Forget Your Stick to Make More Saves!

I started messing around with this idea a couple of years ago with great success so give it a try and see how it helps your game. Email me at jone94@shaw.ca and tell me how it works for you.

No stick, More saves.

In business, as in sports, I tend to look outside my industry for inspiration rather than in it. And when I look outside in business I tend to look for good marketers and salespeople. Because these are the skills that you can apply to any business to make it successful.

So in sports I tend to look at other great athletes, no matter what the sport, and try and bring traits and talents that would make a better goalie.

You'll find me talking a lot about hockey goalies and baseball players, and football players and today is no different. You see, I think the lacrosse goalie is a little screwed up when it comes to stopping a ball. (Yes, I really did say screwed up.)

It seems to me that the lacrosse goalie is confused in some ways. If you look at every other goalie position in sports you'll notice that the goalie never makes a save reaching across his or her body to make a save.

Only in soccer and hand ball will a goalie try to do that and they will only do it when they have enough time to react with both hands. If the shot is too fast, or too close, they will reach out a hand, or stick out a leg to make a save.

In hockey a goalie has a blocker on one hand, and catcher on the other. NEVER does a goalie reach across his body to make a save. If the puck goes to the blocker side the goalie will deflect it away. If it goes to the catching glove the goalie will try and catch it. (Even when the puck is shot from too close to the catching glove the goalie will use it as a deflection device and not try to catch it.)

But for some reason in lacrosse we feel that we should try to catch every ball. We're taught this. And then we don't wear enough equipment to make that happen. (More on that in another article.) Why on earth are we taught to bring our stick across our body, to make a save?

They don't do it in hockey: If a puck goes to their off stick hip they don't try and bring their stick there they just stick out their catching glove. If the shot goes to their off-stick low side they stick out a leg. The only time they bring the stick hand aross their body is when they have time and room to react and that's usually when the puck is dumped in casually or shot from a great distance.

In soccer, a goalie will bring both hands to the ball if he has plenty of time to react. A soccer ball doesn't travel nearly as fast as a lacrosse ball, on average, and when it does come fast and from short distances the goalie will throw out the same side hand or leg to make the save.

In field hockey, the goalie is loaded with equipment so that they can react to the ball no matter where it goes. If it's down low they will stick out a padded leg to make the save. If it's high they will throw out a blocker to make the save. And then they will whack the ball out of the area with their stick hand, or kick it.

The challenge we have as lacrosse goalies is that we must be able to pass the ball and run out of the cage which makes equipment issues when trying to stop the ball. Also, shooters in the lacrosse have the ability to stop their shot in the middle of their shot unlike other sports where once the ball is on the way it's hard to pull it back and fake out the goalie. Lacrosse is the only sport where a player can throw a fake so hard you actually think the ball has left the stick.

But what I'm focusing on here is stopping the ball.

With most young goalies, if I take the stick out of their hand and give them two baseball catching gloves (one on each hand) they will move better to the ball. When I throw the stick back in their hand the feet freeze up and they end up stabbing at the ball all over the place.

If you take the stick out of your hand and have your coach or friend throw light grounders at you I guarantee you will step easily to the ball. Just like a baseball catcher would step to a wild pitch or a shortstop to a ground ball.

When I find myself giving up shots, especially to the off stick side, if I drop my stick completely or at least focus on moving to the ball hands first and not stick first, I make more saves. It's those times when I find I am trying to catch things with my stick too much that balls go in.

I hope this has given you some food for thought. Focus on moving to the ball without that stick. Hands first. Feet first. I guarantee you'll make more saves, especially in close.

Let me know how this post helped you and email me at jone94@shaw.ca If you've got questions send them along as well and I'll answer them in future posts.

Jonathan -