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The Important Things at Seasons End
By Todd Lightfoot, BTP Goalie Coach - COPYRIGHT © 2007 All Rights Reserved
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With the end of the regular hockey season at hand, its time to start thinking about what's needed, so we're ready for the next season. Now if you're in the world where the season never ends, but rather suffers from a change of name, all I can say is that this will apply to which ever season you consider to be your “regular” season.
Changing or replacing equipment mid season is always something that almost all players try and avoid. Breaking in new equipment, more importantly goalie equipment, mid season, is like, if it's anything but the stick… try and fix it to get by. Those of us in the goalie world are always thought of as being, “different” and if you really want to upset the apple cart, tell us that we've got to break in a new set of leg pads or a glove during the season!
So it's time to look at all of our equipment… take it all out of the bag, dry and air it out, and inspect it very closely. First and foremost, evaluate your gear for proper fit . The equipment must fit properly in order for it to provide the protection it was designed to give the goaltender. For the little guys this is really important because they MUST develop the confidence in their equipments ability to protect them from those hard shots the “bigger and older” kids take. Next evaluate the equipment for serviceability… are the straps on the pads in good shape or do they need replacing? How's the webbing in the glove? Is there a palm in the blocker glove? Are the welds in the cage all sound or are there cracks at the weld points? Are all of the pads in the helmet, tears in the pants? How much mold has grown inside the arms of the upper body gear? And last but not least, not only do the skates still fit, but do the blades need to be straightened, is there enough blade left so they can be put into the skate holder to be sharpened, are the outside protective shells cracked, or rivets missing? I'm sure that I've driven my point home now. Our DVD series contains an, “Equipment Tech Talk” that covers this information extremely well. Have you pre registered your set yet?
Now is the time to repair and or replace. Don't wait until spring league or the summer camps or clinics, or even worse, next season's tryouts. Make your repairs or replacements now and start breaking in the new stuff right away. The time is now and not later, put up with the inconvenience and discomfort associated with “break in” periods today and not tomorrow.
Remember this most of all… never blame a poor performance on new or broken equipment during the regular season… Unless, of course, you want to be called the “Gate Keeper!”
So then… if you're in need of new equipment, talk to your local hockey gear professional about fitting you out in the appropriate Vaughn goalie equipment. We choose Vaughn because Vaughn is about goalies… not tennis shoes, eye glasses, or whatever else. Vaughn represents high quality, technically sound design and exceptional value.
Until next month then…Go ahead and get that gear out of the bag and go over it with a fine toothed comb so you're ready for your next season!
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Evolving the Goaltender
By Jeremy Kaleniecki, BTP Asst. Camp Director & Goalie Coach - COPYRIGHT © 2007 All Rights Reserved.
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One topic that is currently at the forefront in the NHL today is how to score more goals. The league is, on a daily basis, evaluating the game, the rules, and the style of play to find a way to implement higher scoring games.
Before I get too far into my topic, I would like to express my opinion of the NHL and their decision making process. Just before the lock out ended I was discussing the new rules with some of the instructors who will be helping in the 2007 summer clinics. It was our general conclusion that the rules implemented would at first increase scoring dramatically and then it would go to the way side as teams and goaltenders find ways to exploit them. With out overstepping my bounds we were right. The problem of the NHL and scoring does not lie in the rules of the game, rather how the game is played. The object 20 years ago was to try and outscore your opponent. The goaltending was hideous, so teams took the route of playing strictly offense. As the equipment got better, the goalies developed the butterfly and scoring began to go by the wayside. In this transition coaches developed new styles of play, realizing they would be unable to out score their opponents so they would try to stop them from scoring at all. This is where the trap, and lock systems took hold. Coaches now implement defensive systems that will not allow the team to get into the zone by “clogging up the neutral zone”. Without getting too far off topic, any new rule that is implemented to open up the ice will not work effectively until the NHL's leadership changes their current mindset. This is what leads me into the evolution of goaltending more importantly the future evolution of goaltending.
Over the past decade, we have seen the average height of goaltenders increase dramatically. This, accompanied with new equipment, has allowed goaltenders to achieve better statistics. The one thing lost in this “bigger is better” race has been the fundamental movement skills that a goalie must perform. Goalies are so big, that they have to move very little to get into position and make the save. This is another way to explain Angles which is addressed in our new DVD series. Because of their larger size, the goaltenders movement requirements became less and less important and as a result of the trend of drafting the larger goaltenders, smaller goaltenders that had the ability and talent but lacked the size… fell through the cracks.
This is all about to change once again. The NHL is getting stricter on equipment regulations. This is making the big goalies smaller. If the goaltender becomes smaller they will have to implement more movement to cover the same amount of net. Large goaltenders who didn't have to move too far, now find themselves at ends trying to get across the net. Today, more and more goalies are getting beat laterally than any where else.
This is where the smaller goaltender, who, fell through the cracks previously, will again rise to the top. A smaller goalie, by design, has to be more fundamentally sound. They have to move quicker and better than larger goalies to cover the same amount of net. With the current and future equipment restrictions the smaller, quicker goaltenders will be at the advantage! They can move unlike the big goalies. The new stricter rules on equipment actually will allow them to move even faster. The smaller goaltender is able to cover the same amount of net with the smaller equipment, where as the bigger goaltenders are having problems coping.
Regardless of the age of a goaltender, one area of primary focus for us at Between the Pipes is Fundamental Skill Development. Regardless of size or speed, basic movement skills are the foundation that goalies will build their technique on. If we can get these basic skills so embedded into our goalies regardless of their size, then the “big vs. smaller” size trend will become a non-issue and playing field once again leveled.
Watch professional hockey over the next decade… and watch the average size of goalies. If for some reason we don't begin to see smaller goalies… one of two things will have happened. Either the equipment rules changed back to “larger” again, or, large goalies finally developed an interest in taking steps to build their skating skills.
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The Right Stick
By Chris Galton, BTP Camp Director, President & Goalie Coach - COPYRIGHT © 2007 All Rights Reserved.
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One area that I need to touch on is making the proper choice when purchasing a new goal stick. It used to be that all the manufactures would print a lie number on the shaft of the stick along with the patterns name. Now it's strictly a named pattern from a NHL goalie. This is fine for a pro goalie but when you're the parent of a mite or a squirt… the whole idea of buying a stick can be very intimidating. What's right, what's wrong!? First off, when it comes to the little guys, you'll only need to be looking at sticks in the “Jr” rack. Don't worry about finding a stick with a curve. With the little ones, we want to see a stick that has the right sized paddle and the smaller blade along with the shorter shaft. Remember, trying to modify an adult or “Sr” sized stick just causes problems.
As the goaltender grows taller, one needs to look for the type of curve, whether it's a Jr or Sr stick and length of paddle. I see so many goalies with paddles to small and it's always after they buy the stick. To low of a paddle can lead to an off balance stance and double coverage over the leg pad with his blocker. The other side of the story is the blade. So now you're dealing with picking out a stick that fits and then you have to decide what type of blade to choose from. There are mid curves, heal curves, which one is right? What happened to the good ‘ole straight goal stick and numbered lies. But what about the sticks with offset shafts, rubberized grips, and cut outs on the paddle. This is to increase grip performance and handling ability of the stick. The point is there are so many different models out there and different bells and whistles to choose from which is right?
Our advice, first choose a stick that doesn't promote or provide for double coverage in the paddle length. At the same time is comfortable while in the stance. Next think about the material, wood, composite core, or even Kevlar. Then look for a blade you might like… that is if you can find a blade with the right paddle now that's interesting. Once you do find it now you should have a good fitting stick.
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Past Articles
January 2007
February 2007
April 2007
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