301 Parents: Some thoughts on summer training for the youngest goalies

This week, answering a question from a parent who wants to know what to do with their eight year old goaltender this summer, and specifically, is it appropriate to send them to a goalie school? I have some thoughts on this that I wanted to share. I probably talked about what's best in the summer and so on in the past more generically, but specifically to the younger goaltender, and I'm talking five, six, seven, eight years old here. So what are what are my thoughts that I wanted to share? Well, first, as you can imagine, number one has to be fun.

If your kid is not having fun, there is no point doing it. You are only gonna harm their love for goaltending and their love for the sport. So don't send them somewhere that they are not going to have fun. And that sounds like an easy thing to say, but I do think as a parent, have some specific things that you should do to ensure that this is true. It's okay to go to a goalie school in the summer, by the way, especially if you're one of those kids who doesn't get enough support during the year.

Getting a little development, learning some basic skills will only make the sport more enjoyable and more successful for your son or daughter next season. So by all means, if you wanna spend a week or two at goalie schools this summer, go for it. But do a little bit of research so that you can ensure that they're having fun. And I would say, are they a good personality match for your son or daughter? Whether you have the opportunity to go and see these coaches working now before you make a decision or whether you go to the online directory, look up a couple of schools in your area, and click that button that allows you to request more information from the school.

Ask a few specific questions about how they handle the youngest kids. I wouldn't be afraid to say, could you put me in touch with another parent of someone who has worked with you at a similar age so I can ask them some questions? And find out more because you're making a significant investment for your child and this is going to be a significant moment in their development. So I think it's okay to ask some questions. Are they a good personality match for your son or daughter?

The schools that my child went to at age five and six, and yes, I know it sounds a little crazy, but my six year old was at a goalie school. He was just out there to have fun. He actually didn't participate in the entire camp. He did the ice sessions and then the other stuff. We actually went to a golf course one afternoon and just hung out as as father and son.

But those schools were a really good match for his personality because the primary thing they did was have fun. And the coaches knew how to interact with the kids so that it would be fun. They weren't just managing bodies on the ice and making sure they got through the drills. They were really interacting with the kids on a personal level. I actually think finding a school if you can with a lower student teacher ratio would be best especially at the young ages.

We find this flip typically because just the economics of coaching, usually, you're charging less to the younger kids. And so you have a few more kids on the ice than you would with the older kids who tend to be spending a little bit more money. But the younger kids can actually handle a lot more reps in the net. Their bodies are not stressed by the moving around the creases as they are when you get to be six foot two and a hundred and eighty pounds and having to start and stop around the crease. That's exhausting.

And kids have a limited attention span. So whether they have a lower student teacher ratio so your kids can be in the net a little bit more, or are they doing something between drills to keep the kid's attention? We've talked here before and we've talked with coaches before about how there's real value in the time when you're not in the net to observe the other goalies and and mentally prepare for your time in the crease and so on, but that's too much to ask of a of an eight year old. So are they doing something like some puck handling drills and so on? I've seen schools where they have a coach dedicated to keeping the kids amused who are not in the crease for a particular drill.

And it's not just amused, it's doing useful things as well. I would ask, is the off ice conditioning appropriate for a kid of that age? Like I said, my son opted out of some of it. We were in a I know that based on what we do for a living, it's a little easier for me to ask these things, but we did some other things rather than the off ice training in some of these camps. I've seen camps that absolutely bury kids and take away from their on ice experience because they think they need to be so cool and work so hard off ice.

On the other side of it, if I can give credit to our friend Eli Wilson, he brings in a very experienced PE teacher to run his off ice sessions. Happens to be a goaltender as well, so he understands the position. But he's providing a really good atmosphere where the kids can learn some things off ice, but still be ready to go on for that next ice session, which is what you're investing the most, time and energy into. So that's my thoughts about the camps. I would also just add, as we've said here before, skating, skating, skating.

You don't want to drive your eight year old into the ice with power skating if they're going to hate it. But the more opportunity they have to be on their blades, player skates to be a player or a referee, They will be better goaltenders or better players later on down the line. You need to build that skating foundation. And finally, get them out there playing other sports. Don't make it a summer of goaltending only.

Baseball, soccer, tennis, whatever it might be. You've heard it here before. Your eight year old can do those things as well. So gents, those are my thoughts on goalie schools for young children.