5 Things Goalies Should Do Daily
- Set your hips daily using a yoga block or ball to maintain hip mobility critical for butterfly and lateral movement.
- Mobilizing the occiput, C1, and C2 cervical vertebrae can immediately improve vision, balance, and proprioception because these bones interact directly with the inner ear.
- Freeing the fibular heads and talus bone unlocks ankle flexion, giving goalies better control of their skate edges.
- Using a Spike Mat daily wakes up the ankles and feet, sharpening the sensory feedback needed for precise edge control.
- These five exercises form a goalie-specific daily regimen developed by James Wendland, whose 5 Damn Things series is used by goalies up to the NHL level.
with James Wendland
James Wendland already made a big impact on the InGoal Magazine community — and goalies right up to the NHL — with his first five entries into the 5 Damn Things series (links below), helping them open, protect, strengthen and injury-proof their hips, feet, ankles, and even vestibular systems to improve tracking with hand-eye coordination exercises.
Naturally we jumped at a chance to get back in the gym with him in Kelowna and continue that training and health journey, even if it meant significantly downgrading our “fitness model.”
This time Wendland shares his “essentials of what a goalie should do every day.”
Wendland’s goalie-specific daily regimen suggestion includes:
- Setting your hips with a yoga block or ball.
- Setting the base of your skull, or occiput, and C1, C2 cervical vertebrae
- Mobilizing your fibular heads (top of the calf bone) to free up ankle flexion.
- Work talus bone in foot out of ankle joint to increase ability to access toe edge.
- Using a Spike Mat to wake up ankles and feet and improve feel for blade edges.
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