Basic errors

[Weasel]

Hi guys I'm hoping you can give me a bit of advice on what is probably simple basic stuff.

Last season our team joined BiPHA and played our 1st competitive season. Our final goal difference was 1 for and 181 against over 8 games. The benefit of the season was I have luanched through a steep learning curve and I've adjusted a lot of my technique through a long hard summer. We finally train at a purpose built rink (Bisley on a Monday 7:30 if anyones around to critque etc.) but I'm noticing the following annoying habits:

1) I can't catch!! I've really been forcing myself to push my hands further forward and my stick side is much stronger. Any pucks that go catcher side usually either bounce off the edge or tip of the glove into the net or hit my forearm and bounces wild.

2) I still have trouble getting out and back to my posts. Recently I've gained confidence in my skating and am coming further out and staying up on longer shots. However when the puck comes past me I tend to get beaten between pad and post. I know to hug my posts but that instinct to just do it seems to go away when I come out of the crease.

3) When a shot comes in and I save it but lose sight/can't feel the puck I freeze. My body just refuses to move in fear I'm going to knock it back. Is this just a communication issue with my D? They often shout garbled stuff which indicates it is loose but gives me no indication where it is.

4) My left leg doesn't hit the ground at the same time as my right and leaves a wedge shaped 5 hole that I get scored on a lot. (combined with issue 1 I suck on the left side)

I'm sure there are other issues but these are the main ones I need to address at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas on drills or conditioning or any simple advice to help me address these issues? Am I just lacking in natural talent? I'm certainly not afraid of hard work so any suggestion is welcome.

Cheers

[Goalie33Avs]

Hey buddy, my team trains directly after yours on a Monday night. If I can, I'll try and get on the rink a bit before 8:30 on Monday to analyse a bit and try and help you out.
If you could check with your coach to see if he'd mind. I wouldn't like to just walk in and interfere.


~CJ

[elite]

For catching, play catch with a regular baseball but with your goalie glove on. It will help you tremendously with hand-eye coordination and tracking the ball into your glove.

[sjhockey]

For problem #1 pushing your hands further outward would definitely work & I bounce alternatingly 2 tennis balls off of a wall for 10 min. daily & playing the angle works tooI used to have that problem about pucks either bouncing off the edge or tip of the glove into the net & it was partly my gloves fault because it didn't open enough so probably you have that problem.

[Weasel]

Thanks for the tips guys.

33Avs that would be awesome. btw you guys sure do train hard. I've seen some coaches push players before but I've never seen them make the goalie join in the skating that much. You guys rock. Our captain/coach doesn't have much experience with training goalies so any tips would be more than welcome. Tomorrow is our hour and a half session which is a mad dash from work so I may not be on top form (not that top form is any good for me anyway.) but We have a mini tournament on Sunday so I'm well up for training.

[Goalie33Avs]

No problem.
If you could have a word with your coach, or even get him to call me sometime during the day (I'll send you my number via PM) just to check that it'd be ok for me to be a part of your session.
In future weeks, I may be able to attend the sessions from the start if your coach sees it to be appropriate.

Let me know.

~Chris.

[Weasel]

Hey Chris nice to meet you. Tonight was one of my better nights apart from my skate control was awful. I got caught too far out of my crease a lot. I took a hell of a lot more hits than I usually do out there too. All 3 of our big guys were playing and I think I ended up underneath each one of them at some point.

My awesome moment of the day was dropping into the Bfly and stopping a shot I didn't even know was coming. Maybe I should play with my eyes shut?

See you next week.

[Goalie33Avs]

Yeh nice to meet you to man.
You didn't look that bad at all when i was watching.

If all goes to plan, I should be able to make it to your session next week.
We can work on skate control and mobility if thats what you feel you'd like to accomplish first.

Later days.

~Chris