Lateral Pushes for Hockey Goalies

If you are equally good pushing in your half butterfly to the left and to the right and if you never find yourself getting spun a little out of position when you push… then you can just get on with your day right now, you don’t need to watch this at all.  YAY!

If however you can say that you have a stronger side and a weaker side when you push in your half butterfly and if you ever get a little off balance or spin a little then this drill will make a huge difference for you.

Watch the clip now and then I will fill in a few gaps for you.

Pretty good drill eh?  You can see how it will help and wait until you do it – especially with that back toe off the floor, it feels A LOT like it does on the ice.

I like a little higher volume on this drill – 8-15 rep range, but I want you to really pay attention to the balance and stability.

Rather than trying to just find a ‘balance point’ for this drill, emphasize your stability in a good ready position for making a save.  Think about where your glove and blocker should be, for example, if you are pushing with your left leg, that would have you moving to your right, so you would probably want to be leading that movement by leading with your head and hands to the right, but stay strong over that stabilizing right leg.

Happy training – – keep kicking those pucks out!
Cheers,
Maria

PS – don’t be shy to add a strong resistance to this as your stability improves, but until you can stabilize, don’t even think about adding load.