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| Coaching tips: Goalies in practice |
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By Steve McKichan /
I am asked many times a year how a head coach can properly develop their goalies in practice. In list form here are some of my key recommendations.
Purposeful Ignorance
This is a term I coined to describe a condition I have seen in too many coaches. They will claim they know nothing about goaltending and coaching goalies and they will leave it at that. Maintaining this lack of knowledge about goaltending is surprising considering how integral a goalie is to the team’s success.
It would be like a Formula 1 driver unconcerned with any knowledge related to racing tires.
The fact that you are reading this tells me that you are making an effort to learn.
Goaltending is not brain surgery and today there are numerous educational resources and websites that can transform you into a goaltending expert in short order.
Do not let your lack of goaltending knowledge fester. I have one word for you – “Google”. Type in “goaltending DVD” and your problem will be solved.
Beer League Goalie Coach
A head coach will commonly maintain their purposeful ignorance by passing off their goalie’s development to a buddy they know who played a little goal back in the 70s, 80s or even the 90s.
The fact they played goal in a bygone era is in itself not a problem in my mind UNLESS they try to teach the position with little chestnuts of instruction on how they used to play the position.
Teaching using the “When I used to play goal…” method would make as much sense as instructing a computer savvy teenager how to use MSDOS when he lives on WINDOWS XP. The game and the goaltending position have changed dramatically even in the last half dozen years.
Unless your buddy has updated his goalie knowledge, not having a goalie coach is preferable to old school instruction.
Goalie Friendly Practice
Allow five minutes at the start of every practice for goalie-specific crease skating movements. The myth pervades that the goalie should be the best skater on the team – WRONG! The goal must be the best goalie skater on the team. There is a difference.
Doing crossovers, skating the lines, skating sideboards, doing suicides, doing laps etc. with the team won’t hurt your goalie but it won’t help them in the least.
Allowing your goalie to develop their skating in a manner specific to their position make sense. A pro golfer wouldn’t try to improve their putting by spending an hour taking slapshots at the barn door.
Build gap into your drills. Allow more time between shots so your goalies can visually track pucks post-save and allow them time to address rebounds.
Rapid fire drills and drills with poor gap only develop your goalie’s ability to boot out bad rebounds and lose sight of the puck in crucial moments.
Make your goalies accountable for effort and results in practice by regularly and randomly have a volunteer calculate a save percentage in practice.
Showing attention to your goalies in the above manner will pay off with key saves, big wins and championships. |
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