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062 - Creating a Personal Development Plan
84 Plays12 days ago
Show notes are available at https://thediygoalie.com/pod062
This week we talk about how to identify shortcomings in your game and how to turn that into your own personal development plan. We have mentioned before that you are your own best goalie coach, so we take it a step further and dive into how to do just that!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Context
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 a better goalie.
00:00:18
Speaker
Goalies, how are we doing today? ah Welcome back to another episode of the DIY Goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending. As always with their hosts, myself, Nathan Park and my co-host Connor Monday.
00:00:35
Speaker
Talking all things goaltending as usual. And shout out to you guys for not getting sick of hearing us talking yet. So thanks for tuning in again.
Stanley Cup Finals Discussion
00:00:44
Speaker
um We are on, what is this, episode 62? That's pretty crazy. Yeah, that's wild.
00:00:50
Speaker
Right in the thick of the Stanley Cup finals, which by the time this airs, this the could very well be done. Who knows? and But we'll see what happens over the next couple of days.
00:01:01
Speaker
um We'll dive a little bit into that. um But first off, welcome Connor again. how are we doing today? ah Not too bad. um More animal problems.
00:01:14
Speaker
It's always a fun bit. um No, we're good. We're, we're, we're, we're good over here.
Creating Personal Development Plans for Goalies
00:01:20
Speaker
Just, uh, yeah, just kind of, uh, getting the tail end of the, uh, I wouldn't say tail end, but kind and getting right into the thick of it with the, uh, with the Stanley Cup finals.
00:01:29
Speaker
Uh, Edmonton's, Edmonton's got to find a way to, to, to get back into it. mean, Brodsky's holding down the fort for, for Florida right now. Stuart Skinner. just kind of regressing a little bit and kind of disappointing to see, kind of seeing what we're, what we are seeing from, uh, from the first series against l LA and, uh, a little bit against Vegas. I think, I think Edmonton's got to probably do the smart thing here. And as much as I don't want to admit it, probably put Calvin Pickard in for a game. Let's going reset, get Pickard back in. Cause we pick a dig on a hot streak with the last time that's, uh,
00:02:00
Speaker
the Oilers and Stu found them, found themselves in, uh, in this situation. And, you know what mean? Like, Hey, it's a proven theory. You got to kind of go for it at this point, but, uh, no, we're, uh, we're, we're, we're all good over here. Um, just kind of gearing up for what's coming up for, uh, for this upcoming year.
00:02:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's, uh, I don't know. It, It really shows um why Bob's worth what he's getting paid in the last couple playoff runs. So he had a bit of a rough start in Florida, but definitely holding down on the fort.
00:02:34
Speaker
yeah All right. So what we are going to do today is we're going to really hold true to the DIY goalie portion of of the podcast name.
00:02:47
Speaker
Um, so we are going to talk about developing your own personal development plan and kind of how you can
Using Video for Goaltending Improvement
00:02:54
Speaker
go about doing that. Um, just some tips on that. And then we're kind of also going to segue that into talking about, you know, making drills and kind of how to create a good drill kind of from scratch or thin air or whatever off top of your head. Um,
00:03:09
Speaker
Because that's something that is a lot harder than it looks or that you think it would be. I mean, aside from the first, you know, five kind of simple drills that pop into your head, that it's kind of hard sometimes to come up with a drill. So we're going to kind of talk about some tips and stuff like that for that.
00:03:30
Speaker
But so just to start off, so... Personal development plans. We've talked lots on this podcast, the importance of kind of being your own goalie coach, being able to understand your own game because nobody else is going to understand it quite as good as you are. Even kind of, you know, you could have the best goalie coach in the world.
00:03:54
Speaker
They don't know how you feel. They don't know, you know, your pregame emotions or kind of mental state. They don't know, you know, your gear preferences, et cetera, et cetera.
00:04:05
Speaker
There's lots of different things that go into it that you are really the one that knows best. um So we're kind of going touch on a few things. um First off, it's really important to identify, and don't want to call them issues, but issues like identify kind of what's going on in your game and what you need to improve on. And there's a few things that, uh, that we can do to, to do that.
00:04:37
Speaker
Um, we talk lots about the importance of video. And when we do our goalie coaching sessions, we use video for our goalies so that they can go back and and watch. And I think that's really important because,
00:04:51
Speaker
You sometimes don't realize you're doing things until you actually see yourself doing them. um So video is a good starting point. If you can get video of your practices, video of your games that can kind of help you to try and see some things visually that you can pick up on.
00:05:09
Speaker
um We've talked lots about it, so I'm not going to go too much into it. But aside from the video, If you can also have somebody that can keep track of kind of shot locations um for both saves and goals against, as well as like a general type of ah shots against or chances against like a two on one um If you're giving up a lot of two on one goals or if you're giving up a lot of, you know, cross ice passes on power plays or just in zone or maybe the
00:05:45
Speaker
low to high pass or in tight around the post, whatever the case is, if you can either use video or if you can have somebody keeping track of shot locations and goals against and what kind of situations those came in,
00:06:01
Speaker
um It helps you to identify patterns and it helps you to identify kind of common breakdowns ah that really start to give you some guidance as to what you can do to um improve on and and kind of that starting point, because.
00:06:20
Speaker
I think the saying goes something like um what's measured. I can't remember how it goes. Basically, like what's measured gets fixed, but it sounds better than that. But I can't remember the saying, but you can't really...
00:06:36
Speaker
you know, change something or know what to change if you don't even know what that thing is. So the starting point when it comes to developing a personal plan is to try and figure out those patterns and figure out kind of a little bit what your strengths and what your weaknesses are so video um somebody keeping track of that or just watching like if you have a goalie coach then come watch you and kind of look at those things whatever the case is that's uh that i think is kind of the number one most important starting point yeah um because like it's
00:07:19
Speaker
Again, I've kind of talked about this before, but it's it's it's like fixing a car,
Identifying Root Causes of Performance Issues
00:07:24
Speaker
right? Or like you're going to the doctor's office. like You're trying to identify the issue at hand first, right? In order to be able to fix it. So the first thing we have to do is we have to be able to go back.
00:07:35
Speaker
And if you do have access to video, you've got to go back. go through the tapes, pick out maybe one, two, three things that you see, five, whatever. um Or if there's something that you or your goalie coach is consistently noticing, maybe it's you're not getting a full rotation across your crease. Maybe it's, you know, you keep getting beat on the blocker side and it's because you're out of position by...
00:08:00
Speaker
inches basically um whatever that may be but just being able to help identify the the issue first is how we're going to be able to correct the issue we can't just say yeah there's an issue with my blocker side and then we don't do anything to to to correct the issue or we do what we were we're doing what we think to correct the issue, but it's just it's not working for whatever reason. So video is an absolute great tool to help with that. Or even then, if you don't have video in particular, but if you're watching hockey games in general, whether NHL, AHL, ECHL, wherever it is that you get your hockey.
00:08:40
Speaker
if you're able to go through kind of watch the broadcast basically, and then you're able to kind of pick up on things. If you know that you're having issues with your blocker side, say as well, maybe have a look at how one of these other goalies are setting up on that particular side or on that angle, rather look at how they're moving in the net.
00:08:56
Speaker
Just being able to identify things. If you know that you're deficient in one aspect of your game, And if you're able to do something that's where able to take what you see and be able to apply it back in the Euro game.
00:09:11
Speaker
And then it's obviously the next step will be to implement it afterwards, which we'll get into in a minute here. But just video is an absolutely important tool, even if it's not your video, if it's another goalies video or just a rant or just a regular broadcast, just being able to identify that, I think is first step.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's that pattern recognition that we talk about lots, right? Like even if consciously you're not aware of it, subconsciously, your brain's always taking in that information. And it kind of uses previous information to make ah make decisions, right? So the more you can kind of you know see yourself or other goalies, like Connor said,
00:09:52
Speaker
kind of the better you can make those decisions when you get to that spot, um actually in a game, even if consciously you don't have time to process subconsciously you will.
00:10:03
Speaker
um But yeah, After or I guess before I get into the next point, just quickly, um if you guys have access to like a goalie coach or some sort of goalie mentor that you can talk through this stuff with, that's awesome. That's great. I think that's a good starting point to really help you snowball this process.
00:10:24
Speaker
um But if you don't, don't. fret like don't worry about it um do your best with what you have and that's kind of like the point of this episode too is kind of for you guys that maybe be whether it's geographically financially whatever the case is that you're limited without a goalie coach um then uh this is kind of how you can really take the reins yourself even if you don't really know where to start Um, so basically after we identify some of the issues, so once we start kind of getting some patterns, like we noticed that, Hey, and situation X, I'm getting beat lots or I'm getting beat lots on the, you know, when players come down on my blocker side, like Connor was talking about or whatever the case is.
00:11:17
Speaker
Um, we really need to take this step from there to break that down because a lot of times people get focused too much on, i guess, the symptom and not necessarily the root cause.
00:11:37
Speaker
um The one example that I really thought about for this, um just because Unfortunately for you guys, I don't have a whole heck of a lot of time to watch NHL games as we noticed by my terrible preseason predictions.
00:11:56
Speaker
um But because of that, um a lot of what I have to draw on is just the odd Oilers game that I get to watch. So I'm going loop in Mikko Koskinen into this Oilers goalie from a couple of years ago and the fans and the people around kind of the Edmonton media and stuff like that were very critical of Koskinen's gloves.
00:12:24
Speaker
And, That's because there were a frequent amount of goals that went in on the glove side. um Just kind of, you know, how people notice that. um But what I found is when I would see replays of him get beat on that glove side, a lot of times his feet weren't set.
00:12:46
Speaker
Like he was pushing across and he's still drifting forwards towards the puck. when a shot came and he would get beat on that side. So to me, even though the symptom was, okay, he's getting beat to the glove side frequently, i kind of looked at it more like,
00:13:04
Speaker
what I personally saw was that the feet not getting set kind of made it oh or made him have a little bit of a delay in his reaction time to the shot. Um, and he was still kind of moving while he was trying to drop down and do a save and kind of would end up in positions that weren't necessarily optimal.
00:13:25
Speaker
Um, that being said, maybe there was room to improve on the glove, uh, side itself as well. But, um, The point of that is, is that I want you guys to really kind of dig down to see what's causing these things to happen frequently.
00:13:44
Speaker
Like it may be something as simple as, yeah, I'm not picking pucks up on my blocker side and I'm getting beat all the time. Or it may be something like, I don't know, my hands are back or my feet aren't set.
00:14:00
Speaker
or I'm not tracking the puck properly, you know, insert whatever reasoning here. um So don't focus so much on what is happening and what's going wrong, but kind of try and dig down to the why and see if there is something else going on. Like a lot of times with us for goalies, because it's such a like positional position,
00:14:25
Speaker
a lot of times the breakdowns happen like five, 10 seconds before a goal goes in, especially on lateral plays. So, you know, maybe you had a bad bump out off your post, which made you late to a push across and then you got beat.
00:14:40
Speaker
Maybe it's your post work that needs work, even though ness like it wasn't necessarily a post work play that led to the goal. um So just kind of Keep that in mind when you guys are trying to figure out what's going on is don't just focus on the symptom and the outcome.
00:14:59
Speaker
Focus on the actual like root cause of the problem and dig down to kind of figure out why as opposed to what.
Understanding Timing and Execution in Saves
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of, again, Oilers Media in particular. And so if you didn't hear the rant in the last episode, you'll get to hear it again here. Oilers Media need to stop talking about goaltending.
00:15:22
Speaker
um I think media in general or just yeah people in general that don't know anything about goaltending. But yeah yeah, that's a whole other episode.
00:15:32
Speaker
That's that's a whole other conversation. I guess first off, before I kind of dive into my thoughts, I guess maybe I'll kind of throw this live on air here. And I think you and I've talked about it before, just being able to i mean like it's obviously hard on the on the for the podcast side of things but i think it'd be fun or be interesting to do like a to do like a proverbial breakdown of a goal or a save that a goalie made and be able to kind of break down the the the steps for obviously that's difficult on the podcast and in the and the audio side of things
00:16:06
Speaker
but I would definitely, that would definitely be interesting to to do for the video side of things. And maybe even who knows, like even like even then, like even if we are able to do it on the audio side of things,
00:16:18
Speaker
maybe just to like kind of paint a, like a, a projection in, in the listener's head to, ah to be able to do that. But the goalies can work on their visualization. There you go. There go. See, there you go. Gears are turning here at the DIY goalie podcast presented by true North goal today.
00:16:35
Speaker
um No, seriously though. like nice um Thank you. Yeah. um yeah I mean, like Miko Koskinen definitely was heavily criticized about that. I would say Cam Talbot again, here in Edmonton as well.
00:16:48
Speaker
ah particularly on that glove side in the kind of the, the latter stages of his career with, with the Oilers. um Again, like I think what people in general don't understand is that a goal goes in because like Nathan had said, like there was something that happened between step one through 10 and that it didn't that what's caused the what caused the goal to go in right so maybe something happened at step one maybe something happened at step five maybe something happened at step 10 that ended up or that kind of caused us to break down in order for you in order for that goal to go in in the most simplest way that i can but i can put it and for our goaltenders listening
00:17:35
Speaker
Um, we work on drills. Doesn't matter who you're working for it or who you're working with. Rather, we work on these drills where, um, causes for rotation. We want to make sure that we get low on our stance to get that good push across.
00:17:50
Speaker
If we don't get that good rotation, right across our crease or across our body, rather to get square or to get set up on next buck, we get a good push across. we get there, but we still get beaten.
00:18:05
Speaker
on the short side glove or the short side blocker, however you want to put it, there was something that was called a delay in our movement. So whether it be a delay in our rotation, a delay in our um save execution and our tracking, there was something where there was extra milliseconds being taken up that shouldn't have been taken up that caused the goal to go in.
00:18:29
Speaker
So I think just to kind of summarize all of it again, between for, for Stewart's not Stewart's going to, we'll talk about him in a second. Mikko Koskinen's case and count Talbot's case, and maybe even some other stuff beforehand and maybe even in your own goalies game.
00:18:44
Speaker
a delay happened somewhere where there was milliseconds that was taken up. Maybe it was something as simple as the goalie pulled back off the shot because he got scared of the puck for a second. And now he's trying to react accordingly. Well, by that time, he's already chasing the puck going in the back of the net.
00:19:00
Speaker
Right. Maybe again, like in that, in, in that rotation drill that, or the, um, segment section that I just talked about, um, Didn't get a full rotation, got a half rotation. So that already has caused a delay because now we're off our angle.
00:19:14
Speaker
Now we're not able to get square to that puck to be able to make the save. Ends up causing the net to open up. We end up going in. Maybe we didn't get a good push. Maybe it's this. Maybe it's that. But the point being is that there was a delay caused in our movement.
00:19:28
Speaker
it's not because he got It's not because the goalie got beat through the five hole or through the blocker side. Maybe it is.
Setting Measurable Goals and Practice Routines
00:19:35
Speaker
But 90% of the time, and you can quote me on this, there was a delay that happened somewhere in country.
00:19:46
Speaker
I'm going to say save execution, but it's not the word that I'm looking for in our ah sequence. Yeah, I was going to say sequence. That's the better word to use. so um There is there is a delay that happened in our sequence that ended up eating milliseconds away from our time that we needed to make the save. And now we're now we're behind the eight ball.
00:20:07
Speaker
basically, right? So um i know there was a one I know that was just a bunch of words strung together, but like it would the again the point the point being is that we don't want to create a delay in our game that's going to take away so milliseconds from us to be able to make that save.
00:20:24
Speaker
So I think that's something that hockey fans, but more specifically, I think goalie coaches, goalie parents, and goalies in general need to pay more attention to is what was the...
00:20:36
Speaker
what was the X factor that caused that goal to go in? Yeah. And that's, that's just it, right? Like when, when there's patterns developing, that means that there's, you know, something that's, that's not clicking the way it should. Right. Like, and that's the other thing that you guys have to be careful with too, is even though,
00:21:04
Speaker
there might be different shots or different locations of the shots that are going in or different situations, it might still be the exact same root cause.
00:21:17
Speaker
Right. Like just as an example, Connor talked about rotations. Well, you could um be getting scored on on a two on one. as well as a power play because your rotations are poor, right? Even though they're two completely different situations, the same root cause is causing them those goals to go in, right? Because if you don't get a good rotation before you get a good push across,
00:21:41
Speaker
Uh, you're going to push flat. You're not going to cover the angle as well. And a lot of times it ends up in a goal. So that's another thing to look for too. Like, yes, we want to identify, um as best we can, like situations that are going in and shot types that are going in and locations, but,
00:22:00
Speaker
Sometimes in different locations, situations, whatever the case is, it's still the same root cause. So that's another thing to look out for too, right? Is as best you can break things down to the root cause.
00:22:15
Speaker
And then when you do that, see if there's a pattern on the root cause as well, not just the the actual goal itself going in. I do, sorry, just I do just want to say, and I think it should just be important to note,
00:22:31
Speaker
we don't want to get too caught up in the, what was the X factor, right? Cause it could honestly be something as stupidly simple as your glove hand sucks.
00:22:44
Speaker
Could be something as stupidly simple as your blocker hand sucks, or you have a, or you, your legs are still spread apart when you drop down the butterfly. It could just be something as simple as your stationary save, right?
00:22:57
Speaker
If it's a point blank shot and you get beat wherever, and if it's on a consistent thing, then you probably are not good at that specific thing. Even if it's something as simple as making a blocker save in front of you.
00:23:11
Speaker
I just, I, I, I want to, I wanted to put that out there. Cause like, I know that we were talking about like the rotations and the movements and all this stuff. and I'm thinking like, no, we should probably, you know, make sure probably put that out there. It's like, it can be something as simple as you are not good with your hands.
00:23:27
Speaker
Yeah. Well, going back to your car analogy, it's like knock off the easiest, cheapest ah issue first. and Yeah, exactly. people are Exactly. right Down from there. Yeah. It could be something as, yeah, absolutely. it could be something as simple as your spark plugs need to be replaced, right? Like that's an easy fix. you can do it yourself.
00:23:48
Speaker
Yeah. And the other thing I'll say to you, I know we're talking lots about trying to break things down and whatever, but there is such a thing as being over analytical. We've kind of touched on that as well. um You obviously don't want to beat yourself up. You don't want to spend hours on, you know, breaking down one goal.
00:24:05
Speaker
or anything like that. Like this is just kind of a framework. So there is a balancing act and that's a good point to bring up um is that, yes, we want to be analytical of our game and and try and figure these things out. But there is a ah fine line where it is too much.
00:24:21
Speaker
um So, yeah, just be aware of that. And the other thing, too, is you guys have to remember players are skilled to players have, you know, development to like, sometimes they just make a good play.
00:24:35
Speaker
sorry you know, sometimes you just get beat or there's four guys in front of you and you can't see and the puck goes in and it is what it is. Like we don't have to necessarily be too critical on everything um because there is such a thing as the other team making a good play.
00:24:53
Speaker
But so that being said, If you wanna try and improve your game, take your game to the next step and you're trying to do it yourself, just trying to identify these patterns and kind of finding a couple consistent root causes helps you at least figure out, okay, this is causing me issues consistently.
00:25:13
Speaker
i can work on this. Now I have something to build a around which is kind of the next step in this process is now taking that information that we've boiled down and being like, okay, now how do I fix this?
00:25:28
Speaker
Or how can I work towards getting better at this? Right. And, um, that's when like, researching can come in handy. Like if you don't have access to a local goalie coach, um being able to go online and kind of search through, you know, Coach Waps or Jamie Phillips, or, you know, hopefully i can figure out a way to do this more quickly.
00:25:56
Speaker
more full time anyways and get more content out on our stuff. But um find kind of some trusted, like good sources of information, because there are some out there that aren't the greatest. um There's still something. But um if you can really find, you know, the kind of tried and true names that are proven to be good and sources of information that are quality with with goaltending,
00:26:24
Speaker
You can kind of try and find, you know, tips and tricks for whatever it is that you need to work on. You can find drills, you can find all of this stuff. um And then you can kind of start to plan, I guess, your development program around that.
00:26:42
Speaker
um And the other thing, too, ah we'll dive into this. I'm going to crush Connor's dreams a little bit ah with ah with Stu Skinner here. But I can't I can't. The other the other thing, too, is making sure that when you develop Your development plan, I need to find a better word than develop, but when you create your development plan, um try to build it so you're working around your strengths.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yes, we want to work on the stuff that we found as, you know, weaknesses in the previous steps. but you also want to build your game around your strengths. And this is where my example of Stu Skinner comes into play. So we are fresh off.
00:27:30
Speaker
um Like last night was the six one loss the Oilers had to Florida. um So obviously when this airs, it'll be a different story and I don't know what's going to happen, but right now,
00:27:45
Speaker
stew In my opinion, he gets a lot of flack, a lot more than he should, but he's a very positional goalie. And to me, he gets himself in trouble when he's doing too much movement, when he's going way too far laterally, and when he gains too much depth.
00:28:06
Speaker
That's kind of what I noticed with Stu. And ah so in my opinion, watching his game, if he consistently were to sit, you know, a step back from the top of the crease ish for the most part. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of situational stuff that goes into that.
00:28:25
Speaker
But um if he could sit around there and get to his spots quick because he doesn't have to move very much and gets into position like he's a big guy, he covers a lot of net. And when he has success, like he has three shutouts this postseason and a couple one goal against games and those games where he looks dialed in.
00:28:45
Speaker
He's barely moving. He's just hitting a spot early. He's there. He gets hit with the puck. You know, it it looks easy. But when we go to the games like this goal against game,
00:28:57
Speaker
ah goal against game That first goal that went in the scramble in front, he ended up like five feet out of his net and ah are out of his crease.
00:29:09
Speaker
And I'm not sure why. Like, you know what I mean? Like, so when he gets playing where he's not, you know, working off of his strengths, I find he gets kind of swimming a little bit, gets lost outside of his crease a little bit. And that's when he gets into trouble.
00:29:27
Speaker
So just think of that when you guys are starting to identify what you want to work on and how you want to play.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yes, you want to work on your weaknesses, but design your game around what you're good at. If you're Connor Hellebuck type goalie, don't try and play like Marc-Andre Fleury.
00:29:50
Speaker
Right. Like it's it's not going to work out well for you if you aren't the greatest skater laterally. Don't play two feet outside of your crease.
00:30:01
Speaker
You're not going to get across. Now, on the flip side, if you're a very athletic and skilled goalie, but maybe you don't react well to shots coming out more might be better for you because you can move to get to the back door.
00:30:15
Speaker
And you're cutting off the angle so you don't have to react as much to the shots because you're bigger. Right. um So those are just kind of, you know, quick, easy examples. But some once you kind of identify what's going on, like the root cause of your issues, see how you can build that into your strengths. Right.
Structured Development Plans for Goalies
00:30:37
Speaker
Like how.
00:30:38
Speaker
How can we play so that we don't expose ourselves to those weaknesses nearly as much? And that's kind of going to be something that's going to help ah help lots with with your personal game as well.
00:30:52
Speaker
dreams crushed this is my departure from the diy no um i no but uh you are ah you are right though um again like like a i mentioned before it's there's a with stew skinner in particular it's a byproduct of other things that i'm not going to get into but In terms of how his game is being played right now,
00:31:24
Speaker
um yeah, less is more for him. And i think he gets caught up in the kind of chaos that happens in front.
00:31:37
Speaker
And i think it's a mixture of he's trying to scramble to get to position because he's caught up in everything that's happening in front of him because he's already made a bad save or he's made it or he he's had a bad save execution and so now he's trying to um what's the word i'm looking for not adapt but like adapt basically and make up for it essentially and then it ends up being the root cause of a goal that goes in on a different ish type of play uh
00:32:09
Speaker
Not the greatest example, but that's that's kind of what we're seeing at this point. But when he's calm, cool, and collected, and he's not moving as much in his net, mean, he's like, what, six four Stewart's game?
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, 6'3", or 6'4". He's a big guy. i didn't notice as how big he actually was until the Dallas series with the handshakes. So is how much I pay attention, but...
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, he was like, i was like, oh, he's actually quite a bit bigger than everybody else. I've, uh, I've met him once a very long time ago. Um, anyways, um, the point being is that, you know, when he doesn't, and everybody knows this, if he doesn't move as much, he's better in the net because he's not trying to do carry price ask things, right? Like there's not going to be another goalie like it.
00:33:02
Speaker
Um,
00:33:05
Speaker
And so i i i don't know where I'm going with this at the of the day, but I think to that's kind of what we're seeing with him. And understandably, it makes all those fans upset. However, still be quiet.
00:33:18
Speaker
um And then, you know, let Schwartzy and Skinner and Picker kind of figure out what it is that they you need to figure out in order to um do better next game.
00:33:32
Speaker
Yeah, and I know you we're probably seen as big homers here. It's one of those things that I don't have a whole heck of a lot of time to watch NHL games. And when I do, it's usually the Oilers games, especially since the last couple years, they've made...
00:33:49
Speaker
deep runs in the playoffs and our off season is like the only time i get to watch which is playoffs so but uh enough of the oilers talk yeah i was i was i was gonna say it's like again like i mentioned it before in a different podcast as well but like we tell our goalies you know watch the full games you know watch hockey And I'm sitting here watching the highlights because I'm coming home from a 7 p.m. session and like I'm tired. don't I don't want to watch the I want to watch the Anaheim Ducks take on the Seattle Kraken or whatever. Right. Like to be fair, though, we're we're past our our time of trying to. Yeah, that's zoies so's true.
00:34:29
Speaker
That is that's true. Yeah. So anyway kind of moving on then. So what we've done is we've established um the root cause of our issue. Well, first we established patterns in our game and kind of, you know, and some areas of weakness. Then we've kind of broken that down to the root cause of what's causing these issues.
00:34:52
Speaker
Um, so we've researched a little bit on tips and tricks on what we can do to, to fix it. We've established how we want to play based off of our strengths and to kind of minimize our exposure to our weaknesses.
00:35:08
Speaker
And then from there, um what you guys can kind of do is now we start to develop like, um, um I said it again, now we start to create our own development plan and and and figure out how we want to go forward from that. So um We want to now basically take what we've learned about our game, learned about ourselves and try and set up a plan and set up goals that that we can actually attain and measure to be able to make ourselves better.
00:35:45
Speaker
So. We want to, I don't know, I'll try and use an example, I guess, to kind of make this a little easier to to go through or to explain. But basically, I don't know, we were talking about it earlier. So let's say we've identified rotations are our issue um because we're getting beat a lot on lateral plays.
00:36:07
Speaker
um We've kind of figured out that, OK, I need to work on my rotations. I'm pushing flat a lot. um So now what you can do is you can set yourself a goal that every ice time you get, you do, you know, 10 pushes to one side where you really focus on rotating and making a push and then 10 pushes to the other side where you focus on rotating and making a push.
00:36:35
Speaker
Um, and I don't know, or even if it's five and you do like three different movements. So you do that once with a T push and then once with a butterfly slide and once with an inside edge push or whatever the case is, if you can kind of set yourself these development goals, um,
00:36:54
Speaker
It's a lot easier to now break down your whole plan, I guess, because we've talked about it lot. Goaltending does not happen overnight. You don't go for a one hour goalie session and fix everything.
00:37:08
Speaker
That's not how it works. It's a process. And sometimes that can feel really daunting. So if you break it down into kind of some smaller items like that, like, you know, I'm going to do 10 these every time I'm on the ice or I'm going to, you know, actively work on in warmups. If you're a beer league goalie and that's all you get, I'm going to actively work on having my buddy take 10 shots to my glove because I'm struggling track into my glove or whatever the case is. Right.
00:37:40
Speaker
um You want to kind of identify some things you can do that is measurable and you can actually action. That's going to help you kind of work towards getting better. The other thing you can do too is say if you've identified that you have issues with lateral movement, but you're really good you know, when you are in position, maybe you can make your goal that you want to play deeper in your net so you don't have to move as much. And that might mean you have to work on some other things like you have to track better so because the net's a little bit more open since you're back a bit more.
00:38:18
Speaker
um These are kind of the things you want to think of when you're doing your development plan is just how do I take the information that I've had and positively influence my game moving forward?
00:38:34
Speaker
um And then you can kind of break that down into things that you can actually do and be consistent with it and stick to it. And that's the best way to to get better is to constantly be working on it because unfortunately we don't get a lot of ice time.
Creating Effective Goalie Drills
00:38:53
Speaker
And we definitely don't get a lot of goalie development time. So you kind of have to take the onus on yourself to make those changes and to do the best you can. um Because we want to be thinking In our practices.
00:39:09
Speaker
So when it comes to a game, we don't have to think and I know it's kind of counterintuitive, but be thinking about what you're doing while at practice. That's the time to think because in a game, a lot of times when we're thinking it's too late. So you want to make it so that's kind of your natural instinct.
00:39:25
Speaker
And that's what we're going to be working towards.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah. um
00:39:33
Speaker
Again, like ah I've talked about it with so many goalies, you know, it's like practice time is invaluable for goalies because of the limited amount of ice, limited amount of ice time and such. And so like when I was working with my goalies,
00:39:49
Speaker
ah especially when i was coaching juniors, there was a method to the madness. Now that method in particular was, okay, well, we have these two teams coming up this weekend. Here's what we need to do to, to take care of that.
00:40:02
Speaker
It wasn't necessarily the development aspect of it, but it's still the same mentality being is that there is a ah problem that we need to fix, whether be in your movement or save execution,
00:40:17
Speaker
How are you as the goalie going to be able to fix that? had a goalie asked me and my last session, one talk about a skating because it's skating, not the greatest, but better than when we saw him throughout the season.
00:40:36
Speaker
Um, um, And so he was telling me, he's like, yeah, like I'm going to this public skate next week. Like I'm going to be thrown on like the lower gear. Like what, what can I do? And so, like I said, well, you you're, you're going to a public skate. It's not like you're getting taken shots or anything there.
00:40:52
Speaker
um So work on your skating. If it's a relatively foolish um crowd that's participating in this, find a spot along the boards and,
00:41:05
Speaker
You know, do some simple skating patterns, X drill, Y drill, triangle, box, whatever. If you're in the crease, same deal. Just want to work on the skating patterns because it's not necessarily the skating itself. It's how you're moving in the net, making sure that we're staying low in our stance. So we're not coming up and down, making sure that,
00:41:28
Speaker
you know, hands off the body. So we're practicing those rotations at the same time. Like it's, you're, you're working on one thing, but you're also working on other different things, other minute different things at the same time. It's like going to the gym and working on general.
00:41:41
Speaker
You want to have abs, you want to have bigger arms. Well, you got to do these other exercises basically, which I got to get back to, um, in order to, you know, get the physique or the workout, the muscles that, that you want to work out because they all mechanically or biomechanically, um, work together.
00:42:06
Speaker
Yeah, just a caveat too, if you are out for public skates and it is super crowded, you have your gear on and you can't find a little section of ice, even if you do the laps, but you see cut forwards or backwards, or you shuffle with the laps or you do T pushes with the laps, if you're just going like kind of in that direction,
00:42:31
Speaker
that's kind of a way that you can do that without really getting too much in the way as well know um but uh yeah so from there we're gonna kind of dive into the drill side of things now and kind of how you can create a solid drill um so kind of killing two birds with one stone here but uh after you've figured out what it is that you want, like your goals are and what you want to do,
00:43:02
Speaker
as best you can, if you can create drills to give yourself um a chance to work on these things, that's ah that's going to be super helpful. You can find drills online for sure. And we'll I'll link up our drills page to that we have. We have a few um USA hockey is a pretty good site for goalie drills.
00:43:24
Speaker
um But so if you're creating your own drills, There's a couple of things to think of based off of what we just found through the last few steps of this process that we've kind of been doing.
00:43:40
Speaker
um First off, as best you can, make it as game-like as possible. So ah think of like basically work backwards. So if you take like goals that have been going in from your games, work backwards from that and say, OK, what was the situation that these are going in?
00:44:02
Speaker
OK, it's a power play situation and I'm getting beat lots on, you know, the low to high and over to the bumper for a shot in the slot or something like that.
00:44:17
Speaker
You can design a drill that helps you to work on those specific movements, right? So maybe it's a push into your post to bump off your post and then a slide for a lateral play or whatever the case is.
00:44:31
Speaker
If you can kind of work backwards from those patterns that you identified And try and recreate those game situations as much as possible. That's that's what's going to help you be the most successful. Right. Because, again, your brain kind of maps these patterns that you see. The more you see it, the more you can kind of, you know, process that information and make a decision better. Right.
00:44:56
Speaker
So I know it's tough with with drills like that's something we struggle with as goalie coaches to try and make these drills as game like as possible because there's so many variables in a game that it's just impossible to recreate.
00:45:15
Speaker
But you want to get as close as possible. and and when you If you are working on something very specific, like say you do notice that it it is just your glove that is having troubles, and maybe from there you can kind of hit the, okay, we're going to do 10 shots to the glove, and it's very systematic until you get the right movement down.
00:45:41
Speaker
but after that you want to randomize it because in a game the player isn't coming down and saying hey i'm shooting glove side oh thanks bud right that'd be that'd be so much easier that'd be so nice i mean sometimes they do who who was it that pointed in the all-star game like like way back when they pointed top corner was it solani or korea or i could be way No, oh that's that. That's that sounds like a Solani. Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
tight I don't know. Anyways, that'd be nice. But yeah. So when you guys are creating drills, make it game like make it random unless there's a very specific thing you're working on.
00:46:23
Speaker
and incorporate as much skating as you can before a shot because 99 times out of 100 maybe even more than that there's some sort of movement before a shot right like it very seldom do we just kind of set up and then they walk into the zone and take a shot like there's always movement before a shot comes so incorporate movement before your shots And again, with just the realistic scenarios, like you don't want to have a shot go to your blocker side and then your second shot in the drill be on your glove side, because very rarely do you kick out a rebound to your glove side from your blocker side.
00:47:09
Speaker
And it's going to cause issues with your post save recovery if you're constantly working on going the wrong way after you make a save. Right. So think about what's realistic. Think about what flows well from a goalie standpoint and how you can kind of build one section or I don't even know the word I'm looking for, but build one scenario on top of the other.
00:47:36
Speaker
to kind of stack these skills and um and that's kind of what really makes a ah good quality drill is being able to put multiple skills together and making it as game-like as possible so that you can work on two to three things that you maybe are struggling with or even if you don't struggle with whatever it is and you're good at it it's always good to keep refining that but uh Yeah. Movements before shots game, like randomize it as much as you can and just have that natural flow and kind of progression throughout the drill.
Structured vs. Less Structured Drills
00:48:19
Speaker
So, okay. So I guess I have a question. Yeah. because, and part of it is because there, there's a, there's a connection problem.
00:48:30
Speaker
Um, when you say rant, like, what do you mean when, when, when you say randomize it? Cause I don't, cause I don't know if I necessarily agree with that, if it's what I'm thinking.
00:48:41
Speaker
It, so it's situational, but basically, like I said, we want to create a game situation as best as we can. so Right. Like I think one of the problems and this is something that I've kind of evolved as I've gone as a goalie coach and I'm trying to also continue to evolve, but having less of I don't know, less structure, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it, just because a game is so unstructured.
00:49:14
Speaker
Like instead of being like, okay, we're going to hit this spot, then we're going to hit this spot, and then you're going to get your shot in this spot, and then you're going to push to this spot and get another shot in this spot kind of thing.
00:49:26
Speaker
Like there's a time and a place for that for sure. But in in my opinion, as best as you can, especially if – there's movement involved with where your breakdowns are happening or, you know, your situational awareness isn't the greatest.
00:49:43
Speaker
If you can add options. So like if you have two shooters or two coaches, if you can have a shot or pass option, so it's random, you have to process that information.
00:49:55
Speaker
Or if you're pushing through two or three movements, know, And then the shot itself is random. It's not just always blocker. Like that's kind of what I'm talking about. So like I said, there's there's certain times and places where it's like, okay, we're shooting blocker. Let's work on blocker, whatever. Let's warm up.
00:50:16
Speaker
But I think it's a bit of a disservice if the goalies are constantly getting that because they get to a game and they're a little lost because nobody's telling them what to do. You know what I mean?
00:50:28
Speaker
Okay. Hopefully that kind of made sense. Yeah, no, it it does. Yeah. I think,
00:50:36
Speaker
I know because like I guess like the way that I was thinking about it is that like you have like your initial shot or but maybe kind of even then it's like you like you're doing all these patterns and then you don't know where that shot's coming from.
00:50:48
Speaker
So the way that I look at it, and this is kind of maybe where I disagree with you, is that kind of I am a little bit more structured. ah kind And like I know the game's not exactly that way, but I think if we can point out us as coaches specific scenarios as the team sets up in the offensive zone and if we're able to point out specific scenarios or common um problems or problem or not problems uh problem or dang uh common um
00:51:24
Speaker
scenarios, situations. Thank you. um Then we're able to do something to be able to be able to, to be able to work on that. So that then the goalie is prepared for that situation. And I'm not saying specifically, like if you have a shot from the blue line, it's going to go to your blocker. Like that's not specifically what I'm saying, but I'm saying like, Hey, here's the situation that we have set up We have a guy on the half ball. We have a guy in the middle. We have a guy on the top of the top of the circle. hall You know, here's what, so here's the skating pattern that we're going to do. So it simulates a pass around the horn or whatever. And then this and then the shot's going to end up from the top of the circle. So you need to make sure that you hit your mark at that specific spot.
00:52:10
Speaker
You know, I'm not, yeah I'm not telling, I'm not telling you where I'm shooting. I'm telling you where I'm shooting from because that's kind of what the drills looking like here, but I'm not telling you I'm shooting for your blocker or for your chest or for and far side post or whatever.
00:52:25
Speaker
It's just, for me, it's just, here's the, the sequence. Again, this is probably where more so the, the junior coaching is coming from. Um, Here's the sequence of events that we're looking at here because this is a common play, with especially if it's like something that your team's on the penalty kill.
00:52:43
Speaker
And so they they're working the puck around the horn and they're trying to get it to the guy at top of the top of the top of the blue line. So you want to make sure that you hit that mark and when that shot comes, that shot's like it's going to happen randomly.
00:52:55
Speaker
It's that shot's going to hit wherever it's going to hit, but we need to make sure that we're giving ourselves an opportunity to get into that spot in order to make that safe. So we have to be able to read and react but as best as we can.
00:53:07
Speaker
Yeah, and that's the thing. like Especially if there's only one coach, like it it's it's tough to, again, like really make things game-like. And regardless of what we're doing, it's hard to make things 100% game-like. Well, it's impossible to make things 100% game-like.
00:53:25
Speaker
by um so yeah So there's always going to be some structure to it. I guess more what I'm saying is just that um I think the the less structure you can have while still accomplishing the goal of the drill is better. Like so if you have an option where there is a shooter that can shoot, but they also have a pass option. So it keeps you on the toes.
00:53:51
Speaker
or whatever the case is yeah like I'm not saying like hey Connor let's go out and you just push how you feel like it just randomly and then come to me and take a shot we'll see what happens or like you know stuff like that but yeah I think as much as possible if we can just keep goalies on their toes so if you guys are trying to develop you know, drills for yourselves or trying to work on on whatever it is that you identified you need to work on.
00:54:25
Speaker
you still want to create as much of a game like situation as possible and throw in as many variables that is reasonable for the drill and still accomplishes the goal. So again, we don't want to be flying left and right with 16 different passes and doing whatever, you know, but there's still going to be some structure, but it's just, um,
00:54:51
Speaker
The less structure we can have while still accomplishing what we want to, I think, is kind of the the main goal and what makes a good drill, in my opinion, I guess.
00:55:03
Speaker
If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. But I think, don't know, because ah when you say it's say like X1 has the ability to either shoot or make the pass, there still is some structure.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah. to that yeah and that's what And that's what I'm saying. You're never going to get rid of that structure, right? yeah And there's a that time and a place to be specific about it too, where it's like, hey, we're shooting glove.
00:55:29
Speaker
Yeah. And i'm not and like I'm not trying to say either. It's like we're trying to like develop goalie school goalies because I know that term gets thrown around lot. Cookie cutter goalies. that's that's that's not That's not what
Final Advice and Community Engagement
00:55:41
Speaker
we're saying because like when I'm developing a practice plan and i'm going to pull but kind of kind of the pull back the curtain a little bit,
00:55:47
Speaker
Is that like when I'm developing a practice round, like i have a session coming up this Wednesday as of recording tomorrow. um This past session that I did with, with this goalie was kind of a reintroduction to goaltending. Cause I haven't seen them in,
00:56:03
Speaker
a month or so, maybe a little bit longer. And so it was like a reintroduction to goaltending at that point. And then tomorrow is probably going to be working more on box control and kind of stuff like that and be able and and reading that.
00:56:17
Speaker
Um, but like, there's still like, I'm still coming in with a game plan per se. And so here's the, the ideology that I'm, that I'm coming in with essentially. And so that's, that's kind of what I'm saying is that like, I'm not saying like, Hey, well, here are the, here's the structured drills to, you know, understand how to move in your net or how I understand how much, how much net to take up sort of thing. It's like, no, here the drills that I think are going to best suit this goaltender for that, for this,
00:56:47
Speaker
specific um attribute situation that i'm trying to that i'm trying to teach them um and we'll and then we'll continue continue to work on it from there you know like it's um we're not developing goalie school goalies or cookie gutter goaltenders here it's all going to be different and everyone's going to interpret the way that they're going to interpret it but still there's got to be like a little bit of a standard operating procedure, if you will, um in terms of how in terms of how it to how it goes.
00:57:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing, just in different ways. Sure, fair enough. Shout out Brad McDonald. Nathan, I hate you. Yeah, there you go.
00:57:28
Speaker
It's been a while since we've done that. I was going to say, like it's it's it's been a little bit since we shouted out Brad. I still feel like a jerk for calling him out of that one episode. Yeah, it's all good.
00:57:41
Speaker
I think he's forgiving you. I think he has. Yeah. Well, anyways, that, I guess the end of our, our rants and rambles, we kind of got off the rails at the end there, but so just kind of in general to wrap up, um,
00:57:56
Speaker
if we If you guys really want to take control of your own game, I think being aware of your shortfalls as well as your strengths, because that's another thing maybe we should touch on quick is just when you are identifying patterns of like weaknesses, also try and identify patterns of strengths. Try and say like if you are breaking your game down,
00:58:23
Speaker
and you do have the video or anything like that, and just being like, you know what, I do a really good job on, you know, staying in the overlap on dead angle shots, or I do a really good job on you know, putting pucks where I want them to go when I can see the, and see the shot coming in or whatever the case is.
00:58:43
Speaker
That's, I think, an important part too. So, to start off, if you guys can figure out what you're good at, where your shortfall, shortfalls are, that was a hard sentence to say.
00:58:56
Speaker
um I'm keeping this in when I'm editing this. Oh, perfect. That's good. and I'm human too. It's all good.
00:59:05
Speaker
But, and then if you can kind of find, yeah, cookie cutter, the root cause from there. and not necessarily get focused on the outcome or the symptom or whatever you want to call it.
00:59:19
Speaker
And then from there, just start to build around your strengths, start to try and put yourself in less situations where you'll be exposed to your weaknesses. And yeah, we still want to work on trying to get those better.
00:59:34
Speaker
yeah, but If you guys know what's going on, it's a lot easier to to try and plan to fix it or make a plan to fix it. And then again, just set yourself some goals, consistently work towards it, break it down into small chunks. It's not going to happen overnight.
00:59:53
Speaker
And just try and find yourself, you know, a way that works for you to be able to consistently work towards on what you need to work on because consistency is the key like that's the problem with a lot of the goalies we see is we see them for an hour then they go to their team practice where they get you know one on oh two on oh three on oh flow drills for you know an hour and then they develop a bunch of bad habits and then we see them for an hour three weeks later and just have to undo
01:00:27
Speaker
all the stuff that they built up again. So if you can be consistent, that's going to make a big difference. And yeah, just keep going and do your best, guys. It's it's a tough road. It's a tough position. It's going to take a while to establish good habits and to break bad habits. Don't get discouraged. Stick with it. Be consistent and you guys will do fine.
01:00:53
Speaker
Can we pause just for a brief second? i know we're I know we're towards the end. but this
01:01:04
Speaker
Oh, boy. ah
01:01:09
Speaker
Did you have anything else or is that... No, that was literally the end. i was done. So I don't know if you had anything to chime in. No, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just cop it off here. All right. And, and with that comes another conclusion of a DIY goalie episode presented.
01:01:28
Speaker
by True North Goaltending. For those listening on the podcast side of things, Apple, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you find us on your favorite podcasting platforms, make sure that if you haven't already, hit that follow button. If you are a new listener, if you are a returning listener, first off, we'd like to say thank you.
01:01:45
Speaker
And make sure you hit that share button with your goaltending friends or goalie family. ah The more goalies that we are able to bring to this little community of ours, the better. If you are watching over on the YouTube side of things, and if you are, again, a returning viewer, again, thank you very much.
01:02:00
Speaker
um Again, make sure as well hit that subscribe, not the subscribe, and make sure you hit that share button to ah share with your goalie friends and goalie family. If you are a new viewer to our little corner of the internet, make sure you hit that subscribe button and make sure she hit a like on this video. It helps the algorithm as well as, again, bringing more goalies to the goalie community, the better.
01:02:21
Speaker
You can follow us on your favorite social media platforms, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Instagram and Facebook are kind of our two major ones that we use. But you can follow us across all of your favorite social media platforms at True North Goaltending because we're moving everything from the DIY goalie over to true north goaltending uh you can follow us on instagram because we like to be different over at yeg goalie coach you can follow myself on instagram at monday gc go check us out at our website www.truenorthgoaltending.com we still have some open spots for our goaltending camps for our three-day camp in july and our five-day camp in august make sure if you are in the edmonton area and you want to
01:03:05
Speaker
check us out or if you want to participate in one of our camps, maybe you should go register over there. um Until then, goalies, make some saves. We'll see you guys next time. Take care.