Site, The: Calvin and Hobbes Robot Chicken

Site, The: Calvin and Hobbes Robot Chicken

Speed Drill - Sliding Left and Right

As a goalie its good to know how to take a shot, and move onto the next and quickly. A goalie must always be on his toes and ready for everything.

1 way of getting from 1 shot to the other is by sliding side to side, (while standing). This is achieved by lifting pressure off one foot and pushing with the other. This will be explained in more detail later in this article.

This drill is aimed at helping you perfect your standing slide. You will need at least 5 team mates to help you out with this, as they will be taking the shots. The more people you get the more helpful it is. This is also good for coaches as it helps the teams goalie and the players get a chance to practice there shots. Coaches can then give the players advice on there shots to better improve them.

Get your team mates to line up at the top of the face off circles. Some arena's have a line here, others don't. Make sure they are spread out so they span a good distance across the arena, the more you have to move back and forth the better.



Next players take turns taking shots, slap shots are preferred. Start on one side of the line, this player takes a shot. As the goaltender, once you save the shot you move as quickly as you can to the other side of the line. The player should wait maybe a second and a half then shoot. Then the second you save this shot do a standing slide back to the other side of the line but the 2nd person now takes a shot. Continue in this pattern until everyone has shot. Everyone then gets there puck, gets back and in line and you repeat until, well you don't want to anymore!


Performing the standing slide

This is actually quite an easy move, and chances are you already do it without even knowing it, but just like everything in life you can always improve and get better. In this example we will be sliding to the left. Start off by relieving pressure from your left foot, this should automatically transfer all your bodies wait onto your right foot. At that very instant, push to the left with your right food and push your left foot to the left as well. Your right foot will be dragging on the ice, you can use this to control how far you want to move. Practice doing this on both sides, try standing at 1 end of the blue line and sliding all the way to the other side, then switch your feet up and do it back again.

Well, that is all for this lesson. I hope this helped and your on your way to becoming a better goalie already!

Stretching Exercise - The Importance of Stretching

Stretching, is it a waste of time? I hope you never think that. Stretching is one of the most important part in a goalies game. The biggest reason to stretch is to avoid injury. An injured goalie is of no use to his team. Another big reason is it helps you warm up, something that is probably much less thought about is how goalies are supposed to have "cat like refllexes", a quick glove or hand, and be able to move freely and easily. If you stretch before every game and every practice and every training session, hopefully you will have stretched at a minimum of 3 times a week. Stretching should take around 10-15 minutes if done properly, you must make sure that each muscle is stretched and warmed up.

Some basic stretching exercises that a goalie can do are as follows :

Stretching your legs.

Exercise #1

A goalies legs are very important to him, this is the part of the body that provides the most amount of area, they are very good for protecting the lower part of the net as well as the mid section. So before each game, if you only have time to stretch 1 part of your body. You should stretch your legs.

Start on your knees in your butterfly position, keep your right knee on the ground and stretch your left leg out like your making a save. Do not force your leg down, take your glove and apply pressure down to the ground around your knee. Start off with a little bit and slowly apply more and more pressure. Your leg should be moving lower and lower towards the ground closing the gap between the bottom of your pad and the ground. After a year of doing this 3 times a week you should be able to get your pad almost flush with the ground.

Push your leg down as much as you can until you feel like it won't push anymore, then hold that position for 10 seconds. It may be tough but if you dont feel any strain in your groin and leg then your not doing it right or your not applying enough pressure.

Once you are finished with the left leg continue onto the right leg, keep your left knee on the ground this time and stretch out your right leg. Do the same thing as you did with your left leg.

Exercise #2

This exercise is more for your groin then legs. Pulling your groin is not fun!

Go into your butterfly position, legs perfectly on the ground. Next lean forward, and move your legs so they are parallel to each other, your legs must still be on the ground, It should look like your squatting but with your legs on the ground. Next push your body down so it stretches your legs (groin) its like doing the splits but with your legs tucked in, and you should lean forward.

Exercise #3

This will be our last exercise for this article. This one will help stretch your hamstrings (The muscle at the top and back of your leg. It is usually the biggest muscle.)

For this exercise stand up, next stick your leg out, make sure the back pick of your skate is on the ground (You should probably be on a rubber mat or rubber floor). Next squat with your leg still bent out, keep going down as much as you can and hold it. Rinse and repeat and do the same with the other leg.

Well thats all for today, there are more stretching exercises you can do I will discuss some more in later articles.

For now I will leave you with some tips.

• I like to only get my bottom half dressed, so this is my skates and pads and everything else. Then I put on a t-shirt and only my blocker and catcher. This is the equipment that I put on to stretch with.
• Try to stretch in a secluded place away from noise and lots of action, you wanna be concentrated and focused.
• Don't stretch until you break a sweat, you want to just get your muscles all warmed up, not tire yourself out.

That's all for now!
Sean

Skating Endurance Training Drill

Endurance as a goaltender in hockey is crucial. Your on the ice for 100% of the game and you need to stay sharp and alert. So what should you do to last through out the game? Well you need to practice drills that will increase your stamina.

There are a couple of drills you can do to increase your stamina in different aspects of the game, and as a goaltender one of these aspects is your skating. I was once told that a goaltender should be the most powerful skater on a team. When I first heard this I thought my trainer was crazy but then as I got older I realized that he was right, a goalie needs to be able to move fast, skate side to side fast, challenge a player quickly.

So that is why my first drill I will show you guys is to help improve your skating and skating stamina. The goaltender needs to start off in the middle of his crease in his stance.


You will be using your 2 face off circles just outside of your crease for this drill. You must place 1 puck at the center of each face off circle, this is used to simulate hitting away a loose puck from an oncoming offender.

You can do this either alone or with a coach, get your coach to blow his whistle, right when he blows his whistle, extend your stick and sprint towards the puck on the right.


Once you reach the puck shoot it away, try to get height and bank it off the glass. Then pull your stick back in, and get into position quickly. Then skate backwards as quick as possible back into position in the center of your net. This is to simulate, shooting the puck and getting back into position to be prepared as quick as possible for any shots you may receive.

Once you reach the center of your net (while skating backards) stop firmly, stop for 1 second face forwards then extend your stick and sprint to the puck on the left and do the same thing that you did on the right side.

Doing this drill with a teammate or coach/trainer is good because he will be able to stop the puck and bring it back into the center so you can keep going without having to fetch the pucks yourself.

If you have any comments just leave them and I will try to answer any questions or problems!
Sean

My background history.

Well, I decided since people will be reading posts by me, and hopefully taking advice from me and learning maybe a thing or two I should share a little background information with you guys so that you know who you are taking advice from!

I am 17 years old and I live in Montreal, Quebec (That's in Canada). I have been playing hockey in a league from the age of 4. I started off playing on offence but around 7 or 8 years old I switched to being a goaltender and I have been in between the pipes since then. I have been to goaltender camps before and been taught by some of the best. I am not trying to say I am one of the best in anyway, but I do have a pretty good knowledge if I do say so myself. My prefered style of goaltending is butterfly as most of the shots I receive are generally low and this is the best way to cover the bottom part of the net.

When I write you will notice I write in a very informal style of writing, I will also try to keep the writing light and happy!

I am not one of the top goaltenders in the world, or even in my league but I still have some knowledge I will be able to share with people and hopefully teach you a thing or 2.