Top goalie coach Steve McKichan talks pitfalls that stop your progress.
I was lucky enough to catch up with top goaltending coach Steve McKichan of Future Pro Goalie Schools last Friday to learn about the common pitfalls that hinder a goalie’s development. He tells us the top three mistakes and I bet you all make at least one of them. But don’t worry, Steve was also kind enough to tell us how to correct them and what to do to become an even better goalie.
Off-Ice Goalie Drills Using the Slideboard
Thanks so much for all of your great comments after the last post – as promised, I found a couple of minutes yesterday to shoot a video showing a slideboard circuit for goalies. Quite a few of you have slideboards, but use them for striding or don’t use them very much. I put this circuit together for you to use – give it a try- it is tough!
Tales from Sin City and Slideboard Training
Well, we made it back from Sin City without incident! There was a run in with a Tarantula on a great run/scramble/hike we did up Turtlehead Peak – that is the actual critter shown in the photo below.
Part 2: Death of Cardio for Goalies + BONUS offer
By the time you are reading this post, Paul & I will be on our way to, or in, Las Vegas for a few days of holiday followed by a few days of business meetings. We are spending the first few days doing some hiking and relaxing out in the Red Rock Canyon area and then we will come into the craziness of Vegas proper for the rest of the time. Stay tuned for stories.
Before I get to part two of the article “The Death of Cardio for Goalies” I want to tell you about the SPECIAL BONUS with the Ultimate Goalie Training system that I am offering while I am away on holiday. When I first released the Ultimate 12-minute Goalie Warm-Up, I had a special offer where you could get the Ultimate 12-Minute Goalie Warm-Up AND the Ultimate Goalie Training System for only $97 rather than $134. I called it the Ultimate Goalie Domination package! Some of you have still found that link and got a great deal on the package, but I have not been advertising that it is there…until now!
The Death of Cardio for Hockey Goalies: Part One
Thanks for coming out ‘steady state cardio…your services are no longer needed. Same goes for you ‘fat burning zone’; you’re outta here too!
I am going to give you a few little treats over the next few days. Why you ask? What have you done to deserve treats? To be honest, not much really – just kidding! The truth is that I am heading out of town and I want to make sure you are well cared for during my time away. Paul and I a heading to Vegas-baby! I have some business meetings there next Friday/Saturday so we are heading out on Sunday for a few days of vacation before the meetings. Since my summers are consumed by training hockey players six days per week, this will be our ‘summer holiday’ and I am pretty pumped!!
So in anticipation of my departure and because Kyle emailed me to remind me that he is looking for some cardio workouts for goalies, I am going to give you a sneak peak at my NEW goalie training product! My goal is to release it in the next 4-5 weeks so stay tuned. Here is the first excerpt from the new manual teaching your Cardio Mythology 101. Stay tuned for Part Two coming on Sunday or Monday outlining the type of cardio training that helps you actually stop pucks. The final bonus treat I am going to share with you will be outlined in Part Two of this series. I cannot tell you what it is, but I can tell you that for the first 20 of you who purchase the Ultimate Goalie Training System while I am away on holiday will get a special free bonus. I will tell you what it is on Sunday/Monday. For now, enjoy…
Hot online resources for hockey goalies.
End of the pre-season, on the cusp of the 2010-11 regular season which starts Thursday! Woohoo! This is a quick post today, but I want to share with you my favourite online resources for goalies. Here they are in no particular order:
Wonder if Luongo ever tries this?
I find the pre-season fascinating for a few reasons 1) I have to anxiously wait to see how the athletes I train over the summer are doing at their pro camps and 2) there are always lots of tweaks and strains that pop up and this always gets me thinking about the ‘why’. The one that sticks in my head most recently is Luongo’s groin ‘tweak’. I immediately thought back to an article about how Luongo became passionate about road biking this off-season and how he logged 1800km on the bike to help him drop 8lbs of weight. I can’t help but think…hmmmmmmm!
In-season off-ice circuit for goalies – no equipment needed.
How is has your week been? Mine was going great until this morning when I realized I accidentally deleted all the edited videos of my next product that I was trying to release for mid-October (insider hint…it is for you goalies). That was about 20-hours of work down the drain…oh well, back to the drawing board. I am on it, I will redo the videos and get that new training system out to you soon. Stay tuned for details, sneak peaks and of course insider discounts.
Okay, enough of my complaining, aren’t you so happy to see NHL hockey back on TV? I was thrilled to catch the first few pre-season games, it feels like it has been a very long summer. With your summer off-ice training behind you, I hope that you don’t think that you are done with working your stability, strength, speed and stamina. As promised, this off-season circuit is for hockey goalies specifically and I hope you enjoy it.
How much strength and speed will YOU lose this season?
Hope you are having a great week so far. Things here are going well – back into the regular routine with my mixed high school groups. The hockey players have all shipped off to training camps, with the NHL guys getting under way on Friday, September 17th. This year I had a few guys who are looking to make the move from the AHL to the NHL so it is an anxious time as we wait to see how camp goes and where they can fit in with their NHL team. I will keep you posted.
Most of the junior kids have been away from training for a few weeks as they went through their try-outs and now they are filtering back in for their maintenance workouts 1-2 times per week at the Revolution Conditioning studio. I already see a loss of strength, just in two weeks so today I am going to give you an in-season circuit that you can do at home or at a basic gym. It will take no longer than 20-minutes and it will help keep you strong, stable and powerful.
Workouts hockey coaches can use for off-ice training.
Can you feel it? The excitement? Many of you are already back into your hockey season and even the NHL players will be back on the ice next weekend for the start of their camps. Although I have not done any face-to-face team training for a few years because my schedule at the Revolution studio keeps me pretty busy, I still get calls and emails from hockey coaches who are trying to help their players develop over the season. I think this is great! They want to invest in their players’ development and back when I was still working off-site with teams I charged $150/hour.
Here is the thing that many coaches don’t understand and I will probably get a few nasty emails from other trainers for telling you this, but most young players (under 16 years of age) just need the basics. They need to be stronger, they need to be quicker, they need to be more stable. Anyone can teach this. You get better return for your players by taking your players through a 30-minute workout 2-3 times per week than you will from paying me $150 to come out once per week or twice per week.