Testimonials
I have had the pleasure of knowing Dan for the past 11 years in a number of different capacities. I first met Dan as a young and eager goalkeeper who was always willing to learn and improve. This positive attitude and work ethic allowed Dan to progress through the provincial and national ranks eventually earning a scholarship and a professional contract.
Throughout this time Dan continued to be a “student of the game” and passed on his knowledge to many young up and coming ‘keepers both as an assistant of mine and with others. Dan showed the same enthusiasm and dedication as a coach as he did as a player and successfully passed on his knowledge to a new generation of young ‘keepers.
My relationship with Dan came full circle when he became the goalkeeper coach of the McMaster University Men’s Team that I coach. His assistance was instrumental in developing our ‘keepers. With Dan’s guidance our ‘keeper, Matt Grant, was the main reason that McMaster captured the 2009 OUA title, earning him both the OUA and CIS athlete of the week. Additionally, Matt was voted a first team OUA all-star for the 2010 season.
Dan is a dedicated and knowledgeable goalkeeper coach. I would highly recommend him to any individual who wants to develop and learn the craft of goalkeeping.
Dino Perri, Head Coach
McMaster University Men’s Soccer
I have had the pleasure of knowing Amy Holt for the past 6 years. During this time Amy was the starting goalkeeper for the McMaster University Women’s Soccer team. Amy was awarded OUA all-star 1st team status each year during her 4 years at MAC, In her final season with the team she was also awarded CIS - 1st team all-star status which ranked her as the top goalkeeper in the country.
Since Amy’s graduation 2 years ago she has been the goalkeeping coach of the McMaster’s Women’s team, she has assisted me in coaching the team, running clinics and doing our summer goalkeeping camps.
In 2006 to 2008 I was the Head Coach for the Hamilton Lady Avalanche of the USL W- League and Amy was my starting goalkeeper. Amy was also our goalkeeper coach at the winter clinic’s we conducted for the Avalanche youth at the Mountain Sports Complex. She was responsible for teaching kids aged 8 to 14 years old the basic fundamentals of the goalie position and worked well with them in every aspect necessary to make them better players.
Amy is an outstanding communicator and technically sound at teaching and developing players at all ages and at all stages of their careers.
Richie Barnett, Head Coach
McMaster University Women’s Soccer
The ‘Art of Goalkeeper Training’ in our present day soccer world is for the most part a forgotten entity within youth team development, and therefore, I have found that you must venture outside of the bubble in order to successfully develop our young keepers.
Having that the goalkeeping position has evolved drastically in the past 20 years the change has forced the keeper to become a much more versatile player. Although being a keeper now requires much more ball control at your feet, it still demands ongoing development to hone the skills required to stop balls from entering the net.
As a coach and parent of a young goalkeeper, the options to secure a passionate and knowledgeable instructor in this discipline can be a difficult task.
In my opinion, ‘Parada Goalkeeping School’ is one of only a couple outfits that are giving young keepers in our region that opportunity.
Dan Pelc was recommended to me by Head Coach of the McMaster Men’s Soccer Team and former CSL player Dino Perri. Coach Perri spoke highly of Dan’s skill set and character which sold me in terms of contacting him to help out my son’s development.
At that time, Dan was heading into Phoenix for pre-season training with the Vancouver White Caps and made an effort to appear at a local indoor facility to help out a group of young boys for the day.
Upon his return to the area in the past year, I have gotten to know Dan a lot better and can attest to the fact that not only does his soccer resume shine amongst others, but his patience and demeanour on the field with the young and upcoming keepers is intriguing and comfortable.
Parada, and more importantly Dan have enlightened my son with various technical aspects that are required in order to excel in this position. As well as the technical aspects of the game, Dan has helped my son with his focus and confidence immensely.
When choosing goalkeeping instruction my first concern is always what the ‘Keeper to Instructor Ratio’ is. At Parada the ratio is well within limits and the ongoing rotation of various instructors throughout the sessions, keeps the players interested and focused.
I’ve been to a few Keeper Academy’s prior to Parada, and feel that Dan is definitely on the right path.
Thank you for your help Dan, and continued success.
Paolo Di Domenico, Coaching Staff
Mount Hamilton Avalanche U13A Boys (SRSL)
Dear Dan,
I wanted to write to thank you and your Parada Goalkeeping team of coaches for an excellent experience for me and my daughter Bryanna. When Bryanna first came to you, you were quick to pick up on her strengths and weaknesses and worked with her, within the scope of each session, to shore up her strengths and eliminate her weaknesses. The age and skill level attention you and your enthusiastic team of coaches gave to her, increased her confidence and provided her with the tools to be successful when she returned to her team and ultimately on the field of play. So often in other goalkeeper clinics Bryanna has attended, the attention to coaching detail has been overlooked, however with you and your team, corrections were made immediately and followed up on to ensure the she was executing a drill or a move the correct way.
Each session in the program focused on all of the elements necessary to build a better goalkeeper. Fundamentals were stressed, however when the fundamentals appeared to be understood, you did not stop with your instruction. You added the mental aspect of reading players, situations and tendencies which brought added value to your program. Additionally, due to the pace of all of your sessions a cardio component, so often missing when it comes to goalkeeping sessions, was experienced due to the high number of repetitions performed in each drill.
In summary, Bryanna’s confidence in her goalkeeping ability and on field presence can be attributed to you and your team and we look forward to a long relationship with Parada Goalkeeping
Sincerely
David Singh, Parent
I have been playing soccer for about 8 years now, and it doesn’t matter what team I’ve played for I never get the proper training. As a goalkeeper we need specific training to help us advance in our abilities, teams do not have coaches that are their to only work with the keeper. ‘Parada Goalkeeping School’ focuses solely on the needs of the goalkeeper, and focusing the training to be keeper specific. I have been attending ‘Parada Goalkeeping School’ since they first started up their clinics here in Hamilton.
As a player I have been able to see an advancement in my abilities as a goalkeeper. The little things that are usually overlooked, like being able to simply catch the ball properly, are trained repeatedly. As keepers we don’t realize that the basics are what make up the game, that 90% of the game is played within arms length and that the amazing upper 90 saves only happen rarely.
The head trainer of ‘Parada Goalkeeping’ Dan Pelc, realizes and understands that as young keepers we need adequate training focused on our needs to be able to advance in the position. Dan has played with many different teams on many different levels, the training he acquired from them he uses to now help us keepers to further develop our skills.
The training sessions start with repetition of the basics, focusing on proper hand shape when catching, proper body positioning when diving, and making sure you are always getting your body behind the ball. As the drills become more advanced all you are doing is taking the basics and applying them to game realistic situations.
With the number of goalkeepers at the sessions getting higher, the number of trainers increased too. Instead of a large group with one trainer, Dan has split up the keepers into three smaller groups. In the smaller groups the players are able to get the training they need and with less people in the group they get more individual attention. The coaches do not only stick to one group but switch every week, this lets us players have the chance to work with each coach and experience their different coaching methods.
I feel PGS has great trainers with plenty of experience and each with different methods of coaching. They all push you to your potential when training and once they see you have reached it they push you a little harder because they see that we are capable of more then we ourselves know.
Monika Szok, Participant
Saltfleet U-21 (OYSL)
As a past Coach for the St.Cathariens Jet’s Girl’s soccer club in the OYSL league, I am pleased to write this letter of recommendation for Dan Pelc of Parada Goalkeeping.
I met Dan in November of 2011, when I signed up my grandson at Parada. I had known of him for a number of years, playing at the professional level, as a goal keeper. During this time, I have come to appreciate his many fine qualities and techniques, as I have watched my grandson grow as a Goal keeper and a person. Dan has a very strong coaching staff as well with great experience .I have learned many great techniques myself just from sitting and watching. As a coach, goalkeeping is a total different position, and should be left to real true goalkeeping professionals. Most teams do not have a true goalkeeper coach to assist in the development of goalkeepers at all levels.
Dan and his staff spent much time ensuring the players understood the proper techniques before moving on to the next drill. Dan also held a health and nutrition class, teaching the benefits of healthy eating habits. I would recommend Parada Goalkeeping to any individual who wants to take goalkeeping to the next level and beyond.
Sincerely,
Joseph D’Andrea, Grandfather
As parents of a young goalkeeper we were delighted at the chance to teach our daughter from a Professional. We had already heard good comments on the goalkeeping school of Parada, but we had no idea the attention to detail and the ability to show to young kids these skills. Our daughter was nervous at first since we came all the way from Cambridge for the Fall/Winter programs, but after several sessions she was eager to learn more and wanted to progress to a higher level. Thats what Parada does for the kids it shows them their level and challenges them to build on a skill to progress to the next skill, but in a way thats positive for her. I am happy to see that the skills she has learned she is already utilizing in her games, and there is more thought to position then in her previous games. With that constant practice of what she has learned is the only way to improve, and we would absolutely bring her back for the fall/winter program for next years sessions. Thank you Dan and team for a more confident Keeper.
Bryan, Anna and Sonja Matthews, Parents & Participant
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