Goalie Practices

[mikebu 0]

I coach my sons hockey team with kids aged 6-8 years old. A normal practice for us is 20-25 minutes of pure skating drills full ice. Then 20 minutes of things like 1 on 1's, 2 on 1's and other game situational drills. Then the last 10 minutes or so we will scrimmage with a puck, tennis ball, or play soccer with a soccer ball.

What I am having problems with is my goalies. Not ever being a goalie I don't know how I should integrate them with my practices. We have 3 kids rotating through goalie and the week they play they will practice that week as a goalie. What do you suggest I do for my goalies during my practices? I would like to be able to give them some goalie specific training...

Thanks

[U of M Goalie 0]

WoW this will be long lol.....ok first you can tell them to turn around with their back to a shooter facing the INSIDE of the net. You slap your stick on the ice, at which point the goalie turns around and you shoot the puck. The idea of this is to work on the goalies reaction time. You could try lining two shooters up at the opposite sides of the boards (on the right and left of the goalie) and you start at any side and alternate shots, right, left, right, left. This works on the goalies lateral movement and helps keep him square. You can also do screen and tip drills by placing a forward in from of him while a shot is being taken. You can also play "Rebound" basically what this is is you have a shooter in the slot, and anywhere from 2 to 4 skaters lined up around the goalie (so 2 to 4 players not including the shooter). The shooter shoots from the slot, no one is allowed to tip the puck or screen the goalie, the shot must be left untouched. If the goalie stops it, or the shooter misses the net....it is 1 point for the goalie. If the shooter scores, or the goalie stops it, leaves a rebound and one of the rebound players put the puck in the net, it is a point for the shooters. The shooters are allowed ONE PASS per rebound, if the goalie leaves one, a rebounder can either shoot or make one pass. This will obviously help your goalie control his or her rebounds, or at least direct them better....also it helps your forwards get loose pucks and make better decisions with them. You can try using white pucks or mini pucks (both can be purchased online) if you want to work on your goalies focus/concentration an reaction. You can line up four or five pucks in a line, in about the slot area and shoot them one after the other right to left....and then repeat the drill left to right. This can get your goalie used to being square with a barrage of shots. These are some good basic drills for younger kids, all in all you can get creative....if you have 3 goalies, that means you have 3 very different personalities and stopping styles most likely. One may be stand up, the other may be butterfly, the other may be hybrid. I realize they are young but see what each individual needs work on. If one of them is having trouble moving around the crease have him drop his stick and do skating drills. If another one is having trouble because he is smaller, have him work with screens so he leanrs how you can look around players (and put yourself as close to the tip as possible) and maybe the other one is the tallest kid on the team....but not quite as athletic as the other kids. Have him work on his lateral movement and squareness. I am a big goale and I had to work on my lateral movement and staying compact and not opening up holes. The thing is you can almost come up with any drills you need to to work with each specific goalie for at least 10 minutes...then at the end of the practice they should all do the same shooting drills and scrimmage games....sorry this is soo long but I could go on lol

[mikebu 0]

That's great stuff and I will work with that. But I could also use much more rudimentry drills.

With the exception of my son who has had some private goalie lessons the other 2 kids have only skated in goalie gear for 3-4 hours max. I try to watch my son's lessons which happen during our practices but I am busy with the other kids.

I have seen stuff he does like:

Telescope out

Telescope back

90 degree pivot on command

Shuffle left

Shuffle right

I need help teaching these kids the basic skating movements as their parents don't want to spring for goalie lessons. And the USA Hockey website doesn't have any coaching info for goalies that I can find.

But again that is great stuff thanks...

[U of M Goalie 0]

Try checking out some of these articles. Some of them make for pretty good teaching tools.

http://www.vaughnhockey.com/goaltending_re...g_resources.htm

[ncgoalie34 0]

Check out the Goalie Handbook as a goalie coach I have found this a very valuable

tool. Also some of the drills in the book are great game sit drills for the whole team. It will also give you all the basic skating drills you will need and it will show you how to incorperate your goalies into practice.

[mikebu 0]

Is this what you mean by Goalie Handbook?

Thanks again for all the info everyone...

[jschlenske 0]

I just sent you a PM. Besides the Bill Howard DVD I also have some other stuff I could copy. I'll have to dig it up but Mitch Korn (Preds Goalie Coach) gave a really informative packet to everyone at aN annual meeting he does here in WI. I will dig up as much as I can find.

[OhMyGodImOnFire 0]

hey, can you share that stuff with all of us? but is it like vids that we'll have to get...another way? (cant really POST a vid)