Help with lateral Movements

[BKLYNNetminder]

I play occasional Roller on several surfaces, including a sport court wannabe, concrete, and when I'm playin wit friends, tar. How do you roller guys handle laterals? I find that when I do laterals, I end up stumbling the whole way across and almost always endup on my arse. Any help?

[SUPERSTAR3531]

When i play roller i over come the lack of lateral movement with first postioning. Also you do not have the slide in roller so it's more about getting first postion and streching for saves you might of made with a butterfly slide.

[digitalcrease]

I used to wear Mission player boots and a SureGrip 404 (?) frame. Now I wear Reactor 3 customs. The plastic cowling allows for good sliding. Also, I haven't rotated my wears in almost 2 years! The ridiculous angle of my wheels makes sliding out easy. I can even plow and shuffle at times like I were on ice.

jagger

[Rook1079]

Shuffling or t-pushes are the way I get across teh crease when the play is a ways out. Shuffling is mainly for slight adjustment, and t-push for larger moves. This seems to work fine for me, but then I really have no ice experience to compare it to, so it may be really restricted compared to what ice guys(and gals) are used to.

[KDB]

Shuffles, T-pushes, and butterfly slides...

[SUPERSTAR3531]

Theres no such thing as a shuffle on roller theres taking tiny steps but it's way way different then a shuffle. Maybe if you used a super hard wheel on a slick floor you could shuffle a tiny bit but the most part it is tiny steps or getting first postion early so you dont have to make that desperation save trying to go across the crease.

jeff

[digitalcrease]

I have goalie wheels, a tricked out angle and plastic boots. I can slide, I can shuffle. The dust adds up as well allowing less friction.

jagger

[KDB]

I hadn't really thought about it before, but I guess shuffling is technically sliding/dragging a foot.

So I guess that roller shuffle = baby steps. I've never heard it referred to as anything other than a shuffle, though...

[G-Man]

If you are talking about getting across to stop a one-timer off of a quick pass, well a desperation dive coupled with a blood curdling scream is always good.

If I'm just following the play across I don't go straight across the crease. I usually do it in two steps. I t-push from the post to the top of the crease, and then t-push backwards to the opposite post. When I say t-push "backwards" I mean that I'm skating backwards with the heel of my skate pointing where I want to go. I'm essentially following the arc of the crease. and since I'm not turning my skates at 90 degree angles I stay pretty square to the puck and able to react. I guess that's not really t-pushing, but you get the idea.

[MillerTime247]

Lots of C-cuts and T-pushes.

I worked a lot on my footwork and now have it down to where I hardly use any kind of shuffle/baby-steps just lots of very small one or two footed turns.

Sliding on sportcourt is rarely a problem unless you 're trying to get all the way across the crease in a real hurry in which case I try in vain to do a Richteresque split to get to the puck.

[Vision]

I think that the wheels I use combined with the construction of my roller pads allows me to slide across the crease when necessary.

For the most part tho, I count on positioning but I do the same when playing on ice rather than counting on desperation moves.

[Mx42]

I like to do a crossover and push across with the leg that's crossing over. For example, if the puck is going from the left hand side to my right, I'll cross my left leg over while sliding my right leg back a little and push with the left leg and land in a butterfly. I feel that the crossover not quickly covers about a foot or so of empty net but also helps with the push-off.

Good luck with whatever method you try.

[Colin]

Lots of c-cuts, a little shuffling, and when it comes to it, a bunch of explosive leaps.

Off-ice I reccomend the stationary bike and lots of squats.

Oh yeah, and either nylon pads or pad covers. It helps a lot.

[Chasedog]

Here's my question. Moving that quickly makes it difficult stop at the correct position. Should I just aim a foot behind where I want to go and move in an arc to reach my position?

[MetropolisPt31]

Chasedog, I had that same problem when I first started. When I did get across, I'd stop too far. I've always done the perpendicular t-skate move to get across but I bend my knees more when I do it now. It has really helped me stop on a dime. That's just my coupla cents. What do the other roller goalies here do?