Learn the goalkeeper ready position: foot width, knees, weight, arms and orientation – with DFB cues, data from elite keepers and clear milestones.
The honest answer up front: The ready position is the starting point for all goalkeeper techniques – feet about shoulder-width apart, toes pointing forward, weight on the balls of the feet, knees slightly bent, upper body slightly forward, elbows at about 90 degrees, hands in front of the body [1]. Anyone who masters it has the base for catching, collecting and diving. Think of it as the position before a sprint: not tense, but ready to go. A practical image, not a measurement.
This is no small matter. The DFB Academy says the basic techniques should be solid before any specialised ones [4]. And in a measurement of ten elite goalkeepers, they stood very similarly before their dives: stance width about a third of leg length, knees flexed on average 62 degrees and hips 63 degrees [3].
Place your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes pointing forward [1]. The nudge test: if someone gently pushes you, you should be able to catch yourself without a lunge step. In the elite measurement stance width was 33% of leg length [3] – at 90 cm leg length that is about 30 cm, roughly one foot length. It is not a wide straddle.
Milestone: Check your foot position on phone video from the front: feet about shoulder-width, toes forward.
Weight belongs on the balls of the feet, knees slightly bent, upper body leaning diagonally forward [1]. How deep you go depends, according to the DFB, on the distance of the shooter [1]. On average the elite keepers stood at 62 degrees of knee flexion [3]. That is clearly bent, but not yet a deep squat.
Milestone: Stand for 30 seconds without sinking onto your heels or locking your knees.
Elbows form about a 90-degree angle, hands are in front of the body [1]. Note: the DFB describes hand position differently across its materials – "palms towards the body" in the Academy, "towards each other" in an older info evening [1][2]. What matters is that the hands are ready in front of you, not hanging down.
Milestone: Your partner rolls a ball at you from 5 m; in 9 out of 10 attempts your hands are in front of your body before the ball arrives.
The DFB Academy builds exercises in three levels: Level 1, you act from the ready position, the ball is still. Level 2, you move to the still ball. Level 3, you move to the rolling ball [4]. This way you learn not just to hold the position but to start from it.
Milestone: Levels 1 to 3 with 8 out of 10 clean attempts each.
Before you react technically, you need to see how ball, goal and you relate to each other. BASPO names orientation goal–ball–goalkeeper as the most important observation point [5]. Take your ready position in good time, before the shot comes [4].
Milestone: On the coach's hand signal take the stance 10 times and fix your eyes on the ball.
The ready position itself is harmless, but goalkeepers live with falls. Among high-school players, shoulder, upper-arm and elbow injuries made up 8.0% of all goalkeeper injuries versus only 1.9% for outfield players – about four times as much, mostly from falling on an outstretched arm [6]. So warm up before every session, for example with the FIFA 11+ programme, which cut injuries by 39% in a meta-analysis [7]. This guide explains and motivates; it does not replace supervised training.
Bring the ready position to life: with a small preparatory step shortly before the shot you stay mobile. The DFB Academy also trains the "game-like preparatory movement" before the action to the ball [4]. In the dive, the elite keepers got the push mostly from the far leg – horizontally 2.7 m/s versus 1.2 m/s from the near leg [3]. So both legs must be ready to go.
About shoulder-width [1]. Among ten elite goalkeepers stance width was 33% of leg length [3]. Too wide means the ball can slip through the legs [2].
Slightly bent, depending on the shooter's distance [1]. Elite keepers stood at an average of 62 degrees of knee flexion [3]. That is a measured value, not a rule for every situation.
In front of the body, elbows at about 90 degrees [1]. The exact palm position is described differently in DFB materials – what counts is that the hands are ready.
No. You take it before a shot comes and move from it into the action [4]. In between you may move and orient yourself.
Because on the whole foot you stay fixed and immobile [2]. On the balls of the feet you can start faster.
Collecting Flat Balls as a Goalkeeper: Scoop It Up Instead of Letting It Slip