Goalie Training Tips: Be A Great (In-Crease) Skater

Goaltenders who attend our goalie training sessions at our goalie school learn to become great skaters.  But despite the research and analytics available, we have seen an increase in the number of goaltenders new to our goalie training programs which lack mobility.

Over the past year, I‘ve been told by 2 goaltenders who were both over 6’ 3” that they had been told by another goalie training provider that because of their size and reach, that they should play deeper in their crease so that they may rely on their size and reach over telescopic movement.  These goaltenders both played at high levels of hockey, and their statements absolutely blew me away.

I agree that goaltenders need to play to their strengths.  But ignoring and not working on your weaknesses during goalie training opportunities only ensures a peak in your potential at an early stage of development.

The ability to remain square to the puck enables goalies to retain and direct the puck effectively controlling the play around them.  Therefore, implementing goaltender-specific power skating into every goalie training session should be an essential element of any young goaltender seeking improvements to their game.  This allows students to understand the benefits of pushing with purpose, and stopping set, as well as training to be on time – every time.

The Royal Road

Making an impact quickly, Steve Valiquette of the New Your Rangers organization brought the world plenty of evidence based on even more research to prove that the chances of scoring increase when pucks cross the “Royal Road” with “Green Shots” over “Red Shots”.  Valiquette’s research may not have come as a surprise to some goaltenders, but it proves the benefit of directing pucks to the net which cause the goaltender to move cross-crease.

So how do goaltenders enable themselves to become better with facing green shot situations?  Ideally, by being capable of keeping up with the speed of the puck in order to be set and ready to react.  And the only way to increase one’s chances of doing this effectively is to become a well-balanced, agile, powerful, and efficient skater within their crease.  But finding a balance between being positioned and ready to react to shots while considering Royal Road risks and simultaneously limiting the net visible to the puck’s eye view at all times is challenging.

Building Confidence

Look at many young beginner goaltenders and you’ll see them positioned deep within their crease or hesitant to leave the post’s side.  In some cases, this may be attributed to a lack of understanding of positioning and depth of the crease, and in others, it may a confidence in mobility issue.  Therefore, goaltenders at this age should be spending a lot of time building confidence in areas such as edge work, sliding, and recoveries from the butterfly position.

Many goalies and their parents feel as though goaltenders are used during team practices simply as targets for their teammates.  Therefore, when working with a goalie coach during our goalie training sessions, or semi-private goalie training sessions, training to become more mobile and understanding movement techniques will pay dividends to goalies rather than giving goaltenders more of the same via shooting pucks at the net.

Learning and understanding the why’s, when’s, and how’s of becoming mobile combined with positive, consistent reinforcement from team coaches and parents will enable goaltenders to build confidence in their mobility.  And developing their mobility early thus increases the athlete’s chances of advancement.

Timing and Potential for a Domino Effect

Timing is essential to a goaltender’s success of remaining capable of retaining or directing pucks in order to control the flow of the game.  Therefore, once goaltenders have technical understanding and have built up their confidence in their mobility, becoming more agile and powerful in their movements will enable them to remain square to the puck in most high threat scoring opportunities.

Good timing enables the goaltender to react with more effectiveness allowing them to read and understand how the blade of the stick and shooter’s body language affect the puck’s destination once directed to the net or redirection of a pass.

 

As a goaltender, whether you’re smaller and have a lot of the net visible to shooters, or whether you’re a larger goaltender with a great reach advantage, being at the centre of your net, at a depth of your crease which enables you to minimize the amount of net visible to the puck’s eye view, is essential to your success as a goaltender.  Therefore, being in the right place at the right time all of the time, will do wonders for your game.

Let’s get started!