Sports Vision and Goaltending

[Cubanpuckstopper]

Four years ago it was recommended that I read the Book SportsVision. The link below is about the author Dr. Leon Revien.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A961948260

It was one of the best things I have come across for goalies.
Further confirming this are Rick DiPietro’s comments.

I go see a doctor who figures out everything I need to work on to strengthen my vision. We do exercises that test your reaction to light and how well you remember flashing numbers.

From the link below
http://www.mensfitness.com/Rick_DiPietr ... usives/208

This is offered as a product at Rob Stauber’s Goalcrease in Minnesota
http://www.goalcrease.com/center/vision_dynamics.cfm

And this link describes more modern vision improvement techniques.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 122107.htm

Are there members here who exercise their eyes and/or stimulate their vision by other means?
Especially those who spend a lot of time in front of 1) the narrow horizon of a computer screen; 2) which is usually viewed at the same distance, and 3) doesn’t change what is displayed rapidly. All three of those traits are the exact opposite of tracking a puck.

[beaver]

I red about the Rick`s diet. Funny Peanut butter , burgers


Pretty strict. I'll do egg whites and some turkey bacon for breakfast; a protein shake after a workout; a piece of grilled salmon with some broccoli rabe and spinach salad on the side for lunch. For a snack, I'll have a handful of almonds or an apple with peanut butter on it. And for dinner, I've been eating a lot of buffalo burgers lately.

These articles are very interesting. Thanks to You CPS.

-Finnish Beaver-

[Jukka Ropponen]

I did read the materials/book 2 years ago as Cuban did send me a copy. While I think that some of these concepts are a bit extreme it is still vital to work on eyesight, vision, lateral vision etc as part of the goalie training.

I am in favor of building these concepts into normal goalie training both on dryland and on ice. For example in dryland goalies should not start their sprints etc based on whistle rather than coach should use visual stimulation/ signs. Good example is where goalie is on his stance facing forward > coach will toss tennis ball from behind to somewhere in front of the goalie (also to sides) > once goalie sees the ball the movement/sprint etc starts.

Jukka

[Cubanpuckstopper]

The hardest part of all of this is that it is difficult to quantify results. Most of the feedback is subject to what the goalie feels.

In spite of the lack of quantification, some of what I think works for the ocular muscles are listed below.
Eccentric Circles, you should feel some strain on the outside of the eye.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVamg6E3 ... re=related

Brock String training to improve/detect proper convergence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGlCVTdNqfw

Near and Far focusing, once again you should feel some strain, which means ocular muscles are working. In many cases after when switching the focus from very near, to far, many see two far images actually fuse. The faster the fusion takes place, the better.
http://www.weavereye.com/Vision%20Thera ... 0Chart.pdf

[TartanBill]

Cuban,

Thanks for this thread. I've been arguing, with some success to my other coaches that practice MUST begin with long shots to prepare the goalie's eyes. I've felt myself that the tracking of shots from the blue line helped me "warm up" my eyes for the intense focus needed to track pucks.

This link tells a bit about tracking(actually, it's pretty technical). http://www.iovs.org/cgi/reprint/26/7/932.pdf

Notably, they found that a pro baseball player had greater tracking ability than they had thought humanly possible. Even then, he looses tracking as the ball approaches.

Edit:
To tie this to the glove position thread, although he appears to, Varlamov cannot watch the puck into his glove because his glove is too far back when catching. This leads to misses and pop outs. He and anyone else would loose tracking anyway, but that 0.8 meter or so is critical to minimizing the damage.

When we tell tenders to watch the puck into the glove, we are lying to them, but the habit maintains tracking for the critical extra miliseconds.

[Cubanpuckstopper]

That article was detailed, I'm still digesting parts of it.

You point about Varlamovs' glove is interesting. I have always wondered who has there dominant eye on the glove side.

Additionally, to your point, it was about three years ago I learned about saccadic supression. It might support your view of tracking the puck into the glove. Which may explain in part why the referee close to play misses a call, but a referee further away makes the call.

The article linked below disucsses some of these points. http://www.sportsci.org/news/ferret/vis ... eview.html

[TartanBill]

In baseball batting, there is an advantage to being cross (right handed batter should be left eyed) dominant because it minimizes the eye and head movement necessary to maintain tracking. I presume the same applies to catching a puck.

I used to umpire baseball and another factor with the referees is the ability to focus on only a very small area. It was VERY hard to make a call on a tag if the tag was applied far from the base, for example on a slide and the tag was at the hip or shoulder. It was much easier to call this from a distance. As goalies, we get this perspective and that's why it's so important to help our defense by calling out the forecheck and breakout.