One of the common problems we see in goalie training often is the lack of focus in execution of the drills. This can manifest in several different ways, but in general you see goalies just skating through the drills without really thinking what they are doing or focusing on their drill and execution. This way a big part of the effectiveness is lost and in some cases drills can actually turn to be counterproductive and harmful when execution is incorrect. How to fix this?
Answer is very easy! We as goalie coaches must demand proper execution at all times and not accept any lazy, sluggish, incorrect or unfocused movements or drill execution from our goalies.
Main point of this resource article is to make sure goalies go through their workouts with proper focus and like they would have to move at game situations. A good little tool is to add cones, pucks etc markers for goalies rather than just tell them how to move on each drill.
For this resource I have taken one drill example to demonstrate this. In the video below you can see Minnesota’s Nikke Bäckström working on his shuffle movements and butterfly slide saves on low shots to the blocker side. Nikke shows a good focus when moving from one puck to another before his actual save movement to that low shot. Goalies also tell us that adding those markers for them it makes it so much easier to focus properly on each move. Notice also how Nikke maintains his save readiness all the time as he goes through the drill.
