Goalie Demonstrators Wearing gear

[Keeks2915]

One key element of coaching goalies is the ability provide visual demonstrations of the skill progressions and to provide corrections.

EVERY hour at our goalie camp there are a minimum of 4 goalie instructors wearing gear, in addition to our full senior staff goalie coaches.

[Law Goalie]

This brings up a series of questions I've had in the back of my mind for a while.

Assuming a single instructor, would you say it's better to be wearing minimal demonstration gear (pads, gloves & stick) all the time, half the time, or not at all?

Assuming two instructors, is it better for one to demo and the other to skate freely, or to both demo half the time and shoot/skate unencumbered the rest of the time, or is some other combination optimal?

Are there *any* instances in which would be ideal to demonstrate skating without pads on? I have this vague idea that seeing how the leg moves rather than how the pad moves may help kinesthetic recognition, but it's foolish of me to speculate.

I'm trying to figure out how to set-up little volunteer goalie clinics with a skeleton crew, and prioritising stuff like this is a bit hit and miss.

[acmeguy]

Maybe your demonstrators should wear headgear as well, after what happened to you.

You sure your fresh wounds were from a puck and not Mrs. Keek's frying pan?

Glad you're doing a bit better, loosing teeth would'a been worse.

[Keeks2915]

Originally Posted by Law Goalie

This brings up a series of questions I've had in the back of my mind for a while.

Assuming a single instructor, would you say it's better to be wearing minimal demonstration gear (pads, gloves & stick) all the time, half the time, or not at all?

Assuming two instructors, is it better for one to demo and the other to skate freely, or to both demo half the time and shoot/skate unencumbered the rest of the time, or is some other combination optimal?

Are there *any* instances in which would be ideal to demonstrate skating without pads on? I have this vague idea that seeing how the leg moves rather than how the pad moves may help kinesthetic recognition, but it's foolish of me to speculate.

I'm trying to figure out how to set-up little volunteer goalie clinics with a skeleton crew, and prioritising stuff like this is a bit hit and miss.

IMHO

1) At a commercial goalie school you should have a combination of staff.
a) senior goalie instructors - highly credentialed with or without pads.
b) junior "experienced" goalies with lower gear on. been trained at camp for several years.
c) high quality paid shooters (always will be better than having "goalie guys" shooting.) I would be an exception as I'm sure those who have "felt it" in person would agree.
the average goalie coach shooting is an abomination on any goalie older than 12 - 13.

Mitch Korn couldn't score on a 7 year old...... he is smart enough not to shoot on his students.

I cringe when I see a guy with goalie skates "dangling" and doing breakaways / shooting on advanced goalies...

The irony of someone wearing goalie skates because that creates respect over one who doesn't has been discussed and dismissed as insecure lunacy.

[Law Goalie]

Thanks.

So the principle of is one carefully differentiating instructors, demonstrators and shooters: to let specialists specialise. The senior and credentialed teach; the younger demonstrate; the shooters shoot. Approximate as well as possible with non-commercial resources.

The worst nightmare I ever oversaw was letting parents on as shooters - never to be repeated. Well meaning, sure, but a bloody disaster.

It's funny that you mention the skates... it really is a status-symbol. I was mistaken for a shooter once because I was wearing my Grafs and shot a bucket of pucks to warm up before anyone got on the ice. An overeager parent persistently questioned the guy who happened to be wearing goalie equipment - a person who I barely trusted to demonstrate what I told him, to let alone teach anything beyond knife and fork operation.

[Dave_Wells]

Don't be fooled, some of us can snipe quite proficiently in goalie or players skates...

[Law Goalie]

Yes, and loop it four times in your instructional videos.

I was really quite fortunate with with shooters this year: there was kid from the Vaughn Kings minor bantam team who still had friends in my local association, and he showed up every Saturday at 6am like clockwork. Miraculously level-headed and great puck skills.

[jf-laflaire]

The worst is having gasp, "volunteer shooters." The problem is that you need shooters to do certain drills. Its difficult because when you're not doing clinics with resources necessary [e.g. starting up] you depend on volunteers which really limit what you can do.

It sound bad, but I'd rather focus on drills with no pucks in lieu of a surplus of volunteer shooters. But when you're starting out, your hands are tied. So there are compromises.

On topic, as an instructor I like to wear full gear if possible. At least pads and gloves. I also like to do the drills.

When working with higher level goalies [e.g. Midget AAA, Jr. C, Jr. B] I find the best way to get their attention is to be able to perform ["practice what you preach"] the drills. I love working with higher level kids and feel this is the best way to get their respect because when they see a pushing-30 something guy who hasn't played seriously for 7 years but can still do the drills, and still move well, that old guy must know something. When you don't have a strong resume respect has to be earned somehow. Sometimes you need to put yourself out there a bit [humility]!

[Goalerguy]

Originally Posted by acmeguy

Maybe your demonstrators should wear headgear as well, after what happened to you.

You sure your fresh wounds were from a puck and not Mrs. Keek's frying pan?

Glad you're doing a bit better, loosing teeth would'a been worse.

Old thread but I wanted to comment lol

I actually seen keeks demostrating trafic in front of one of the intsructors. He hit the end of his stick in the other end hit him in the face (by accident) and his nose was bleeding. It was actually pretty funny.

And keeks can actually snipe lol. He was doing a tip drill once at camp and he was tipping the pucks. He offered $100 to the first kid that went through the drill and not get scored on. Of course we all failed bad.

[Jim**]

My son is a forward and i have offered to goalie coach on his teams for the last couple of years, in full gear. The response has been wonderful. the goalies like it because i can show what i want them to do not just tell. And the parents of the goalies could not be happier. The coaches like it because then they have two goalies for end of practice scrimage.
And my son, likes it because atleast i am out on the ice with him
My 2 cents, always put on full gear.. its a good workout. And the coach and fire a few at ya now and again
Cheers
Jim

[TenaciousVD]

It's a mixed bag for me. When it's down to one goalie and no others fill in, I suit up in full equipment. it's fun for the goalie as well as the rest of the team who think that they can score on me at will. Funny, never seems to happen though.

Due to the limited time between work and practice, I'm usually just in goal skates (unless they're wet) with players gloves/stick so I can help out with the whole team, as well as work with the goalies. It also allows my to shoot on the goalies if there isn't any work for them on part of a drill. I usually have my goal gloves and stick on the bench in case there's something specific, or puckhandling drills, that I need them for.

[Duff33]

I was a little like Tenacious - I'd coach, unless they were short where I'd then jump in and just have a little skate and such likes to fill in

As it was just me I tended to go for lower half + gloves and stick so I could talk and demo

Thankfully I could normally grab one of the stronger skaters as a shooter as it was a very varied mix of abilities, so while they did some very basic stuff for the newbies the more experienced guys could be 'nabbed' to do some goalie centric drills