by getting in touch via the Aoraki Goalkeeping Kura Facebook page or going along to one of the sessions.
