Need Help Badly

[BleedBlue]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum, but I found this place recently and figured that it could help.

So here's my story: I'm eighteen, always been a huge hockey fan, but I never got a chance to play ice hockey when I was younger, ice time being way to scarce and expensive in my hometown and my mother not being a fan of what she thought was a sport for goons. I did get to play street hockey with my friends occasionally, but I sucked and have never really been a natural athelete in any sense of the word. This last summer though some of my friends started playing street hockey again, and since everyone remembered how crappy I was, they stuck me in goal. Much to my surprise, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life, my first time between the posts. I still pretty much sucked, but I was finally having fun, and that was something that I had never really gotten from sports before.

Anyway, as it turns out, in a couple of weeks I'm going up to Canada for university, and I figure there will be countless opportunities to play intramurals and practice on-ice and such. I was so excited that I bought myself my first pair of ice skates (regular skates, I figured I would learn on those before switching to goalie skates) and went out to the closest ice rink to me. Much to my dismay (but I guess not really surprise), I was terrible. Nothing seems to come naturally to me, my skating "skills" are lackluster at best, my puckhandling skills are non-existant, when I'm in goal I pretty much just sprawl around doing my best to keep the puck out of the net. I think subconsciously I'm afraid of falling or something, because I'm good at practicing what I am already decent at, but I'm always really bad at trying something new (forward-backward transitions, sideways shuffles, and such), and I get really embarrassed since there are lots of people at the public sessions in my rink.

So.........I was hoping that some of you could have any suggestions for things I could do on ice, at home, whatever. Something to help a beginner eighteen-year old goalie out. Even though I don't have any skill base or any natural talent, I'm a really hard worker and very devoted to trying my best to get better as keeps. If you are still reading this freaking novel.........anything would help, and thanks in advance for any tips.

[NHGoalie]

hey, im pretty new myself but the best advice i can give you is to just go to Public Skating times and just work on being able to skate without being unstable and choppy. go for general skating moves before you try goalie specific stuff. also once you get the hang of skating on ice, pick up a pair of roller blades to work on doing crossovers if your afraid of trying new stuff on the ice. roller blading i really dont think is anything like ice skating, but ive always felt that the ice feels harder than asphault. Just keep trying man. Good luck.

[toddpotiphar]

If you plan on learning to play goal, I would suggest just buying goalie skates right away. That way you learn to skate on the skates with which you will be playing and you won't get your feet smashed up. And don't forget to have fun. Your quality of life depends not one iota on how well you play hockey.
I'm thirty and just started playing on ice a few months ago. Same story about not playing when I was young because it was too expensive and my parents weren't really into 5 a.m. practices (and the whole non-athletic thing). I did take skating lessons when I was really young, though, and have skated a little bit now and then over the past twenty years. Don't get discouraged about being really bad your first few times out. Nobody starts off all that well when they have never played before. If you keep at it, keep asking questions, and keep taking good advice (try and avoid the bad stuff), you'll find ways to have fun and learn quickly.
Cheers

[BleedBlue]

Yea, I also had the chance to go ice skating a few times over the years with my friends, so I have the basics down. I can do plain forward skating pretty solid, and I have crossovers down (well counterclockwise is easy, to the right is a little harder). I think I'm stopping wrong though, it feels kind of awkward, and I can only actually stop when I'm going pretty slow already, or else I catch an edge and fall. That's what I've really been trying to work on, I mean watching someone do the intense six-foot ice spray hockey stop is pretty cool, and I'm not even coming close, usually I just wimp out and drag my left skate behind like on rollerblades. Also, since I really don't know what exact skills are needed to play goalie, I was hoping for some specific exercises or drills I could do as well.

[NHGoalie]

Originally Posted by BleedBlue

Also, since I really don't know what exact skills are needed to play goalie, I was hoping for some specific exercises or drills I could do as well.

id say you should learn to skate before you do goalie specific stuff. Goalies stop a lot.

[BleedBlue]

For sure, I know it's my basic skating skills that need to be improved now, and I guess I was getting a little ahead of myself wanting to go for goalie drills, but if anyone has a website or a video or something that shows someone step-by-step some of these basic moves like stops, crossovers, transitions, that would really help. The ones I have found so far all seem really vague, and haven't helped me too much......

[EvilPepe]

Originally Posted by BleedBlue

For sure, I know it's my basic skating skills that need to be improved now...

There ya go. Skate skate skate skate. Regardless of what position you are playing, you can't play hockey if you can't skate. Don't beat yourself silly breaking down your skating right away - just make sure you get out and do it. I'm sure a local bookstore will have a "hockey for dummies" book, and you could probably find examples of basic skating drills on YouTube. A good investment for any hockey player is to take a power skating course as well.

Good luck, and have fun!

[coloradokid]

Along with skating you should start stretching. This is one of the single most important things with any type of position or sport. If you are flexible it will help with everything to include learning the basics and skating. And, if you become really flexible before you start really playing, you will be that much ahead of the game. Stretching isn't fun and takes a little while to become flexible but it is an easy way to make your hockey life that much better.

Just my 2 cents.

[midlife crisis]

Have you considered skating lessons? You can learn alot from figure skating instructors. They teach hockey players all the time. Look for an adult group. Usually a lot more affordable than private lessons.

As others have already said, go to every public skating session you can get to.

Wear knee pads or player shin pads if you're worried about falling.

Good luck, it's not easy but it's worth the effort.

[paulsmachetti]

I had only played floor hockey from high school on , but when I was 35 a friend suggested I try ice hockey.He sold me some of his old gear and I started playing in an adult pickup group. Like you my skating skills were poor. I could skate forward and backwards a little but didn't have a big issue w/things like t-pushes and shuffles. I was pretty bad but taught myself. I got better the longer I played and even though I'm still not all that good , I am good enough to play against younger, skilled players even at the age of 53. I have my ****ty games ,but I have good ones as well.
You will improve over time if you stick with it, but make sure ,above all else, that you have fun doing it.
Paul

[mablo2000]

I started skating at age 32, and found that taking adult (age 16+) figure skating lessons helped me improve pretty quickly. I went through the first adult session (something like 8 weeks) with my girlfriend, then started going to beginner hockey. The best thing about the adult lessons is that nobody else can skate either, and there are only a few people on the ice usually. Having less people on the ice, and all of them bad, might help with feeling embarrassed while you skate, but you really need to continue going to public skate and practicing outside of the class if you want to get better. Forty-five minutes a week or whatever your lesson is really isn't enough if you are in a hurry to improve. A lot of the lessons include a few free public skate entries.

I also agree that getting goalie skates early on is the way to go. I started with "recreational" skates, which have the figure skating blades on them. I then went to forward skates when I started beginner hockey. After a couple months of beginner hockey, I switched to goalie and got goalie skates. Each time I had a transition period that set me back a bit, not to mention the waste of money. If you are already decided on playing goalie, I would skip the rest and go straight to the goalie skates because they do feel a lot different than the forward skates.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Kahnighit]

As others have said, get some goalie skates. Skating as a goalie is a bit different from skating as a forward. The most notable difference is shuffling which is unique to goalies and very hard to do in player/figure skates. The other is doing true crossovers is pretty hard in pads. We come close but there's a limit. The only time you'll use them is chasing pucks dumped in behind the net. I can't think of a game situation that calls for a goalie to do full speed transitions. The most used techniques are c-cuts forward and back, t-pushes, shuffles and being able to stop with either foot both forwards and backwards.

I started playing at 32 having taken lessons when I was a kid but only retaining the ability to skate forward. I went to at least 3 public skates a week for a month before putting on any other gear. I figured out and got decent (I wouldn't say good let alone mastered) at everything I mentioned except crossovers. I basically took ownership of a single goal line and practiced each technique the length of it. Once i felt comfortable with it I started wearing my leg pads and would practice the movements in them while learning butterfly drops and slides. I didn't take lessons but I'm sure my progress would have been quicker had I done so. I went to the early morning public skates as well. I only had to deal with a handful of figure skaters and sometimes I was the only one out there. The more goalie gear you wear the further they stay away. The trade off is they'll give you looks.

Once you get the skating techniques down and have purchased all your gear get to a goalie clinic or some goalie coaching as soon as possible. It'll help you develop sound fundamentals rather than bad habits which you'll have to unlearn later.

Good luck. Playing net is one of the most humbling things I've ever taken on but it's easily one of the best things I've done for myself.

[TIMMAAYY]

Learn to skate, shuffle and glide in goalie skates. After that, everything else will come. You can't do diddly except sprawl around ( what you are doing ! ) until you know how to move around the crease - skating.

[BleedBlue]

Hey, thanks again so far for all the posts, everyone has been really helpful so far and given me a much more down to earth way of thinking about improving.

Oh, and I'm glad to say that I just came home with my new goalie skates, some rbk 5ks. The internet reviews seem to be pretty good, and so far I'm really happy with them. I can't wait to take them out on the ice first thing tomorrow morning.

[TIMMAAYY]

Don't forget to get them sharpened first!