Pro Tips with Ann-Renée Desbiens

Ann-Renée Desbiens evolution to Olympic champion included learning how to practice.

Canada’s gold-medal winning goalie used to struggle with the wide-open drills that frustrate so many of her puck-stopping peers at every level, but Desbiens learned to manage those moments in practice as a key part of her path to winning the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Desbiens has valuable lessons that can help others struggling with those stretches in practice that aren’t goalie friendly. Her approach can help you get better, instead of getting mad.

Desbiens knows, because she used to get upset by those drills too.

“If you met me when I was a little younger, probably my coaches would say I wasn’t the best practice goalie so that had to change the past few years,” Desbiens told the InGoal Radio Podcast. “I’ll use the famous 3-on-0s and 5-on-0s (as an example) because they happen over and over and over again. Back in the day, I was really frustrated with them, because I was like, ‘What’s the point? There’s no pressure, it will never happen in a game.’ I was getting really mad and I just ended up standing there being like, ‘what’s that? What’s the point of this?’”

It’s a feeling a lot of goalies can relate to but need to learn to manage.