Avoid Creating One Bad Habit While Fixing Another

In the cage, our feet are the key to everything. While there are a number of different things that make great goalies, one thing they all have in common is sharp, consistent footwork that works for their style of play. Quick hands? You still need to step to tough shots to pipes to get your hands there. A little under-sized in the cage? That can be overcome very quickly with great athleticism and stepping.

Because footwork is such a huge piece of the puzzle for goalies, we want to be sure we NEVER drill poor mechanics, and it is for this reason that in some drills, we actually REMOVE the feet from the equation. If we want to work on hand speed and reaction with a rapid-fire ball toss drill, or to really focus on driving the hands out to the shot on offstick-hip shots, that becomes the focus, sometimes at the expense of footwork. To allow our goalies to really hone in on the purpose of the drill, and not worry about footwork quality slipping while they focus on a different tool, we have they kneel. It is better to have NO footwork in a drill than to have BAD footwork!

If a drill is to focus on hand speed, let that be the focus. Drill a certain quality or weak spot, give it 100% attention for the duration, and when you back to live shots, you’re footwork will remain dialed in and whatever it is you were just training will be put into action!