InGoal Magazine December 2011 : Page 39
InGoalMag.com especially when the drills involve wave after wave of players attacking off the rush. If those waves come so fast and furious that the goaltender doesn’t have enough time to reset themselves – both in terms of position and to a lesser extent mentally – between shots, it can become overwhelming. Goalies can develop bad habits trying to make every save rather than trying to make proper save movements and executions. This doesn’t mean you have to slow every drill to a crawl for the goalie, but both sides need to understand it’s okay for the goaltender to let a few go by unchallenged in order to reset their position and mind for the next one coming. … But still hold the goaltender accountable Ensure every shot counts and a goalie never quits on a puck. You want them to not only make saves, but to control and follow rebounds, and play out every situation. Just recognize they need time to do this. They can’t track and recover properly on every rebound if the next shot is coming. And again, goalies need to recognize not every drill will provide them this time, and treat each accordingly. Find a balance over the course of a practice, and understand how each drill affects the goalie. Coaches, set aside some spec goaltender time Whether it’s at the beginning or end of practice, or just while the rest of the players are working on their routine skills like skating and passing drills, goalies should be given time to work on their specific skillsets. These can be as simple as stopping pucks shot around the wall and either setting them up properly or passing them to predetermined outlet options, or just making specific types of saves like trapping pucks on the chest, angling blocker side shots to the corner, or using the s deflect long-range attempts out of play. But find time for routine goalie skills. Goalies, don’t wait for that time to get better Skating is your most important skill and goalies should work on it anytime they aren’t actively involved in a drill or taking shots. No ice should be wasted. Use downtime between drills to do crease movements. Skate the alphabet. While letters like g, j, q and r can be tough to do, the rest can be skated to improve agility and edge work. Don’t just work on the things a goalie is already good at This goes for both goalies and coaches. Set up drills to work on things a goalie is not good enough at, whether its rebound control, wraparounds and sharp-angle attacks, tracking pucks behind the net, or just passing them. Identify and attack weaknesses.
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