Technique

Thought I would say hi. I am new to this board. HI! My name is Matt. I haven't played in several years, but i am going to the rink for pick-up games to get back into shape. Being a goalie, of course I have been given a nickname. I am, or was, affectionately known as "The Reaper". An unimaginative take off of my last name, but it suited my playing style.........or did i adjust my playing style to reflect the aura that the name implied???????? Much to zen for me at the moment..........I though I would try to find out how some of you feel about "styles". For starters, my opinion.........I read the "Features" articles from the "Goalie Doctor" and found myself amused and thinking back to the old days................(i could have said the same thing with one word, but without spellcheck, my vocabulary outstrips my spelling skills).........at any rate......I was particularly interested in his discussion of the "stand up" style and how he seems to feel that it is pushed on young goalies to much. I agree. Thank god I didn't have a goalie coach when I was young to keep me from learning how to play goal. Having said that, yes, many times i wished I had someone who could tell me what the **** I was doing, but I think it worked out allright in the end. One of the things in this article that I found most interesting was that he used Parent and Lindberg as examples more than once. I grew up in Philly and Parent was big influence on me. The article mentions how he played a "stand up" style. The real key to Parent though, and he touches on this, is angles! angles! angles!!!!!! The man knew exactly where he was in relation to the net at all times! He was, actually a very acrobatic goalie, in my opinion, he simply did not have to show it often. He rarely had to move because he was always right where he needed to be. He would always eat the puck up or deflect it away. That, I always thought, was the second key to Parent. He was a master at directing the puck where he wanted the rebound to go. When I watched him, I learned the the angle is paramount! I did not emulate his stance however. Let me step forward in time to one of his students, Pelle Lindberg. Whatever he learned from Parent, the stance was not it. He had a very low to the ice split legged stance. As if he was already half way down to a butterfly. (incidently, I always thought that Mario Gosslin was the prototypical butterfly goalie and learned a lot from watching him as well) I favor this type of stance. If your stance is halfway into a butterfly already, you give away a huge 5 hole, but you can close it in a heartbeat by just letting gravity help you to your knees. Of course that tends to leave a lot of upper net to cover, especially if you a short like me. (5'8") I overcome this in two ways. First, I am a very agressive goalie. That is to say that I come out and cut a lot of angle out of their lives. I never could stand waiting back in my net. This is something I see a lot of goalies doing these days and it drives me to distraction. The people I see doing this don't seem to have any plan in doing this, they just don't seem to understand the angles concept and seem to be dealing with that insidious "stand up" curse. I have found that waiting in a low crouch provides me with plenty of upward explosive movement to defeat high shots. My other weapon in the war to stop high shots (and this is another pet peeve I have with what goalies seem to be learning these days) is my glove hand. I do not hold my glove down next to my pad, but up and out. Out to my side with the glove pointed out or up and the palm facing the shooter. A lot of goalies get beat high to the glove side because it takes forever to get that hand up and away from that darned leg pad. In this position, my glove is just as quick to get high as low. Positioned that way, the distance to the high shot is the same as to get to the low shot. Bear in mind that I,m in a low crouch anyway and have plenty of pad to burn on the low shot. Having said that, let me move on to my pet peeves in goaltending today. (Legal Disclaimer:The opinions presented in this program are those of the writers and producers of this program and in no way reflect the views or policies of station managment. Especially if they are inflammatory and the presenter simply makes an *** of himself..........now, back to the show!) Pet peeve #1 : The aformentioned insistance on keeping the catching glove glued to the leg pad. If god ment for you to play goal like that you would have been born a quadruped.
Pet peeve #2 : Where have all the poke checks gone........long time stannnnnding.....(still). You are a goaltender. Last line of defense. Hero of the hopeless struggle! It's you against the world! Don't let them take you standing still. Attack! Make them wary! Don't let them feel too comfortable circling your net. It is up to you to strike fear in their hearts! To make their souls quiver! The stick is a weapon, use it! (in a poke check sort of way. no copycat killers here if you please) Seriously, the poke check is a tool of agressive defense and, more importantly, of intimidation! Remember, as much of the goalie's game is mental, so is the goal scorer's. Give him reason to doubt, to be unsure, to be indecisive. intimidate him into shooting early or too late. Use your angles and stance and attitude to give him every reason to shoot where and when you want him to, not when he wants to!
Pet Peeve #3 : The "stand up" mentallity. When I think of stand up, and I recall this being mentioned in one of the "Goalie Doctor" articles, I think of waiting until the shooter makes his move. Now maybe someone is thinking,"but didn't he just say........". I did. The key here is that you can make him make his shoot desicion when and where you want. Just don't react until he gets there. I have, when I was young, purposely give away the glove side and conviced the shooter that it was the only place he could go with his shot. Knowing this I would be quite prepared to make that heart stopping glove save. You know the one.....where everyone come half out of their seats and you are all stretched out glove extended to the sky as if to say, "I hold you here in my hand. You are mine to toy with as I please!" Isn't that the biggest rush. You know the save I mean, I know you do..................Other than the great photo op, this also serves to send the shooter back to the bench shaking his head. Next time he won't be so sure where to shoot and his team is wondering how hard they are going to have to work to get past you. You have just won the first battle of the mental war. Audace! Audace! Tu Jour Audace! (please forgive the spelling)
OK, I got a little out of hand there, but my point is that you should not underestimate the effect of the mental game on the other players. You are out there for the whole game and therefor can and do have the greatest impact on the game. A lot of people can learn the angles. There are quite a few good gloves out there. There are even a few goalies that know how to use thier stick for something other than keeping their other hand busy. But when you bring all of the tools to the ice, when you can play the whole game, when you can bring yourself to use all the weapons at your disposal instead of just the normal or familiar ones, you will begin to stand out from all the other goalies at your level. This has the nice bonus of boosting your own team's confidence and helping them win the mental war, even if they don't know that they are fighting it...............
Good god I have rambled on. I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep. God save me from politicians and soapboxes! I am full of it, aren't I? Well, at any rate, please post your thoughts. I'm interested in what other folks think. In the meantime, have fun!

[Bernie]

Might I suggest you not enter any of those "50 words or less..." contests there E.E. Cummings.


But I just wanted to tag on my opinion that the term "Stand-Up Style" is often misunderstood. Especially younger goalies hear the term "stand up" and they think "never go down". I actually have seen parents smacking their kids around because the kids were supposed to be "standup" goalies but went down on some shots! If this were so, then a butterfly goalie must always butterfly and a flop n cover goalie must always dive headfirst at the puck and smother it!

We know of course none of these is true. Butterfly goalies very often make saves standing, and standup goalies often butterfly. I just think it's important, especially for coaches, to know that these "styles" are not set in stone. And ALL styles of goalie must rely on playing angles to be effective. There are times when even a flop n cover goalie MUST stand up (like on very bad angle shots).

With styles other than "stand up" the problem usually isn't that the goalie goes down too much- it's that they don't get back on their feet fast enough!

Bernie

Your literary critique is well taken. I have displayed a Stephen King size case of diarrhea of the keyboard. A virtual volume of verbosity, so to speak. If nothing else, it was a good rant. I needed to get that off my chest and so few understand what I'm talking about. Of course, I've had it pointed out that this is not often the fault of the listener. I'm just obtuse. (I love that word!) Well, it left me feeling much better and oddly calm to have gotten it out, so I appreciate your patience with my eclectic ravings.

[Bernie]

This guy reminds me of Erkel.

I kinda like his style though!

Or an English major, perhaps? With all the alliterations and vivid metaphors...either that, or he always has a thesaurus sitting next to his PC....

[daemyn75]

Reepsm,

Good show old chap. I must say your plethera of vocabulistic metiphorcations has stimulated my ceribrial content to no end. That also made a lot of sence to me and I'm sure all others. I belive I have the lest experience of any goalie here I just started (3 months ago) and my first Game is this Sunday OCT 3 so I'm excited and have revied all your posts of angles and all that stuff. I have developed into a multi-style goalie I use what ever I need to to stop the puck. you have all helped me and I'm happy to be a part of the group. Thanks you guys.

[Squealagig]

daemyn75 your probably not the least experienced, I am. I have my first PRACTICE is on sunday which I am really excited about. Although I have played floor hockey so I guess I have some experience there but ice is gonna be compleately different.

Hey.

Just like to remind you of paragraphs. Makes it all so much easier to read.

[daemyn75]

Squeal,

Good luck I play roller wich is different from ice. I have never played ice but I hear it is easier than roller.

Bernie, that should be - ee cummings

[TartanBill]

daemyn75

Eschew periphrastic obfuscation.

Eschew periphrastic obfuscation? plethera of vocabulistic metiphorcations? I knew I walked down just the right dark alley! Just for clarifications sake, I'm just a neurotic
computer tech who loves hockey, has a large vocabulary and entirely to much free time on his hands and a penchant for run on sentances.

Paragraphs are OK, I suppose.........

They just seem to break up those long, beautiful sentances I am always working so hard to construct so that halfway through them, you can't follow the point without a seeing eye dog.

That's just my particular style though.......
(LOL)

[Bernie]

Hey reap, try a search on "pulling the goalie".

Should help with that idle hand situation

Bernie

Much to my surprise, pulling the goalie caused the crowd to go wild. The most curious thing, isn't it?

[daemyn75]

Tartan,

My intellectualtional constitutional fortitiude has led me to belive you are a man of great coversional eminations of humorous metabolaition.