Stillwater Area Hockey Association

Thank you to all the coaches that have come to our Goalie Coaching for Coaches Seminars.  You are truly making an investment in your entire team.  Remember, our goal is to give consistent instruction to our young goalies that has their best interest in mind.  Below are a few points that I’d like to reiterate regarding working with your goalies during your Team Practice:

• Assign a coach to take your goalies immediately to work on their technical skating drills while the rest of the team is warming up.  We refer to these drills as “The Own Your Edges Series”. The goal of these drills is for the goalies to gain balance and strength to push and stop hard with either foot.  MAKE SURE THAT GOALIES KEEP THEIR EYES UP THE ENTIRE DRILL.  All drills should be executed for 1 set of 4 on the right foot and another set of 4 using the left foot.  The drills are:

4 Step 

2 Step

1 Step

1 Step Recovery

2 Step plus C-Cuts

4 Step plus Backwards

4 Step Box

2 Step Box

Full Stride Transition

Star Transition

Heart Transition

• Once the goalies have completed their selected “Own Your Edge” drills, they should then go into the crease for goalie specific movement using the Visual Lead Position System.  This concept is outlined in my second DVD.  All goalies are aware of their Visual Leads on the ice.  Choose Powerstrides, Shuffles, Recoveries, Butterfly Slides, Pushoffs or any combination of movements in the crease.

• Design the team drills so that goalies have time to play the rebound.  This change will require you to space out the shooters.  Focus on quality reps rather than having a bunch of players going in a short period of time. Put an emphasis on both the player and goalie going hard after the rebound until a coach blows the whistle.  Have a specific coach assigned to each net to regulate rebound play until playing EVERY rebound is a habit for players as well as goalies.

• When instructing your goalie on when to stand up or go down to make a save, tell them to “Get your eyes as close to the puck as possible to maximize their hand eye coordination.”  When the puck is shot up near their eyes stand up to make the save.  When the puck is shot lower below their eyes instruct them to go down to cover more net and to maximize their hand eye coordination.

•  Make sure your goalie is seeing shots from all angles and depths on the ice.  Too often the majority of the shots a goalie sees in a youth practice come from the low slot.  Put an emphasis on the players to have a sense of urgency when they catch a pass and enter the zone.  Tell the players to shoot with their heads up and crash the net for a rebound.  Implement drills with wide angle shots and a net front crash or a walk out from the corner with a rebounder and a Defenseman in front of the net.Tell your goalie to finish every puck with their eyes.  Actively track and stay visually attached to all pucks shot on net.  Don’t just stop the puck…CONTROL IT!!!

• When working on breakouts, dump pucks in on the goalie and have them either pass it out or set it for a Defenseman.  Additionally, you could just have pucks next to the net and have the goalie start the drill with a pass.  Good puckhandling skills are a result of practice using high reps as well as experimenting in game simulations during practice.

Please contact me directly at 612.396.0758 or via email at zach@prohybridtraining.com with any specific questions you may have regarding your goaltenders’ involvement in your team practices.