Before I get to the goalie dryland training tip of the week I need your help. I got an email from one of my longtime readers earlier in the week asking me why the HECK all the goalie training stuff. He even (jokingly) accused me of hating skaters! OUCH! As I have explained in the past – I love training hockey players. I also really enjoy creating training systems that cater to the unique demands of goaltending. I also get WAY more email with questions about goalie training, so I am trying to help those who are the most keen about getting better.
I am going to be releasing a new high-end program this spring – there is nothing like this in online hockey training anywhere, so I am pretty excited about it. I can either create the program for skaters or create the program for goalies. I was thinking it would be for the goalies, but I want to be fair so please leave a comment below telling me whether you are a skater who is trying to be better or a goalie who is trying to better. This is going to help steer my decision. You are not saying you will buy the product – in fact there will only be a handful available (less than 30 of them) but I just want to see where the keeners are – out on the ice or between the pipes. Okay, on to today’s tip…
I do not give on ice tips very often, but this one applies to both on-ice and off-ice agility training for goalies. Start your agility drills from different positions, don’t always start from your perfect, square ready position.
Try these different starting positions when you are doing your agility drills:
- Small hops – do 3 small hops then go into the drill
- Lying on your stomach
- Lying on your back
- Kneeling with one knee down
- Catch and pass a Medicine Ball 3 times then start the drill (might be tough to do on the ice J)
- Facing away from the location of the drill (back to the drill)
- Kneeling on both knees
- Shuffling side to side until your partner yells “Go!”
You don’t need me to tell you that hockey is not predictable – you already know that. Once you have the basics of your agility drill patterns down, challenge your neuromuscular system by varying the starting position. Ideally you will always be in proper position to make a save, but realistically that is not going to happen, so why not throw in a few of these variations to help you brain and body process the information for a quick response when the time comes.
Hope it helps.
Cheers,
Maria
PS – this tip works for skaters too 🙂