National GK Camp has been held from 27 February to 1 March at Oita Sports Park. This annual camp is for encouraging potential goalkeepers for future Japanese squad team including younger categories such as U-15. Twenty goalkeepers; 10 from under age 15, and 10 from under 18, were selected from all over Japan for this three-day training sessions.

Coach and Players'Comments

KAWAMATA Noriyuki, GK Project Leader
This is the 17th GK Camp and it used to be held at the end of October each year. From this year, we decided to have this annual camp in February. We used to train qualified goalkeepers who played well in previous seasons, but now we want to encourage potential goalkeepers at the beginning of the season, expecting them to improve themselves throughout the coming season.

This is the year that U-15 and U-18 National Teams’ players will be selected and we could call up qualified goalkeepers who have enough potential to be selected for the squad teams. In three days, we had four training sessions and two meetings and this is the basic training style we do every time. For the U-15 players, we particularly had technical sessions to make the most of them in practical matches and for the U-18 we focused on how they relate themselves efficiently in games and how they play better technically. Additionally we particularly paid attention to having strong mentality as a goalkeeper to save the goal. I appreciate all the players for doing their best in this camp. I expect them to improve themselves throughout the coming season.

NAGASAKA Yoshiki (Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth)
It was such a good three days spending time only with goalkeepers. I was inspired through the training with other players, knowing which play works well and which does not. It was a very precious experience for me, so now I want to use what I learned from here for my own development and also I want to contribute to my team more.

HIROSUE Riku (Aomori Yamada High School)
I think each goalkeeper who joined in this camp from all over Japan is very unique. In such a dense training environment only with goalkeepers, I could see my advantages and disadvantages. I want to improve myself for the future by absorbing other players’ good play and by having good training to solve my weaknesses. I also could get a lot of advice from coaches and that allowed me to learn new things. I will use what I learned this time in my daily practice after this training camp.

MAEKAWA Ren (Consadole Sapporo U-15)
This has been my first experience in joining this type of national-level training. I could see my level as a goalkeeper and I also got inspired by the other goalkeepers. I appreciate the advice that I got from coaches this time, so I will bring them with me to my team to correct our challenges. I want to be a good goalkeeper who can play well in any big national level football matches in the future.

KISHIMOTO Tetsuya (Hajaxs Football Club)
Spending three days with goalkeepers in same age range having such a high-level training was a very good opportunity for me; it was very stimulating. I got to understand what I need to pay more attention to in my usual play, so I will keep them in my mind in the future trainings with my team. I also got to know what my advantages are as a goalkeeper and that made me feel more confident.