Podcast Segment for Parents – Episode 258

I'm assuming I'm the Mike I'm the Mike Tyson and he's the Jake Paul of this this boat.

NHL Sense Arena feature interview is coming up with Dylan Sense Arena. But first, let's slide over to the parent segment, brought to you by Stop It Goaltending U, the app. What do you got for us this week, Hutch?

Five tips for new goalie parents. We were driving along in the car today, actually, to a rink to check out, camp that was going on and just watch some hockey. And I said, hey. I think it's time to talk to new goalie parents. What should we talk about, Maddie?

And between the two of us, we came up with five new tips. But Woody, tell us a little bit more about Brian Daccord because you guys were hanging out this week.

Yeah. It was great. You know, it's funny that you mentioned five tips because as we were going over some of the things that they're doing at the Stop It Goaltending U app, like, it really is a lot of quick hits and easy tips. The ability to deep dive, if you wanna spend a lot of time on a certain subject and improve in a certain area, but just those constant reminders and refreshers. We talked about mental training with Pete last week and how it's all about doing it daily.

There are there's something quick and easy every day in the Stop It Goaltending U app to help you get better, and it evolves constantly over time. Yes. There are longer lessons you can dig into, but there are nice quick and easy tips. At the end of the day, you combine it all and, like, thirty minutes a week guaranteed, you're going to be a much better goaltender for the time spent with the Stop It Goaltending U app. And, of course, now all new subscribers to the Stop It Goaltending U app also get a subscription to InGoal Magazine.

So, yes, me and, Brian Daccord hung out a lot this weekend here at the USA Hockey Goaltending Symposium, because those two things go together. InGoal Magazine and the Stop It Goaltending U app, they go together very nicely. They're a great way for goaltenders to get better and enjoy the position. It's enjoyable. It's fun to watch NHLers break down their saves.

It's fun to watch the guys that Stop It Goaltending U share their expertise in quick little hits that'll make you a better goaltender every day, and now you can combine the best of both worlds. A subscription of the Stop It Goaltending U app gets you a subscription to InGoal Magazine.

Get on it. Let's go. And if you're a new parent to a a goaltender or if you're a parent to a new goaltender, I should phrase that, or if you're a new parent, something's sometimes things come out of the blue. This is a situation where you can get educated on the position with Stop It Goaltending U, InGoal Magazine, and here to help us out is David Hutchison.

Yeah. I think both Stop It and InGoal are great ways for parents to learn about goaltending. Although this segment this week, guys, is tips for new goalie parents, I would like all goalie parents to listen in because if I don't mention something that you think should be mentioned, let us know. Parents at ingoalmag.com. Let me know what your tips are because every week, we actually publish the parent segment as a separate piece over at InGoal.

And it would be a great place for you to also go there and leave a comment and people can, can hear from some more things and maybe we'll add in some other things over time as we hear or do another segment in the future if you've got some other tips for us. But new goalie parents, for me, before we get into the tips, boys, this all starts with philosophy. What is your philosophy behind your kid being a goaltender? Why did you let them become a goaltender? I'm hoping that the answer is that you want them to have fun.

Something is we've talked about a bunch of times already, when Woody was talking about Sense Arena especially. So my tips are around that. And I think it's important that we don't get sidetracked from our main goal, which is letting them be kids, letting them have fun, be patient, or you will quickly be the parent of a former goalie and that's not what we want. So round about that, here's what we talked about today, that we would like to share. Number one, find out how to wear the gear properly.

If you are new to goaltending, find yourself a goalie. I don't care if he's a 12 year old goaltender at the local minor hockey association. Find it through Facebook by asking other goalie parents in your other parents in your area, a coach, whatever you do really early or get into a place like the Hockey Shop and talk to somebody like Cam and find out how to put the gear on properly because it's almost impossible to have fun if you're not out on the ice wearing gear that fits properly and is worn properly. How many times have we all seen a brand new goaltender out on the ice with the pads on the wrong legs or cinched up as tight as possible or talking about those toe ties earlier, those toe ties dangling on the ice where they get cut because you step on them and the pads flopping around. Look, can't blame the goalie parents for that because it's hard to know all these things.

But please, if you've got a new goalie in your family, find out as soon as you can how to wear the gear properly. You will make them have much more fun on the ice every single time. And I think we should probably publish that guide over at InGoal at sometime soon, boys. Number two, when you are getting gear, think about safety and comfort more than anything else. Maddie looked at me and he said, tell them get a new helmet before they get a new stick.

And he was thinking the most important thing is that you have to feel safe and you have to feel comfortable on the ice. I can remember at age 11, Maddie was flinching, worried about shots that were coming high. I went out and spent probably more than I should have on a beautiful helmet for him. I've not seen him flinch at a shot since. And so whether it is getting a helmet before you get $2,200 fancy pads or before you buy a $400 stick, invest as much as you can in those items that will make them feel safe and comfortable on the ice.

Number three, learn how to skate. That comes up actually in the feature interview this week, so listen in. If you can't skate, you can't make saves. But if you can skate, you can probably make a few accidental saves even. And it's not just about skating around the crease.

And that also comes up in the feature interview this week. It was really cool to listen to that after we'd written up this parent segment. I don't care if you go to power skating lessons, if you put on some player skates and go to the local drop in to play shinny or whatever you might do. Learning how to skate well will help you enjoy the game more. Plus, it's miserable not being able to skate when you're dragging all that extra gear around on the ice as a young goaltender.

So skating, skating, skating, but make it fun.

I actually thought you were going to say that the parents should learn how to skate when you first start.

Well, you can go with your kids and learn too. Yeah. You can also put Sense Arena on and learn how to stop pucks parents.

Love that.

From a coaching perspective, it doesn't need you don't need a whole lot of coaching as a young goaltender. And any coaching, make it fun. If you're not sure where to send your young goaltender for some coaching, go check out what you're seeing on the ice and are the kids having fun? I was so lucky that when Matty first started working with some other coaches as a youngster, they understood that he was a little bit goofy. He needed to have some fun out on the ice.

We want them to enjoy being goaltenders. We don't wanna be running through drills until they're completely bagged and focusing on technique and just let them be athletes and let them have fun. Fifth, goaltending is like golf. One big save will keep you coming back again and again, just like one big shot in golf will keep you coming back again and again. So focus on the fun.

Find one thing that your kid does well that day, raise it and forget everything else. It can be like that big 300 yard drive that'll make them want to come back on the ice the next time. You don't need to talk through the goals. You don't need to worry about the score after a tough game. Just go over what they thought was fun that day.

Forget everything else. I think I've told this story here before. A buddy of mine, his kid played goal in a game at about age six. They got absolutely destroyed, and I was felt so bad for the kid. He stepped off the ice with a massive smile on his face and he said, did you see that glove save?

It's all that mattered to him. Focus on the fun and you will have a goaltender who loves the game for many, many years. So that's my five and I'm gonna give you one bonus tip, guys. Get your kid a baseball glove and use it a lot. Learn how to catch.

That's about it.

Like play catch. Actually Like Yeah. Just learn how to catch.

Oh, learn how to catch. Actually, have a little a little fun story that goes with that one as well. When Maddie was a very, very young baseball player, I'm gonna say six years old, maybe younger, he was scared of trying to catch a pop fly. I was chucking balls up in the air and he just did not want to get hit by that thing. Even though he could get

Throwing him into the sun.

Yeah. And he could catch pitches and he wasn't worried about that, but he didn't like fly balls. So what did we do? We got creative. I said, go get your goalie mask.

Put his mask on and then nothing scared him. Didn't have a problem after that, which gets back to that thing about goaltending on ice. If you have the right gear and you're wearing it properly, you're gonna feel safe and you're gonna have a whole lot more fun. So that's it. Oh, and subscribe to InGoalmag or the Stop It Goaltending U app.

I thought that was number one.

It was number one, and then it was it was number one, and then I circled back. On you. No. I circled back because Woody started with that. And if you if you read all the great stuff that Woody publishes, he always starts with something in the first paragraph and then the last paragraph he cycles back to it and just sort of reminds you.

So it's something I've picked up in my

learning Like a good comedian. Course. Ties us all back.

Yeah. It's like Woody and Cam together. Comedians.

Hi, Woody.

Woody's just sitting there silently now.

Hi, guys. Lot of lot of lot of parent talk here at the USA Hockey National Goaltending Symposium this week. Like, parents need to be making them a big helping educate them, helping make them a bigger part of this, helping them understand goaltending and not fear it. I think that's an important piece, and there's a lot of great presentations about ways Yeah. To do We're so that's something we wanna work on as well.

So it was really interesting to see that, and I think your parent segment here, Hutch, is, you know, could be a really, really big part of that. Listen. I I realize, like, I've there's gonna be people I forget from the symposium. I I we I don't know that we mentioned Maria Mountain yet. She did a great presentation.

I mean, we all we know her work. We're lucky. We're blessed here at InGoal. Heck, we're probably not where we are without our start, including Maria Mountain and all the work she did, sharing her great insights and and coaching tips on how to train to be a goalie, starting out here at InGoal Magazine. She really helped us sort of get up and running, and we we owe her a ton and value her continued friendship and support.

But so to see her up there, and she's always a part of this these symposiums, whether it's I mean, she's Canadian, but doesn't matter if she's in The States. She's in Sweden because she just cares about helping goaltenders stay healthy. That was cool. And one new name, somebody that, Daren, you may know from the broadcasting side, a name I knew, a voice I recognize from listening to broadcast over the years, did not realize is he had a goaltending background and coaches goalies and works as Dave Starman. He did a great job emceeing this and sort of an emcee actually doesn't even do it credit.

Like, he really and you know how hard this is, Daren. When you're good at it, you make it look easy, so you think it's easy, but the amount of work that goes into it just seamlessly from one presentation to the next, keeping the audience engaged, keeping things moving along, engaging the audience himself in various discussion points and jumping off points and and and just everything he did was masterful. And so you're not surprised to find out that, a, he's a he's a goalie, but a goalie coach as well and in love with the position. And so it was really neat to get to meet him for the first time and and hopefully build a connection there that we we keep going because I really enjoyed listening to him speak, and just seems to genuinely genuinely love the position that we all do here. So it was really cool to meet Dave Starman as well.