Hockey Goalie Drills
Most coaches, if you don’t have a goalie coach, don’t know what to do with goalies. So there will be sometimes when you are all at your net. And I will give you some drills for those times.
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These are some basic drills that are very good for warm up before a game or during a practice when you are alone. These drills, I recommend to do about 3 times each, but for the Y drill, the box drill and the W drill you should do an even number of times of your choice. At all times while doing these drills you should be imagining a puck moving where you go next, imagine game situations. If it your first time doing a drill, don’t be scared to take it easy, and get a feel for it. It is better to do a drill slow and do it good, then do a drill fast and bad. You can incorporate butterflies and butterfly slides in most drills. And you can also include shots when the goalie is stopped.
1.The first drill the X which is also call the bow tie. There are two ways of doing this drill. I usualy do the second, but both are good.
1.1 You start at the post, push to the other post. Then go cross crease and stop where you would be if the puck was on the side at the point (a little higher than where you would be for a face-off). Then go back cross crease to the post you were just at. Push to the other post, then go cross crease, again, stop where you would be if the puck was at the point (blue line). Come back to the post you were just at. Repeat as many times as you want.
1.2 It’s almost the same drill, but when you first go cross crease, instead of coming back, you push to the other side (above the other red point on the crease.) Go back cross crease to the post and repeat.
2. This drill is called the Y or the inverted Y. This drill is to simulate a breakaway. If you have an extra coach a player you can ask him/her to just skate infront of you then choose a side to go to.
2.1 You start at your post push to the center of the crease, then push a little step more to challenge. Then do about two or three C-cuts then slide to the post opposite to the one you started on, you follow the coach/player that has the puck. And repeat.
3. This is the U drill or sometimes called the bucket. This is a drill where at a point, you should start you butteflies when you stop. Or do a V-H (which is when you are against the post and you have one leg vertical and the other horizontal) when you are one the posts. It is important that when you go to your post that you push, and not glide down.
3.1 You start at your post, then push to the other post. Then you push out a little higher than the red mark. Push back to the post and repeat on the other side. This drill is very good for learning what to do when the puck is close to then net, and looking behind you.
4. This the box drill, this is probably the most used drill by younger goalies. This is a very essential drill to learn for starters and learning T-Pushes. In this drill it is also important to push to the dot, not glide.
4.1 You start at the post, then push out to the face-off dot(in the crease). Push to the other face-off dot. Then push to the post. You can either restart the same thing, or go post to post two times. Then repeat.
5. This is the W drill. This probably the most complex drill on this page. Please look at the picture if you don’t know what I’m talking about. To be honest i don’t do this drill a lot, but I think it’s as if someone is coming down the wing. Gets under the goal line then passes to the point. Then that players passes back to the goal line but on the other side. Then passes to a skating player on the side. Then it repeats.
5.1 You start at the post, then come out and challenge on an angle. You can either skate backwards to your post, or push. Then push out to the top of the crease, go to the other post. Then challenge towards the boards, and again you can either skate back or push back. Repeat.
If you have any question please comment, and I will try to answer as soon as possible.
