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080 - Starting the Season Properly and Load Management
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This week we sit down and do a bit of a dive into what the ideal approach is to your early season development. We also discuss the idea of load management and why it's important for goalies to be aware of it. We talk about how to approach load management while still ensuring proper development.
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Transcript
Introduction and Milestones
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to the DIY goalie podcast where hosts and goalie coaches Nathan Park and Connor Monday share their insights on how to become ah better goalie.
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome back goalies to episode 80 of the DIY goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending. I feel like that low key deserves a little bit of a pat on the back so good to honor on that. Yay!
00:00:33
Speaker
It's kind of crazy that it's been 80 weeks um ah Thank you guys for tuning in. It's awesome that we still get listenership and that it's continuing to very slowly grow, but is growing.
00:00:45
Speaker
and So thank you to all of you listening out there, both on the podcast platforms and YouTube.
Personal Updates and Milestones
00:00:51
Speaker
ah It's me and Connor back in the co-host chairs, which is kind of crazy. it feels like it's been years since that's been the case.
00:01:00
Speaker
I feel like I haven't seen Connor in years as well. So, How are you doing over there? uh, you good between hockey hospitals, work, and God knows whatever else life is throwing my way. I'm having a grand old time over here.
00:01:18
Speaker
um Yeah, had a couple of hospital visits, things with the DRF, things with True North goaltending slowly starting to pick up, ah as well as I got, well, I wasn't hired, but I was brought on, I guess, as the goaltending coach for the U18 AA KC Colts through a buddy of mine and former guest on the podcast, Evan Carrillo. So shout out to Evan for making that happen.
00:01:43
Speaker
um and then yeah so it's um it's that new dad life and it's that life of a goalie coach where we kind of drop off and feel like we haven't done any work in the last year or so but it's only been like a week since you know the last time we actually had a session or anything and then uh everything just kind of snowballs beyond now. I got, we got, um, our association skate with, uh, Kurt Rackle and the, uh, the fellows over at, uh, Casey North.
00:02:13
Speaker
Uh, I got SPS fusion coming up this Tuesday and then you had, uh, Casey U 18 double A's, uh, every Thursday now. So it's, uh, Things are picking up again. it's so We're slowly getting there. My daughter is a little ah little feverish right now, so we're watching that closely. But all in all, we we' where I'm having a great time over here, Nathan. How about you?
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, about the same old. i mean, I've been going at this for six years now with the dad life. So, you know, I'm a seasoned vet, and yet still things have not changed.
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, it's, uh, as always busy, it's nice that we're getting back in the swing of things of the season. We're starting to get into the development skates a little bit. And, uh, just so you guys know, I have actually had quite a productive week and have knocked a few things off the list finally. So there is some cool things coming down the pipeline for you guys that, uh, we are working on. So stay tuned for that over the next couple of weeks. Um,
00:03:15
Speaker
cool things that we're testing out right now and that we're hoping to roll out because we're hoping everything works well. Um, and, uh, wait, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold You mean to tell me that you actually did work in the last two weeks that I've been away?
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah. Connor's my roadblock. So, you know, yeah I like to think about it as a professional motivator. Yeah. So stay tuned in the next few weeks. Big update, new co-host coming.
00:03:48
Speaker
um No, but we we have we have fun here. um No, it's ah it's good. There's some cool things that we're working on. I'm excited to kind of release that for you guys. And for those of you that are in the Edmonton area, we are kind of celebrating our first birthday, I guess, or our first year anniversary, whatever you want to call it at our facility. So we are putting on some sessions that are quite discounted. um So you can come out for 90 bucks
Early Season Skills Focus
00:04:18
Speaker
to do an hour one-on-one, get the video of that session, work with our coaches. We will have some cool things kind of off the ice as well, as well as some discounted apparel at the, at the facility. So if you guys are around for that, you can head to truenorthgoaltending.com.
00:04:35
Speaker
and book a session with us, kind of check it out, see how things are. If you are someone who hasn't worked with us before, if you are someone who has, then you can get a good price on an hour long session.
00:04:49
Speaker
um So, yeah, so we've got some cool things in the works. um I don't know if you have anything else to add before we kind of dive into the meat and potatoes of things.
00:05:00
Speaker
um What did you decide on as your segment anyways? ah Before I get into that. um Yeah, I think just first off, crazy to think that we've been at this for 80 weeks, 80 episodes, however you want to do it.
00:05:14
Speaker
Um, my batting average is probably about 86% with most of those episodes. Um, on top of you know, our facility being open for a year now, which is incredible. lot of great people coming through that door and,
00:05:30
Speaker
um you know we had a lot of great feedback with that and so the fact that we made it to a year is uh is is great love to see it and uh looking forward to another year and beyond um at that point my segment today actually one more thing that i've been as i've been thinking about this a little bit just because i keep seeing these guys pop up i mean like obviously we have nathan belleville um with the kyc hockey but i get swift hockey coming up every once in a while too and sounds like that they were in uh in the development uh part of it for for goalie six so um would love to reach out to those guys and when they do have another prototype available to see if we can do some demos with that or something um my segment today i kind of been flip-flopping back and forth a little bit but i think i've decided what i wanted to do today considering that this is the diy goalie podcast ah we teach you how to do it yourself goalies
00:06:20
Speaker
um I wanted to talk today about, or my segment at least today is going to talking about kind of, we're in the first few weeks of the season now. um So what kind of drills, what are some things that we should maybe be focusing on ah for the first couple weeks? I've talked about it you know before in other podcasts, ah but I think today is the the day where we can kind of talk about, here are some of the things that we should be expecting from our goalies, from our goalie coaches, our coaches um in the first few weeks of of the season here.
00:06:51
Speaker
as kind of a base lay base laid foundation and, uh, kind of build on top of that from there. You. Yeah. I've got, uh, I'm going to talk about load management.
00:07:06
Speaker
So i yeah, don't know. You wouldn't be qualified to talk about load management considering the amount of stuff that you've been taking on. Yeah. Yeah. Well, most more so in the net load management, but, uh,
00:07:20
Speaker
We'll get into yours first and I'll kind of get into why I chose this topic. And there is kind of a decision, a coaching decision in the NHL that made me scratch my head a little bit and kind of question things. So um little teaser for that, but we'll dive into kind of start of the season structure and c plan and development. And what do you got for us?
00:07:48
Speaker
going to spoil it now. It's Pete DeBoer and Jake Odinger in the playoffs and why Pete DeBoer just can't manage his goaltenders to save his life. um Yeah, so I wanted to talk today.
00:08:00
Speaker
um no i wanted to talk today, but just kind of could just we're few weeks in the season now. And so what are some things that we should be focusing on as goalies, as goalie parents, as goalie coaches, coaches, et cetera?
00:08:14
Speaker
So obviously, um you know, this varies between different age levels. um But I think at its base foundation right now, we need to be focusing on skating and tracking and head trajectory of the puck, you know, because that lays the groundwork with everything further throughout the season.
00:08:34
Speaker
eie Again, depending on levels, most goalies, aside from first-year goalies and such, um would already have an idea of how to skate, how to track the puck, so and so forth like that.
00:08:48
Speaker
I think it's just now more so just continuing to reinforce goals. good habits break any you bad ones and so then we lay that foundation out first as we enter into the to the rest of the year we can talk about positioning and angles and all that stuff but i generally like to reserve those a little bit later in the year which sounds kind of counterintuitive um because i like to intertwine that with kind of game like hockey iq wish scenarios um in that regard it's a little bit different when i do it with my with my junior guys or my uh what i'm going to be doing with my u18s this year um but at least in the very least like we got to learn how to skate we got to learn how to track the puck and we got to learn how to track the puck efficiently we got to learn how to skate efficiently loading those legs toes pointing forward at all times uh you know we got a nice good goalie stance so we're already able to load those legs to push across our crease
00:09:43
Speaker
That we're getting proper rotation around our bodies when it comes to, when it comes to our movement. And then even with our save execution as well, right? Uh, making our saves on front of us, hands off the body, bringing our head and our nose down towards those saves. So we watch that save in and out.
00:09:59
Speaker
Uh, so then we're able to follow the rebound accordingly. Um, That's at least on the goalie standpoint, and I guess by an extension goalie coaches standpoint, I think good goalie coaches will generally have a, um for lack better term, a curriculum in terms of what they want to do throughout the year.
00:10:14
Speaker
um I generally do and don't at the same time because it's more so a mix of, like, especially when I was with my junior team, it was more so a mix of like, okay, well, which team are we which teams are we playing this weekend? So we got ah i had to tweak the plan a little bit to be like,
00:10:31
Speaker
Hey, we're playing team A and team B this weekend. team b Team A is really good at moving the puck around the horn. Team B just likes to capitalize on the dirty rebounds. So we need to and know'll learn how to manage our rebounds properly and we need to learn how to you know move efficiently so we're able to beat the passes across so we can beat team With our organization skates, Nathan and I generally have a ah ah course outline of what we want to work on throughout the year.
00:10:58
Speaker
And generally happens with a lot of our evaluation skates. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with my U18 double A's this year. um I kind of have an idea, but I don't really have a fully fleshed out idea yet. I just had my first skate with them last night.
00:11:10
Speaker
um But like with Kurt Rackle's... um core or is his episode that we had last week, you know, good coaches, you know, or what he looks for with his coaches is that you know you have ah ah strategy a strategy, a plan, an outline, whatever teachers use throughout the season to, you know, make sure that the point and the and ah and the understanding gets across essentially and that builds up.
00:11:33
Speaker
over time um and and so with head coaches you know i think we're at like we we are at a point now where uh coaches like there's no reason for coaches not to understand goaltending there's no reason for head coaches not to understand goaltending there's bunch of resources out there everywhere has their own thing and whatever and like we talked about and like like we talked about last year um you know gearing practices to be more goaltending friendly but also making sure that we're not sacrificing player development at the same time and then goalie parents um get an understanding you know I mean like if you if you haven't already you know get an understanding of kind of like what the coach's plan is what your goalie coach's plan is throughout the year you want to be involved but you don't want to be
00:12:23
Speaker
overly involved where you're breathing down the coach's neck every, every day, every week, every month or whatever. Um, but I think just that's kind of where the base foundation lays out as of right now.
00:12:35
Speaker
Um, and then it kind of builds up towards that from there.
Goalie-Specific Training
00:12:41
Speaker
Yeah. A couple of points. Um, like what we're really big on um, for our sessions, like, especially if we're, working with goalies throughout the course of a season, whether it's with a specific team or whether it's group sessions, or even if a goalie comes one-on-one, you know, once every couple weeks, uh, the big thing is progression, right? Like it's been proven time and time again, that the best way to properly learn and develop is to get good at something first and then move on to the next concept. Right. So like,
00:13:21
Speaker
You're not going to be good at, you know, calculus if you can't do algebra or whatever, right? You can't run before you walk. And that's really what the start of the season is good for, is not only getting back into the swing of things, but really establishing that foundation success.
00:13:44
Speaker
core skills. And that's the skating, the tracking, the save execution, the positioning are basically kind of your four core pillars in terms of your technical game.
00:13:57
Speaker
And that's really what we want to be shoring up in, in this, like the simplest form at the start of the year. And, you know, a lot of people might think that and NHL goalies are sitting there working on these you know, 10 shot sequences with, you know, eight bodies flying around through traffic and all this stuff.
00:14:20
Speaker
But they're doing a lot of the same things that a lot of you goalies are doing. Simple skating movements into ah save, follow a rebound, recover to it, whatever the case is, like skating patterns.
00:14:34
Speaker
They're doing a lot of the very simple same skating patterns that a lot of, you know, our eight to 10 year old goalies are doing. right? So those foundational skills, you can never work on enough. You can never be good enough at them.
00:14:48
Speaker
We got to keep honing those in, keep building that solid core foundation so that the rest of our skills can, you know, flourish on top of that. The other thing I'll say too on skating, and this is kind of a half rant, I guess, but, um,
00:15:06
Speaker
I did see a post about somebody saying they were worried about, ah this is one in one of the Facebook goalie parent groups, I think, they were worried about their um kid going into net because they were a very poor skater as a like as a player.
00:15:26
Speaker
And there is a lot of people in the comments that were saying stuff like, well, the goalie does have to be the best skater on the team. You should get into power skating, blah, blah, blah. And while it's good to get into power skating and while it's good to hone player skills, like we talk about cross training and all that stuff, that line about the goalie being the best skater on the team kind of irks me a little bit because it's such a different...
00:15:55
Speaker
skill like goalie skating is so different than player skating it's unbelievable right like yeah yes it can help to an extent going out to power skating sessions doing crossovers working on your first three strides all of that fun stuff and obviously that can translate to some benefits to being a goalie But the best way to get better at goalie skills is to work on goalie skills, right?
00:16:24
Speaker
Work on your edges. Like one thing I tell players that sometimes they don't even really realize and they're surprised when I tell them this is that us goalies, we do single footed stops, not two footed stops because of how our skates are designed.
00:16:41
Speaker
So yeah, so
00:16:45
Speaker
That just goes to show like, you know, we have such a different approach, a different skill set, a different setup, different equipment, all that stuff. um So when you're working on these things at the start of the year, and this goes for coaches, or if you're a goalie that um has a coach that is making you do, you know, the 10 to 15 minute power skating work with the players at the start of practice, anything like that, um maybe bring it up to them and just be like, hey,
00:17:18
Speaker
can we modify this? So I'm working more on my edge work as opposed to, you know, having to do endless crossovers around the circle. Can I maybe do C cuts instead work on my C cuts or, you know, can I go off to the corner and do some skating patterns where I'm working on T pushes or shuffles or anything like that? Right. Cause it is such a different, a different skillset. And like I said,
00:17:44
Speaker
I don't know how many goalies are really going to benefit in a game from being good at crossovers. Right. So um kind of a half rant, kind of half related. But so the biggest thing is when you guys are working on stuff, build from the bottom up, have a good base, a good foundation, good pillars of core foundational skills.
00:18:05
Speaker
And that's going to set you up for success for the rest of the year as you get into some more advanced stuff.
00:18:13
Speaker
I will say that with the goalies being the best skaters on the team, again, I hate that phrase as well, but I've taken it and I've turned it into basically what Nathan has talked about in a ways.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, goalies have to be the best skaters on the team because we have much more intricate movements than what players do. All players just have to do is skate forwards and backwards up and down a sheet of ice. We have to go side to side. We have to get a full blade on the ice from a lower elevation to be able to push across on our knees and this, this, and that. We have to shuffle across and go against the grain with them with of the ice and so on so forth.
00:18:47
Speaker
All those guys got to do is go up and down. That's all they got to do. They got to learn how to skate forwards and backwards. And most people in the NHL can't even do that properly. I'm looking at ah you, Evan Bouchard.
00:18:59
Speaker
and that's my ranch because of That's my rant because the Oilers lost ah last night, but that's okay. um Yeah, I mean, you know, ah skate i mean again, like it's hypocritical of me because I used i hated skating as a goalie. I hated doing any type of skating drills whatsoever, but as a coach, I love it.
00:19:19
Speaker
but um yeah i think that's that's such a such a huge part of it and you know if if you cheat that in any way it's it's just gonna make it's it's not gonna benefit benefit you in any way yeah for sure the other thing too that's i think really important to think of at the start of the year is to start honing in your extras and That means your off ice routine or your pregame routine, kind of your stretching, like stuff like that. Some of the mindset stuff, because now is a better time to experiment a little bit with that sort of stuff so that when you get later in the season, you get closer to playoffs. You've kind of dialed all of that in and you're ready to go.
00:20:03
Speaker
um so I think the start of the season is a good time to kind of experiment a little with that sort of stuff, too. If you want to try something new in your pregame routine, don't save it for March. Do it now.
00:20:15
Speaker
Play around with it. If you want to tweak things a little bit, I think that's another important thing that people don't really think about or gets overlooked a lot, too, is really kind of focusing on those extras that'll help your performance as well and kind of honing those in, too.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yeah. um And then, yeah, just again with the tracking again as well. I mean, it's it's such a – seems like such a simple thing. But, I mean, like you'd be surprised with the amount of goalies even at the higher higher age is that we still see that struggle to watch the puck into their equipment in any shape way any way, shape, or form because they're focusing on – the wrong things or they're not focusing on it enough. So really hammer home, you know, watching that puck in front of you, making the saves in front, hands off the body, um, and everything, uh, and, and, and that regard.
00:21:07
Speaker
Um, cause again, like that's much like with skating, that's such a basic foundation that we generally teach from the get go. um But again, like i said, like you'd be surprised how many goalies still struggle with that to an extent and be able to control those pucks properly.
00:21:25
Speaker
um So just make sure that we're just hammering that home early, early on. And ah so then we're not focusing on it so much towards the end of the year. Yeah. And watch it out of the body.
00:21:39
Speaker
and get used to tracking on the fly too. That's one thing I noticed too with goalies, we'll do like a warmup drill that's literally just straight shots to the gloves and they're good at tracking, good at making the saves.
00:21:49
Speaker
And then you start getting into the meat and potato drills. And as soon as you add a little bit of movement or anything like that, all of a sudden the tracking and the proper save execution goes out the window. Right? So Hammer that home to like every single drill that we do That should be a priority and a focus is the tracking and the save execution.
00:22:09
Speaker
It's just now we're adding more to it. Right. So it doesn't change regardless of where you are on the ice. If you're in a butterfly on your feet, if you're pushing into a shot, whatever the case is Track the puck and the puck. Don't watch to your glove. Like don't look at your glove before the pucks there. I see that happen a lot.
00:22:30
Speaker
I see a lot of goalies look for their rebound before they've made a save. So it's a low shot. They're already looking in the corner before it's actually hit them. Right? Track to contact, track out of contact.
00:22:41
Speaker
You'll be in a good spot. Yeah. And then, yeah, again, just goalie coaches as well. Make sure you guys have a game plan ready, some kind of course outline throughout the year in terms of what you want to work on and the specific goals that you your goalie want to want want to hit at some point throughout the year and things that you want to accomplish.
Supporting Goalie Development
00:23:02
Speaker
um Goalie parents, same idea. Get involved, you know, um if even if you are a goalie parent that's taking on the goalie coach role, um you know, that's that's another part.
00:23:14
Speaker
And then head coaches, it's time for you guys to step up and, you know, start taking interest in some and some of those resources out there and and and doing that as well.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah, so last year in October, I told everybody that I'd give myself a year to get this done. And I'm going to be like every construction company out there and push the deadline back.
00:23:41
Speaker
But I have started getting scripts together for a coach's course on how to support their goalies.
00:23:53
Speaker
And the plan with that is to make it completely free. Anybody can access it can be distributed through organizations, whatever the case is. And then there really won't be an excuse for the coaches out there.
00:24:07
Speaker
But that is in the works. That is one of the things. It'll be a while still till it's ready, but it is in the works. So and apologies for not getting it done within the year that I gave myself. But I didn't expect to be or to have as many things to do over the last little bit that has happened. So, you know,
00:24:27
Speaker
It is what it is. um Do you have any more to add for start of the year? or No, that's that's pretty much all that I got, and that's kind of what I'm going through myself right now, just kind of ah at the at the start of this year. and know I'm taking on more of a more of a lead instructor role with KC North on Monday Skates, and so that's something that I'm really going to to hammer home and with the help of – Mr. Park here and getting that, getting kind of that, not curriculum, but just kind of getting the um the practice workss together.
00:24:59
Speaker
yeah the progressions together and and all that. And then same thing with my U18s as well is that, you know, again, it's going to be a little bit, going to look a little bit different, but it's going to be the same at the same time. So it's just, that's that's something that I myself am am kind of learning a little bit more this year in terms of how i want to structure it.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yeah. For all you business owners out there, the sooner you can delegate to your minions, the better.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yes. Connor. No, I'm just kidding. I am looking for a new co-host, right? So um it's been a while. I think we need to insert a Brad McDonald TM. I hate you.
00:25:41
Speaker
So, um so For my topic today, and the reason that I got into this was we're taking a trip down the QE2 highway to Calgary.
00:25:56
Speaker
um i was very intrigued and kind of scratching my head a little bit at the decision Huska to play Wolf.
00:26:09
Speaker
in their first three games where they played three games in four nights. And I think it was three games within 66 hours. And I get Wolfser guy. i get he's an awesome goalie.
00:26:25
Speaker
And as a pro, he's probably in shape enough to handle it. And I know a lot of hockey traditionalists are going to go and be like, well, back in the day, Broder and Wah and all these guys were, you know, playing 68, 72 games a year, whatever. The backups only ever got like eight to 10 games.
00:26:50
Speaker
You know, I get it. But the game has also changed quite a bit since then. And so I wanted to talk about load management And kind of relate it more to the average Joe goalie. Because at the NHL level, it is a bit different. But I got thinking about it just because I was like, why are they playing Wolf in three games and four nights? They obviously don't have a lot of faith in Cooley.
00:27:20
Speaker
um Either that or they're pushing Wolf to get injured so they can tank for McKenna. I don't know. Um, and but that's the sharks. That's the, that's the San Jose is doing that. Well, currently Calgary's in last place. That'll probably change by the time this airs. But anyways, um, so it got me thinking as to kind of talking about load management. So again, when we talk about the traditionalist viewpoint, when it comes to hockey,
00:27:48
Speaker
We are very much a play through it and do whatever it takes. You want to stay on the ice, whatever, all that stuff. And to an extent, I'm for it because I grew up playing hockey as well. And I have that mindset as well. But a lot of us look at kind of the and NBA stuff and what they do with their stars. And we kind of laugh and joke and whatever. But I do think when it comes to goaltending, there is a bit of merit to load management.
00:28:18
Speaker
And this is coming from ah guy who at 18 had a surgery to repair a torn meniscus in one knee and 19 had a surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the other knee.
00:28:33
Speaker
At 24, yeah, 24 had a very major hip surgery. I got my pelvic bone moved and screwed back into place to alleviate pressure on my cartilage because I have arthritis in both of my hips.
00:28:51
Speaker
And then about a year and a half ago 29, I got ah surgery on my other hip done, which was just a clean and scope. They were planning to do the big thing again to the other hip, but decided they didn't need to So four fairly high end surgeries or decent surgeries ah between the ages 18 29.
Load Management and Performance Analysis
00:29:17
Speaker
I am probably going to be one of those guys getting a full hip replacement at age 40 something. So, you know, I am here to talk to you guys about, don't do what I did, do what I say.
00:29:31
Speaker
um But so, so sorry. so So before, so before you get into that here, just cause I just, I pulled up money puck just cause I'm curious on just what the stats are for Wolf because of that. So he's played four games,
00:29:46
Speaker
He had 15 goals against. Let's see here. So percentage ah or his goal save above it above expected is a minus 4.8. um His save percentage on goal is a is a 8.73. His save percentage above expected is a negative 0.02.
00:30:10
Speaker
zero point zero 203 I don't know why that's laid listed the way that it is currently has a goals against average of 3.77 wins above replacement I don't really know what that is ah yeah so that's kind of his stat line according to MoneyPuck as of right now I know that there's like this big thing on like goals above goals saved above expected or shot or save percentage of above expected I don't totally follow that myself but that's kind of those are the numbers that he's working with so far in his first four games in the season
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, not great. His team isn't great. I mean, he kind of carried that team last year. can call it a sophomore slump or whatever. But to me, a team like Calgary, who is not necessarily pushing to be a contender, I almost feel like you want to play the long game. And yes, you want to play your guy and he's your guy. But at the same time, you're kind of screwed if you end up in a Thatcher Demko situation where he just constantly is getting hurt and can't stay healthy.
00:31:13
Speaker
Um, so like to me, I think that people need to be a little bit more conscious of load management and kind of be a little bit more conscious of,
00:31:26
Speaker
The effects, especially nowadays, because the game is so fast, goalies are up and down, left and right. Like we're going down constantly. We are in the RVH, out of the RVH. We're pushing across, making a save, staying on our knees, pushing across. Right. Like the butterfly inherently is not a great position on our body.
00:31:48
Speaker
The more that we are in the butterfly, the more it's going to take a toll on the body. Right. And so a lot of us average Joe goalies don't necessarily think too much about that because we're constantly itching to play, constantly wanting to get into the net.
00:32:06
Speaker
But at the same time, we've got to kind of think of what's that going to do to our body? Because, yes, it's great to want to take on 10 skates a week or whatever the case is. but if you're only going to be able to play until 26 instead of 46 or, you know, 66, even, you know, is it going to be worth it? Right.
00:32:29
Speaker
So we kind of have to balance properly rest with activity. And there's also ways that we can do that, like within our practices and stuff too. But, um,
00:32:44
Speaker
I kind of wanted before we get into that, I wanted to kind of go through just some of the signs, I guess, um of potential burnout, of stress on the body um and kind of signs on when you for sure should start to pull back a little bit because it can affect physically and mentally. That's another thing that people don't really think of is the effect of burnout mentally.
00:33:09
Speaker
Um, but if you're constantly sore, if you're constantly dealing with minor injuries, even, even if they're not full blown injuries, but you're like, oh, I tweaked my groin and then it's fine for a couple skates. Oh, I tweaked my groin again.
00:33:26
Speaker
Fine for a couple skates, like those sorts of things. Um, that's kind of the stuff we, like the the initial warning signs that we should be listening to that and then the mental burnout as well, right? Stuff like um being, you know, not having the enthusiasm, I guess that's that's the best way I can put it. Not having the love for the game as much. um Stuff like constantly being down, maybe being
00:33:57
Speaker
a little bit more angry in games, this, you know, slamming the stick comes into play. Um, even in our game performance issues, having issues being consistent, um, like all of that is kind of signs of fatigue, signs of burnout, kind of,
00:34:14
Speaker
you know, that, that extra stress on our body. And that's the sort of stuff that we need to start listening to and understanding that it is okay to take a little bit of a break and to step back from the game for a little bit for the long-term good of your body, of your mental state, as well as, you know, if you want to play the game for a long period of time, that's sort of the stuff that we have to be, uh, be looking out for and mindful of.
00:34:43
Speaker
Um, you got anything to add before I keep going? Um, no, I think you kind of nailed it already. So I'll let you, I'll let you get it.
00:34:54
Speaker
Okay. Um, so some of the things that you guys can do, um, a good one is kind of like varying your intensity, right? So obviously we talk about wanting to practice like we play,
00:35:09
Speaker
But at the same time, there are certain instances and practices, and this can be on ice and off ice to like dry land or or workouts, whatever. um There's times where we want to go hard and we want to put it all on the line and push ourselves to the max.
00:35:28
Speaker
But then there's other times that we can still be productive in our training while having a bit of a quote unquote, lighter exercise. skate or a lighter workout or whatever, right? Like even something as simple as, okay, it's a workout day today, but I'm not feeling the greatest. I'm just going to stretch or maybe like do a light jog or, you know, a session on the bike or whatever, as opposed to a full on like, you know, CrossFit um course or whatever, a whole, you know, max load squat and all that stuff.
00:36:02
Speaker
um So if we can vary the intensity a little bit, that that's helpful too. And on the ice, you do see that often with goalies sometimes where the first drill or two, maybe they're not even dropping into the butterfly at all. All they're doing is tracking pucks, using their hands, making saves, tracking pucks into their body. I know not everybody can do that. Some coaches don't like that.
00:36:26
Speaker
um And that's something to kind of figure out based on your situation. But if there's a time where you can have a little bit of a lighter approach in practice and still get something out of it, and that means you have to have the onus on actually putting in the work to whatever you want to get better at, um that can be helpful too. Like I know when I played junior,
00:36:50
Speaker
One of the best things was game day skates, like morning skates on the day of the game. Cause you'd go out for 20 minutes, kind of, you know, a couple of flow drills, you know, shots are spaced out. You feel pretty good. You get a couple of shots, track the puck.
00:37:06
Speaker
You know, those are some of my favorite skates to do. Cause you left feeling good. You didn't tax yourself. You got to work on, you know, things like tracking. um So that sort of stuff, if you can rotate into your training regimen and have some lighter days, lighter skates, lighter workouts, whatever the case is, that's a good way to still develop, but kind of give your body a little bit of a break.
00:37:31
Speaker
Um, and then just kind of on the same topic, how you recover is really big too. Like the sleep, the nutrition, the hydration, the stretching, all of that stuff.
00:37:45
Speaker
And we've talked about it lots before. And I know everybody always says, you know, if you don't take care of your body, where are you going to live and all that stuff, but it, it reigns true, right? Like you, you gotta have,
00:37:57
Speaker
the like a good recovery routine. You have to give your body time to heal. You have to give your body time to do what it needs to do. And sleep is one that I think a lot of people don't get enough of.
00:38:12
Speaker
um Same with the nutrition and hydration, but proper sleep's a big one as Connor's sitting there yawning. um And then excuse.
00:38:25
Speaker
Well, you're the one that, you know, became a dad that was your choice but anyways i digress um the other thing too and this is more towards the adult goalies um because i think we're all pretty guilty of it like i say we i don't play anymore but um we as the collective adult goalies out there um You have to be careful with your overall routine and lifestyle too. Because if you spend all week, like you go to work, you get home, maybe you play some video games, whatever, have a pizza, have a beer, whatever the case is.
00:39:07
Speaker
And then you play like for three different teams that have three games over the weekend. that's probably not going to bode well for you, right? If you're trying to give yourself big spikes in activity, um try and either spread it out or, you know, maintain a consistent active lifestyle where you're you're not just, you know, backloading two days a week where you're just go, go, go as hard as you can and not doing anything the rest.
00:39:38
Speaker
Um, that's another important one too. Yes, that applies to like the younger goalies as well. But I think the adult goalies are more guilty of it because life, I get it. It's, you know, it is what it is, but, um, just kind of be careful about that.
00:39:55
Speaker
Um, it's okay to say no, if your body's not feeling good, if somebody asks you to fill in, I know we all want to get as much ice time as we can. And we want to, you know, keep our names high up on the sub list because we always say yes, but it's going to suck if, you know, a year or two down the road, people are asking you to fill in and you're constantly saying no, because you can't get out of bed because you're throughout your back or something like that. Right.
00:40:21
Speaker
So you guys, you got to make sure that there's that balance there. Do you have anything to chime in? i got a couple more points and then I'm done. Yeah, I think ah lot me like it's it's it's human nature, i suppose, in general in a way where we always want to be involved or um you know we we want to we always have a tendency of biting off more than we can chew um essentially and so yeah nathan is a prime example of that a guy calls me in the middle of the night crying because he can't get his stuff done
00:41:04
Speaker
um Anyways, digress. um I think, yeah, it's just we have to learn just how to and you know, just manage ourselves and just...
00:41:19
Speaker
You know, learn to take a break, you know, learn to step back and whatever. I mean, like even like with like all the stuff that I'm kind of dealing with right now. So I might have to drop something here in the next little bit. So Nathan, consider this my resignation letter you're finding a new co-host.
00:41:32
Speaker
um But yeah yeah, it's just it's it's just we got to like we got it. we We're not Superman as much as we as much as we like to think that we are. Um, and so we just, we, we got to learn to just take a step back and, um, you know, just take a breather for a second and just chill out and, you know, then you can get, get back into it. But if we don't, if we don't take those rests and we're always constantly go, go, go, you'll put yourself into an early retirement probably then probably earlier than you, then, then you'd like to, then you'd like to admit. So it's, that's, that's just the, the, the biggest one there.
00:42:11
Speaker
Yeah. And don't hear what we're not saying. Like if you're a younger goalie in the car and you want to be like, see dad i can you know not try hard or whatever like that's not what know that's that's that's different because like going home playing fortnight or doom scrolling on tick tock and doing all these tick tock dances or whatever and then just staying up till 2 a.m because like nobody and like none of the kids in alberta are in school right now thanks to the strike um so that's that that's still not an excuse at all i mean
00:42:45
Speaker
We say as well, you know, dress for the job you want, you know, it's it's the same. It's the same idea, you know, say train and practice for the position and for the level that you want to be at.
00:42:59
Speaker
and if you don't, and if you're just taking a step-by-step day-by-day or no, not step-by-step day-by-day, it's more so just like, if you're like, if you're going home and you're constantly downing McDonald's and playing Fortnite till two in the morning or whatever, doom scrolling on Tik TOK and you know, whatever else, you know, it's, it's that self-control really. And it's that, it's that self-control and discipline. Thank you.
00:43:23
Speaker
um You know, that's, that's, that's the biggest one. And so we just, as, as athletes, we have to have that, um you know, we can't just there's like in reality, there's there's like there's no off days.
00:43:37
Speaker
You know, we got to keep working hard, got to keep training to achieve whatever the ultimate goal for you that as whatever that may be. And be OK with recovery days not being an off day like that should be part of your, you know, to development and progression and training regime.
Balancing Training and Recovery
00:43:58
Speaker
Now, proper recovery is different from just playing Fortnite until 2 a.m. because some people say, oh, I'm resting. But, you know, and the last couple of things that I have here is just so first off, what can coaches do to help their goalies out with this?
00:44:23
Speaker
Um, I don't know if there are any minor hockey coaches that listen to this podcast. Hopefully there are, and we're kind of helping to change their mentality on this. but What kind of fan base do you think we have?
00:44:37
Speaker
Yeah, I know. It's not minor hockey coaches. We all know that. but um Anyways. The big thing that I wanted to touch on, and this is something like if you are um struggling with this, like have a conversation with your coach so they're aware of it. But we talked about some goalies, you know, taking a drill or two at the start, not going down. And all they do is work on tracking into their hands.
00:45:08
Speaker
If you are going to do that, have a conversation with your coach about it and say, look, I'm not being lazy. ah just want to have longevity to my career. I'm still working on tracking. I'm still working on my hand positioning and all that stuff.
00:45:25
Speaker
That's my focus for these drills, but I just want to save my body a little bit. I'm not going to drop down or whatever the case is. Like have that conversation and coaches be okay with that.
00:45:37
Speaker
Right. As long as they're still putting in the effort and still focused on something to get better, be okay with that. The other thing too,
00:45:49
Speaker
play like be okay playing two goalies you don't need to ride one goalie and I know in some instances you know if you only have like a 30 game season in college or whatever that might be a little different but even still in college you're playing two to three games back to back right in a weekend um on top of going to school on top of training during the week like Be okay with having a two goalie system. Be okay with giving your goalies breaks if you have the ability to.
00:46:22
Speaker
And don't be playing them three times in a row in 66 hours. right Especially to start the season. That one's a head scratcher to me.
00:46:33
Speaker
Um, but anyways, give your goalies the opportunity to take care of themselves, give them the opportunity to have a little bit of a break and to manage their, their stress on their body and their mind. It's a stressful position mentally as well.
00:46:47
Speaker
Um, and then goalies, we talked about it. If you're, um managing yourself in practice, be open to about that with your coaches so they know what what you're doing so you don't look lazy.
00:47:00
Speaker
um Connor touched on it, I touched on it, take care of yourself, that's a big thing. And then I had briefly mentioned it earlier about proper recovery, but diving into that a little bit more, if you are having a rest day or a recovery day,
00:47:20
Speaker
That doesn't mean be a couch potato all day, right? Because that's not good for you as well. If you have a a little bit of a walk, take a 20, 30 minute walk around the neighborhood,
00:47:32
Speaker
that's great it keeps your body moving still but it's low impact like you're still getting recovery but it's good to keep moving have a stretch you know do a 20 30 minute stretch get the body moving get it kind of relaxed a little bit have an ice bath or a warm bath or both you know ice heat whatever you need to do for any bumps and bruises but the biggest thing too is what you eat what you drink and how you sleep and take the time to really invest into those and have, and that's not just for rest days, that's all the time, but have a proper regime to do those things properly.
00:48:18
Speaker
Have a sleep routine way back in one of our first episodes. We talked to Larissa Mills about the phone, put the phone away, limit the blue, um the blue light before bed.
00:48:31
Speaker
Eat properly, eat throughout the day, drink lots of water, all of that good stuff. Take care of yourself. Be okay with rest and recovery and make that a part of your development.
00:48:44
Speaker
It's not just what you do on and off the ice in terms of training.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:48:48
Speaker
It's also how you recover because that's going to help you maintain a high level of performance and prolong your career assuming nothing freakish happens.
00:49:00
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So, so that's kind of all I got on that. If you have any parting thoughts or anything for, uh, for that topic.
00:49:12
Speaker
No, just, um,
00:49:15
Speaker
Yeah, no, I got, I got, I got nothing. Just, um, you know, just keep working at it, but you know, just do things that are going to put yourself in a positive position in terms of longevity, in terms of where you want to be later down the line, essentially.
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Well, it's crazy that, uh, you know, we got through a whole episode together and, uh, you know very minor issues one technical issue and that was it but uh good on us we we weren't too rusty uh after a bit of a hiatus so who like who are you again yeah all right let's see uh how rusty you are on the outro well hold on what's this uh what are these things coming down the pipeline that you were talking about or are you leaving us in suspense here
00:50:09
Speaker
yeah, it'll be suspenseful. I still have to work on them. It'll be like a ah handful of weeks still. And also, we're trialing some things. So if the trials don't go well, I don't want to say that we're going to have something to offer and then we don't.
00:50:24
Speaker
So... i have I have no idea what he was talking about. So just we'll just still just continue on with it from there. and that will do it for another episode of the DIY Goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending. You can follow us on your favorite social media platforms, whether that be i Apple, iHeart, Spotify,
00:50:43
Speaker
wherever it is and whenever it is you'd like to listen to us make sure guys give us a follow there if you're a return if you're a new uh listener if you are a returning listener make sure you uh hit that share button because the more goalies that we're able to bring together the better if you're watching over on the youtube side of things and if you are a newer viewer make sure you guys hit that subscribe button or if you are a returning viewer hit the or hit the like button hit the share button helps push us out there helps the algorithm you know all that fun stuff ah You can follow us on your favorite social media platforms, all at True North Goaltending, except on Instagram because we like to be different. That one is Y-E-G Goalie Coach.
00:51:18
Speaker
You can follow myself on Instagram over at Monday GC. We got a lot of fun stuff coming down the pipeline like Nathan has been teasing us here all episode. And it is our one year anniversary at the facility in Nisku, Alberta with True North Goaltending. So we do have a lot of fun stuff, promotional items and all that so all that stuff there. So make you guys make sure you guys go check us out, trunorthgoaltending.com.
00:51:44
Speaker
ah if you are If you aren't able to join us for our birthday celebration all week, but you if you would like to book a facility session with us, again, hit us up, trudearthgoaltending.com.
00:51:55
Speaker
Book a session. You can pick any of our amazing coaches that we do have on staff to work with your goalie. and be able to do all that, uh, all that fun stuff there.
00:52:07
Speaker
Uh, don't think I'm missing anything else. It has been a little bit. So on behalf of Nathan and myself, and this has been the do I my goalie podcast presented by true nose goaltending. Make some say as goalies. We'll see you on next time. We'll see you guys next time. Take care.