First Shots of the Season Come Hard And Fast, Saves Are a Bit Slow. Why?

Hey Jonathon,

My name is (name witheld) and I'm a freshmen in high school and playing lacrosse. i had practice today and didn't do so hot so i looked up some goalie tips and your name came up, i hope this isn't a problem.

I'm currently playing indoor Lax but in the spring I'll be playing field. I played great and got MVP in middle school but right now in pre-season for high school I'm noticing that if i get the save it's usually lucky and off my body not my stick. I know the main thing i need is just more practice but i thought if you had any great tips that could help me out that would be great, especially things for help with the bounce shots.

Thank you and i hope we can keep in touch,

(Name witheld)



Answer: Hey there man. Thanks for emailing. Not a problem, that's why I'm here.

Couple things,

It's early. You're going to have a little rust. Your box season should have helped you with keeping your eye on the ball unless you got into a bad habit. That habit can be taking your eye off the ball.

I haven't played box lacrosse as a goalie but I am a hockey goalie. They are very similar and what I find happening is that I tend to rely on my equipment more to make the save instead of my hands which is what we need in field. Couple of thoughts...really try to focus on seeing the ball all the way into your stick. Work on this especially when you are passing with a friend or just goofing around. It's really important and I can't stress it enough. What tends to happen is that we get comfortable and don't really realize that our eyes are seeing the shot leave the stick and then we zone out a little bit and then catch it. But along the way our eyes aren't really tuned in and therefore our hands aren't either.

It's also High School. The shots are probably coming a bit faster because everyone is just a bit bigger and stronger than they were in the middle school. So with that your reaction times that you had last year are not up to speed with these new shots. Take some time alone to visualize the shots coming at you about ten percent faster than normal. Get your mind ready and your body will follow. Work on visualizing yourself making the saves to these faster shots. What you'll find is that less of the balls will hit you, or go by you, and you'll start making those saves again that you found easy last season.

As far as bounce shots. Keep these things in mind: Get your hands out to the ball. Most goalies tend to suck their hands into their body and their chest tends to be up and out. You want to get your hands out to the ball and your chest over the ball. This will help especially if you're on an uneven playing surface like grass. If it's wet out remember that the ball tends to hit the turf and slide. It doesn't come up as far so you'll want to really get your stick down.

Take a digital camera and have your friend take a photo of what you look like from the balls perspective. Have your friend hold the camera where the ball would bounce and snap a shot. You'll see exactly the holes where the ball can go through you and you'll know just how badly you need to get down to the ball.

Stay with it man. It will come. You've just got to get used to the pace. If you need to throw on some extra quipment until you catch up do it. No sense getting pegged with the ball and having your confidence blown and then creating a whole bunch of other bad habits because of it.