Pro Tips (and Drills) with Thomas Speer
- Force a deke on breakaways: a deke can only go left or right, while a shot from the hash marks can beat you anywhere.
- Use a no-puck timing drill where the shooter cuts left or right to a puck placed outside each post, training goalies to match speed without fixating on a shot.
- Thomas Speer, a three-year Sharks goalie coach and 2025 World Championship gold medalist with Team USA, designed this session after campers struggled in a shootout competition.
- Making breakaway saves creates team momentum — Speer emphasizes the psychological impact on the bench as a reason to prioritize this skill.
- Run three focused stations with distinct focal points to break down the separate skills required for breakaway and shootout success.
InGoal Magazine spent a morning with San Jose Sharks goalie coach Thomas Speer and his team at Pacific Coast Goaltending at their recent camp in Seattle for what turned into a three-drill session focused on being able to better manage breakaways and shootouts.
The focus for this session was born out of goalies at the camp struggling during a shootout competition in the second on-ice session the previous afternoon. It started with Speer, who has been with the Sharks for three seasons and recently was part of the American team that won gold at the World Championships for the first time since 1933, walking the kids through his keys to managing breakaways before rotating through three different stations, each with a different key and focal point related to the skills required.
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