Train your goalies

I hear coaches all the time say " I dont know what to do with my goalies" The reality is most youth and HS programs goalie routine is ONLY a brief warm up then jump in shooting drills! Expect poor results from the keeper if this is you. Training goalies is not rocket science. You do not need to have played the position to be a goalie coach. Here some simple tips to give your goalies a well deserved daily workout. My regiment is based on the what I call the "P.A.S.S" system. Prepare, Agilities, Saves, Stickhandling. PREPARE- Goalies need to get some daily work in that does not involve a shooter ripping from 9 yards to start their day. I like to mix up some drills to get them prepared first. Yoga stretches, Tennis ball tosses, walking the arc, walking the line, mirror drills, and other non shooting drill can all be done without helmet and gloves before they suit up. AGILITY- The best goalie are extremely agile. No matter how quick you hands are, you need legs to "get there" first. Agility train every day, all season. Jump Rope is #1, ski jumpers, ladder work, squat thrusts, cone work, more cone work. Youtube has a ton of great stuff to build speed and agility. Create a program of drills on paper and mix it up daily. SAVES- A proper warm up is CRITICAL. It needs to be built up from a medium to hard shots over the duration of the warm up. Dont let players shoot on cold goalies. Don't allow shooters to rip inside 12 yards. At the next level outside 12 is on the goalie, inside 12 is on the Defense. Some coaches work on specific areas in progression (stick side high, off stick high, stick side hip, off stick hip, stick side low, off stick low, 5 hole,then mix it up.) I prefer high shots mixed, hip shots mixed, low shots mixed, 5 hole, bounce shots, and finally mix it up with some feeds from behind. It is EXTREMELY important to get feeds from behind and teach game like saves, blind saves, screens, in tight crease shots, in close garbage or hockey shots, rebound and saves, etc. If they get reps seeing all types of shots in practice, they will make saves on all types of shots in games. USE TENNIS BALLS for close in stuff, it saves on wear and tear on the keepers and creates soft hands, reducing rebounds. STICK WORK- Goalies need to pass and catch well, they need to work on both hands to build confidence and simply handle the stick. They need to know how to FACE DODGE, ROLL AWAY and throw ON THE RUN. They need to perfect "touch" passes and "frozen rope" passes. They need to throw to moving targets. Get them in SHOOTING DRILLS as a shooter. Its fun and is stick work in disguise. One other key point is COMMUNICATION. Work on building your goalies ability to run the Defense. He needs to be the leader. Calls should focus not only on Ball Position, but other important calls, such as "TURN HIM or HOLD" at GLE, "CHECK,CHECK,CHECK" when balls are fed into the hub, and even slide calls for a more accomplished keeper. I like Defense to call slides or even a coach on the sideline at the youth level. I have been working on my goalie e-book forever, I do promise to complete it one day soon. It will feature 50 goalie specific drills. Email me at 313lax@gmail.com to be put on the wait list or if you have any questions about the drills mentioned here or other questions feel free to drop me a note. B