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099 - Off Season Sports and 2 Goalie Teams
120 Plays16 days ago
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Drill of the Month: Blind Behind the Net Passouts: https://truenorthgoaltending.com/drills/blind-behind-the-net-pass-outs/
This week we explore some good options for the off season to work on your skill set to help with being a goalie. We also touch on what it's like being on a 2 goalie team and that it may not be a bad thing!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Format
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to the DIY Goalie Podcast, where hosts and goalie coaches Nathan Park and Connor Munday share their insights on how to become a better goalie.
00:00:18
Speaker
Goalies, how are we doing? Welcome back to the DIY Goalie Podcast presented by True North Goaltending. How are we doing? Nice to see everyone. We are doing a little bit of a different episode today. Nathan and I unfortunately did get a little busy, kind of lost track of time a little bit, and unfortunately wasn't able to...
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sorry.
00:01:01
Speaker
And yeah, we're just, we're just going to do it that way today. Cause again, like I said, we just, we, we ended up just losing track of the days. Things have kind of winded down for us, but you know, we've been so used to not talking to each other so often and forget our, not, not forgetting to do pod, but yeah.
00:01:19
Speaker
Excuse me, just, ah just ah you know, we have our own lives and such. And so, yeah, that's
Celebrating Episode 99 and Listener Appreciation
00:01:25
Speaker
a thing. Guys, this is pod episode 99. like that's Like, that's incredible. that's That's nuts. The fact that we've been at this for 99 episodes coming up on 100.
00:01:37
Speaker
And then a few episodes later, it'll be two years since, uh, since the DIY goalie podcast, uh, started. So that's, that's, um, that's nuts. Um, guys, as always, thank you so much for your support on the, on the last episodes and on the pod as a whole, we really do appreciate it.
00:01:55
Speaker
Love when we get, um, you know, goalie parents and goalie and just goalie people in general that, uh, that, you know, come up to us and say, thank you, you know, and, um, you know, they say that, only you know, I listened to the pod and, you know, you guys are great and bla blah, blah, blah. And I've learned something and, you know, and all that stuff. so so we, so we really do appreciate it, not just in our little, our little bubble here in the greater Edmonton area, but just, yeah,
00:02:18
Speaker
all across the ah All across the globe, which is ah which is pretty ah which is which is ah really insane. and So true true international goaltending is ah is ah as well we what we will be rebranding
Episode Plan: Drill Focus and Sports Recommendations
00:02:30
Speaker
ourselves to. um So my plan for at least my segment today is that I have kind of too many segments. I'm going to do i'm gonna i'm gonna hold true to myself in this episode and not drop the ball like I did the last episode. And we're going talking about the drill of the month today, and I'm not going to mess it up like I did last time.
00:02:49
Speaker
And then as well as I just want to talk about a little bit just... kind of some other sports um that our that our goalies and our athletes as a general should be ah should be playing um you know or part or participating in rather outside of goaltending. As we are all entering into playoffs, some of our seasons are done. um a lot of us most likely are looking into spring, summer hockey and such. And Nathan and I have both shared our thoughts about that. But we haven't really touched on, you know, what are some other sports that you should be playing um or partaking in outside of outside of um of of of ice hockey, essentially. And so that's going to be my job here today. Nathan's going to have his own segment. um
00:03:40
Speaker
But yeah, i'm real I'm actually really excited about this one today. But we're going to try and keep it very brief today because I would like to revisit this segment and have Nathan's ah nathan's opinion on it as well. ah Just a few other housekeeping items quickly. You guys can head to our website, truenorthgoaltending.com. I'm going to go make sure that you guys go and, you know, check out all the stuff that we have
Goalie Drill: Pass Outs & Reactions
00:04:00
Speaker
going on over there. We do so have still, excuse me, some ah some ah some bookings in our um in our in our camps.
00:04:08
Speaker
So go check that out. And yeah, just if you are in the Edmonton area, feel free to book a session with us, truenorthgoaltending.com. All right, let's let's jump into this ah into this um drill of the month section here. So Nathan did put out a a ah newsletter. in If you are subscribed to that, make sure. if you Well, if you're not subscribed to it, go subscribe to it.
00:04:32
Speaker
But if you are subscribed to it, you'll see that he put out like a like a practice plan. um for for the for for February of 2026. And so there's ah one drill in here that I did want to talk about today, and it's called the blind behind the net pass outs.
00:04:49
Speaker
We've dealt with similar situations like this before. Actually, just recently, I dealt with a ah similar situation where I had a pass that was from behind the goal line, made that pass right out to the guy, basically at the, at the, at the faceoff dot. And it was a quick shot. And so I had to kind of quickly react, um, to get to that next position.
00:05:09
Speaker
We deal with a lot of quick shots in games. And sometimes we deal with shots that maybe we don't totally see. So with this drill in particular, um You know, it it definitely adds a little bit of a little bit of of of of speed and agility. And, you know, just we want to make sure that we're still doing our best to, if if over anything, just get our body to where the puck is going to be. So here's the drill for today. So the Goldie starts at the top of their crease in the middle. Doesn't necessarily specify whether you're on your feet or in your butterfly. I'm going to assume that you're on your feet.
00:05:45
Speaker
There are four players um on each side of the net, two below the goal line, two about where the faceoff dots are, kind of just a just above on the inside hash marks.
00:05:55
Speaker
um There's a shooter in line with each passer, higher in the zone, somewhere around the height of the faceoff dot. Goalie is facing forward. Passers will communicate non-verbally to decide who is passing. One of them passes out to their shooter for a quick shot. Goalie must read the side. The pass is going once they see the puck, then push over accordingly and play out the rebound.
00:06:19
Speaker
Variation is having the shooters lower in theona the zone and the goalie start slightly deeper in their crease. Goalie can perform a slide or start on their knees to perform an inside edge push for the shot coming from tighter to the net.
00:06:34
Speaker
Key points on this one are picking the puck up as quickly as possible, making sure that we get proper rotation before pushing. And that's a huge one. um And that makes sure that we're getting our feet quick, um getting our feet set quickly. Or if we are doing that second variation where we're doing that butterfly slide across, making sure that, you know, we're getting that good inside edge push. And we're making sure that we're catching ourselves, you catching our edges and dropping that knee down as best as we can. We don't want to kind of stop halfway, halfway up.
00:07:04
Speaker
I like this drill for a number of reasons. And again, the quickest one or the the most, best the best one that I can think of in particularly is because of, you know, how quickly you have to pick up that puck.
00:07:17
Speaker
And sometimes, you know, we don't necessarily get a chance to, you know, get set, look pretty, you know, for a shot that's kind of basically a quick one timer from, from tight or from not so far away closer to the blue line.
00:07:34
Speaker
The rotation part of it, you know, is a huge, huge part of it. And again, I'm not looking for anything fancy. I'm not, I'm i'm not looking, no you know, for, for my goalies, you know, to make the perfect save, especially when we do have ah a quick, a quick shot opportunity like this. The biggest thing guys,
00:07:50
Speaker
is we just want to be able to get body in position. We got to take away, we we we just got to take away coverage from the net at this point, which sounds so counterintuitive, but it's not at the same time. I had it. I actually, I didn't do this drill in particular, but I did a variation um of this drill where a ah same idea where the goalie was going for that kind of that back door area.
00:08:14
Speaker
And I was really emphasizing on, you know, it doesn't need to look pretty. We want to make sure that we get to the area that we want to get to as best as we can, but we have to make sure that we get on the right line of the the right line of travel, the right line of sight, the right angle, whatever you want to call it um to get to that position. And so that's where that rotation really comes in handy over anything, because when we get that proper rotation, when we're in line to wherever the shooter's body is or to wherever the shooter's stick blade is,
00:08:48
Speaker
We get on that line. get that push across and we are just taking away that net. You know, if we get a half rotation or if we over rotate, then, you know, you're, you're either giving up net or you're, or you're not and basically. um So really, really, really important, you know, that, you know, the, the rotation aspect of it is, is the biggest thing, obviously, you know, like I said, we want to be able to pick up the puck as quickly as possible. So if we're staring directly in front, we got to look and then push, you know, as, as best as we can.
00:09:22
Speaker
And then again, like I said, getting our getting our feet set quickly or even make sure when when we are doing that second variation with the butterfly slide that you know that we're getting that good push across as best as we can.
00:09:36
Speaker
So we will have um the link to this drill down in the show notes below. And I'll make sure that I should get the proper graphic out for it this time. I forgot to do that last episode, but yeah, we'll make sure we get the, we'll we'll make sure we get all that out to you guys. And definitely, um definitely if that's something that you guys have been struggling with, um definitely would recommend, you know, working on this drill over the summertime, you know, work on, it work work on your edges, working on making sure that we pick up that quick, pick up that
Sports to Enhance Goalie Skills
00:10:05
Speaker
puck. as quickly as we can so that we can get to our next position all right uh like i said so my segment's a little bit shorter today um nothing too too crazy we're just going to talk about quickly you know what are gonna what are some of the best sports you know for us as goaltenders that we should be getting into playing um over the summer
00:10:27
Speaker
And i haveve I have a few here that, um you know, that, you know, that are interesting to me, um some of which I'm not surprised about. There's a couple that I have here, not in like, I don't have an article, but I just I did just kind of do a little quick Google search here. um And, you know, there's a couple in here that I was like, hu you know, i never really thought about that before. So that's As goalies, we want to try and pick up or, you know, do want to try and work on aspects of our game, you know, that'll translate, right? So really, we shouldn't be playing something like, um I don't know, football as an example. You know, some of us may like football and that's and that's perfectly fine. But if you're if if you're playing football and then transitioning back to hockey, it's not really going to help, um you know, with the... um
00:11:20
Speaker
You know, with the, you know, with the, with the trends, with the translation of skills, essentially same with, you know, if you're doing something like ski jumping, you know, as an example, you know, two very bad examples, but it's still, still gets the point across. We want to be doing something, you know, that's going to, um you know, help with certain aspects, you know, of our game or as, as goalies, you know, that focuses on, on a specific thing. And then we can translate that to that to other, you know,
00:11:48
Speaker
to to to back to goaltending essentially so i have three here and two of which are kind of the same thing so i'm going to kind of um correlate under one thing um what we wanted to work on first off is our hand eye reaction time because that's the biggest thing for us as goaltenders right you know we have to we have to quickly pick up information process that information and react to that information you know as best as we can so something like baseball or softball which I love, by the way, I love playing baseball, but playing baseball as a catcher in particular really helps with that hand-eye tracking, the quick reflexes, um you know, and a little bit of footwork, um you know, as well. Catchers are basically, you know, um ground goalies, essentially, baseball goalies. If you've ever seen, um I mean, it's not totally true, but you ever see um that one clip,
00:12:45
Speaker
of the goaltender playing baseball in his full goalie gear. I forget what the name is. and You guys are going to rip me, and that's totally fine. um But it's kind of the kind of the similar idea.
00:12:59
Speaker
you know But I played catcher as in baseball. I hated it um because I wasn't really a fan of the ball being thrown at me while I have somebody with ah with a giant metal bat you know basically standing over top me. I was so scared of getting hit in the back of the head.
00:13:14
Speaker
But some I definitely I definitely would recommend, you know, playing baseball as a, you know, as a, ah um you know, as ah as a hand-eye coordination. Some other ones as well. Badminton, ping pong, you know, really good for the hand-eye and for the quick reflexes as well as, you know, fast footwork. Do you guys ever played ping pong or badminton? i did that a lot, you know, in school and badminton more so in particular. I play ping pong on occasion. But yeah, like that, like that tiny little ball or the, or the, or the, or the, the, the birdie, you know, that thing moves fast and that thing moves in some weird directions. So, you know, we want to, um you know, it's, it's, it's great for, you know,
00:13:56
Speaker
processing information, you know, and and for reacting as quickly as we have to, you know, to make sure that we get that ball or the birdie on the other side of the net. Same thing with tennis and pickleball as well. I'm not a, I don't know a lot about pickleball, but I know it look quite a bit, look quite a bit about tennis.
00:14:10
Speaker
Same thing, you know, for those long lateral movements, you know, getting that rotation, loading those legs and making sure that we're moving as fast across the court as best as we can. um You know, excellent for lateral movement, tracking fast moving objects, you know, stuff like that.
00:14:25
Speaker
um Moving on into kind of the the flexibility, balance, and core strength side of things, because we, as goalies, we have to believe but we have to be as flexible. We have to have to be as flexible, if not more.
00:14:39
Speaker
We have to have really, really good balance because our edges are different compared to players. And we have to have really good core strength as well, because that's where a lot of our power comes from in the same time. So...
00:14:50
Speaker
Gymnastics builds good core strength, body control, and flexibility, all critical for specifically recovery saves. um I'm not the most flexible guy. you know i'mm I've done gymnastics you know a few times in my life. um But definitely, you know like if you've seen some of those gymnasts, like they like they are built. like Those guys are built different. And just the amount of body control, the core strength that they have,
00:15:19
Speaker
you know, is, is, is unreal. So we want to make sure, you know, that, um, you know, we, we have that, you know, as, as, as, as best as we can, yoga and Pilates, you know, good for, you know, range of motion again, balance and course, core stability, you know, as well as assisting and flexibility and injury prevention, you know, that's, that's another good one right there. Cause we have to take care of ourselves too.
00:15:43
Speaker
Cause you know, goalies, you know, um, you know, can get injured and you know we all we've all known it we all seen it and you know and so if we're not doing things you know to be able to stretch out the muscles and you know as best as we can um you know it it can it can do a little it can do a lot of damage and so we want to make sure you know that you know we're taking care of ourselves so if you are part of any yoga or pilates classes my wife and my kid just went to one today um you know we're uh we got to make sure that we're doing that and then the last one here i'm gonna it
00:16:16
Speaker
talks about martial arts and Taekwondo. I focused on karate a lot as a kid and I, yeah like just the whole kind of martial arts scene in general, you know, again, focuses on that course ability and balance because you, you work your core a lot because you're working basically on the balls of your feet, you know, and as well as focuses on the leg power as well, you know, with the kicks and, you know, making sure that we, you know, get your feet set properly and certain movements and, um, you know, all the, all that stuff. So, um,
00:16:45
Speaker
Definitely would recommend taking a martial arts. You know, I, I quite enjoyed doing karate as a, as a kid. I've been meaning to go back as an adult. I just haven't really had the chance to, or the money to, um but yeah, definitely, definitely would highly recommend taking martial arts. It's a lot of fun. There's ah it's it's, it's a lot of discipline, you know, as well, which I think is um which I think is important.
00:17:07
Speaker
I was focusing more so to agility and movement. This one doesn't surprise me a whole lot. Soccer. Soccer is a good one. um You know, and good work good it's good on footwork and lateral movement because, you know, again, if you play if
Transition to Two-Goalie Teams: Benefits
00:17:20
Speaker
you've ever played soccer, if you've ever watched soccer, those fields are massive, you know. And even then, like when you are working that ball, you have to work that ball with your feet. And so you have to have really good – foot eye coordination, I guess.
00:17:32
Speaker
um So I think it's, I think it's one of those things, you know, where, um you know, that's, that's a really good one lacrosse as well. Again, same thing with hand eye coordination and spatial awareness. That's a, that's a good one.
00:17:45
Speaker
That's, that's a really good one there with, with, with lacrosse and spatial awareness. Soccer is kind of in that same category as well. um And, you know, definitely, definitely would be something that that I would recommend. I've never played lacrosse. I can't throw the ball to save my life, but that's that's another good one. Beach volleyball, really good for agility and vertical explosives. Because you guys think about, like, you're working in sand. Right. So you have to really load your legs a little bit more to be able to get across the court and no one need to have to really explode and, you know, to, to jump up high. I played, I didn't play beach volleyball, but I play like water volleyball. And so when you're working against, you know, like the water, um you know, it's, it's, it's hard, you know, in terms of moving across and, you know, you're throwing your body on the line a lot, you know, just to try and get over, you know, to, to keep the ball in the air and try to get it over and try to get out over the net.
00:18:37
Speaker
um, So definitely, ah definitely would recommend beach volleyball or even just kind of volleyball in general. That's, ah that's another good one to, to do. And then lastly, for simulation and more so specific skills, ball hockey, you know, I would definitely recommend playing ball hockey over, over spring or summer hockey, go play that. It's a lot of fun. I'm a champ. I'm a, I'm, I'm actually a champion with, with ball hockey. So I can, I have that under my belt. Um, but it's, it's the same idea, right? You know, you're, you're, you're simulating game situations.
00:19:08
Speaker
You're improves on reading the play, you know, keeping reflexes sharp, you know, especially as a goaltender definitely would recommend playing ball hockey as a player. That's a lot of fun as well. It kind of helps you, you know, with the, with the leg power, you know, and the, the, um, the, it doesn't really talk about it, but the, uh, the endurance as well, that's another one. Cause if you, if you've ever played hockey in general, whether it's ball hockey or ice hockey as a player,
00:19:33
Speaker
you suck a lot of wind. And, um, you know, I definitely, uh, I definitely would recommend that. Um, and then, you know, just kind of another one as well, you know, just with the footwork and foot speed, you know, and coordination, um, skipping jump rope, you know, you, you, you see players or or people do that in the gym as well, you know, where they're, where they're, where they're jumping rope and,
00:19:55
Speaker
It's not because they're doing that, you know, to feel like a little school girl. It's, you know, they're, they're, they're doing that with, with purpose, you know, and try to count how many foot touches, you know, on the ground and, you know, try to keep control and discipline, you know, when they're jumping, you know, make sure that they don't get, um you know, tied up on the rope and all that, and all that stuff there. So, yeah.
00:20:14
Speaker
Yeah, so that's kind of my that's kind of my Cole's notes on what I have with it today. I definitely want to I want to revisit this topic very, very soon with Nathan i kind of get his thoughts on it. um Yeah, but definitely definitely would recommend, you know, all of these. But I think if I had to pick kind of one for each category.
00:20:34
Speaker
For hand-eye coordination and reaction time, I would definitely say baseball. Again, baseball is one of my – it's my second favorite sport of all time. um But whether you're playing baseball as a catcher, like like like it recommends me here, or even if you're just playing baseball in a different if in a in a different position, it still focuses on a lot of things, you know with with the with the glove tracking, the hand-eye coordination, and even the quick reflexes as well, you know especially if you're in the outfield and and you get ah and you get a you got a long bomb like that.
00:21:03
Speaker
um Um, for flexibility, balance and core strength. Again, i would still definitely say martial arts in general. Gymnastics is a very, very close second.
00:21:13
Speaker
Um, but I have a, I have a personal bias towards, towards martial arts. So I would definitely recommend that. Um, for agility and movement, I'm actually leaning towards volleyball. I would definitely do a little more volleyball than, uh, than, um, than maybe soccer lacrosse. I think volleyball just has that, you know, you, again, like I said, like you, you throw a lot of your body on the line and again, those quick decisions and, you know, you have to really focus on your agility and your vertical explosiveness, not, um,
00:21:42
Speaker
necessarily applying to goaltending but it's still it's that leg power it's that leg strength in general right i guess vertical explosion if you're in your butterfly and having to pop back up to your feet um and then simulation specific skills ball hockey ball hockey would be the one for me i would say um You know, definitely. ah Now, would again, just I love playing ball hockey as a kid.
00:22:04
Speaker
Like I said, I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a city champion. So, you know, um but yeah, those would be those would be the the other ones. Guys, I cannot stress enough, and I'm talking to the goalie parents here in particular, I cannot stress enough how important it is for your kid to play other sports. It is so, so, so important. And Nathan and I have talked about it many times before, you know, where a lot of people think, you know, like, oh, if my kid doesn't, you know, play spring hockey or play summer hockey, or, you know, if they're not on this specific coach's team, then they're missing out.
00:22:37
Speaker
Really, you're not. You're not at the end of the day. You know, spring and summer hockey, it's not, it's it's turned into this into this thing of, you know, hey, if I play spring or summer hockey, it's going to help advance my my my career as ah as as a hockey player, as ah as a hockey athlete.
00:22:59
Speaker
which maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. There's no, there's no guarantee with that whatsoever. But if you are just a one trick pony, know yeah a lot of, so like a lot of skills with that don't necessarily always translate over to other things. You know, as athletes in general, we're building not only,
00:23:22
Speaker
athletic skills, but we're, but we're building also personal skills at the same time too. And I think that's the one thing that we all forget about sometimes. And um so I would, I would definitely, again, I'm against spring. I coached in spring hockey. It was a fun time. I'm like, I'm not going to dismiss that, but,
00:23:40
Speaker
I would definitely recommend for all my athletes, go find something else to play, go, go take up a summer sport, go, go play baseball, go play, ah um you know, just, just go do something else aside from hockey, get away from the rink for little bit. Cause otherwise you are going to burn yourself out too at the same time. So yeah. um Yeah. We'll get, we'll get Nathan's though. We'll get Nathan's thoughts and opinions on this.
00:24:02
Speaker
um that That is kind of my Cole's notes there. And those would be my recommendations, um you know, for, for, for summer sports. So, I'm going to pass it over to Nathan now. um Apparently I'm losing my voice in this episode. So, you know, yay me. Thank you guys again so much for all the love and support.
00:24:18
Speaker
Really do appreciate it. Go check us out. True North goal attending.com for all your stuff. If you are following over on the Instagram or on the social media side of things, all of that is true North goal attending, except on Instagram because we like to be different. That one is Y E G goalie coach. You can follow myself on Instagram at Monday GC. If you are listening or watching on your favorite podcast or video platform, whether that be YouTube, Apple, I heart Spotify, or whatever that is,
00:24:42
Speaker
hit the like, hit the subscribe, hit the follow button, hit the share button. helps
Engagement with True North Goaltending
00:24:45
Speaker
the algorithm. The more goalies that we are able to bring together, the better. And again, bring check us out, Trudeau'sGoaltending.com. Go check out all our all of our excellent stuff there. We still have camp spots available there for our new and upcoming goalies, for our ring at goalies, and our week-long camp is filling up fast. I think we have very, very limited spots left, so go get your spot now, Trudeau'sGoaltending.com. Make some safe goalies. We'll see you guys next time. Take care.
00:25:11
Speaker
Hey goalies, uh, welcome back to the DIY goalie podcast.
Addressing Two-Goalie Team Concerns
00:25:15
Speaker
Um, this is just me, Nathan, for my segment of this podcast, we kind of dropped the ball on our, uh, scheduling here. So we kind had to put together a couple segments solo here for, uh, for today's episode. So depending on how this was structured after the fact, either you'll hear from Connor after me or you have just finished listening to Connor. But um i'm mean I mean, have a pretty short and sweet segment today just based off of, you know, one goalie versus two goalie teams. and A lot of parents seem to kind of have feelings.
00:25:53
Speaker
you know, concerns when they're going from a single goalie team to a two goalie team. They have lots of concerns, mostly but around playing time, which is valid. Like, you know, obviously when there's more goalies on a team, you're looking at less playing time just because you got to make sure, especially in minor hockey with the fair play, you got to make sure that both goalies are getting some playing time. um so When it comes to the major drawback, that's kind of the big one that stands out from a one goalie team versus a two goalie team.
00:26:32
Speaker
But there are a lot of benefits that come along with having the two goalies as well. So if you do find yourself in a situation where you have been used to being the only goalie on a team and then you're making the shift to being on a two goalie team, um You can definitely have a positive mindset going in and kind of framing or framing your mindset positively around the experience as opposed to kind of going in thinking, oh, we're losing playing time. This is going to suck. It's going to be a bad year. We're not going to develop as much, you know, yada, yada, yada. So.
00:27:10
Speaker
there are a couple of benefits that come with having two goalies on a team. The obvious one being that there's a lot less pressure um when you have two goalies, as opposed to just being the one goalie. Like when you are the one goalie, you kind of pressure to be there every game, you know, you,
00:27:30
Speaker
don't really have the flexibility if you're a little bit sick or a little bit hurt to kind of take a day off. Um, normally, you know, when you're the only goalie on the team, the team kind of rides and dies by you. Right. So, um, I've been there before and Adam, I got sick during a game once and we had to throw, uh, throw one of our players in net randomly. Um, so took my gear off, he put it on and went in net and, uh, That went about as well as expected, but so that's kind of one thing that really really is beneficial to having two goalies on the team.
00:28:09
Speaker
um The other thing too is having a bit of a support system. um A lot of us know this already, but goaltending is quite a lonely position. It's probably one of the loneliest positions in sports when we think of it as a whole. Because like when we talk about quarterbacks, pitchers and kind of similar um similar positions in other sports, they usually get a lot more coaching, a lot more support than goalies do in hockey. so
00:28:44
Speaker
It's nice to kind of have somebody else who's going through a similar experience and who has gone through similar experiences. you um You can bounce ideas off them. You can learn from them. They might be doing something in their pregame warm up or you know, in their reset routine, or they might be doing something with their equipment that you haven't seen before that you really like.
00:29:05
Speaker
Um, so it's kind of a fresh perspective on things, uh, kind of, you know, an extra set of eyes and extra opinion. Um, and it's good to just be able to go in and kind of talk with somebody else, right. Who's in a similar situation. So, um, the other thing too, with that is if you have a situation where your coaching staff is doing something that is really not good for the goalies, like say they're running very unfriendly goalie practices,
00:29:35
Speaker
um When you have two goalies, it's a lot easier to go together to talk to the coaches and bring this stuff up. And usually it has a little bit more weight to it when both of you are there, as opposed to just being the one goalie on the team trying to advocate for some change. Sometimes that doesn't go over as well as if you can have both of you guys kind of going in and talking and and, you know, being on the same page and saying, hey, this isn't working for us and this is for both of us. Can we make some sort of adjustments?
00:30:07
Speaker
um Another thing, too, that's ah that's kind of nice when you have two goalies is is that internal drive, that internal competition. So there are some circumstances where this is taken too far by either goalies or goalie parents or both. So yes, this can potentially be, you know, a negative, but for the most part, most people are pretty good at, at you know,
00:30:37
Speaker
generating a positive environment or at least one that they just want to see their kid or themselves develop properly. um So a lot of times they don't really go out of their way to sabotage the other goalie. Now, does it happen? Yes, it does, unfortunately. But for the most part, you're not really going to see that too, too much. And then if you do have issues with that, you can always raise it to your organization and kind of go from there.
00:31:05
Speaker
um But that internal drive and that internal competition can really be a good thing for development. Um, when we're talking about, um, you know, being able to push ourselves in practice, sometimes it's kind of hard when we're the only goalie, um, cause it's a little bit of complacency, right? There's no real, you know,
00:31:32
Speaker
consequence on the other side, I guess, if we don't really put in the work for a practice here and there, just because, you know, you're going to get your playing time regardless when you're, when you're the only goalie, but when there's two goalies and you have somebody that's pushing you for minutes and is trying to take minutes away from you and you're trying to take minutes away from them. it can create a healthy competition where you guys are both driving yourselves to get better and to put in the work and to do the extra things and to try and close that gap. Right. So that does kind of help to you know push away the complacency and to kind of make it so that, um you know, you have to put in the work and you have to be making sure you're staying on top of your development.
00:32:20
Speaker
So having two goalies in that sense is is good. and it's, you know, on top of that internal competition, there's also kind of that camaraderie that comes from it. So, I mean, there's still lots of my goalie partners that I still talk to to today. And I know that's the case for a lot of goalies out there, um especially if you end up with a goalie partner that you're with for a couple seasons in a row. You know, there's a real friendship that gets to be made there.
00:32:50
Speaker
Um, it's also good to, to, you know, if you're a younger goalie kind of moving up in the ranks, so say you're moving up to an age group where you're a first year and your goalie partner is a second year, sometimes that extra little bit of experience from the other goalie can really be helpful and sort of like a little bit of a mentorship role.
00:33:12
Speaker
This applies more so to like the higher levels and kind of once you get into the elite streams and junior, semi-pro, stuff like that. But um it can still be kind of a valuable dynamic in your goalie tandem, just having one goalie that's been there before and then kind of a younger goalie that's coming up through the ranks. And it's almost, you know, that like passing of the torch type thing. But a lot of that kind of experience can be passed on and can really help, you know,
00:33:41
Speaker
accelerate somebody's development if they're coming into a situation where they have a really good goalie partner who's a bit older and a bit more experienced and can kind of pass some of that along. um So ultimately, like I know with the single goalie teams, um a lot of what people look at is is the playing time and that's kind of what they get caught up on is, oh no, I'm going to lose half of my playing time. But There are a lot of other things to kind of be considered and kind of benefits to having a tandem approach. um
00:34:19
Speaker
It's just something that eventually is going to happen unless you're playing house league in a remote area for your entire career, which is possible too. Like maybe you do go your whole career without ever having a goalie partner, but um Ultimately, I'd say for 95, maybe even like 98, 99% of goalies out there, eventually they're going to end up in a situation where they do have a tandem, um where they do have a goalie partner and there are two goalies on their team.
Positive Aspects of Goalie Tandems
00:34:50
Speaker
Don't see this as... a potential downfall, kind of embrace it for what it is, where, you know, it's somebody to push you, somebody to lean on, somebody to kind of, you know, have similar experiences to you and that you can learn from and that you can also teach a little bit as well.
00:35:09
Speaker
And just have fun with it, you know, make some friends. There's very few people that are in the same situation as you as a goalie, right? Like,
00:35:20
Speaker
just by sheer population numbers there aren't nearly as many goalies in the world as there are players so there's so so many people that just don't get it right and all of us in the goalie community we kind of know that we've experienced it at various times but Just having that open mindedness, being able to go in and, you know, have a positive frame of mind around it and actually understand the situation so you can maximize your development from it. That's the best way to go about it. And that's usually when you'd be most successful.
00:35:57
Speaker
um But yeah, that's kind of mostly all I wanted to say on the topic. Just wanted to kind of put it out there that going into a tandem situation is not necessarily a bad thing. And in fact, can in some circumstances, give you a little bit more benefit than being on a single goalie team. um And hopefully that just kind of helps you frame your mind a little bit or frame your mindset a little bit differently around it and be a little bit more okay with making that that adjustment.
00:36:29
Speaker
But as always, goalies, thanks for listening. And we'll see again on another episode.