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 -