Deferring to certain moves

[MillerTime247]

Help!!

For some reason I find myself trying to make the same save on breakaways over and over again when people deke me to the glove side. Back in, back in, desperatley try to make split save once I get in the crease. Many goals, few saves resulting.

I think maybe I'm just not being patient enough. Also having moved from inline I'm having a hard time remembering that I can slide much better on the ice, and could easily just butterfly slide in the direction the shooter goes.

How do you manage to get yourself "out of a rut" like this? Even trying to think about what I'm doing in pickup but I still make the same damn move. For some reason I can't get it through my thick and ignorant skull that I need to be doing something different.

[Clyde]

Sounds like you need to practice other moves. Go on the ice and actually do a butterfly slide over and over and over and over. Then pick another save move and repeat the process. They used to say in the Corps "better a gallon of sweat in training than a drop of blood in combat." Remember to practice WITH GOOD FORM. Do not go for volume at the expense of precision, because how you practice is how you play. If you get to the point where all of your save moves are second nature, then, on breakaways (as well as other shots), you will not need to be thinking about the save moves, you can think about the puck and your position related to it and let your muscle memory take over. Just keep in mind that motion specific practice is something that you will not get in open hockey or games. Good luck.

[MillerTime247]

So your suggestion would be to go to stick and puck sessions and just work on muscle memory?

[Timberwoof]

There is controversy over whether there's actually such a thing as muscle memory ... but whatever that ends up really being, the answer is that you just have to practice the moves you want to make. Practice them a lot. Then practice them some more, until you can make them automatically and with good form. Sometimes it takes while for that to show up in games. It helps if you can get someone on your team to help you practice the moves. Have him skate in on you at half speed at first, while you work on style. Then he speeds up and tries to score for real ... and you use that style to stop the puck. It takes a forward with patience to help out this way, but it will help you a lot.

[Squealagig]

I read a thing on the human brain and it said that the human brain is capable of learning things at only two bits per second. Unfortunately they never said what a bit was so I really don't see how it's relivant. Anyhow. I just thought I'd share. Maybe one day I'll learn not to post useless information.

[G-Man]

I find that sometimes just visualizing myself doing a move correctly helps to burn it in and break a bad habit.

[Concrete5]

Go to pick-up/drop-in hockey.

I find that there is always a bunch of guys who just hate to play "D", and there is always about 6 - 12 breakaways within a drop in session.

Whenever I play, I am try to be the last guy off the ice. This works out well when most of the guys get off the ice and the Zamboni dude is late cleaning the ice. I usually get 2 - 3 guys still on the ice who are willing to take shots and breakaways. Last time I did this, I had about 15 - 20 mins of breakaways....man was that ever tiring...

During the pick up session, watch the puck....don't anticipate and go down early. Wait til the shot is released and react....I find that that goalies who use the same move on breakaway after breakaway assume that the shooter is going to do something and then go down early....

[Clyde]

Timber is correct. There is a huge debate over whether or not "muscle memory" is all it is hyped up to be. I will say however that, while training in the corps, especially on pistol courses, I became a firm believer in the old saying that practice makes perfect, and perfect practice leads to perfection. Whether or not it is "muscle memory, perfect repetition of save moves with a shooter or Boni WILL result in better, more accurate execution of said save movements in game situations. If you don't believe me, then try this: at home go down into a perfect butterfly SLOWLY and precisely 20 times a day for a week. Do it in front of a mirror if possible. Concentrate on doing it technically perfect and not fast. Practice with good form will lead you to good form in a game. Don't take my word for it, try it or ask any pro level coach (I sure as heck ain't one!!!)

[barnhart_goalie]

I have a problem with a certain thing too, its just not on breakaways. Its when the shooter comes from behind the net, out into the faceoff circle I go down into the paddle down "barrel" save and they always put it over my head. I did it 3 times tonight. I played great other than those three goals, I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll get one of my teamates to kick me in to balls everytime I do it?

[Matt#30]

Originally posted by barnhart_goalie
Maybe I'll get one of my teamates to kick me in to balls everytime I do it?

I'm not a big fan of seein someone get hit there, but concentrate on doing something else. When i dont know what to do, i just butterfly, that way u take away the bottomof the net and u can cover the top.

[sloth2946]

A not so short statement on the muscle memory debate. Muscles do not have memory, but muscle memory works kinda like this:

Your brain is a circuit, there is no debate about that. Every voluntary and involuntary action or muscular movement is triggered through an electro/chemical reaction that generates in the brain. With any circuit, those signals can be broadcast or directed. A broadcast signal will cause a reaction from a wide variety of muscles to react. But with practice and training, the brain learns the fastest path or path of least resistance to get the desired response. This is the fine tuning process that is done when you practice or do repetitive motions to teach your muscles.

Now on a physical level, the actual muscle tissue doesn't learn, but the muscular tissue becomes trained and accustomed to the movements through repetition and the muscular tissue begins to develop the necessary stabilizing muscles and specific muscular tissue in order to fulfill the needs of the brain and the reactions it is asking for. There are two different types of muscular tissues when it comes to athletics. One is slow twitch, and the other is obviously fast twitch. The fast twitch is designed for anerobic activity, or explosive reactions and then periods of calm. The slow twich is more designed for long duration exercises such as a marathon.

The term muscle memory is a farcical term, but when the concept is understood at depth, it makes sense and is obvious to see that muscle memory does exist.

[Squealagig]

I've been reading a fair amount about the brain recently and I was kind of considering posting something similar to sloth's reply. Find a book on the brain at the library. It's a pretty interesting read.

[gophergirl]

As someone who's played piano, danced, etc, I tend to think there is some sort of neurological loop/storage that does allow for some sort of "muscle memory." There is also a group of people called kinesetic learners, of which I am, which means I learn better if I'm doing or moving while learning. Anyway, back to the original problem with breakaways...


It sounds like you're retreating back into the crease too early, giving the shooter way too much space and time to put it up and over your glove side. Start with the basics, like the "Y" theory of playing breakaways, where you move out past the crease, move back not quite matching the skaters speed, but at enough to get enough momentum to get enough of a good push to move in the direction of the move of the skater, either with a butterlfy save, pad stack, or just good lateral shuffle. The key is that you don't want to retreat back any farther than the top of the crease. You've cut down the angle and given the shooter a lot less room to work with. There was a post with a really good discussion about breakaways and the "y" theory awhile back, so you might want to search the archives for this as well.

[Buzz]

Originally posted by barnhart_goalie
I have a problem with a certain thing too, its just not on breakaways. Its when the shooter comes from behind the net, out into the faceoff circle I go down into the paddle down "barrel" save and they always put it over my head. I did it 3 times tonight. I played great other than those three goals, I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll get one of my teamates to kick me in to balls everytime I do it?

I've noticed that with the refined butterfly and paddle-down style of play that alot of goalies tend to rely (almost entirely) on few stockpiled moves - meaning that everytime a certain situation comes up they try to play it exactly the same way; they do the same one or two moves without really "reacting" to the specificity of a particular situarion. This works great in certain cases - a two pad slide on 2 on 1's where the defence lets a short pass through or a butterfly on a quick pass to the slot, for example - where you would not have time to react to a shot, but by and large you will be much more effective i you rely on your skills and react rather than simply falling back on set moves.

All this is to say that on sharp angle shots and plays where shooters walk out into the slot you just have to "bite the bullet", so to speak, hold your regular stance and just wait for the shot. If you try to just stand square and plug all the holes the puck will always find a way in. Goaltending is all about reading the situation and reacting to it.

[Jaeger29]

Originally posted by G-Man
I find that sometimes just visualizing myself doing a move correctly helps to burn it in and break a bad habit.

For what it's worth, visualization has been a major help to me in improving my goaltending skills. I use this in practice -- to visualize the move I'm working on a few times, then go and execute it. I use this in warm-ups - visualizing the puck going into my glove, off my leg pad, off my blocker and into the corner... And I use this during games - If I feel a weakness, or an overcompensation, I'll visualize proper technique and then execute it.

The important thing - don't just visualize yourself performing the move; visualize yourself stopping the puck when you do it.