A new goalie writes in from Ireland

Question: I have only played for about 3-4 weeks now in goal but love the position. After next weeks scrimmages we will be going into off season for the Christmas break, a period of about 1 1/2 month. I was wondering have you any tips for me as a beginner goalie on how to keep training while at home for the Christmas. By the by no-one in my home town plays lacrosse. Any help would be appreciated.

Yours in Goaltending

Kevin

Answer: Congrats on taking up the best position in Lacrosse!

By the way, a guy from my original home town of South Weymouth, Massachusetts I believe was one of the captains for the Irish team. The name escapes me but I played with him when I was younger.

You say you're not quite fit. Does that mean you're out of breath and are a small guy? Or are you a big guy?

Either way the best thing you can do while you are at home is to work on your stick skills. And this you can do with any flat wall. Hopefully you can find a flat brick wall near your home and you can throw balls at it. This serves a couple of purposes, first it keeps your eyes trained on the ball. Really watch theball all the way into your stick as it rebounds off the wall. This one little habit, tracking the ball into your stick, will help you repeatedly as you play. The other thing it does is help you with your stick skills. Try to work a cradle in when you throw the ball back to the wall. Think of it as a stick fake or a "pump fake" similar to a American Football player faking to one guy and throwing to another. If you are a big guy and not quite mobile it's vital you at least have great stick skills so you can pass the ball to anyone on the field who is open. Nothing worse than seeing a big guy, who can't hang on to the ball get hammered by a little speedy attackman and get scored on.

One of the greatest goalies of all time was a guy named Sal Locasio. I'm talking big, like probably 250-300 pounds big. But he had amazing hands. I even saw him score a goal once. His stick skills are what made all the difference.

Now seeing that no one in your area playes lacrosse you can get a little creative in trying to keep your skills up. If you can find a friend who plays tennis they can always serve tennis balls at you. Tennis balls are actually a great way to refine your skills. You immediately know the ball won't hurt so you can focus on stopping the ball. If you have any hurler friends they can always whack balls at you. Talk about getting your pain tolerance up!

Or you can have a buddy kick soccer balls at you. This may sound a bit odd but really, when you think about it, the larger ball is easier to see. You will be practicing reacting to the ball. (Any ball will do.) Use your stick. When goalies have a tough time seeing the ball I often recommend training with a larger ball perhaps an American Softball or even a cricket training ball would work. You need to be creative.

A small drill you can work on to help you with your footwork is a one-legged hop up the stairs. Stand on one leg, and jump to the first step with the same leg. Keep your upper body in a stance as you would playing in the goal. Try to keep your upper body still and use your legs and hips to drive up to the second stair. This one little move will help you get the muscles activated that are responsible for stepping to the ball. You can do them every time you see a stair case if you'd like. Just make sure your knees are healthy enough to do it. Start slow and work up to a couple sets of 8-10 reps keeping great form.

If you can hit the gym at all try to work on squats to get your hips in shape. Again, if you are a big guy, big guys typically don't like to bend at the knees. So it's important to strengthen the legs so you can move to shots taken at you down low. My first recommendation to my shooters when we see a larger goalie is to shoot low as their mobility is often suspect.

That should get you started Kevin. Email me with any other questions you may have. I'm going to add your address to my newsletter list as well. Kick ass.

Jonathan -

Dartmouth Goalie Scores A Goal!

I’m the backup. How do I move faster to the ball?

Q:
Hi my name is Ryan and I am 15 yrs. old. I played for the JV team for my high school lacrosse team and now I am on the varsity as a sophomore...but I'm backup (2nd string to be exact) I was wondering if there are any special warm-ups to move to the ball faster. I am pretty fast already but I still need some "tweaking". If there is anything please help...thanks

Also I do not have a backup stick yet... what is a good one and how should I string it?

Jonathan Writes: Ryan moving to the ball faster has everything to do with being stronger in the hips and the legs.  So by hitting the gym and working on squats, lunges, etc. you will be able to move your body to the ball faster.

As far as warm ups to move to the ball faster, that's a good question.  I will say this.  Every time you step to the ball whether that's a warm up, visualizing stepping to the ball, or actually moving to the ball to make a real save you are reinforcing that movement pattern.  I'll explain it like this, each time you move to the ball whether it's for real or in your mind you are in essence digging a trench.  The more you do it the deeper that trench gets and the harder it is to stray from that direction the deeper the trench is.  So you obviously want to dig a trench of good habits and not bad ones.  The more efficient your movements are the faster you will be.  Does that make sense?

Me best tip for getting better when you're the back up goalie is:  Stand behind the cage, in line with the shooter, when the other goalie is getting shot on.  You are basically getting twice the shots.  Twice the conditioning.  And when the other goalie is getting shot on you can focus on your technique without the stress of getting hit with the ball.

As far as back up sticks.  I use the STX Eclipse with the mega mesh. It's super easy to string as you can just string it sidewall to sidewall and leave it there.  I've written a couple other articles here about that.  I probably have some articles on my Goalie Blog as well.

If you send me your email address I'll add you to my goalie newsletter that I send out monthly.

Hope this helps Ryan.  If you've got me more questions just email me directly at jone94@shaw.ca.  Let me know what school you're at as well.

Kick ass.

Jonathan -
www.lacrossegoaltending.blogspot.com

Clearing: Who do you pass to?

Q: I'm having trouble clearing the ball. Like I make the save and then I dont know who to pass it to, Thats what my problem really is. Theres not a problem with my stick it's just I dont know what to do after the save. I was hopping that you might be able to help me out...thanks

 

A: Jonathan writes: Javii, this should help.  It's a little long but hopefully it covers everything.

First off, clearing is a team thing.  It's not just a goalie thing.  Your coach should teach your team how to clear the ball after you make the save.  If he doesn't know how to do that then the following should help.  I'm going to teach you a very simple clear.

If you make a save and the other team doesn't put someone on you right away then you want one defenseman to go to the right sideline behind goal-line extended.  Another defenseman to the left sideline behind goalline extended, and another defenseman up the field to the sideline away from the players bench area.  Then you put two midfielders in the center of the field and one midfielder up to the sideline by the players bench.

What this does is force the other team to cover these guys and you will be uncovered, for a while.

You have four seconds to hold the ball in the crease then you have to head out of the crease. Once you are out of the crease the other team will want to take the ball from you at some point.  This might happen right when you leave the crease or it may happen after you walk up the field a bit.  When this happens you want to pass to your teammate who is now uncovered.  We call this "Draw and Dump".  You "draw" a member of the opposing team to you and then you "dump" the ball to your teammate who is now uncovered. When he gets the ball he now moves the ball up field by doing the same thing.  The goal of your team is to draw and dump the ball up to the attackman.  Basically if you don't draw anyone you don't pass it, you just keep going.  This may mean that you go across midfield sometimes.  That's ok.  You just need someone to stay back on your side of the field so you don't go offsides.  I hope all that makes sense.

Now when you make a save you should yell "Clear!!"  really loud so your team now knows that they can bust ass up field.  If someone is wide open you can pass to them and possibly start a fast break the other way and give your team a great scoring chance.

Your first look off of a save is right back to where the shot came from.  Usually the whole reason that shot was taken was because your teammate did something wrong and was beaten cleanly by the offense.  So usually that same teammate is somewhere behind the shooter ready to catch a pass and run upfield.  Some teams who are really confident in their defense and goalies will teach their midfielders to get beat and start running upfield right away.  If the shot goes in it's not a problem, they were beaten anyway.  But if you make the save it's a great chance to start the offense if you can hit him with a good pass.

Javii I hope that helps.  Please let me know if you need any clarification.  This is a great question, sorry it took so long to get back to you I knew I would need a fair bit of time to write you a great answer.  Good luck!  Send me your email and we'll put you on our goali newsletter list.

Jonathan -
www.LacrosseGoaltending.blogspot.com

Coaching Girls Goalies. What’s the difference?

Q: I am a new (but learning) goalie coach for girls' lacrosse.  Can you recommend a good resource for coaches that focuses on girls goaltending.  Most of the resources I have found are centered on boys lacrosse goaltending.  Although the basics are similar, the girls' game presents situations not typical of the boys' game.  For example, for the girls, goalies seem to have to contend with a lot more shots from close to the goal circle because of the lack of body checking in the game.  There must be strategies for addressing these types of shots.

Jonathan writes: Hey there Tony.  I'm your resource.  I'll be honest I haven't found any great resource for goalies period.  That's what I'm trying to become so if I can help you just email me at jone94@ shaw.ca and we'll help you as much as possible.

I tend to view the skills for being a goalie the same for both.  Whether there is a girl in front of the cage or a boy it doesn't really matter.  You still have a variety of shots, coming from a variety of spots on the field at a variety of speeds.  

You are correct that in the girls game shots come from in close more often but that is the same on the men's side when the defense is horrible.  I still have to teach the goalies the same way.

There is a point where a goalies job is to get someting in front of the ball.  Anything, whether that's the stick or a foot or a knee, whatever can get there is what needs to stop the ball.  This is where equipment comes into play. Girls are smart and tend to where more equipment and I think that is a great idea.  I teach my male goalies to play like a shortstop might play in baseball when the ball gets in tight.  They need to get their body in front of the ball and their hands to the ball.  The stops won't always be pretty but I've never met a coach who wanted a pretty save over a goal ever.

As the shooter gets closer the goalies job is to keep their hands out away from the body and mirror the head of the shooters stick.  A great drill for this is to tie a piece of string between the goalies top hand and the coaches hand.  The goal is for the goalie to keep slack in the string while the coach moves his hand around.  If the string goes tight the goalie hasn't moved fast enough.  You can also do that with some string with some velcro.  If the goalie can't keep up the velcro comes apart.

Shots from in close are very tough.  Baiting comes into play as well.  This is where the goalie gives the shooter a spot to shoot at and when the shooter goes for it the goalie tries to explode that area of the cage to make the save.

If you need some more help with this Tony just email.  Let me know what your goalies are having trouble with and we'll talk it over.  Sometimes here it's hard to write enough.  We can always talk over the phone too if you'd like.  I talk to coaches and goalies all over North America so don't hesitate.  It helps me too as I'm working on a goalie book as well.

Check out my goalie blog and I'll talk to you soon,

Good luck to your goalies,

Jonathan -
www.LacrosseGoaltending.blogspot.com

Football Visors for Goalies?

Q: I am a goalie and sometimes it is really hard to see in the sun even if you are
wearing eye black so I was looking and the Oakley football visors fit the CPX
helmet so I was wondering if it is legal to have a tinted visor on you helmet...
some people say that they have to be able to see your eyes in case of a
concussion so, let me know.

Jonathan writes: Zac buddy that's an awesome question.

I've got a saying that I live by, "Don't ask for permission.  Ask for fogiveness."

With that being said you just want to check with your league.  I'd assume that if football guys can wear them that lacrosse players can but no one is right now so you're going to be a bit of a pioneer in that regard.

As far as the concussion thing that's a great point and I don't really know the answer to that one.  It makes sense but again, football guys can usually wear them and they're getting a heck of a lot more concussions than a lacrosse player does.  Again, check with your league.

Couple of things to consider.

First, can you wear a different helmet.  I wear a Brine Triad. I also own a CPX.  I find that with the CPX I have to wear it a bit higher on my face and that raises the visor up and more sun gets to my face.  With the Brine I can wear it lower so the visor cuts out more sun and I have better visibility.  I also like the Brine because of the center bar.  The top part of the center bar is really close to my eyes and I have better visibility there too.  So if you can go with the Brine I highly recommend it.

Ok, but if you're stuck with the CPX and you still want to go with the visor here is something you may not have thought about:  The visor may change your optics and it may make the ball more difficult to save.  Meaning you'll see the ball but the view of it may be warped as you look through the visor.

Quick story:  The guy that invented the first really good visor had a son who was a punt returner at Deerfield in Massachusetts.  His son kept missing balls in games and it was really costing his team.  But he noticed that when his son just caught balls for fun with no helmet on he caught everything.  So he looked at his sons helmet and he was wearing the first generation of visors and they were flat.  They followed the contour of the face mask but they just came flat down and because of that if you looked out the top, bottom of side of the visor it really changed how the ball looked.  (Think about the "Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear" sort of thing)

So this guy whose son was the punt returner was an optician.  He made eye glasses for a living so he designed a much better shield and started a company called Excel.  He sold it to Oakley for millions and now you see every visor is made by Oakley.

Now the vision is vastly improved through the visors but as a goalie you may find that things look a little screwed up and you're missing balls you used to save.  I'd try wearing it in practice a bunch and see how it goes.  If it goes well then go for it.  If it doesn't you'll know why...the optics are weird and that's causing you to miss balls.

Let me know how it goes Zac.  Shoot me an email at jone94@shaw.ca  If you've got any more questions don't hesitate to email me.   And check out my goalie blog at www.lacrossegoaltending.blogspot.com

Trust – You and the Shooter

I played this summer in the Canadian Field Nationals that were held in Coquitlam, British Columbia. In one of our round robin games we had the chance to play against the Six Nations team from Ontario that had three or four World Team players. These guys were big. And although they didn't run much their stick skills were awesome. In the second quarter of our game we gave up six goals and each one of those shots were an uncontested shot from about 8-10 yards. I'd like to think I had a chance on them but really…these guys were peppering the corners. I took one shot off the inside of my calf as I tried to kick it out to stop a ball. The shot hit the fleshy part of my calf so it stung…I still have a round spot where the ball hit…a month later.

    We ended up losing the game but afterwards someone came up and asked me if I was scared getting shot at by those guys so close to the cage. I mean the shots were hard, fast and super close. They were wind 'em up cannons too, not little dish and dunk type shots. As I thought about the game, especially the second quarter, I realized I wasn't scared at all. Not even close. But "why" I wasn't scared was something I wanted to share with you today.

    You see even though the shots were coming at me upwards of 100mph. I knew that these guys knew right where they were going. Many of the shots that went in hit just inside the pipe. I could hear them hit the pipe or that part of the net where it's tight against the pipe. So I knew that these balls were going by me but they were going in at some of the hardest spots for the shooter to hit and the hardest spots for me to save. Many, if not all, of the shots went in "off stick hip" or right by my left ear. The furthest spot for my stick to go.

    These guys were great shooters, and even though the shots were hard and fast I knew, that they knew, right where they were going. At one point one of my defensemen stuck his stick out to try and knock down a shot. The ball was headed right for my stick but it deflected off the d-pole and deflected into my chest. It hurt a ton and knocked the wind out of me. I was so pissed at my d-pole because I was about to catch the shot but because of him I now had a huge bruise on my chest.

    I trusted these guys to shoot the ball by me and not "at" me. I felt safer getting shot on by these guys than I do by a bunch of high school kids who can't shoot nearly as fast. Those kids can do some damage because they will wind up and have no idea wher the shot was going to go. Many times the ball winds up on your thigh. Or in your chest. Or it hits you square in the balls. Ouch!

    Trusting those who shoot against you is vitally important as you develop. Even when you get older too! By trusting the shooter you can focus on stopping the ball. On moving to the ball. And not worrying about if the ball is going to hit you or not which vitally compromisies your mental clarity and your effectiveness as a goalie. So keep that in mind as you develop. Do you trust this shooter who is shooting on you? Do you know he knows where the ball is going? Can you forgive him for the odd-ball that hits you in the arm, or the thigh, or the balls?