Goal Tending in Ice Hockey goalie equipment hockey skates

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Goal Tending in Ice Hockey

Physical Strength

Those of you who have lugged around a bag of hockey equipment know that this stuff is heavy. But have you picked up a bag filled with goalie equipment? How about after game? Goalie equipment weighs about 40 lbs. dry and 50 to 60 lbs. seeped in sweat. For a player to make lightning quick saves while having to haul around that extra weight must be physically fit.
Reflexes

You may hear a goaltender being referred as having cat-like reflexes. But very few young players develop the proper goaltending instincts until they become quite older. However, you can hone those existing reflexes by practicing quickness drills such as "rapid fire."

You may be familiar with this technique because most NHL teams perform this drill during pre game warm-ups. Have your teammates fire pucks in your direction as you quickly react to the oncoming puck and recover awaiting the next. If you practice this enough times, you will undoubtedly sharpen your skills.
Concentration

The mind of a goalie is as important as his/her physical attributes. One of the most important elements is concentration. It is very easy during a game to begin to focus on something else, especially when the puck is not in your end of the ice. If your mind has a tendency to wander, maybe goaltending is not the position for you.
Courage

The last skill, but certainly not the least, is courage. Goaltenders must be courageous. Think about it, for someone to voluntarily have a 5 1/2 oz. to 6 oz. rock-hard rubber object shot in their direction at about 100 mph. must either be crazy or brave. I vote the latter. The nice thing about playing goal is that the 40 lbs. of pads keeps us very well protected.

Stand-up, Butterfly, and Inverted-V are the three goaltender styles that exist in hockey. All goaltenders fall into one of these categories. However, this does not mean that a stand-up style player will not dropped to his knees to stop a puck using the butterfly style. People often ask me which style is the best. Unfortunately, there is not one style that is good for all situations. The best advice I can offer is to try all three and decide for yourself which one you are most comfortable with.

Stacking the Pads

T-push or slide your outside skate while pushing with the other skate.
As the outside leg extends, the bottom leg curls underneath and behind becoming a "scoop" along the ice. This leg must be kicked hard to achieve the pad on pad result

As your legs straighten out, you're bent at the hips with your shoulders slightly facing downward. This is a very important since your feet will both rise off the ice and you'll end up on your back. Again, balance, or weight distribution comes into play. Many goalies can do the first two steps but without this third step this move more often than not turns out to be futile.
Stretch out your arm on the ice and position the other arm above the stacked pads

Try to keep your eyes on the puck since it is easy to loss sight of the puck from this position. Try to cover any rebound and hope your defense show up to help you since you are now in a prone position.

Directing and Controlling Rebounds

There is a lot more to making a save then simply keeping the puck out of the net - although that's the aspect of the position that gets the most headlines. Good goaltenders need to not only stop the puck but also move the rubber biscuit out of harms way. This is achieved by directing the puck away from attacking offensive players or preventing rebounds by smothering loose pucks.
Stick

Keeps the knees bent. When the hands are brought back even with the knees, a goaltender tends to stand more erect.
It is much easier to direct pucks with the blocker.
The eyes naturally follow the puck to the blocker.
Since the stick works in a semi-circle rather than a straight line, the semi-circle covers a much larger area. The sticks doesn't get caught up in the skates, thus it is easier to direct rebounds and control the pads in general.

Another important attribute for a goaltender to possess, is the ability to move forward and backward. The steps involved with both these maneuvers are quite similar to the ones discussed above with only slight differences. You may also hear people refer to this skill as "telescoping" because as you do with a camera lens, you are moving in and out to get a better look at the puck.

Shoulders, knees and toes should be in line with the derriere over the heels. This brings 60% of the weight on the toes, and 40% on the heels. SHOULDERS are very important. If they are too far forward or hunched over too far, too much weight will be on the toes and thus the goaltender will end up on his/her knees. If the shoulders are too far back, too much weight will be on the heels, making the goaltender stand too erect and end up on his/her derriere. Keeping the chest expanded gives the ability to use the arms more easily KNEES are also very important in balance. They are often referred to as shock absorbers and this is exactly the principle used here. Without the knees bent, it is virtually impossible to get any power out of the legs, thus making lateral movement very weak Hands are kept out in front of the knees, comfortably off to the side of the body. The goaltender should be able to see the hands out of the bottom of his/her eyes when looking forward. I have come to the conclusion that hands properly positioned have a direct relation to the shoulders, knees, toes principle and thus improve balance drastically.