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In the Paint & At the Rink
By Todd Lightfoot, BTP Goalie Coach - COPYRIGHT © 2008 All Rights Reserved
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The wonderful thing about playoff hockey is (in my opinion) the fact that it can and often does represent a whole new season of hockey! The delay in the posting of the March Parents & Coaches Crease is due to Michigan high school state playoffs. I had the pleasure and honor to accompany the team that would eventually win the MHSAA Division III State Championship, the Calumet Copper Kings. I’ve decided that their story is worth some time and attention this month… because the lesson is appropriate.
The Copper Kings entered into the playoffs with a record of 13-11-0. The team returned to the 2007-’08 season with 12 seniors, loosing one senior early in, for reasons outside of the arena. What they didn’t come back with is the proverbial “big guns” on offense! However, also returning was the starting and back-up goaltending duo.
Over the years, I’ve had a chance to work with both of these young men. They both have their strong points, but size isn’t one of them. Junttila stands all of 5’6” and weighs in at 130lbs. Strong and consistent stats, good physical shape and a super strong competitive streak a mile wide! Enough background ahe!
“Great Goaltending will wreck the opposition’s game plan!” Great goaltending kept Monroe St. Mary CC right in the semifinal but it also took them out. Great Goaltending kept Flint Powers right in the final, but they too, fell to great goaltending! The number of goaltending duels in this year’s state final, in all three divisions, highlights the importance of training and the importance of getting the right training to our young goalies. But this is not all that saw Calumet work its way into the final game.
The team, not favored to get out of the regional, had more desire, passion, heart, poise, pride, determination, and the willingness to leave it all on the ice, and that, along with 12 goals for, and seven goals against in the last four games was enough to bring home the hardware!
Last but not least, I want to talk a bit about the new goalie and parent area that we’ve created. The “In the Paint & At the Rink” forum is intended to provide an area for those who are goaltenders, their parents, and those interested in goaltending to come together and discuss pretty much anything they want with regard to goaltending and the game of hockey.
We've also developed a toolbar that provides one click access to "In the Paint & At the Rink" plus features to include one click to all of your favorite hockey league news via RSS Feed... plus many customizable features that you can control. Download BTP toolbar and help bring our goaltending community closer together! Click the box to the right to get your toolbar now!
Next month I’ll be talking about the Michigan Upper District 7 & District 8 Bantam and Midget Festival, and why they’re important for goaltenders to attend.
Until then… Play Hard…. Play Harder!
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By Jeremy Kaleniecki, BTP Director, On Ice Operations & Goalie Coach - COPYRIGHT © 2008 All Rights Reserved.
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One of the biggest tools that a goaltender has to have in their toolbox, is a strong sense of adaptation. The game of hockey is constantly changing, evolving, and developing. Goaltenders who want to play at the highest level of hockey must be able to adapt to the game and all of its different scenarios. Through my coaching career I have developed a style of coaching that is beneficial to the goaltenders sense of adaptation. I first start goaltenders off with a general knowledge of the game. Once they have an understanding of this general synopsis and have developed the proper technique, I introduce a pure scenario based teaching style.
Many of you must be asking yourself what is the difference between the two styles of play? Simply put, general based play closely resembles your basic crease movement drills and many of the things found in our DVD series. It uses general rules of thumb for the overall game. Between angles and foot movement, everything we strive for is consistency within the game. In scenario based goaltending those same rules of thumb that we strive so hard to achieve are now mostly guidelines and in most cases broken. The goaltenders here focus on each and every aspect of the game right down to things such as what hand is the shooter, do they shoot off their inside or outside foot, can they shoot in stride, and what systems do teams use in their offensive and even defensive zone. The biggest hurdle that goaltenders have to overcome in the scenario based teaching is how to over come and sort through all the information provided to them and what to do with it.
The first thing that any goaltender of any age, and or, any coach must understand is everyone must walk before they can run. What I mean by this is, if you can’t skate or perform the simplest movements in the net, then you can’t even begin to think about the scenario-based teachings. This is by far the biggest mistake that both the goaltender and especially coach make through out their careers. Here are some examples of what I look for and what goaltenders must execute flawlessly in order to move forward:
- Stopping on the proper foot
- Straight line movements (including proper technique for shuffles and T-pushes)
- Butterfly’s
- Lead Leg down first
- Proper leg recovery
- Backside recovery
- Double butterfly
- Precise stopping points
- Proper angles
- Understanding of Depth
- Understanding of Lateral angles
- Understanding of Vertical angles
- Understanding of how the three interact
- Proper transitional speed and technique
- Proper use and execution of the L-theory and Y-theory
- Introductory use of puck handling
- Introductory use of poke checks
- Overall sense of ones position on a team
This list is most of what I look for but not all. A goaltender must perform all of these things and more to a “T” before moving on. The best thing that I recommend for coaches and goaltenders to obtain this standard of play is to use the drills provided in disc 3 and 4 of BTP’s “Goaltending Your Game Starts Here!” DVD series. This is what the DVD series was designed for; to bring goaltenders to a level in which they can now make a transition from general based play to scenario based play.
Once a goaltender is at an acceptable standard of execution I introduce a whole new abundance of drills that will force them to think outside the box and stretch they’re mental as well as physical abilities. Every drill from here on out is specifically catered to individual plays that happen with in a given game. If a goaltender can adapt to any shooter, any team, and situation, and at any time, they can now become a dominant force and can dictate the game for both their own team play as well as the opponents.
This coaching approach is what separates BTP’s goaltenders from the rest and sets them above most at their age level. For this same reason it is what separates BTP and its Staff from its competitors. For drills and or questions please feel free to contact me through my company email or phone. As a guideline I usually am able to develop goaltenders to a scenario-based style of play by age 14. This is a guideline as I STRESS that it is all based upon individual skill as I explained earlier.
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