Podcast Segment for Goalie Parents – Episode 266

The first one, I've got a U9 goalie who is really struggling because he has to play in a full size net and there's lots of pucks going by him. As much as he loves the game and works hard at it, he's becoming disheartened. How do I help him? That's the first one. You got that one written down?

Mhmm. Okay. You're ready to go. Second one, also from a parent asking, even though it's a little bit late in the summer, they wanna know what should I be doing away from the rink for my young goalie in the off season? And there might only be about four weeks or so left in the summer, but we still want to give him an answer.

We're going to assume this is a goalie somewhere in that u nine to u 13 range as well, somebody young. Couple of different things we could go on, Woody. Which one do you wanna talk about today?

I was tempted to go with the nine year old struggling in the bigger nets. Although my advice to move to a place where they don't stupidly put nine year olds in the big nets would would maybe not that might be a short segment. So and let's be honest. When it comes to parenting advice, we're coming to hear your voice, not mine. I'm gonna go with the other one, Hutch, just because like you said, it's already August 5.

So why delay it another week? Let's give them a chance to figure out some of the things they can be doing if they can't get on the ice and, get ready for the upcoming season.

Okay. What

age now? Did you give me an age group on that one?

I said let's let's assume it's somewhere in the U9 to U13 range. So it's it's a young goalie. We're not somebody who who's trying to get ready for a Western League draft or something like that.

Okay. So I know you've got good advice on this. I I'm limited to two things. One of them I already said in that Sense Arena, but we don't wanna turn this into you have to buy or spend a bunch of money program. Although, hey.

Listen. Wanna stop pucks? That's a good way to virtually stop pucks if you can't get on the ice. My other one, and I haven't delved into it, but we do know her and how good she is, and it kinda fits where we have another goalie trainer on today. But I've seen Maria Mountain talking about having a program for goalies under 13.

And I know she's been very cautious in the past not to work, or not to push too much of the wrong thing at too young an age. So I'm gonna suggest you check out what Maria does because what she does is always excellent. And if she's got something specific for young goalies, they're also they also tend to be reasonably priced. So that would be, you know, again, without trying to just plug, go buy something, that's the extent of my advice.

Well, look, your advice is valid, Woody. You said I'm the goalie parent and you're not, but you're a parent. You have athletes for children. You're a goaltender yourself. And every goalie parent out there, including me at various points along the road, we're all just kind of winging it.

We're doing the best that we can. There aren't a lot of people. Fletcher maybe being an exception because he's got two goalies, he gets a couple of tries at it, that get this experience. So so your your opinion is equally valid, Woody, and I think you've really you've summed it up about as nicely as we can. But So here's what I was, thinking you're talking about.

Yes. Pick a program. Maybe it's Maria's, maybe it's another one you see out there. For me, the biggest thing is to believe in the program. You've got a short period of time left here, in the summer, and the biggest thing really is just absolutely believing in what you're doing and just going for it.

I don't think we're gonna do a whole lot of damage by not having the absolute perfect program at this point in the summer, but just do something and really believe in it. And that's advice that I actually if I talk about working with other goalie coaches that I would tell people, you know, just the importance of believing in somebody and really going for it with them is is got real strength. So if it's Maria's program, fantastic. If it's somebody else's, that's okay too. I personally, and maybe we'll hear a bit about this from Adam today in his chat with you, I believe in the power of calisthenics, just doing body weight stuff.

We are not trying to raise a weight lifter here, especially when they're young kids. And, so I believe in the power of body weight exercises. And as Adam correctly points out in his interview, today, as we're all watching the Olympics, think about what those gymnasts look like. They're not doing it in the weight room. If you have a little time left in the summer, Woody, get out there with your kids and play catch.

How about that one?

I like that one. I like that one. We've we've we've heard that from NHL goalie coaches having to take goalies they've drafted in their development camps and taking them out on the field and have a catch to work on high and high high high high high hand coordination?

Vocal coordination. Lips coordination. Yes. Excellent. No.

So important and it's easy. You can do it anytime. You can have fun together. Go get a couple of baseball gloves if you don't have one already and a ball and go have some fun. Just get out and move.

Do something every day outside. Go for a hike together. Anything that's gonna get you going, you're gonna be in that rink all the time for so long. If you're not helping yourself in front of the TV, get outside, have a little bit of fun. There are skill sessions going on now.

Every player is trying to ramp it up, getting ready for the season. Don't feel like you have to go out there and be a target in those skill sessions. But if you're going to, absolutely embrace it. We often talk about how those skill sessions are not beneficial to goaltenders. You are just a target.

They are not great drills typically for you. But if you're going to, absolutely embrace it, throw yourself into it, and make it a physical challenge if nothing else. And then the last one I will plug is we are putting out a little, program from our good friend James Wendland on five things you should be doing every single day. And they are away from the rink and they are easy to do. One of them probably not great for the youngest kids as he'll mention in it, but, check out that article at ingoalmag.com.

So those are my things, Woody. Just get out there, do something, body weight, play catch, go have some fun. You got four weeks left in the summer before the grind of the season starts.

Well, obviously, if you're at a at a more advanced level, you're probably you've been working through a program to get to this point already. But I will say even beer leaguers, Maria does have a free fourteen day sort of butter butterfly widening challenge, which can be a bunch of great exercise. It can be just a way to sort of get your hips going and mobile and ready for a season. Not fully ready. I'm not saying that's enough.

But if you haven't started any at this point, it will introduce you to her work and help your hips feel a little better. I do have one more. I actually came up with an idea here.

Oh, yeah. Let's

go. And it doesn't cost much. So I'm not plugging anything here.

K. What's up?

Public skating.

Heck yeah.

I mean, we're talking about, you know, hey. Like, oh, like, I can't get ice or I'm not on the ice or I don't have a goalie coach, but I want feeling your blades underneath you. And I don't mean just going around in circles. We have seen it. Connor Lacouvee, seventh year as a pro, out at a public skate on the island just doing crease movement pattern, just sort of feeling his blades under him doing goalie skating drills.

We heard it from Connor Hellebuyck. The when he had no offers the year before he went down to his first ECHL tryout, he went to public skates and just skated crease movement patterns. Eric Comrie is a young kid. Used to go out and skate crease movement patterns at public skates. I know you're not allowed like, you can't you can't take out full gear and take shots and all that stuff.

But what do we keep hearing at the National Hockey League level? At every level from Kristen Campbell and our latest Pro Drills that was up last week. Like, it's all about skating. If you can't move, you can't play. And there is an opportunity.

If you're willing to say, don't care if it looks silly that I'm out here in pads and skates and everybody else is just skating around in blue jeans or shorts, there's an opportunity to go out and work on your skating at a very low cost. And so really easy for me to say here, but we've seen guys right up to the highest level use this as a tool when they were younger goaltenders. And as I said in Connor Lacouvee's case this summer, even as he heads into his seventh year of professional hockey overseas, using a public skate to go out and get some ice and get some skating and and get some movement going.

It's funny. I've talked about, in various situations, just reach out to another goaltender, maybe somebody a bit older, a bit more experienced, somebody you know in the community. Don't be shy talking to somebody because every goalie wants to help. Two or three summers ago, I actually got a message from Connor who said, I want to see what you and Matty have been up to. I'd like to see what you're doing.

And we went out to one of those local skate sessions at the Rink Up Island and, he and Maddie had their gear on and we just talked about all the cool stuff that we've been doing and he and Maddie went through the paces and that was at a a stick and puck that anybody can just sort of drop in and do whatever they want. So really cool to have. And there's an example of a guy who's a pro wanting to learn from somebody at the time who was, you know, 14 years old or something and just show me what you've been learning. So talk to other goaltenders too. But make sure it's fun because there's only four weeks left in the summer.

If it's something different, it's probably gonna be fun and energizing. But don't feel you gotta go out there and drill your nine year old. Just have a good time together.

No. Drill them. Damn it.

Okay. Well, you can be the nasty one and I'll be the nice one.

That's why. So I don't have any young goalies in my family.