How to Play Goalie in Hockey

EQUIPMENT FIRST

                       The first thing you need to do is get some nice pads, a good broken in glove, a nice blocker, and a un-used stick. After you buy all of your equipment you should get a friend over with a couple of pucks. Before your friend starts taking shots on you you should do some stretches so you don’t suffer from any injuries. Now that you are done with stretching you should go on and get in the net.

POSITIONS

                      Now that you’re in the net we need to learn positions. The first and less common position is the Stand Up position in which is when you have a shooter coming at you and hes getting ready to take a shot you would rather stand up and face the shot instead of going down. A few NHL greats that are stand up goalies are: Martin Brodeur and Chris Osgood. The next and more common position is the Butterfly position which is when a skater is coming down at you and you want to go down when he is going to take the shot. Advantages to butterfly is you will stop anything on the ground, you will have very little net to shoot at when you are in the butterfly. Two very famous NHL butterfly goalies are: Tony Esposito and Glenn Hall. The last but not least position is hybrid in which is a combination of both stand up and butterfly. This is a very dominative position because you take both high and low areas away from the shooter making it nearly impossible to score.

LEAGUES

                     After you practice your positions and stretches and feel like your good enough to get in a league and really get tested out, go to a local ice rink or roller arena. Check out the league times to see if they fit your schedule, If so then awesome! and good luck with your team!