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!