Quote:
Originally Posted by Danish
Personally, from personal experience, i say let them do whatever the feel comfortable with. I began playing goalie 2 years ago at age 15. Stepping out onto the ice at a 5-7 year old clinic was fully confident that i could stop the puck.... boy was i wrong. But eventually the little kids stopped showing up to the clinics every Wednesday night and instead i just had a decent kid shoot on me once per week filling that ice time. I just did what i felt comfortable with and i got very good. Two months later i stepped out onto the ice for high school tryouts. fast forward 2 years and here i am beating out kids who have been playing goaltender their entire lives and im gonna be the starter for my school next year. (and i don't play in any crappy old league, same high school league as #20 and NCPuck08). But its just because i did what i felt comfortable doing, just take tons of shots on them and they will learn. The most important thing for them is movement though, thats what i work on the most i think. I think technique and all is important, but too much can hurt and takes away from their other abilities... in my opinion. Just show them tons of shots and let them develop. Seriously for the first couple weeks as a goaltender at age 15 i couldn't butterfly.... but i eventually got into it by watching others and just by getting tons of shots.
sorry, i might have gotten off topic/ repeated some stuff alot.
Danish
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Hey you know, I am pretty much in the same exact boat? I started in October (when I was 15). When I started, I was using all borrowed gear from the rink and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The only influence I had was after watching a vid called Colorado Avalanche 2001 Mission Accomplished. Of course I tried to imitate what I saw, and failed miserably at trying to mimic the butterfly. I slowly began to realize that you didn't need to go down on every shot, and how much my movement and positioning had to do with making the save. I had to save up my money to buy my gear and slowly replaced the stuff I was borrowing the rink. I have now become a full butterfly goalie after meeting my goalie coach who learned the Quebec Style of Goaltending, and have been perfecting my angling, and positioning. Next season I will be playing for my clubs U17 Junior C Team and am excepting 1st string .. but even if I don't get it yet I am just 2nd string I don't fell bad since the other kids have been playing since they were little kids.
I've been watching the little goalies that play for my clubs mite, and peewee teams .. and I just want to volunteer to show them how to wear the leg pads on the correct leg (no joke they wear right on left ... left on right), and if I was in your position ... show them the correct way to do something, then the reason why they are doing that way. A good way to motivate kids that age is to like bring juice boxes, and tempt them with it at the end if they work well that day. Since they probably arn't as self motivated as goalies a little older?