© Bandits Goalie School - 2008
Years ago both on the pond and in organized hockey leagues across the country, the goaltender seemed to always end up being the worst skater and the most uncoordinated kid on the team. While on the pond, it was always the last kid picked that would get thrown in net or at tryouts it was the unskilled kid on the team that would get talked into by his coach to become the team’s netminder. Once that kid was chosen, there was no turning back, he was stuck in the six by four iron frame every game just so he wouldn’t hurt the team. Kids would get strapped into goal pads made of deer hair and leather that by the end of the game would weigh fifteen to twenty pounds apiece. They would wear clumsy skates that looked like a bad pair of clown shoes. Felt was used to cover their arms, chest and stomach to protect his upper body, and way back in the day they might get a thin piece of fiber glass to cover-up his face. All this comfortable protective gear was worn just to stop an object traveling at speeds of over sixty to seventy miles per hour. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention, goalies never had detailed goalie coaches to teach them this unique art we like to call goaltending.
Now let’s fast forward to the modern day. No longer are the goaltenders the fat kid that can’t skate. No longer do they wear fifteen pound goalie pads nor have a thin layer of felt to cover their upper body. No longer do they have to worry about hundreds of stitches after every season because poor facial protection. Technology has vastly improved protective gear and coaches and parents are finding out that many young kids want to play the position because the equipment looks cool. Now a days, many of these kids happen to be the best athletes on the team and a coach isn’t about to talk them out of it. Hockey people alike now understand that goaltending IS the most important position in the game. Something’s never change for netminders those; they still wear those clumsy skates that look like a bad pair of clown shoes.
What we’ve seen over the course of the last decade is a significant drop in the amount of goals being scored in all levels of hockey. At the professional level they put restrictions on the size of goalie pads, glove, chest protectors and even jerseys. The thinking was that the lack of scoring was associated with goalies cheating by wearing oversized equipment. A few years went by and with all the new restrictions on goalie gear the goals against average were still declining.
If you think about it, the reason that the goals against average has dropped so dramatically in the last decade isn’t because of the equipment or a goalies ability to play the puck. The answer to the problem the NHL is having is quit simple,
GOALIES ARE NOW BEING COACHED!!!! Goaltenders are now learning and working on proper techniques and skill sets from mite hockey all the way to the National Hockey League. So if the NHL is looking for a way to increase goal scoring all they need do is eliminate goalie coaches and goalie training across the world and they will definitely solve this overwhelming dilemma. We all know this will never happen, so teams all across the country including the NHL are in trouble now!
To learn more about Bandit's Goalie School, go to: Bandits Goalie Camp - Learn to Rob the Shooters Blind!
Linear Mode
