At a recent adult clinic I was chatting about goaltending with a fellow beer leaguer. He had spent a ton of time coaching a young goalie and sometimes the technical skills the youngster displayed in practice didn’t appear consistently in games. He was a practice goalie, not a “gamer.”
I have seen this syndrome so frequently so I have decided to coin the term “driving range goalies.” I spend considerable time at the golf course and at the driving range. The obvious implication is something I have seen first hand. I can groove an expensive 64 degree lob wedge six miles in the air and land it tight to the pin…at the range. When I bring out this lob wedge on a real course it betrays me more than it helps me. Then I watch sheepishly as a 69-year-old man with dirty old golf shoes and a $10 used 7-iron chip his ball up from about the same spot to within 12 inches of the cup. Needless to say, this guy has seldom been to a driving range but actually plays the game 36 holes a day.
I see this in many goalies. They attend camps. They attend practices and take private lessons.
However, the expensive goalie coaches and camps don’t guarantee that the amazing work done in a controlled non-pressure situation will appear on demand in games.
I also see this driving range goalie mentality appear in beer leaguers. In a low pressure B division game, they can make some pretty good saves and in some cases their ego whispers to them that they could do this at the pro level.
Initially, lets discuss why I think this happens and then continue on to formulate a strategy to make your game results mimic your best practice results.
Pressure does funny things to an athlete and this is one reason for the DRGS (driving range goalie syndrome). Let’s go back to golf for an example to help illustrate this. When a player is putting on a practice green things are free and easy and there are no error consequences. The smoothness in your stroke allows you to drain tough puts on this practice green. Once you get to the 17th hole and you need a three-footer to save par, your smaller muscles in your forearm and wrists tighten up and that smoothness and touch can leave you. This is exacerbated when people are watching and the score does matter.?As a goalie, pressure can make you lose your smoothness and it reveals itself with imprecise rebound control, imprecise puck flight tracking and fidgety puck handling.
The solution I have had great success with is actually quite simple. Once a baseline of technical skill is developed in a core area, pressure must be applied in increasing doses. Practice must become harder with respect to time and space so that games are easy.
For example, Johnny can shoot blueline glass nine out of ten times from his crease with stationary pucks. Once limited faux pressure is applied and the puck is moving first, this number immediately dips to under 50 per cent success. If this pressure is consistently applied in frequent practice sessions and then is gradually intensified, you will see this translate to improved game play.?Another reason DRGS exists is because many goalies have yet to learn “how” to play the game. What does that mean?
Again, I will go with the golf analogy. If you rarely watch how PGA players manage their games on the course, yet spend hours on the range, you will likely still be a high handicapper. You could have a ‘God’s gift’ swing at the range and be able to groove balls precisely where you want them.
However, if you don’t learn how to approach the green from the correct angles and you don’t learn when and when not to attack pins you will struggle to score well.
This is also clearly the case in hockey.
You need to be able to connect the dots and read the play. Understand when scoring danger is present and be able to use intelligent anticipation. This is developed by years of critically analyzing games and determining cause-effect and outcomes of scoring chances.
I would suggest that you should spend two hours critically analyzing NHL games for every hour you practice your goaltending technical skills. The game results will astound you.
In many cases you could take a goalie with very average technical skills, yet elite game readability, and he will win championships. In my private work with Ed Belfour, I was quite surprised how average his crease movement skills were in his 40s. Yet once the game began, his game management and ability to read the play took over. |