Backward/Diagonal on breakaway

[rfraser08]

Hey I'm a beginner goalie with a question about a situation I faced in a game. How do I skate backwards and to the side while staying square to the puck. If a player skates across diagonally and I c-cut back to stay between the puck and the centre of the net, I cannot keep my body square to the puck. If I were to shuffle so I could stay square, I may not be able to move fast enough to stay between the puck and net. I asked a goalie instructor about it and he said the technique used to stay square is called a "swinging shuffle", but didn't get a chance to explain it fully.

The best thing I could come up with is a c-cut/shuffle combination.

Any suggestions?

I hope this was clear enough. Thanks

Rob

[kevin0807]

i have trouble with that too, i usually poke check if i can or just slide across.

[Goalies29]

I usually turn and go across on a T push keeping my upper body square to the shooter as well a the trailing leg and try to stay out toward the shooter as to cut down on the amount of actual net he has to shoot at or see. Once I hit the mid point I then proceed to kickout the rest of the way across the net into an eventual B-fly keeping my hands up and ready.

[pens4life29]

I seem to have some trouble with this too. I always find that when the shooter gets in tight enough, I feel like I'm gonna get burnt 5-hole cause I can't get down fast enough. So I put one pad down to seal off the 5-hole and push as hard as I can hopefully to get back to the post. When I dont push off hard enough and I'm out on top of the paint, a smart shooter holds on to it and rips it up high.

[goaleroffortune]

This has been pretty instinctive to me for a long time, so I may not have a perfect abstract understanding of what I'm doing, or if it's the same thing as a 'swinging shuffle,' but I'll give it a shot.

Using c-cuts to go straight forward or back, the textbook technique is to keep a steady stance except for the cutting leg: the head, arms, torso, rear end and back leg should all be as still as possible, and there should be no sideways shifting of the center of gravity.

However, when moving (as in your example) back and to the right, I alter this technique. Instead, on my right-skate c-cuts I let my weight shift as I push so that my center of gravity stays centered between my skates. This naturally rotates my CoG in a counterclockwise direction because that is how my right skate is moving. The direction I am facing also rotates counterclockwise in that process, so I stay square to the puck. On my left-skate c-cuts, I keep my right foot a little bit pigeon-toed, which has the same effect of moving my CoG and angle of view counterclockwise as I push with my left skate. Obviously, reverse everything for back and to the left. A key pitfall is not to let your weight shift backward or forward of the plane of your body as your weight shifts sideways; as usual, having your weight too far forward or back will hurt your mobility, your reaction time and your readiness for a rebound.

I hope I have broken this down well enough that it makes sense.