Special Glasses, Shields, and Drones: New Technology for Indonesian National Team Goalkeeper Training

Having five quality goalkeepers participating in the training camp ahead of the matches against China and Japan does not make Sjoerd Woudenberg, the goalkeeper coach of the Indonesian national team, relaxed or complacent. The former goalkeeper coach of Dewa United is instead introducing innovations that are newly presented in Indonesia, and even Southeast Asia, in order to elevate the level of the last line of defense for the "Garuda" squad.

During the open training session on Monday (2/6/2025) at the Gelora Bung Karno Madya Stadium in Jakarta, Woudenberg was assisted by his assistant, Damian van Rensburg. This June training camp is Van Rensburg's first opportunity to collaborate with the Indonesian national team, having come from South Africa. Previously, they were brought in by Jan Olde Riekerink to train the goalkeepers of Dewa United since 2023.

Woudenberg coaches the main team's goalkeeper, while Van Rensburg is responsible for the goalkeeper of the Elite Pro Academy Dewa. When Woudenberg was invited by Indonesian Coach Patrick Kluivert to train the Garuda team’s goalkeepers, Van Rensburg succeeded him in the main team "Banten Warriors," the nickname for Dewa. As of June, when Dewa has completed the 2024-2025 season, they reunite in the Indonesian national team.

Woudenberg and Van Rensburg introduced new technologies for training Indonesian goalkeepers. He used six balloon mannequins as fake opponents for simulation training against opposing attacks.

Not to be outdone, Woudenberg also always holds a white shield to act as a ball reflector, creating a variety of shooting direction sensations. The ball reflected by Woudenberg with the shield travels at a speed equivalent to a powerful kick from an opposing forward player.

Even when the ball bounces off the surface of the field, its direction becomes increasingly erratic. This situation is certainly very important for training the reflexes and skills of the goalkeeper to read the ball's direction in order to prevent it from entering the goal.

In order to enhance focus and anticipation vision for the goalkeeper, Woudenberg has also instructed goalkeeper Emil Audero to wear special glasses. These glasses have black covers that are half the size of the lenses on both sides of the eyes. The colored plastic material restricts the goalkeeper's peripheral vision.

The cutting-edge training technology implemented by Woudenberg was not seen while the Indonesian national team was still coached by Shin Tae-yong.

This is done to train the focus of the goalkeeper in light of the limited field of vision. With this tool, the goalkeeper is also trained to quickly determine the next reaction to block the ball.

The special glasses are also intended to enhance the goalkeeper's ability to understand the surrounding environment, thereby enabling them to determine the appropriate position to face the object (ball) and other players around them.

Unfortunately, the special glasses are only used by Emil, who has the opportunity to become the main goalkeeper in the match against China on Thursday (5/6/2026) at 20:45 WIB, at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Jakarta. The backup goalkeepers, such as Ernando Ari, Nadeo Argawinata, and Reza Arya, have not yet used the special glasses.

Based on Kompas's research, the special glasses used by Emil, Palermo's goalkeeper who was borrowed from Como, are a product of Swivel Vision from the United States. On the official Swivel Vision website, the price of the glasses is 45 US dollars or around (Rp 733,000).

Swivel Vision has been used by Manuel Neuer at Bayern Munich since the 2023-2024 season. Teams in the US League, including Philadelphia Union, have also worn those special glasses.

In fact, the special glasses for team sports training were first released by the Japanese company Vision Up in the early 2010s. Following Vision Up, Senaptec from the United States also launched similar special glasses. However, in terms of price, the glasses made by Swivel Vision are the most affordable due to the less advanced materials compared to those of Vision Up and Senaptec.

In addition to the training menu tools, Woudenberg also uses drones to record his team's training. The use of drones aims to obtain aerial analysis which is very important for monitoring positioning, decision making, and the accuracy of falling techniques when trying to block the ball.

The precision of such detailed analysis cannot be achieved if the goalkeeping coach only conducts direct observations on the field or records training sessions with a regular camera. Before joining the Indonesian national team, Woudenberg and Van Rensburg also routinely conducted aerial recordings while training the goalkeepers of Dewa.

The training methods employed by Woudenberg have shown good performance for the main goalkeeper of Dewa, Sonny Stevens. The Dutch goalkeeper recorded the highest number of clean sheets in the BRI Liga 1 Indonesia for the 2024-2025 season, with 14 matches played without conceding a goal.

Stevens' save rate reached 80 percent of the total shots he faced per match. This percentage has increased compared to 75 percent in the 2023-2024 season.

Emil believes that the training methods provided by Woudenberg and Van Renburg are beneficial for him and the other goalkeepers of the Garuda squad. "I see that we are all focused on training with our best abilities. I feel there has been an improvement that we have experienced since undergoing the training camp in Bali," said Emil.

Woudenberg is also satisfied with the performance of his five goalkeepers during the past week of training. It is worth noting that Maarten Paes, Indonesia's main goalkeeper, just joined the training on Tuesday (3/6/2025).

"I am proud of this group of goalkeepers. They encourage each other to elevate their level every day! Preparing to face the upcoming matches," wrote Woudenberg in the caption of a photo with five Indonesian goalkeepers and Van Rensburg, which was posted on his personal Instagram account on Tuesday night.

The advanced training technology implemented by Woudenberg was not evident while the Indonesian national team was still under the guidance of Shin Tae-yong. During Shin's era, the separate goalkeeper training still employed conventional methods. There has yet to be a training method like the one introduced by Woudenberg, which has actually been widely adopted in clubs and national teams of European countries.

In addition to Bayern Munich, Liverpool, along with Arne Slot, has also implemented goalkeeper training using special glasses. Fabian Otte, the goalkeeper coach of Liverpool who arrived in the summer of 2024, has applied this training concept since "The Reds" underwent a training camp in the United States in July of last year.

Apart from the two giant teams, the training method used by Woudenberg in the Indonesian national team with drones, shields, and special glasses was first applied routinely by the Swiss national team. Swiss goalkeeping coach Patrick Foletti has been guiding the best Swiss goalkeepers, one of whom is Yann Sommer, with the training technology since 2017.

The training method was implemented by Foletti when the Swiss squad had an extended training camp, for instance, when preparing for major tournaments such as the European Championship and the World Cup. Since Foletti began coaching the Swiss goalkeepers in 2011, the performance of the team nicknamed "Nati" has been very good.

They have consistently reached the Round of 16 in the last three editions of the World Cup. Switzerland also advanced to the knockout stage in the last three editions of the European Championship, including reaching the quarter-finals in 2020 and 2024, which is their best achievement.

“The training method starts from the idea of putting goalkeepers in similar situations (to those in matches) and improving their decision-making, selection and intervention skills,” Felotti, who is also a member of UEFA’s goalkeeper development advisory group, told Blick in mid-2021 about his training method.

The goalkeeping training methods introduced by the Kluivert regime are expected to help Indonesia achieve its greatest dream, which is to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.