This likely an exercise you have never used before and many of you have never even seen it. It is a great off-ice goalie drill that trains your lateral speed, your transitional movement from lateral to back, your core stabilization and the specific stamina you need to stay low in your stance so you are prepared to move in any direction with the right amount of force.
That’s not bad for one off-ice drill is it?
Let me show you how to do it first – –
Did you notice how my head stayed on the same level the whole time? I wasn’t bobbing up and down; that is wasted energy.
Also keep in mind that you do not need to grab the heaviest plate possible in your gym. Select a weight (could be a plate, med ball, DB, whatever) that challenges you a little bit to maintain stability. In other words, pick a weight that makes you work a little to keep it centred on your chest.
How Many?
You can use this drill to build stamina or to build speed. If speed is your goal, then you will select an interval that is 8-seconds or less followed by 40-seconds of active rest. Active rest means you can be doing a different exercise during that time as long as it will not fatigue your legs or in anyway impair your next set of Low Weave To Backpedal.
If developing stamina is more your goal, then stretch the intervals up to 30-60 seconds in duration, but again fight to keep perfect quality because practicing sloppy reps will reinforce sloppy patterns.
Give it a try – feel for yourself how your legs start to burn just like they do at the end of a penalty kill when you feel like you even your OWN team is shooting on your net 🙂
Cheers,
M
PS – make sure you try this just to get some multidirectional movement into your off-ice training. If you really are not sure where to start with your off-ice training (and are motivated to actually put in the effort to become a stand-out goalie in your league), then THIS is worth a look.