Enjoy this guest post by Brady Robinson: Development Goalie Coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, NHL, West Coast Hockey Prep Camp Lead Goalie Coach, and designer of our Goalie Drills for Teams.
As we all know, goaltenders get neglected in most hockey practices. These 5 tips make practice great for goalies too. A goalie does not need a goalie coach 1 on 1 every single practice in order to develop. A great hockey coach can manage, and develop great goalies with exceptional practice habits. In fact the following tips don’t require more goalie specific training than you can learn over coffee with a goalie coach. The complete season of goalie drills in the above link provides drills that a competent assistant coach can manage. They even incorporate shooters to keep practice active, focused, and filled with purpose.
[maxbutton id=”2″ url=”https://www.lgsports.ca/downloads/hockey-goalie-drills-teams/” text=”30 weeks of goalie drills for teams” ]
Brady’s 5 Tips for Managing Goaltenders:
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Provide the goaltenders 10 minutes at the beginning of each practice to focus on goaltender specific movement skills. You should assign two crease patterns each practice. Explain the patterns to the goalies prior to the ice-time to ensure they understand the drills.
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Ensure that the majority of drills throughout the practice allow the goaltenders to complete their entire save process. 1. Shot Preparation, 2. Save Execution, and 3. Recovery. A lot of the time drills force goalies to rush. The goalie can’t properly set for shots or square up to rebounds. A goalie’s success in a game depends on these 2 habits. They require a lot of repetitions during practice.
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Involve the goaltenders in pre-drill discussions. After describing the drills to the team, give the goaltenders one specific area of focus for that particular drill. Example 1. Drill focusing on 2 on 1’s – let the goaltenders know that they need to be vocal with their defensemen.
Example 2. Warm-up drill – tell the goaltenders that they need to complete their save process for every shot. -
Always encourage the goaltenders to communicate with teammates and to handle the puck whenever possible. A goaltender needs to take charge of both these areas and should be encouraged to do so, especially in practice.
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Treat your goaltenders the same way you treat the rest of the team and don’t be afraid to call them out. If you feel they are not competing the way they should be, hold them accountable and don’t let them off the hook.
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