311 Parents: 10 Good Habits for Young Goalies Around the Rink

I was just working on my technique. So the the parent segment, you've got, you've got a little bit of a list going.

Yeah. I got a little list going. 10 good habits around the rink for a young goalie. This was inspired by our good friend we've mentioned on here recently InGoal subscriber, Chris Matola, sent me in a suggestion, that I decided to expand on. I'm gonna save Chris' suggestion for almost at the end of the list.

It seems to belong there based on how these all come out. And then I reached out to my son Matthew who was about to hit the ice with his, summer coach James Gartner and the two of them added a few more and then I rounded out the list. So thought maybe you guys could jump in on a few of these or maybe I'll go through the 10 and we'll we'll see what that inspires towards the end. So number one, take some time to warm up before going on the ice. Encourage that with your young goaltender even if their team doesn't do it, especially teams don't do it in practice times.

If you don't know what to do for a warm up, we'll have some suggestions over at InGoal. We have lots and we'll put a few in the show notes. Even a little bit of warm up is better than none. Before you hit the ice, take a minute to do something that this week's guest mentions in the feature interview and that's visualize. Not suggesting you take a whole ton of time before a practice, but just a few seconds to think to yourself, what kind of a practice am I gonna have today?

How am I gonna be when I hit the ice so that you don't just step out on the ice and do some lazy stretching as you wait to decide what your day is gonna be like. Number three, when you're out there, listen, pay attention, and try. You'll leave a great impression with your coaches who only wanna see you try. Even if you think you're not gonna be using what they're teaching, give it a go. Again, as this week guest says, it's another tool in the toolbox.

Number four. And while we're talking about trying, yes, you have more gear on and no, Skating lengths or lines is no fun at all, but try. You may be destined to come in last in a team skate, but how close can you make it? Can you kind of put a scare into one of those lazy players ahead of you? Coaches can see when you've given up and it leaves an impression that you don't wanna leave.

So dig in and go go for it. Number five, finish your save process. When the drill allows, because we know not all drills are goalie friendly, but when you can, track your rebound and follow it even if there's only one shot to the drill. It's an important habit, one that's gonna ensure that you don't have any delay in reacting during a game. Number six, cheer for your partner.

When he or she makes a great save or bust their butt in that skating drill neither of you like, let them know it with a good stick tap. Number seven, if you're getting frustrated, don't show emotion. Teams want to know that you're a rock in there. They don't want shrugged shoulders, hanging heads, slamming sticks. We talk about it as we watch games, but it applies to practice as well.

How could it possibly help you? If it's an issue for you, you could make it part of your pre skate visualization. How am I gonna react when things aren't going well? Number eight, don't waste time. If the puck's at the other end during practice, grab a puck and practice some puck handling.

Maybe work on your post entries and exits, do some basic skating. The old down on your knees and kind of stretch the groin. It's not impressing anybody and it's not helping. Number nine, almost last but not quite least is the one from Chris Matwiv. A good work habit is to not leave the ice and ensure the nets are pushed where the Zamboni driver wants them and all the pucks are picked up.

Coaches notice, rank employees notice. I've seen clips of Fleury and Lundqvist picking up pucks after sessions. If they can do it, us non hall of fame goalies shouldn't consider it beneath us. Thank you, Chris. And then finally, number 10, leave that dressing room clean.

Goalies are often the last one out, and it sucks when guys leave tape balls all over, but do a quick cleanup. It's a good habit. And even if you aren't the last one out, make sure you clean up after yourself, and even better, grab something that wasn't yours and clean it up. I'm sure everybody else has more. If you have any more, send them to me, parents@ingoalmag.com, and we might turn them into another segment.

Woody, Darren, anything we missed?

Flurries for the team?

Slurpees? Pardon me, Darren?

Slurpees for the team.

Yeah. I'm sure the team would like you to do that. Yes.

I'm too busy. I can't take them to 07:11 for Slurpees, Daren, because I'm too busy picking up tape balls. I will say that one resonated. I do that. I definitely used to do that in the beer league locker room.

Maybe that's a little of my cleanliness and OCD coming in, but just but the same thing. Right? Like, the poor guy has to come in afterwards and didn't have to pick up all that. So if you're last out, pick it up. I did like the, you know, in terms of not wasting time out there, plays at the other end for an extended period, reminding me of the Martin Brodeur recommendation.

Like, how do you get good at playing the puck, especially when there's so little time in practice? Play the puck, and that's a perfect time. Got a forward that's not part of the drill at the other end, have them go back and forth at the blue line, hit them on the move, like trying to hit a hit a receiver with a pass in football. Just get a puck on your stick, shoot it around, work on things that way. That's how Brodeur became the one of the best in the history of the game at handling the puck, and you can too.

So good list, Hutch. I like it.

You know what I do sometimes is work on my pivots to behind the net for stopping rims. Like, you don't need a puck necessarily. It's just working on my reps right side, left side, and seeing, if there's a way to expedite my process, behind the net and and be able to get to those boards a little bit faster.

As you're doing that, it reminds me of something, last week's parent segment was on skate sharpening, and we had a quiz at the end for Woody. So I'm gonna throw it to you, Daren, because I don't know if you listened to last week's show when you were on the golf course. When does a goaltender need their outside edge?

On on rims. Attaboy.

I feel like that's cheating. I got it without the context of how

You did?

Talked about handling rims. I did. Can you believe yeah. Daren can't believe it.

No. Good for you. Because that that

is Excellent. Yeah.

The only time that you would. Unless you're going to the net you're you're going to the boards for the extra attacker, and you have to stop and come back.

Yeah. And go back. Yeah.

Yeah. That and do a do a quick, cycle. We've and we've seen that a few times.

We saw that from this week's, ProReads guest.

You're right. We did. I also like the, idea of pushing the nets for the the Zam employees. That gets noticed and gets talked about by the rink staff, not just the person cleaning the ice at that particular time, but they will always mention it to their fellow coworkers, and you will become a rink favorite by doing that.

And why does that matter?

How it helps you when you get older, you can have a conversation with that rink guy and say, you know, when you're drilling those pegs in, do you think you could? Or there's a problem on the dasher over there that cost me a goal last game. Do you think we could fix that? You can have a little bit of help from those guys if you befriend them. Or get a job.

Help you at age five. Or Or get a job.

Or my crease looks like a soup kitchen. Can I please borrow a squeegee?

Yes. I don't see squeegees needed near as much as they were twenty years ago, twenty five. I may I gotta Maybe because I'm skating in NHL facilities.

So just the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's probably I gotta I

got a rink that I'm not gonna call out, but it's pretty much an every time occasion. Even in the winter there, it's just like a puddle.

Really? Well, a lot of the Yeah. It happens. Lot of the high end rinks like you're in, Daren, don't even lay down the water. Right?

It's just the steam system or the misting onto the ice instead of gallons and gallons of water.

Well, if all you needed was mist, they just sent me around in the fog. It'd it'd be perfect. Dad joke. Sorry, Woody.

I will say the one thing I don't do on on Hutch's, 10 list of habits, is, and he recommend this is something you shouldn't do is the old, you know, just dropping to a knee and doing the groin stretch, and it's not impressing anyone. Yeah. I'm not doing that because there's a little challenge with getting back up after.

You might not get back up. Yeah.

It's good to stretch, though. It is good to stretch, especially late in your in your skate, because a lot of us aren't doing our post at at our age, anyway, aren't doing the post practice stretch out.

But in terms of that one, to be fair, I was I was thinking about I actually remember a session we had where I was the goalie coach for a team. I think it might have been u 15. And the coach decided that he was gonna take the team through a pregame warm up in practice time because they had their first game coming up of the season, and we're gonna go from leaving the dressing room to the exact warm up we're doing in the game. Think it's a great idea on a coach's part.

Such a great idea.

Yeah. But so then the goaltender skated onto the ice and just went over to the boards and started lazily stretching his groin. And I said, we have three minutes to be ready for this game in this league. I know some places you get 20 and there's more time. Do you really think that's the best use of your first three your only three minutes of warming up on the ice?

And a lot of kids do that. You don't have much practice time. You can prepare, as we said at tip number one, little bit of a warm up before you hit the ice.

Okay. I got one more.

Let's go.

And this is one that Hutch is because this was 10 good habits around the rink, not just on the ice. Right? Did we talk about picking up after? This is Slurpees? Are we going Slurpees?

This is wow. You know, Slurpees should be on there. It would

Tim Bits.....Tim Bits......be number 12. You

guys are not helping on the nutrition side of things. My wife, if she hears this, is just gonna be horrified after all the effort she's putting in to get my She is an

outstanding chef. I love going to Woody's house to work, by the way, because we get this incredible food presented to us every time. Always Shout out the CFO.

Yeah. It's always healthy. And so she's hammering away at my college bound athlete to eat better, and here we are talking about Slurpees and and Tim Hortons. But, Hutch, you've hammered on this one before, and this is a message for parents in terms of habits around the rink. Let them bring their own gear in.

Don't carry their bag for them.

Yes and no. Yes and no. Age dependent. Age dependent. I hate when I hear about a coach saying if you can't pack it, you can't play, and you've got a five year old trying to carry in all that gear.

By the way, don't use a wheel bag either.

Oh, that's silly.

Kids also have to be able yeah. And then you get a kid half injured before he even steps on the ice. But I agree. If you're older, you don't need daddy carrying your sticks for you.