Podcast Segment for Goalie Parents – Episode 265

Okay. Here we go. Our friends at Stop It Goaltending U the app always bring us the parent segment because they are such a fantastic resource for parents and goaltenders. Woody, what's new over at Stop It Goaltending?

Well, there's something new every week, and that's what makes Stop It Goaltending U, the app, such an important tool for goalies everywhere. So let me just give you a quick rundown of an example of what's new this week. Of course, you've got your daily primers, quick one minute videos every day. But on top of that, for this week, there's a three minute goalie one zero one video with former NHL goalie Andrew Raycroft that breaks down the bump drill. It's got video Love it.

Highlighting proper entries into the RVH, mechanics, and the keys to a good bump across to the other post and a profit proper exit from that post as well as insights on an inside out path into the post, the importance of a 30 degree angle when you go into it, and more. All with Andrew Raycroft, former Bruin, former Maple Leaf, longtime NHLer, and now analyst and and goalie coach, as well a longer thirteen minute goalie systems video with Adam Werner, breaks down plays across the middle of the ice or the slot line as our friend Steve Valiquette would call it, and the keys to managing it. Adam goes through video using NCAA stars, including Jacob Fowler and Matt Davis to highlight the importance of control and depth management. And that is just a quick glimpse into what you get every week. Those are the highlights for this week at the Stop It Goaltending U, the app.

When you download it and subscribe, you get an automatic subscription to InGoal Magazine as well, the best of both worlds. Stop It Goaltending U and ingoalmag.com, a premium subscription. No better way to learn more and become a better goaltender than those two combined. Make sure you check it out now. And, of course, you can check it out wherever you're downloading your apps, whether that is on the App Store or Apple or on the Google Play, or you can check out their down their landing page at stopitgoaltending.com.

Love the partnership we have with our friends over at Stop It Goaltending U and all the new people it's brought to InGoal and the new folks it's brought to Stop It Goaltending U the app. And speaking of partners, there's a big partnership all the time between goalie parents and their young goaltenders trying to help them be the best goalies they can. The segment this week, Woody, is gonna be a little shorter. Well, I thought it would be, but I seem to have learned from the best in the business. So maybe I'll go on.

We'll see what happens here. It fits though really well in the heels of last week's Gear Segment because, as you remember, you were talking about the CCM's XF Pro stick and you and Cam got into it a little bit about balance and weight. And that got me thinking about one of the questions that seems to come in the most from parents and that's asking about sizing the sticks for the youngest goalie. And more importantly, can you cut them down? How do you size them once you've done that?

The truth is, there's no golden rule I know of for sizing a goalie stick. I know some people say a skater stick, you know, should come up to the certain height if you're standing on your skates, maybe your chin or something. But we don't really have that same rule for goaltenders. But parents, especially if you've got the youngest goaltenders out there often wonder, they cut the shaft down because they get these huge sticks for their young kids and they want to make it easier to work with. So often for years, if you checked out on the internet forums, you would see people screaming that you can't cut down a goalie stick because you're gonna change the balance of the stick.

And sure, it makes a difference. But as you and Cam proved last week, balance is in the hand of the holder. There is no right answer. A stick that's too large though or too long will be too hard for a young goalie to handle, period. So cutting down a stick for a young goalie to make it more manageable is okay.

Don't just take that from me. We've heard it from all kinds of coaches and goaltenders, and we'll talk about that in a second. One thing I often have heard people say is, are you gonna do some irretrievable damage by cutting the carbon fiber in the stick? You know, people say that if you get a nick in carbon, it's gonna create a flaw that will lead to breakage. I don't even know if that's true anymore with modern sticks, but that's probably where it came from.

All I can say is people cut them down. I have cut them down with a regular saw. I just pull that plastic plug from the top part that I've cut off and put it back in the shaft after cutting and away we go. Now, can't speak for what that's gonna do for your warranty. Probably it is an issue, but having my kid comfortable on the ice has always been number one for me.

Again, will it mess with the balance? Well, all the major companies are now making sticks with shorter shafts and I'm not aware of any change they've made to the paddle to offset that in terms of the balance. In fact, you can go onto their customizers and get the identical stick in different shaft links. So I think that kind of proves the point that changing the shaft link is not the end of the world. Now the XF Pro is following a recent trend with sticks being a little bit shorter.

Bauer brought in the Hyperlite sticks that were shorter. True has theirs. It's the Hzrdus one I think, isn't it Woody, that they've cut down to make it shorter. This was all popularized of course by Carey Price who cut his sticks down several inches and told us it was about better handling of the puck in tight around his feet. So companies first made that an option on the customizer and then now they've made it stock with a lot of their sticks.

So that happens to bring down the weight for those people who are worried about counting grams and so on. Now, the other side of the fence, we've got parents who don't want to cut them down and they wanna buy a larger stick that will last longer as their child grows. I get that goalie is expensive and when they're younger, the stick is less likely to break. So maybe you think you can get a couple years out of it. And we all, of course, wonder about that old bigger is better.

I remember Woody using longer paddles with that in mind. I'm shall we say average height? But I always used the longest paddle I could because of the size. We and I'm talking about us older guys, used to size our sticks so that when we were in our stance, there wasn't any what we call double coverage. We'd use a longer paddle because we didn't want our blocker overlapping with our pads and our stance and covering the same bit of net with two pieces of equipment.

And while it is okay to look bigger, probably is good to look bigger, proper save execution and mobility are way more important. So today, the trend is to use shorter paddles. With NHL goalies, we know going down to 25, even 24 in some cases, not to mention shaping the top of the paddle that lets them hold it even lower down as you will have seen in articles over at ingoalmag.com with guys like Sergei Bobrovsky, Marc-Andre Fleury, who himself talks about Carey Price. Why? The number reason I hear is simple.

How many stick saves do you make standing up? Pretty much zero. So now we like to size our paddle so when you're in the butterfly, you can hold it to make a stick save comfortably. If we were on video, could show people what that's all about. But this isn't really a lesson on how to size your stick so much as it is just a bit of information that we wanted to share with parents to give them sort of permission to try different things and experiment a little bit.

By the way, having your stick a little bit or your pad a little bit shorter also makes it easier to protect the crease in ways that we saw with that Bill Ranford video for example. Look, if you're out there trying to save a little bit of money or you want to look a little bit larger by getting a larger stick, you're more than likely going to be impairing your kid's performance. You'll reduce their mobility, you'll reduce their ability to make stick saves because the stick, shaft will be more awkward. You can open up holes in the butterfly and they're probably going to have trouble learning to handle the puck too. If it's about money and I get it, may I suggest that if you're in the sizes with kids where there are different options, it's okay to go for the more affordable sticks.

They might be a little bit heavier, but only to an absolutely elite goalie are they gonna know the difference. And most of us will be just fine in that lower price point. Maybe it even makes it easier to get sticks more often as your child grows as a result. So size it properly and maybe next year if it's time to get something larger, you could look at even selling that old one to a family with a younger goaltender. Of course, if you're that age where the shots are hard enough to go through multiple sticks a year, just get the right size.

As I mentioned, it's almost impossible here to tell you though exactly how to size them, so give Cam a call or drop by the Hockey Shop or your local retailer. Talk to somebody who knows what they're doing and they will help you get your kid sized properly for a sick.

I I would say that at the ages where you're most likely to have to cut it down because if you get to sorta you're getting into that taller closing on six feet above the Hutch average height. Just a bit. You probably can get it at a at a length you like it with all so many options as you mentioned of shorter sticks. So if you're cutting it down for younger kids, probably not at a point where the shot velocity is breaking it anyways in terms of avoiding that warranty by doing so, which is one thing to consider.

Also true. Yeah. So try some experiments. You can also borrow sticks from other goaltenders as I often see kids doing at camps. One of those other little bits of value when you go to a good goalie camp is the kids will trade off gear a little bit and see what they like and and that's a good way of learning.

Okay. Thanks for joining us for some parent stuff. If you do have questions, as always, parents at ingoalmag.com and we'll see if we can address some of those for you or just tell tell us what you're thinking about the same topic and we'll share some of your thoughts with everybody. Okay. Woody, our featured guest this week is presented by NHL Sense Arena VR, Devon Levi recorded in person in Kelowna.