Starting in Goal as an Adult

[badger_14 601]

12 hours ago, rusty_black said:

 

3 weeks off is quite a long time though. Just this season I've gone 3 weeks between games twice and it's hard to get in a rhythm, I'm sure you'll get the groove back then you get a few ice times and the fundies will come back!     

Do you find the Ball hockey helps you in Ice?   I could possibly have access to ball hockey with some high level inline players who book the rink and thinking I should go along.

 

Usually I'm not this bad, even after a couple of weeks off.  I just feel like everything is going by me.  It will do me some good to have a lesson anyway, I think.  I can call it an early birthday present.

Eh-  yes and no.  Not in terms of movement (because moving in sneakers on court/concrete is a whole lot different than being in skates on ice).  But yes in terms of reaction and alertness, things like tracking the ball/puck.  Yes also in the sense that it's good to shake things up and try something different - sometimes I find a different pickup to go to as well, just because it's new people and I don't know how they operate, so it shakes up my brain.  Same with playing on the small ice (3v3 or 4v4) vs. the large ice.

Inline I think is better than street (on foot) because in street (foot) hockey it's a lot of slapshots and not much else.  Inline behaves a little bit more like ice.  (even with a ball).

[psulion22 402]

16 hours ago, rusty_black said:

 

3 weeks off is quite a long time though. Just this season I've gone 3 weeks between games twice and it's hard to get in a rhythm, I'm sure you'll get the groove back then you get a few ice times and the fundies will come back!     

Do you find the Ball hockey helps you in Ice?   I could possibly have access to ball hockey with some high level inline players who book the rink and thinking I should go along.

I had a game over the weekend, I'd been working on my angles and trying to bend my knees for a wider stance (and not lean on the bar) , all game long . I was feeling really good with everything...   then this bullshit happened in the end of the 3rd.....    So frustrating.  I managed to shake it off and forget about it and make a few more saves.  We lost 3-0  but I had a few of my guys come up afterwards and give me the wack on the pads and say that I played a really good game, so that was nice to see that they saw the effort I had put in.

 

I can tell you exactly what happened on that goal.  You got up on the wrong foot.  You are to your right, puck goes to your left, meaning you have to go to your left.  But you get up on your left foot, meaning you can only go to your right.  Then you know you want to go to your left and start to push as you are still getting up, that's why you have that stumble - your left skate is perpendicular to the way you want to go, so the push tips you over it and you lose your balance.  Then by the time you are up and stable, you're way late and off angle.  So you just throw yourself over in desperation because you think the shot is coming.  But it doesn't come right away and you're off angle for an easy goal.  So it's a chain reaction of things happening quickly that were all caused by something as simple as using the wrong foot to get up.  You always, always want to get to your feet using the leg opposite the direction you want to move.

[rusty_black 17]

8 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

I'm trying to figure out if you tripped or if you just thought you had a lot less time than you did to get into position. Was the initial shot off the mask? 

Either way a better option would have been to push off and slide across OR get up and get square again (depending on how well or how quickly you're capable of doing either option). 

haha I'm still trying to figure out what I did.  All I remember is panicking as I saw the rebound go right between 2 of their guys.  I think it was a blocker save with horrible rebound control off the initial shot.   Looking back I can see I had heaps of time, I could have got up, had a cup of tea then got set again.    I also saw that I turned my stick around so I try to poke it on the backhand.   The entire play was so slow looking at the video but it felt like 1/10th of a second in real time.

I agree with your save options though.

[rusty_black 17]

4 hours ago, psulion22 said:

I can tell you exactly what happened on that goal.  You got up on the wrong foot.  You are to your right, puck goes to your left, meaning you have to go to your left.  But you get up on your left foot, meaning you can only go to your right.  Then you know you want to go to your left and start to push as you are still getting up, that's why you have that stumble - your left skate is perpendicular to the way you want to go, so the push tips you over it and you lose your balance.  Then by the time you are up and stable, you're way late and off angle.  So you just throw yourself over in desperation because you think the shot is coming.  But it doesn't come right away and you're off angle for an easy goal.  So it's a chain reaction of things happening quickly that were all caused by something as simple as using the wrong foot to get up.  You always, always want to get to your feet using the leg opposite the direction you want to move.

So this definitely makes sense as to what happened.  Crazy that one little mistake can cause that kind of reaction.  After the initial save, my right foot was on the bottom of the post, so I should have loaded up a bit on the right leg, turned my shoulders to face the rebound and pushed off towards the top of the crease. Except I panicked and got up on the left foot and all hell broke loose.

Funny thing was the girl who scored was my goalie for the past 2 seasons (back to back championships) and decided to play out this year. it was her first ever goal and she even apologized after the game saying she wished it was on one of the other goalies in the league haha.

 

[Axxion89 32]

13 hours ago, rusty_black said:

So this definitely makes sense as to what happened.  Crazy that one little mistake can cause that kind of reaction.  After the initial save, my right foot was on the bottom of the post, so I should have loaded up a bit on the right leg, turned my shoulders to face the rebound and pushed off towards the top of the crease. Except I panicked and got up on the left foot and all hell broke loose.

Funny thing was the girl who scored was my goalie for the past 2 seasons (back to back championships) and decided to play out this year. it was her first ever goal and she even apologized after the game saying she wished it was on one of the other goalies in the league haha.

 

Although pushing to the top of the crease would have been the technically correct move, it would require a lot of strength & precision to get the right position. As a beginner playing in a lower league, it is easier & just as effective to slide directly across to get centered to the puck. You will need to move less distance which is easier & faster for you & the chances of the shooter in that level picking a corner from that distance is slim. Hell, the shot that went in went parallel to your pad so had you even slid a little bit in position, you would have likely saved it.

[IPv6Freely 2095]

2 minutes ago, Axxion89 said:

Although pushing to the top of the crease would have been the technically correct move, it would require a lot of strength & precision to get the right position. As a beginner playing in a lower league, it is easier & just as effective to slide directly across to get centered to the puck. You will need to move less distance which is easier & faster for you & the chances of the shooter in that level picking a corner from that distance is slim. Hell, the shot that went in went parallel to your pad so had you even slid a little bit in position, you would have likely saved it.

Completely agree. If you're not going to be able to push all the way out, at least getting across the goal line would have been better than what actually happened. Someday I'll figure out how to push right to left without spinning in a circle... 

[Axxion89 32]

5 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Completely agree. If you're not going to be able to push all the way out, at least getting across the goal line would have been better than what actually happened. Someday I'll figure out how to push right to left without spinning in a circle... 

Easy make sure your foot is planted perpendicular to the direction you want to do and your leg is pushing the center mass of your body. If you are pushing in front or behind the mass then you spin. It can feel awkward at first but practice will get the muscle memory 

[IPv6Freely 2095]

9 minutes ago, Axxion89 said:

Easy make sure your foot is planted perpendicular to the direction you want to do and your leg is pushing the center mass of your body. If you are pushing in front or behind the mass then you spin. It can feel awkward at first but practice will get the muscle memory 

Yep, I can do it easily going the other direction. Just can't figure out why I can't do it right to left.

Then again, I'm also unable to slide right to left from a standing position as well.

[psulion22 402]

On 6/22/2017 at 4:26 PM, IPv6Freely said:

Yep, I can do it easily going the other direction. Just can't figure out why I can't do it right to left.

Then again, I'm also unable to slide right to left from a standing position as well.

Generally, rotating when you push is a sign of improper weight placement.  Inability to do it from a standing position confirms it. Your weight should be over the push leg. That gives you a stronger push and less friction on the lead pad, meaning more and faster distance. When you push left to right, your weight is in the right place, over your left leg, and you can slide. When you're pushing right to left, your weight is still over the left pad. So you don't get good leverage, and the mechanics of it make you push backwards. Your weight on the lead pad creates a pivot and you just spin around it. From a standing position, it doesn't work because with your weight on the lead leg you can't push and drop at the same time. You'd just fall over. 

If you watch your videos, you can see that very often you drop onto your left knee regardless of the situation. It's just your natural instinct. That is likely contributing to your problem. 

[IPv6Freely 2095]

On 6/24/2017 at 4:58 PM, psulion22 said:

Generally, rotating when you push is a sign of improper weight placement.  Inability to do it from a standing position confirms it. Your weight should be over the push leg. That gives you a stronger push and less friction on the lead pad, meaning more and faster distance. When you push left to right, your weight is in the right place, over your left leg, and you can slide. When you're pushing right to left, your weight is still over the left pad. So you don't get good leverage, and the mechanics of it make you push backwards. Your weight on the lead pad creates a pivot and you just spin around it. From a standing position, it doesn't work because with your weight on the lead leg you can't push and drop at the same time. You'd just fall over. 

If you watch your videos, you can see that very often you drop onto your left knee regardless of the situation. It's just your natural instinct. That is likely contributing to your problem. 

Yea, really just need to get the chance to work on it. I could really use a couple stick time sessions in just lowers and gloves to work on skating and movements in general. 

Do you mean I drop to my RIGHT knee? I'm actually not able to drop to my left knee from a standing position, which is why I'm not able to go right to left. 

[IPv6Freely 2095]

Brutal game last night. Lost 4-0. I didn't have to do all that much but it seemed like the rare few shots they actually got went in. Though according to the scorekeeper I actually had more shots against than they did. Considering I cut my videos down to only saves and goals, I'm not sure how... 

We carried the play about 70-75% of the game, and did a great job on the cycle, but never got any good looks at the net. They just held us to the outside the entire time. I hate letting in four goals (though, my career GAA is 4.03 so... ) but when we get shut out it's hard to win. 

 

[rusty_black 17]

New game over the weekend, 3-1 loss but it felt like I was moving a bit better this week, but got beat a couple times by a good player. I made a couple saves that I wouldn't have made a few weeks ago, so I can see progress thanks to some of you guys here!

There is one VERY casual save/brilliant pass in there... I was adamant they were offside and even gestured to the ref (a buddy of mine), then watched this back and boy was I wrong haha!    

The last goal looks to me like when I dropped my legs didn't flare out, they actually pulled in when I went down. The puck went where my leg was, is there anything special that I need to be doing there? I was slightly off angle, but my if they flared out I would have made that save,

Also, my team did very well in the second period, I didn't even have to face a shot!   I told them I could do that all day long 

the camera gets tilted by a hit into teh boards, so you might need to turn your monitors a bit later haha

 

[rusty_black 17]

3 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Brutal game last night. Lost 4-0. I didn't have to do all that much but it seemed like the rare few shots they actually got went in. Though according to the scorekeeper I actually had more shots against than they did. Considering I cut my videos down to only saves and goals, I'm not sure how... 

Watching that, you faced more 1v1 2v1's that normal shots so I think you did pretty well considering the score.  They managed to get behind your D very easily.  That second goal was a pretty cheeky up and over and you had a nice desperation save at 2.20ish and got the rebound as well!  On that last goal your D should a been covering him out the back door/side.

One thing that I don't like is how quickly you seem to turn your back once the period's over/whistle is blown.  Its like your counting it down and as soon as its over, you've turned your back to the game, one day some muppet is gonna rip a shot at you! Obviously not your fault if someone does, but just something I was a bit worried about.

After watching a bunch of your videos, I can definitely see why you have a GAA of 4.......and I can tell you it's not because of your play, so hopefully you're not too worried about the number!

[IPv6Freely 2095]

Blew a 4-1 third period lead, but stopped all three shooters in the shootout to win 5-4. 

[Jamarquan 201]

5 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Blew a 4-1 third period lead, but stopped all three shooters in the shootout to win 5-4. 

The other team didn't channel their inner 2013 Bruins.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Jamarquan

[Hills 713]

On 26/06/2017 at 8:31 PM, IPv6Freely said:

Brutal game last night. Lost 4-0. I didn't have to do all that much but it seemed like the rare few shots they actually got went in. Though according to the scorekeeper I actually had more shots against than they did. Considering I cut my videos down to only saves and goals, I'm not sure how... 

We carried the play about 70-75% of the game, and did a great job on the cycle, but never got any good looks at the net. They just held us to the outside the entire time. I hate letting in four goals (though, my career GAA is 4.03 so... ) but when we get shut out it's hard to win. 

 

I think that was a bad call for unsportsman like... that was basically an instant reaction to that. Great diving save right after that though.

[IPv6Freely 2095]

14 minutes ago, Hills said:

I think that was a bad call for unsportsman like... that was basically an instant reaction to that. Great diving save right after that though.

Yea it was a dumb call but nobody on the ice had any idea wtf was going on anyway. 

[badger_14 601]

Was told I played very, very well today.  I didn't feel like it, honestly.  Slowly recuperating from my lung infection, I've managed to swim and work out a tiny bit this week, but hockey is a whole 'nother ball game, and I feel like I'm going to regret playing later.  I also thought my counterpart was getting hailed, while I saw far fewer shots.

I did feel like I did better on the angling thing, after watching a couple of good videos on youtube to get a better visual sense of landmarks, etc.  I also got my skates sharpened on Monday, which might have helped.  (I'm one of those folks who gets their skates done about twice a year, maybe 3 times).  Thirdly, at the same time I got my chest protector, I bought a set of Flex-Toe ties to try.  It just about took an act of God to get them on my pads, but they were pretty easy to use and they stayed in place.  I don't know if I feel a great and glorious miracle has occurred by wearing them, and I need to do a bit of strap-adjusting to account for them, but I like them so far.  They certainly aren't inhibiting my play.  I'll consider their impact over the next few weeks in game-play.  So far, so good.

[rusty_black 17]

Had back to back games on Saturday night.   My teams game first then filling in for the grade above straight after the ice cut.

I've figured out how to slide around better, it's not perfect as it's not really side to side, it's backwards on a slight angle, but it feels so awesome just pushing off and sliding into the post and back again to the other side. I've also worked on watching the puck into my glove with it out in front of me, it's such a mental confidence boost.   I actually felt like I've hit the next level in my abilities. 

In my first game we won 3-1  and we were out shot 26/12 including a 13/5 3rd period where I held the fort.  Their only goal was a breakaway blocker side shot in the second period.  it's almost like they were determined to score high glove, but it wasn't happening. Every shot was tracked perfectly into the glove and snapped shut. I now no longer have the worse save % in the league  (by .007)  but I have to play the top team in the league again next week and they've put up 7 & 6 on me earlier on.

The next game was a grade above and it was the 2nd place team vs the 4th place team (my team). we had 7 guys turn up and the first shot was a slapper from the point that beat me blocker side. I could hear my team groaning at me as I should have stopped it but I didn't let it faze me and held out the 1st, then most of the second before I got beat by another breakaway,  I did the pokecheck, and knocked it off him, but my D was nowhere to be seen and he got it back and went around me and put it in.

3rd period saw us up by 3-2 with 6 mins left and then one of our guys gets a 5+ and a game!  we were shorthanded for the rest of the game and had 1 sub.  We got outshot 14/3 in the 3rd and they scored 2 PP goals  (one was another breakaway blocker side shot) so we lost 4-3.

Even though we lost I was ******* stoked about how I played,  58 shots 5 goals for the night and I actually ended up with the guys asking if I'd be keen to fill in for them again if needed! 

I've got back to back games next week so hopefully I do't come crashing down, but I really feel like i'm seeing myself improve. I know there's gonna be another skill wall to hit shortly but i'm happy with my progress.

No video yet for these as the lady put it in a stupid position on our bench facing our goal so its quite far away and lots of heads in the way.

[IPv6Freely 2095]

Our game was cancelled :(

They finally re-did the ice because it was getting dangerous, but I guess they decided it was still too soft. I have to question how bad it’s going to stay since they can’t seem to keep the building cold, despite how small it is. 

Sure looks nice though: 

[Ten2Four 4]

I play on that same ice on Monday's...deer lord was it getting sketchy

[IPv6Freely 2095]

1 hour ago, Ten2Four said:

I play on that same ice on Monday's...deer lord was it getting sketchy

Yea, being able to see the sand under the ice by the zamboni door and trying to dig pucks out from between the ice and the boards... yikes.

The new lines look fantastic but unless they turn up the AC it's not going to last. I shouldn't be surprised when you consider they built a brand new arena and put really rough second hand boards and glass up. Clearly it's all about cost-cutting for them, unfortunately. 

[IPv6Freely 2095]

Pickup from Tuesday night. I got SHELLED. I have never played behind D this bad. This was by far the most lopsided teams I’ve ever seen playing this pickup. Normally the guy that organizes it puts up the teams on the locker room wall, and then the players adjust if they need to. They really should have. 

Youll see a couple times where we couldn’t get the puck out or gave it right back to them. That was pretty much the entire night. You’re only seeing a small fraction of the times it happened. Staying in your stance and just moving around the crease non-stop is crazy tiring. 

By the end, once the puck was cleared I’d often just stay on my knees. 

Theres a couple plays where I’m not even remotely square leaving a whole side of the net open. I just wasn’t able to find the puck through the bodies! 

 

[badger_14 601]

They really, really like going glove-side on you, don't they?  You definitely seem stronger on the left side (I think so, but I could be seeing it all backwards).

[IPv6Freely 2095]

7 minutes ago, badger_14 said:

They really, really like going glove-side on you, don't they?  You definitely seem stronger on the left side (I think so, but I could be seeing it all backwards).

They keep telling me they know not to but keep doing it anyway.