It’s unclear if Chelsea TV’s “UNSEEN” and “RE-SEEN” video series (a big draw for the YouTube channel over the last couple years) will continue this season — early indications are not too good — but every once in a while, we’re still treated to a nice video on a more readily available and accessible platform than the official website or the much-pushed official app that doesn’t even have Chelsea in its name (The 5th Stand).
This time we get a little over five minutes of inside access to goalkeeper training, and regardless of how well you’re sold on the Kepa hype, it’s well worth you brief time investment. Chelsea’s new record signing is obviously the star of the show, which starts in the boot room and then follows him out onto the lush greens of Cobham, but young Marcin Bułka looks good to my untrained eyes as well, while the two veterans aren’t slacking either.
The video is long enough to give a taste of the mind-numbing repetition that most professional athletes have to go through in order to make just about everything they do in a game second-nature. There’s still a bit of fun with some shooting practice, but otherwise most of the training that we’re shown consists of agility, concentration, and technique drills. It’s all quite fascinating.
It’s also quite positive overall, with a ton of encouragement and praise, which struck me as quite new-agey, but perhaps it’s not that unique. Certainly, videos of Christophe Lollichon’s training sessions with Čech & Co were a lot more intense, but in either case the samples are very limited. The generally convivial feeling could also be a byproduct of half the group being new and still just getting to know each other (Hilario, Caballero, and Bułka all know each other already — Kepa, Green, and new coach Massimo Nenci are all new).
In any case, good show from the goalkeepers. Now, it’s time for the real thing.