San Jose Sharks goalie coach Thomas Speer was trying to come up with a fun game to wind down the 90-minute daily ice times at the NET360 Goalie Camp this summer, while still maintaining the skills-building approach the event was founded on.
The result was something he dubbed “Goalie Tennis,” a competitive game that also emphasized several important aspects of puck handling beyond simply shooting the puck. Speer debuted the game at the end of a session with Team Canada’s Kristin Campbell and a trio of juniors on Tuesday, and by the end of the week every goalie was asking if they could play too.
“I was thinking about ways for goalies to play the puck all the time instead of a coach rimming it from the wall,” Speer said. “It adds competition to playing the puck for the goalies. It’s goalie on goalie instead of a player or coach ripping the puck, and what I really want to see is goalies making quick transitions with the puck behind the net. If they are on their backhand, it’s a lot harder but that’s the whole point is they can transition the puck quick and make quick plays.”
The premise was simple, even if the rules evolved during the week. It starts by placing a second net at the outside hash marks of the face-off circle, being careful to keep the distance between the back of the net and boards the same as the space that is behind a normal net.
We’ll let Speer explain the game itself, just as he did for that first group in Kelowna:
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Such great timing! I was looking for a puck handling drill for my goalies and gave this one a try today. They got way more touches than they would have with a traditional “coach dumps it in” drill. The higher reps also encouraged them to try skills outside their comfort zone. It will be fun to see how their speed and confidence increases throughout the season.
And how did it go?
Recent articles may have mentioned that the long term improper toe pad connection to the skate/pads along with the improper execution of some save techniques, could contribute to knee and hip injuries. Are there previous articles that provide details on these possible injuries?
Steve, we don’t have any on that but can put it on the list for future articles. We do have one on how Demko does his…In our opinion and more importantly that of many of the experts we work with – the key is to have enough slack in your toe ties to remove that extra tension and allow the skte to get to the ice in the butterfly.
It went very well! At first it was a little slow going because they were struggling to play the puck quickly, especially on the back hand. Afterwards I asked the goalies what they thought. The consensus was “This is a fun way to work on stick handling, but it will get really fun when we do it more and get better at it.” In subsequent drills they were finding spots to play the puck so they were definitely feeling more confident. Two gloves up!