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:

FREE FORUMS:

Goalie Crease – I have a permanent thread set up on there under the title “HockeyStrong”.  It is a great, very friendly community and they run some awesome contests.  They are just wrapping up a ‘Butterfly Widening Challenge’ where I put together a program to help their goalies widen their butterfly in six weeks.  They always have great prizes and I think the next contest starts in a week or so.

The Goalie Store – this one has a huge population and they are very active.  Citizens of the community will argue passionately about topics from time-to-time with full on name calling.  I have never had an issue because I keep it cool, but sometimes when other folks go at it, it is pretty entertaining!  Lots of topics on training, injuries, equipment, classifieds, etc.  Like any forum, remember that you are getting opinions from a lot of people based on their personal experience and it does not replace the advice of a qualified professional.

PAID MEMBERSHIP SITES:

Future Pro Live – most of you know renowned goaltending coach Steve McKichan.  For those of you that don’t, Steve was a tender for the Vancouver Canucks who had his career cut short by injury.  He went on to build one of the top goaltending schools in North America and served as the goaltending coach to the Toronto Maple Leafs.  If you are looking to get into Steve’s Inner Circle this is the place for you.  At only $9.95 per month it is a bargain!

Hockey Strength and Conditioning Coach – You man not know the name Mike Boyle, but if you are a strength and conditioning coach who works with hockey players or aspires to work with hockey players, this is the site for you.  Would you like to be able to hop online and download the in-season training program from a current NHL strength coach?  Would you like to be able to hop online and post a question to the message board that will be answered by full time strength and conditioning coaches from the NHL, top US Colleges and owners of training centres?  This is what you are looking for.  To be completely transparent with you, I will tell you that I was lucky enough to be invited to contribute to the site and if you do decide to get a membership, I think I get about $5 per month or so.  They actually have a trial special where you can check out the site for 7-days by only paying $1!  Just make sure if you do not wish to continue with your membership that you cancel the renewal before 7 days.

FUN GOALIE BLOGS:

In Goal Mag – This site includes all things goalie related – technique breakdowns, interviews, gossip, sneak peaks at the latest mask designs and some cute goalie cartoons.  Dave really knows his stuff and brings in some great contributors!

There are lots of other online goalie resources, these are just the ones that I try to keep up with on a regular basis.  Have a great week!

Cheers,
Maria

PS – I guess I should also mention my completely downloadable  off-ice training system for hockey goalies.  The Ultimate Goalie Training system removes all the guess work and takes you step-by-step from pylon to brick wall!