Parents: Questions from the InGoal Inbox

You're right. Stop It Goaltending U, the app, brings you our parent segment every week. One of the great elements of InGoal Radio, the podcast, is talking to goaltenders, but talking to their support system as well-being mom and dad and and the the people that are leaning into this journey as much as the goaltenders themselves.

Well, and nobody leans into the journey like the crew over at Stop It Goaltending. We've talked about Brian Daccord and all the lessons he brings from over twenty five years in the business as a goaltender, as a goalie coach, as a director of goaltending, as a goalie scout, and now again, as a director of goaltending with the Detroit Red Wings. The entire crew that he works with, a lot of these are goalie coaches working in minor pro, working in college. They bring all that knowledge, all of it. 25 of experience, all that shared knowledge, and they put it in an app for you.

It's called Stop It Goaltending U, the app. And when you get a subscription to it, you get weekly, daily, and sort of big picture, small picture, daily primers you can digest a minute a day. Each week you get longer videos if you wanna sink your teeth into something more. There's new lessons, new tips, new advice constantly on the Stop It Goaltending U app. And the best part of all, you get the same from InGoal Magazine because when you buy a subscription to the Stop It Goaltending U app, you also get a subscription to InGoalmag premium.

It's the best of both worlds. All that knowledge from them, all that knowledge from us and the NHL goalies that share tips and advice with us all rolled into one place. It's Stop It Goaltending U. Make sure you download it. Check it out at the App Store or wherever you people who are on Androids download your apps.

The Stop It Goaltending U, the app parent segment, as Hutch joins us to just do a little q and a with some of our listeners and, delve into some of the, questions and comments, that he receives over the, weeks that we bring you the InGoal Radio Podcast. Hutch.

Sorry I couldn't be with you guys. It really is the highlight every week for me to sit down and chat goaltending with the two of you and with all of our listeners. However, couldn't be, so I took some time and recorded the parent segment, or here I am recording the parent segment ahead of time for everybody. And we were just jumping into the mailbag with a few questions that have been sent my way, or in some cases through, through a Facebook group that I I tend to hang out with. So here we go.

Real quick. First one, where can I get a white cage for his Bauer helmet? Quick, easy answer. You should know what it is. The Hockey Shop.

Go to thehockeyshop.com. I, in fact, ordered several just about a month ago. And, they'll ship anywhere in Canada, and lots of their categories can go into The USA as well. This is not a hockey shop thing. It is not a government political thing.

There's just agreements with several brands that retailers in Canada can only ship within Canada. Retailers in The US can only ship within The US. But, if you call Cam and it's on every single one of our Gear Segment videos or you can email sales@thehockeyshop.com and, you can get in touch with Cam through there or camp somebody on Cam's team and find out what can be shipped your way. But by all means, go through the hockey shop because they're just fantastic. K.

Second one, more technical. Tips for holding your feet. Young goalie going down too much too soon because he's afraid of being scored on low. Here's my answer. There are some drills you can do, but mom and dad, you're not a goalie coach out there typically.

Here's what I would have said to my child when they were younger like yours. With respect to games, I would say nothing. Don't say to them before the game, don't drop too soon. Don't say them that if you go down quick, you're gonna get beat up high. For games, you have to let them play.

You can't be in their head. If they think out there, they're gonna get scored on. But in practice, what I would say is you just have to try. The goals don't matter in practice. You have to try to focus on seeing the puck leave the blade of the stick before you go down.

It's really that simple. Bonus, if they're focusing on the release and making sure that puck has left the blade, they're gonna be focusing more on the release and they're gonna be more effective with everything they do. So that's how I'd handle it as a parent. Similar technical sort of stuff. Somebody wants to know what is most important for a beginner goalie, Sending them for power skating lessons or to goalie specific training.

Most people when this is a comment from Facebook and most people jumped in there and said, skating, skating, skating. And I assume you mean specific goalie skating, but but even pure power skating is fantastic for for young goalies as well. It is for sure the key skill for a goaltender, but my answer would be a little bit more nuanced than that. I don't think it is a a black and white sort of question. Sure.

Skating is the most important skill for your child to have, but the most important thing is that they have fun and want to keep coming back. So I'd be looking for a goalie coach who incorporates skating into all of their work. They're gonna get the specific goalie training, but they'll get a certain amount of skating in every practice that they go to. I personally think with most most kids, that's gonna be the most fun. They'll get the most specific skating stuff and then they're gonna get all the other skills as well.

So check with the goalie coach, maybe watch one of the lessons they work with, see how much skating they do, and see what your kid is interested in. Some goalie coaches will do it for an hour and kids will eat it up and some kids will hate it unless it's only, you know, five minutes at the beginning. The most important thing is that your kid has fun. Okay. Here's another one.

Ideas for a Christmas gift for a U11 goalie. Well, that one's easy. InGoal Magazine. Go to ingoalmag.com. There is a link on there for giving a gift and you can give an easy electronic gift.

After you've given it, you can even print out a little gift certificate that you can include in, you know, in stocking or wrapped up or however you wanna do it. Little closer to Christmas, we'll have our annual Christmas shopping article out and we'll give you lots of other great ideas. You can even go search Christmas at ingoalmag.com and check out last year's article, but every goalie deserves a subscription to InGoalmag. Two more and then we'll be done. One was a quick question asking about which of two specific chesties that their kids should should get.

And and honestly, the only answer to that one I believe is you have to try. You could, again, reach out to Cam at The Hockey Shop if you have a specific question. But the reality is that every piece of gear these days from the major manufacturers are they're great. But everybody's gonna have specifics for what they want based on how they play the game. In fact, that's why every time Kevin does a review for us or Kevin and Cam sit down, they talk about the features so that you can decide what's right for your game.

But we can't say that one is the best for everybody. So the best thing is to get into your local retailer and and give one a try and see what feels the most comfortable. The last one, maybe a little tougher one really, is is a parent of a U15 goaltender and their goalie is being helped by a parent coach. I guess in this team, most of the coaches are they're not parents. They're just paid to be coaches for the team.

But one parent has gone out there to volunteer and help the goaltenders and look, that's great. But it sounds like there's a fair bit of negative commentary that is maybe a little bit over the line to these parents or or to this child. And what would you say to the head coach? I guess you just have to have a bit of a conversation. Look, you don't want if it's too negative an experience, you don't want it to ruin the year for the kid.

If there's something you can guide them through, if you can help them have a conversation with the parent coach at this time, you 15, you know, we're almost into major junior hockey here. So they do need to be able to advocate for themselves. So I would try and help my child advocate and speak to the coach themselves. But for sure, there there comes a time when it's a little too hard for a child or as a parent, you just think it's too far over the line and you don't think they should have to defend for themselves in that respect. Or maybe they just feel like you're putting your child in a difficult spot.

So what would I say to the head coach? I would just I would just lay it out there very nicely, very carefully. I would say, I really appreciate that this parent is out there helping. I know that not many teams are lucky enough to have somebody with experience out there helping the goalies, but you should just be aware that the way my child responds best is is to positive commentary. And he's feeling that this is a little bit over the line.

I'm not looking for somebody to get in trouble. I'm not looking for you to go and tell the guy how to do his job. But maybe you could just sort of keep an ear out on the ice and just, you know, gently guide them into being a little bit more positive with the child. I, my personal opinion is that you as people have probably heard on the show here, is that you get a lot more out of being positive with a child than you do with being negative. So it is it is something that that you need to be gentle about.

I I don't think you can go in there and say, we don't want this happening and and so on unless it's just really really bad. Yeah. Have a careful conversation. Honestly, if it's something you wanna to talk over, you can feel free to reach out to me and and I'd be happy to talk it through with you as well. Got a couple of notes this week from parents who just wanted to touch base because of what I say on the show.

And and that's an offer I make to all parents out there. If you wanna have a conversation about anything or just wanna let me know you're listening to the parent segment or something you'd like to hear about, do reach out please. Parents@InGoalmag.com.