Hey, gang. Welcome to episode 41 of Goalie Training Pro TV. I’m Maria from GoalieTrainingPro.com. And today we’re talking about my dreadful glove hand. And a little epiphany that I had because of my dreadful glove hand.
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Now, I know before we get going that you’re gonna be like, “What glove is that? What glove is that?” And I will feel foolish when I’m like, “I don’t know, a Vaughn something, something.” But it is a Vaughn V7 Pro XLW. So you can all chime in and tell me it’s crap or it’s awesome or whatever the heck you want.
But this is what happened. So when we play on Sunday mornings and we just play pick up “for fun”. But what would happen is the puck … like… I look at the outside of this thing. I feel like it’s another blocker. So many pucks just bounce off it or hit right here and then pop right in my feet. And then someone pokes it in. It was really, really frustrating me.
So what I did was exactly what I tell you guys to do. Hey, get outside. Work on your hand-eye practice, your catching. So I went out in my backyard. And I got a lacrosse ball. And I practiced. Practiced. And it’s like, I’m sick at this. I’m awesome at this. It must be my glove’s fault.
I must need a new glove because … And you know that I’m a true goalie too because I always want to buy new gear. Any reason to buy new gear and I’ll take it. So I’m thinking, “Yeah, definitely the glove’s fault. It can’t be my fault.”
So I put on the glove and I start throwing the ball and what happens? The ball’s bouncing here, bouncing there, bouncing out. Again, I’m pretty frustrated by it. But then I look at it and I think, “Well, how am I so good catching it bare hand and so bad catching it in my glove?”
Well, if I point to the middle of my hand where I catch it when I bare hand it, it’s right below the pocket of the glove. So what I’m teaching my brain … because it’s a motor skill. So what I’m teaching my brain when I do my hand-eye coordination with my bare hand, I’m teaching my brain that that’s where I should position my hand relative to the incoming object. Which you can see, that’s a big problem because the pocket is up higher. So really, the pocket is a lot different from where my hand is when I catch the ball with my hand.
So when you guys do your hand-eye coordination training … And it seems kinda silly, you’re like, “Oh, yeah. Whatever. Blah, blah, blah.” But this is just biomechanics and motor learning. So we want to fine tune it.
So wear your glove when you do your hand-eye stuff.
And practice getting it right in that pocket and following it with your eyes, into your glove, all that jazz that your goalie coach tells you to do.
Some people say, “Oh, well, sometimes we use a baseball glove too.” Yeah, I think that’s definitely better than bare hand. But I would probably… My preference would probably be if you just use … And I know a baseball glove is way easier to carry around so that’s a great idea. If you can, use your goalie glove so that you get so used to that.
Even just go out and play catch with your goalie glove the way you would with your baseball glove. Just get so well-versed in using it. And you can practice catching overhand. Out here. Even catching down here.
Of course, practice your big windmills. Duh.
But that’s my tip on hand-eye and how it really improved my glove hand a whole bunch, which wasn’t too hard to do because it was so bad. But I hope that can help you a little bit. There’s episode … Short and sweet. Episode 41 of Goalie Training Pro TV. Catch you on the flip side.