Starting in Goal as an Adult

[Hills 712]

There are a few ways to keep your knee from sliding off the knee block, as that should never happen and adding volleyball pads isn't going to stop it from happening.

Try making your knee strap tighter to keep the knee part of the pad from slipping too far away from your knee.

Next option is to tighten the top strap of your pad fairly right. I had to do this with a pair I own as my knees were moving too much even with the knee elastic as tight as it goes.

Finally you can try to remove the knees outside wing (left part in the picture) or a block on the inside (right of the picture) so the block doesn't puff out of the pad like that. Ideally it should be flat with the inside sliding edge.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Thanks! I can't remove the outside wing, as thats what the knee velcro attaches to. I also don't have a top strap... the knee velcro is the only strap I have up there. Keep in mind I have no leather straps on these pads ;)

I'll try tightening the knee strap first before anything else. It very well could have been too loose.

Edited December 3, 2014 by OptimusReim

[IPv6Freely 2092]

AWW yiss! First game finished. All that after getting up this morning at what equates to 2am PT, flying home from Winterfest, getting a 1.5 hr nap, and then playing.

We won 4-1 (and the 1 goal against was scored with their guy sitting on top of me - apparently it was my own D-man that caused that, so the goal stood). My team played easily the best I've ever seen them. Really defensive and just picked their spots, instead of trying to force everything. Fantastic backchecks too. I'm sure trying to insulate their rookie goalie had something to do with their play, too ;)

Everything felt great. I didn't slip off my stacks at all (tightened the velcro strap behind my knee and that seems to have helped greatly). My only real blooper was coming out and trying to play the puck. That almost ended badly. I'm going to hit a stick time with just my goalie stick and gloves and pass a puck around with a teammate to see if I can get a bit better at that.

Couple nice glove saves, kicked the pad out a couple times, and I had one wrister that hit the crossbar behind me. Guy on the other team I know from pickup said "I bet you're kissing your posts!" and I'm like "nah, if it was lower I would have just caught it" ;) haha

Man what a great time. I could seriously see myself switching to goal full time!

[badger_14 601]

AWW yiss! First game finished. All that after getting up this morning at what equates to 2am PT, flying home from Winterfest, getting a 1.5 hr nap, and then playing.

We won 4-1 (and the 1 goal against was scored with their guy sitting on top of me - apparently it was my own D-man that caused that, so the goal stood). My team played easily the best I've ever seen them. Really defensive and just picked their spots, instead of trying to force everything. Fantastic backchecks too. I'm sure trying to insulate their rookie goalie had something to do with their play, too ;)

Everything felt great. I didn't slip off my stacks at all (tightened the velcro strap behind my knee and that seems to have helped greatly). My only real blooper was coming out and trying to play the puck. That almost ended badly. I'm going to hit a stick time with just my goalie stick and gloves and pass a puck around with a teammate to see if I can get a bit better at that.

Couple nice glove saves, kicked the pad out a couple times, and I had one wrister that hit the crossbar behind me. Guy on the other team I know from pickup said "I bet you're kissing your posts!" and I'm like "nah, if it was lower I would have just caught it" ;) haha

Man what a great time. I could seriously see myself switching to goal full time!

Congrats, that's great!

[psulion22 402]

wear your pads and goalie skates to practice stickhandling too. I can shoot ok without my pads on and my players skates, not as well with my full gear on. Once you wear the pads and goalie skates, everything is different. The balance is changed and the pads create more obstructed space.

Edited December 10, 2014 by psulion22

[psulion22 402]

If a puck was close enough to you to catch it along the ice, you should be using your stick on it, not a pad. Leg pads create rebounds. Sticks make it easier to direct the puck where you want it to go, even if that is in front of you for a cover. The best save you can make is the one you don't have to because you put the puck out of danger.

I'm not sure what you mean by "kicking out". Are you talking about old school kick saves or driving a leg down and across to reach a low puck in the butterfly? Any more video of you playing? If you are/were falling off the landing gear when moving while down, it sounds like you are still dropping your but back and sitting down. When you do that it pulls your feet back and you knees away from the pad. It also causes problems closing the five hole beacuse your feet are back, not out. Keep your hips forward and drive your knees straight down and together, instead of moving your knees forwards and dropping your butt back. That will help with your issues. Practice by standing in your stance with both feet on the blueline. Drop into your butterfly. When you land, your knees should still be on the blue line. If they are in front of the line, you need to widen your feet in your stance and focus on dropping your knees down and together. Keep doing it, changing your feet and dropping technique until you are landing in the same spot.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

wear your pads and goalie skates to practice stickhandling too. I can shoot ok without my pads on and my players skates, not as well with my full gear on. Once you wear the pads and goalie skates, everything is different. The balance is changed and the pads create more obstructed space.

Definitely, but the first time with just my goal skates and gloves/stick was plenty. Got fairly comfortable making passes. Will add pads at some point. Problem is you show up to a stick time in goalie gear and everyone expects you to get in the net... which isn't what I'm there for.

If a puck was close enough to you to catch it along the ice, you should be using your stick on it, not a pad.

Either way I probably shouldn't have used my glove :) Though I'd think using my stick in that situation would have been awkward since I was already down in the butterfly. At the very least my stick with my leg pad backing that up would have probably been ideal.

I'm not sure what you mean by "kicking out". Are you talking about old school kick saves or driving a leg down and across to reach a low puck in the butterfly?

The latter, I just mean extending a leg pad to make a save.

As far as the falling off, it's not much of an issue now that I've tightened the elastic knee straps. It barely happened the last two times I've been on the ice.

[psulion22 402]

Definitely, but the first time with just my goal skates and gloves/stick was plenty. Got fairly comfortable making passes. Will add pads at some point. Problem is you show up to a stick time in goalie gear and everyone expects you to get in the net... which isn't what I'm there for.

Sucks for them if you show up in skates and pads and they expect you in net. No uppers, not mask. Tell them to take shots wearing that! I'm comfortable making passes in my gloves and skates. Adding pads is a whole different story. Things just aren't the same so you're essentially practicing something and getting muscle memory for something that will be different later.

Either way I probably shouldn't have used my glove :) Though I'd think using my stick in that situation would have been awkward since I was already down in the butterfly. At the very least my stick with my leg pad backing that up would have probably been ideal.

if you can reach it with your stick, use your stick. Even in the butterfly with a pad behind it. It's easier to control the puck with your stick than off your leg pad.

The latter, I just mean extending a leg pad to make a save.

As far as the falling off, it's not much of an issue now that I've tightened the elastic knee straps. It barely happened the last two times I've been on the ice.

That's what I thought. Unless you are making a desperation save on a rebound, tip, or backdoor play, you shouldn't really be extending your legs. If you are square to the puck at the proper depth, you should be able to cover the whole net by just dropping into a butterfly with your knees together. The problem with extending your legs is that you are then stuck in that position and can't move again without recovering, which takes time. Also extending pads out causes uncontrolled rebounds, further complicating being stuck with one leg out. It took me a long time to learn that. If you come 6 inches or a foot further out, you shouldn't have to extend legs to reach for low, away shots. It really makes things easier. I know the instinct is that if you are too far away from the net to stop a back door play. But I learned as a goaltender that I'd rather have a backdoor goal go in than get beat to a low corner because I wasn't far enough out. You can learn to recover to the back post, but you can't grow to reach that far puck. I've learned that controlling rebounds and staying "quiet" in the crease has been really important to my over all game. I see less second and thrid opportunities and I find my self out of position and scrambling less. That has led to better endurance because I'm not expending energy moving all over the crease.

Edited December 10, 2014 by psulion22

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Sucks for them if you show up in skates and pads and they expect you in net. No uppers, not mask. Tell them to take shots wearing that! I'm comfortable making passes in my gloves and skates. Adding pads is a whole different story. Things just aren't the same so you're essentially practicing something and getting muscle memory for something that will be different later.

Heh yeah I guess if I have no mask or uppers it changes things a bit for them ;) And I agree with wearing pads to practice it, but even without them it was awkward enough just making passes with my gloves on. I'll do a bit more practice with that and then add in the pads.

[badger_14 601]

Finally got a chance to try the on-ice version of goaltending. Had intended to go to an clinic followed by a novice scrimmage, but got there well in advance of the clinic and stumbled onto a pick-up session, and was asked to play. (I gave fair warning beforehand, and apologized afterward for being awful). It was very hard to get used to using the pads with skates, especially with player skates. Very different sensation. I could blame a lot of my being terrible on not having a lot of time to stretch or warm up (it's tricky to move when your back seizes up and you can't feel your legs properly), but mostly I think it was just unused muscles and not being used to the skating part. I did get a little better/more comfortable by the end of the pick-up. New pants work just fine - the only bruise I got was on an unprotected patch that could be solved by a little tinkering with the fit of my pads.

Also different is the way the puck feels on the stick and pads (blocker, in particular) vs. the ball I'm used to. I thought, though, that with the puck I felt like I knew where it was more, with the ball sometimes it goes bouncing and you think you have it but you don't, and it's somewhere near the blueline.

The clinic is a general novice/adult clinic - goalies are welcome to come down for free for target practice, and for an extra fee they can have some goalie-specific lessons. I paid the fee and it ended up being just me and one coach, and I got a chance to work on some basic movement, get the puck bounced off me, shuffle, angling. Aside from the friendly neighborhood back spasming, I felt really good for it being my first time as an ice goalie, and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Seriously frustrated. To the point where I'm actually considering just selling my pads and being done with it. I'm TERRIBLE. In fact I'm pretty sure I've actually gotten worse. If the shot is in the air, I'm generally fine as long as I can see it. But almost everything along the ice goes in. My butterfly comes with a nice 8" space between my legs, and I cant even tell you how often a short side shot has gone either between my legs and in or even off the far post and in.

You know its bad when a shot hits you square in the face and in. I just can't stop anything down low. I don't know how many I let in during a 1.5 hr pickup session tonight. 20-25 maybe? It's embarrassing.

[Davetronz 109]

It happens. Don't be so hard on yourself. I can't count the number of times I've said "I'm selling all my gear" after a game or shinny.

For me, when I was first starting out, I had to find that perfect development division for my skills. A level where the players were just as terrible as my goaltending skills.

As someone who played very competitive hockey growing up, this was tough to make the switch down to the lower level - but it let me grow as a goalie and learn correct technique and movement in an atmosphere where mistakes were less pronounced.

Have players scored directly off my face? Yeah, I think just a couple weeks ago that happened again.

Confidence takes a long time to develop. Confidence comes through experience and small successes.

What I found worked well for me was setting a small goal for the game. It wasn't to get a shutout. It wasn't to even win, it was to take one aspect of my game and completely nail it.

For example, one of the following:

- Always keeping my stick on the ice when I butterfly

- Avoiding "shuffling" side to side on my knees when I damn well know how to push off with a skate and slide

- Keeping my glove up, rather than down

- Performing a "proper" butterfly for each time going down, and not just a flop

- No 5-hole goals (you can score in a corner, but my 5-hole is mine)

When I focused on a single area of performance, rather than the grand performance, I found those isolated items were progressing, and the larger grand performances were also getting better, because I was dwelling less on the bigger picture.

Bad games still happen. All the time. It's the perks of the position. Keep trying, continue to improve your stretching and flexibility (I can't restate this enough), and ensure that you're giving yourself a fighting chance (play with beginners, rather than the guys who've played semi-pro their entire life).

[BenderHockey 127]

It gets better. Not quickly though. Stick it out.

[badger_14 601]

Davetronz has good advice - pick one small thing to work on. Hell, I still do that as a forward. And I know that, when I was first learning to skate & play, I definitely had spells where I would plateau and then be terrible for a few weeks, even worse than I was before. I tend to chalk it up to thinking too hard and needing a break to let knowledge percolate. When I went to an adult camp a couple of years ago, I felt like about midway through 12 hours of ice I was just awful and a shame to the game of hockey, but things improved, and after a week off after camp things seemed to click and I started doing better again.

Small goals - "I will work on [x] today" and maybe a break to let your brain parse all this weird goalie stuff.

[psulion22 402]

Seriously frustrated. To the point where I'm actually considering just selling my pads and being done with it. I'm TERRIBLE. In fact I'm pretty sure I've actually gotten worse. If the shot is in the air, I'm generally fine as long as I can see it. But almost everything along the ice goes in. My butterfly comes with a nice 8" space between my legs, and I cant even tell you how often a short side shot has gone either between my legs and in or even off the far post and in.

You know its bad when a shot hits you square in the face and in. I just can't stop anything down low. I don't know how many I let in during a 1.5 hr pickup session tonight. 20-25 maybe? It's embarrassing.

Any more video? I suspect it still has to do with your stance and dropping forward instead of down. Also, stick position seems to be a problem. If your stick is in the right place, a gap in your 5 hole shouldn't matter. In fact, you shouldn't be using the thigh rise of your pads to make saves in a stright on shot in a butterfly. You should be using your stick. Everything is tied in together. If your feet aren't wide enough apart and you aren't getting deep enough into your crouch, you won't be able to get your pads down. You need to have a deep bend. I find when I get lazy and don't get low enough, I have problems stopping shots on the ice.

Have you thought about lessons or a camp?

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Here's what I pretty much always look like.

And yea probably a lot of things I'm doing wrong all at the same time. I want a GoPro so I can record myself so I can see what I'm doing wrong.

My stick is probably right around where Bernier's is in that photo, too. So again... wrong.

I'm in a rookie league and I get a bit of 1 on 1 time with a coach while the rest of the players are doing their drills, but they aren't a goalie coach so its mostly just taking shots to various parts of the net, practicing t-pushes and getting square, etc. I'm definitely considering getting a couple lessons from an actual goalie coach as well.

It'll get better, it's just frustrating.

[psulion22 402]

It is frustrating when it doesn't seem like anything you are doing is right. It wasn't until I went to a true goalie camp that everything clicked for me. something else that helps is seeing yourself in real time. If you know have an ipad, have someone take pictures and video of you with the front facing camera, so you can see yourself on the screen at the same time you are doing things. It is so much easier to understand and adjust when you can do it at that moment rather than later. The camp I went to had a huge mirror built that you did drills in front of. If you don't mind looking a little silly, you could go and buy a cheap door mirror at Walmart and have the coach hold it for you. It really does make a difference.

I go to this camp every year as a player. It is a great learning experience and a lot of fun. The quality of the coaching is top notch.

https://weekendwarriorshockey.com/

Edited January 26, 2015 by psulion22

[badger_14 601]

Nothing like letting in 5 goals in 10 minutes to flatten your self-confidence. First time playing 5 on 5 full ice, and it's a lot different than the smaller rink. Teams were pretty lopsided - it wasn't just me, because the ref switched us goalies after the 5th goal I let in, and he got lit up. Poor guy. And this was supposed to be a novice pickup?

But I did feel like I was doing better in the latter 15-20 minutes of the game. Slightly different angles to read and, of course, in a new situation, everything the goalie coach has been beating into your head for a month flies out the window.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Nothing like letting in 5 goals in 10 minutes to flatten your self-confidence. First time playing 5 on 5 full ice, and it's a lot different than the smaller rink. Teams were pretty lopsided - it wasn't just me, because the ref switched us goalies after the 5th goal I let in, and he got lit up. Poor guy. And this was supposed to be a novice pickup?

But I did feel like I was doing better in the latter 15-20 minutes of the game. Slightly different angles to read and, of course, in a new situation, everything the goalie coach has been beating into your head for a month flies out the window.

Hell, at least you have a coach! :)

Keep at it, and if the other guy got lit up after switching teams you know it wasn't YOUR fault :)

[BenderHockey 127]

Honestly, being in the same situation, it's actually better for you to get lit up by superior players than to do well versus weaker players. Sure, it may shake your confidence, but keep playing against better players, and your skills will improve far more.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Yup. Every time it goes in you have to think about what happened to allow that to go in.

Of course then there are the goals that were just great shots or a fantastic pass or whatever. I don't even count those in my head when I play pickup. I only count the goals i should have had.

[badger_14 601]

Hell, at least you have a coach! :)

Keep at it, and if the other guy got lit up after switching teams you know it wasn't YOUR fault :)

Well, to clarify: after pickup on Saturdays, I attend a clinic in the next time slot. Goalies are usually free but you can pay $20 for a semi-private practice. Three of the coaches in general have played goal, and two of them are specifically goalie coaches. It's a fantastic deal and I'm incredibly grateful it's available.

The other guy did get lit up! Not quite as efficiently as I did, but he still did. The teams were really lopsided, and I think I would've been a little angry as a player to be skating against a team that was, on the whole, probably closer to upper intermediate than novice or D.

Bender - I would not have minded facing a few more shots than I did after we swapped ends, but the other team would've had to get past the blueline, and that wasn't really happening. (see also: lopsided.) At least not til the end.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Well THAT was embarassing. Lost my first rookie league game, in a blowout. Ended up being 7-4 (6 GA). I couldn't stop anything.

One goal I missed with the glove, it hit my side and went in. Later in the game I had a puck hit my right shoulder, go straight up, and roll down my back into the net. That's pretty much how my night went. The only goals against that bother me are goals that there was no excuse for besides just straight up missing them, and boy was there a lot of those tonight.

I knew something wasn't right with me even in warmup when shots right at my glove and blocker I'd miss. It was like my timing was way off.

Oh well, next week we'll get that one back. I was starting to feel bad about being 5-0 in a league with only two teams...

[badger_14 601]

I took about 4 pucks to the insides of my knees today. Getting a bit tired of that nonsense. Resolved: go to the LHS and get some knee pads to fix up the gap between my pants and the way-too-small thigh wraps that came with my pads. Hopefully also get some skates while I'm at it. (that's going to be a fun learning curve).

After a couple of weeks of balance and core exercises at the gym, getting back up is noticeably easier.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Heh yea I can't even imagine playing without knee pads anymore.

The skates aren't too bad. I found going back to player skates way harder than going to goal skates.

After a couple of weeks of balance and core exercises at the gym, getting back up is noticeably easier.

I'm having some MAJOR issues with getting up that I'm not even sure how to fix.