Today’s musings will focus on training for the non-trained goalie. Quick bit of history here…I’ve always loved hockey – ever since watching Peter Puck skate circles around those big, fat bastards with the no-curve sticks, and the goalies always fascinated me. Who in their right mind would argue how sinister Mike Liut’s “skull-style” mask looked when he played for St. Louis? (Insert link to attached photo) Regrettably though, I never played organized hockey growing up. Unless you consider my stellar performance on the streets or lacrosse boxes of my neighbourhoods as “experience,” my hockey ‘career’ didn’t take off until my 25th year on Earth.
After repeated Monday nights of sweat-infested contact-cosom hockey with my buddies in a local school gym (it was kinda cool – big stereo system blasting out the best of Alice Cooper while we worked off the beer we just finished pounding…), one of my buddies asked me to play in the pipes on a real ice surface. (He obviously thought my floor hockey skills were easily transferable…) Okay, he really needed a goalie, and it was just saving pucks lobbed at me by a bunch of university friends, so I figured ‘what the hell?’
So, as with most starter-outers, I threw on my ball-hockey gear, tossed on some arena rental skates and hit the frozen pond for my first adventure into ‘real’ hockey. Took me all of two minutes to realize my skates didn’t have rubber grip like my steel-toed ball hockey boots. (Thanks Sean!!)
Training Tip #1 for Goalies: you actually DO need to know how to skate! Holy schnitzel, the rink’s rental skates were hopeless, and I took not one, not two, but THREE shots to the left toe. (This is now an asset in the summer, wearing thongs, when women comment on my huge toe, but we’ll that well-enough alone until a later date…)
Thing is though…I LOVED “REAL” HOCKEY! I couldn’t get enough of the way I could slide across the crease, instead of the stuck in peanut-butter maneuvers I used to try on the gym floor. The feel of cold ice was also such sweet heaven compared to the sweat-lodge sessions I was used to (can you believe I was actually PENALIZED one time for sweating too much during a roller-hockey league game…in AUGUST?!?). And as my quality of gear improved, I couldn’t help but feel just a bit closer to guys like Mike Liut (see image below). The new sport calling had come, and boy I was hooked. Until I took a buddy’s slap shot off the unpadded inside of my arm…
Training Tip #2: My Sharmin-filled chest protector wasn’t giving me quite the protection against a real puck that I had sufficed with saving whiffle balls and orange cosom pucks. Thus, proper padding is relatively important (it helps save your life, after all…)
Not having a clue how to really play the position in an actual arena, with an actual crease and real sized net, I learned the best way I could – I watched even more Hockey Night In Canada. You’d think I was a professor on gyno row the way I studied the positioning, moves & antics of the pros up close on my huge 27” TV (my, how far we’ve come in just a few years!), and after just one year, I grabbed a netminder position opening on a buddy’s Division 3 team at Burnaby 8-Rinks Arena (http://www.icesports.com/Burnaby_HomePage.ashx) After just one game, I realized Training Tip #2 meant ENTIRE body protection was important. This is right about when I realized my new passion would give me something I had never considered – the need to get a really good job.
Training Tip #3: Be “selective” when mentioning to potential employers you are a hockey goalie. Aside from the stigma that we’re all ax-wielding emotional psychotics, many bosses figure a hockey goalie is a walking liability against injury & sick days. When you meet a boss-type that doesn’t realize that, GRAB THE GIG.
Over the years, I began to notice that I was actually improving. Saves were more than goals-against suddenly, and I was learning skills like…skating (or, so I thought), pad-stacks and getting a good hook of some buggar’s crotch when he wouldn’t get out of my way. I started reading some goaltender training books and magazines (Maxim has always been my favourite) and continued to join more teams and leagues as my confidence soared!
Then…I came across a fellow by the name of Paul Fricker, who runs The Goalie Store (www.goaliestore.com) After a bit of chatting and reviewing the info from his site, I asked if he wouldn’t mind setting up a quick-and-dirty coaching session for myself and six other buddies who were in the exact same boat as mine. Paul agreed, provided I could find some ice time (now…that’s a whole other topic we’ll hit on later!!), and after weeks of searching for availability and coordinating with my goalie crew, we were set.
I can still remember the excitement we all shared in the cramped change room of Excellent Ice (www.excellentice.com) as we prepared for our first-ever training session by a former NHL goalie. When asked what we wanted to focus the 2 hours on, we blurted out at random things like “2-on-1’s, breakaways, pass-outs, positioning, stick handling, water bottle juggling…” Then we hit the ice.
Paul took a different approach than what we expected. He asked us all to calmly skate to center ice and back. What he saw must have made his lunch condense. I’ll tell you though, after just 30 minutes of intense (albeit quite simple) drills, we started understanding the fundamentals of skating and felt a new sense of accomplishment. We then learned how to position effectively, side-skate, power skate, track & reposition for rebounds, quell pass-out dangers and execute an almost-half decent butterfly save (I say 'almost half-decent' as from the photo below...I seemed to have this annoying "lazy susan" way of getting down fast. Now, my teammates throw quarters in front of the net, and boy I drop quick lately!)
This was the first paid training session I (and my other goalie buds) had ever attended, and will state without a doubt it was the best money I’ve spent on my game. Apart from my Eagle crotch-cup, cuz boy has THAT come in handy on a few occasions!! Paul was great – he expressed patience, kept control, but above all had us leaving the ice with an incredible amount of newfound competence and bravado that I doubt will ever be forgotten. Our goals were small, and primarily focused around being able to make just two or three extra saves per game, but when you’re used to seeing more rubber fly past you than at a frat party, this was a huge gain.
Training Tip #4: Always bring condoms to frat (and sorority) parties. I really have no idea why I just said that…but it must have had merit back in my UBC days…
Would I recommend paid-training to anyone considering this? Absolutely. And to all the guys on teams I’ve played for in the past, I can only apologise for not having done this sooner. Well…maybe a few of you defense guys could have bucked up for some training too…or a lot of training. Well, it’s actually always the D’s fault when a goal goes in…so maybe I don’t really need to apologise. Right goalies??? ;)
If anyone else has had experience with training programs, we’d love to hear about it – good programs…bad ones…great coaches or rink facilities? Please feel free to share your comments here in our forum, and enjoy your games!!
Disclaimer: FarParker does not necessarily share the opinions & statements expressed by a goalie. People seldom to listen to goalies anyway, unless you’re Luongo, so if you read this, the goalie who wrote it thanks you…
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