Any prospective goalkeepers on island can soon benefit from year-round coaching by a shotstopper who has been a professional in England and trained alongside David Raya, the Arsenal No 1.

Jahquil Hill, goalkeeper with league champions Dandy Town, was at Brentford at the same time as Raya and also spent time at Wolverhampton Wanderers with Portugal No 1 Rui Patricio.

The 27-year-old moved to England at the age of 15 and played for a number of clubs and he is promising to pass on what he learnt when his JFG (Just For Goalkeepers) Academy launches on Saturday.

“The plan is to pass on my experience and help goalkeepers to understand the concept of being in a professional environment,” Hill said.

“There isn’t too much of that in Bermuda and certainly not in the goalkeeping area. We have the likes of Nathan Trott, Freddy Hall, Dale Eve and myself who have been there, so only a few of us have been in that environment and are capable of bringing that elite goalkeeping training to the island.

“I’ve had conversations with those guys and they understand that this is something that Bermuda needs. We have to put things in place to breed young goalkeepers and help adults to raise standards a little higher so that Bermuda goalkeepers don’t die out.”

But it’s not all about the performances on the field that has inspired Hill to start this venture as he feels he is perfectly placed to mould the next generation.

“I want to make it clear just how important guidance is, especially in this day and age on our island,” Hill said.

“This is a goalkeeping academy, but it’s not just a goalkeeping academy. I am really focused on the structure that I’m trying to put in place and I hope to really guide young Bermudians and pull them in a direction that's positive.

“It’s about creating a positive mindset and helping young guys become productive young men through a passion for football.

“I have about five keepers signed up already, ranging from kids to teenagers right now. It can be difficult for adult goalkeepers because they have a life of their own and need to put things in place to start. On top of that, it’s off season, so I don’t think they’re going to want to start until preseason.

“What I am offering right now is group sessions, which is ideal because when you train in professional environments, you’re not going to be training by yourself. You're going to be training with a group of keepers and you’re going to have to learn how to do it.

“That was my experience growing up and playing in professional environments in England. You train with academy players all the way up to adult men, and you have to learn those dynamics and adapt.”

This is not just a summer camp, with Hill offering coaching year-round and he is combining running the academy with his new job after making a career change. After leaving Digicel, Hill is now an operations intern at Aeolus Capital Management and he must have made an impression on those higher up the food chain, with the company coming on board as his first sponsor.

While things are changing off the pitch, football is also changing on it with goalkeepers now urged to be just as good on the ball as they are at stopping it, which is something that Hill is incorporating into his academy.

“Shot-stopping is still your No 1 as a goalkeeper regardless of trying to play with your feet,” Hill said.

“I don’t feel as if that has been taken into account recently, meaning everyone's so caught up in goalkeepers being able to play with their feet that they have completely forgot that they are a goalkeeper first ― they need to know how to stop a ball from going in the net.

“But the whole game is changing, so the concept of playing with your feet will be introduced in my academy because I want to breed the next best goalkeepers coming out of Bermuda and push them on to greater and better things.

“I’m going to guide and push them in whatever direction they want to go in, but it also involves understanding as a coach that not all goalkeepers can play with their feet. It is my job to learn about them and work with their strengths.”

Hill talks as much about character as he does about technique and he is determined to instil resilience and a positive mindset into his players.

“You have to be brave to be a goalkeeper and you have to be mentally strong,” Hill said.

“You’re going to get a lot of stick from everyone. Even though you’ve probably made 100 saves, everyone always forgets those and remembers that one mistake.

“As a goalkeeper you have to be perfect or at least as close to it as possible. But I’ve learnt that you’re not always going to be perfect and you have to understand that you’re going to make mistakes in that position, but you learn from it and grow.

“I wouldn’t say forget the mistakes, just learn from them. You learn by making the mistakes and making sure that you don’t do it again and again and again. It’s important to understand that, just as in life, you’re not going to be perfect all the time. You just have to make sure that you move past it and move on. That’s what I’ll be teaching in the academy.”

• To book sessions with Jahquil Hill, e-mail justforgoalkeepers1@gmail.com