Medicine Ball Builds Stability On Ice
Key Takeaways
- Holding a medicine ball on ice prevents goalies from leaving the trailing arm behind during lateral pushes, forcing proper top-down rotation.
- Maple Leafs goalie coach Curtis Sanford uses the drill specifically to correct hand position, ensuring goalies 'arrive at the next spot in good posture.'
- Mitch Korn was an early adopter of the on-ice medicine ball drill, introducing it with the Washington Capitals and sharing the method with InGoal Magazine in 2014.
- Pekka Rinne described holding the hands out front 'like a steering wheel' to guide movement — a concept that traces back to his work with Korn in Nashville.
- The drill works as a technical tool for low shot tracking and crease movement, not just a strength exercise.
The Toronto Maple Leafs recently broke out the medicine balls for their goalies but it wasn’t in the weight room. No, Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz used the medicine ball on the ice, holding it out in front of them while doing crease movement and stopping low shots.
TSN’s Mark Masters shared a couple of video clips from that practice session on X:
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