Evidence Based Goaltending
- Apply the three pillars of evidence-based practice — coach experience, goalie preference, and scientific research — to goaltending development.
- Scientific research takes an average of 17 years to reach real-world practice in healthcare, and the same delay affects goaltending coaching.
- Breakthroughs in analytics, vision science, mental preparation, and physical training are already available and waiting to be applied to the goalie position.
- Evidence-based goaltending will not replace current coaching methods but will reinforce, explain, and improve upon what coaches already do.
- Goalie coaches have a responsibility to seek out available sports science and put it to practical use on the ice.
Today InGoal welcomes Brandon Thibeau with the first of his series on Goaltending Science, inspired by his work as the founder of the IQ Goalie e-digest newsletter series. Instagram: @IQ_Goalie
Thibeau is a former Canadian Hockey League and Canadian University goaltender. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s of Science degree in Physiotherapy. He is currently coaching U18 in Nova Scotia and is a Scout in the QMJHL.
In healthcare, the use of evidence-based practice is the gold standard. Evidence based practice means that when a health professional is presented with a problem, a decision is made using a combination of 3 things:
- The experiences of the clinician
- The preferences of the patient
- The best available scientific evidence
This concept could be applied in goaltending as well. For many years, Goaltenders and coaches have not had abundant access to the third item on this list. Over the last decades, this has slowly changed.
It is also known that it takes a very long time for something to be used in practice even after it has been proven in a lab or written in a research paper. In healthcare, this gap is an average of 17 years. Yes, you read that correctly… 17 years.
In goaltending, we are seeing this same concept in full swing. Hunger for more information from goalies and coaches has liberated science that has been waiting patiently to be applied to or position. Our job as goalies and coaches is to find this science and put it to good use.
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