Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
106 - Don't Focus As Much On Your Weaknesses
112 Plays12 days ago
Check out our drills, articles, merch, and book a session with us at https://truenorthgoaltending.com!
2026 goalie camps are live for booking! Check out https://truenorthgoaltending.com/edmonton-goalie-camps for more info.
During our development, we tend to focus a lot of our time and effort on addressing our weaknesses. Although this is valid and something we need to do, there are a few other things to consider and another approach we should devote some of time to. Tune in to hear Nathan explain his take on this subject.
Visit our socials:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/truenorthgoaltending
Instagram: https://instagram.com/yeggoaliecoach
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@truenorthgoaltending
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@truenorthgoaltending
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Solo Hosting
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 today? Welcome back to... The one hundred and sixth episode of the DIY Goalie podcast presented by True North Goal Tending.
00:00:30
Speaker
um My name is Nathan Park. I am flying solo today. Connor is down in Calgary right now for a little bit of a trip down the QE2. So hopefully he's having a fun time down there.
00:00:43
Speaker
Um, so it'll just be me today flying solo.
NHL Playoffs Excitement
00:00:46
Speaker
Um, it's an exciting time of year. It's the playoffs and, uh, yeah, that's, um, that's one of my favorite time. I love the first round. The reason why i love the first round is there's so much energy. There's so much excitement, like as good as the Stanley cup final is usually by then it's kind of a bit more of a grind.
00:01:08
Speaker
um So that's why I think the first round is so electric. Like everybody's excited. You have a lot of anticipation as to what's going to happen. you know, there's lots of chirps flying everywhere. And this year especially is kind of cool because there's... a lot of fresh kind of faces that we haven't seen in the last couple seasons you know a few good storylines going um the buffalo situation is pretty cool philadelphia um utah hopefully they can make a a splash and you got the juggernauts of minnesota and dallas and as of recording this um you know this is sunday so we're coming off of a couple game ones yesterday on saturday and uh probably didn't have a ah wild drubbing of the stars 6-1 on uh on too many bingo cards out there but uh that being said dallas has been there before with i think they lost 5-1 in game one to colorado last season but uh
00:02:09
Speaker
No, it's a fun time
Goalie Performances in Playoffs
00:02:10
Speaker
of year. lot of a lot of cool stories, lot of ah anticipation, excitement. it's It's one of the things that I look forward to each season. And it's probably one of the few times that I actually carve out some time to sit down and and watch hockey. Also helps that it's the off season. I'm not as busy as as during the season, but a couple good performances yesterday. I thought Anderson looked really well.
00:02:39
Speaker
here looked really good. Gustafson made a couple good saves, even Allmark, even though they got the loss, he made ah a few nice saves. and and all of that. So we'll see how the playoffs shape out, but I know everybody in the hockey world is pretty excited for that. so So that's ah that's gonna be the next couple of months here. that That'll be a lot of fun.
Hot Take on Goalie Development
00:03:03
Speaker
um For today, I know I'm a couple weeks late on this, I guess, but I do have a little bit of a hot take to go through on on this episode. and
00:03:14
Speaker
I'll kind of explain a little bit more as to why um i kind of have have this stance. um I also apologize for my voice being a little hoarse today. There's ah been a couple of rinks this weekend that I was in, including this morning, that were kind of hard for the goalies to hear. So I was really straining to yell at them so they could... could hear me but um we'll uh we'll try and make through the podcast might have to take couple extra sips of water but um apologize for that but yeah so what i have for today um and we'll see how much i ramble this might turn into a fairly quick episode but uh
00:03:58
Speaker
I wanted to go through kind of the, a little reframing of how we approach our, our game, our development, kind of how we want to play on the ice. um A lot of times we kind of talk about working on our uh like trying to build up our weaknesses um and and kind of trying to balance those out with our strengths and i'm going to counteract that just a little bit today um and i'm actually going to say that we should focus a little bit less on trying to improve our weaknesses
00:04:43
Speaker
And we should focus more on building our game around our strengths. And before, you know, I get the pitchforks and the torches coming after me, I don't mean that we need to ignore completely the things that we aren't as strong at.
00:05:01
Speaker
But more so what I want to kind of convey is instead of putting as much energy as we normally do to try and hammer hammer home the development of our weaknesses, i think we should take some of that energy and some of that dedication and put it towards how we approach our game and making our game work around our strengths. and the reason for that is i i see quite a few goalies that they're trying to work so hard. So, for example, if they're
00:05:39
Speaker
maybe not the greatest um and movements in skating. Maybe they're not the most agile goalie. Maybe they, for whatever reason, they just don't quite have the foot speed. But maybe they track really well. Maybe they may or their save execution is super efficient. Maybe their positioning is really good. But they just aren't quite there with the foot speed or something like that.
Adapting Positioning to Compensate Weaknesses
00:06:04
Speaker
And yes, we want to obviously still keep working on our movements and our foot speed and, you know, getting better at that. But I also think instead of beating that horse to death, because whether it's genetics, whether it's training, whether it's, you know, the list of reasons goes on and on. But there might be a reason why a goalie can't quite get there with their foot speed or their movement. or maybe, you know, another example is there's lots of goalies out there, myself included, that are sub six feet and, you know, are labeled as quote unquote small goalies.
00:06:44
Speaker
And that's something that, you know, Instead of trying to work on getting a little bit taller, which I know is kind of more of a physical limitation that you can't really work on, but even still, um those goalies want to kind of shift their focus and try and build their game around playing as big as they can with the size they have.
00:07:07
Speaker
um So going back to like the skating example, yes, obviously we still work on skating. We still work on our movement. um Off the ice, we're working on stuff like foot speed and leg strength and all that stuff too.
00:07:21
Speaker
But as opposed to trying to beat that dead horse and do absolutely everything you can to improve your skating, why not take some of that energy and try and work on your game so that you don't have to do as much skating and you can still be very successful having certain weaknesses or limitations in your game as long as you know how to play to what you are good at so an example that i kind of have um
00:07:56
Speaker
for this is you know you look at guys like Aiden Hill or Stuart Skinner, guys like that, they're more positional goalies. They aren't that great in terms of like their ability to move, their ability to skate. And obviously they are elite level skaters, but when you compare them to other goalies in the and NHL, they're definitely on the lower end when it comes to their ability to move and skate.
00:08:24
Speaker
That being said, those guys are still in the NHL and they can get results for the most part um just because they figured out how to kind of work around that.
00:08:37
Speaker
and So I'll keep with that example. And one thing as an Oilers fan, um watched a decent amount of Skinner over the last couple seasons. And one thing that I did notice when he got himself into trouble was because he would be at the point that he'd be a little too far out of his net depth wise for his ability to move laterally across the net.
00:09:07
Speaker
So there's a couple instances and one that comes to mind was the 2025 cup finals against Florida. I think it was game two. There was a power play goal that Bennett scored and he got a pass across and he kind of found on the shot and the shot literally just like wobbled and trickled like inches by Skinner's foot and went in.
00:09:34
Speaker
And when you kind of go back and you break that play down, um I think if I remember correctly, the puck moved low to high and then it moved across.
00:09:46
Speaker
And again, if I remember correctly, Skinner kind of came flying out on that low to high pass. that pass came across and he wasn't able to get across because his depth, he was too far out of his net. the one thing that um I noticed with Skinner's game is when he got into trouble was when he wasn't in the right kind of depth management for certain situations. So when he would get far out of his net, there was times where his skating ability wouldn't be able to get him across on any sort of lateral play.
00:10:26
Speaker
Now, on the flip side of that, when Skinner is super successful because he is a very positional goalie and when he's in position, he is very hard to beat. He does a very good job of covering the net once he gets into position.
00:10:41
Speaker
And what I found with watching him over the past couple seasons is when he's successful, he's in his spots quick and early and then he's able to move um from there not having to move too
Maximizing Strengths in Game Situations
00:10:57
Speaker
much. So if there was a lateral play across, he's a little deeper in his net. he He's able to get across and get his feet set early and then from there it's very, very hard to beat him.
00:11:09
Speaker
And so that's kind of the um shift in mentality that I want you guys to start thinking about. so Obviously a guy like Skinner, he's still every day working on his ability to move, his ability to skate and all of that. But to me, part of that energy should be focused on how he reads situations and how he can maximize his ability to get into position um early and to get set early.
00:11:43
Speaker
And that's what I think I want you guys to take away from this and to start thinking about is, okay, yes, I've identified that there's some shortfalls in my game. Like, we all have them. We all have things we're better at than others, right? Like, me, myself, i used to be like when i played growing up i was extremely athletic i could make some big you know saves that i had no business making but because nobody had taught me i got beat lots on straight shots just from not tracking pucks properly not being in proper position maybe i was a little off square or off angle um stuff like that so
00:12:27
Speaker
um what i would do to make myself successful is i played aggressively because i was able to move around well um but being aggressive kind of overcame my shortcomings of not having that um i guess that technical teaching of how to track the puck and all that now When I got older and I got to junior and I was actually finally taught those things, there was a lot more consistency in my game. So obviously working on those shortcomings in my game was still important and I still needed to do it.
00:13:04
Speaker
But I still tailored my game around being that explosive kind of athletic goalie. I just added the ability of being a little bit more positional and tracking pucks a little bit better.
00:13:17
Speaker
um So with you guys, when you identify the areas that you're not quite as strong at in your game, ask yourself, how can i approach the game and how can I play the game so that I find myself in those situations?
00:13:37
Speaker
the least amount possible, right? So if we go back to kind of the the clunkier goalie um that doesn't move as much or as well, I should say, um that is probably playing a little bit deeper in your net.
00:13:53
Speaker
And that is also probably really working on something like rotation so that your movement is efficient. Maybe you're not as quick,
00:14:05
Speaker
But because you're efficient in it, you can kind of make up for some of that lack of foot speed by getting a ah straighter line across, by being able to get into your angle quicker because you have that angle on your push from rotating.
00:14:19
Speaker
um So that's kind of um what I want you guys to be thinking about. Identify where it is that you are a little bit or the areas that you're struggling with.
00:14:33
Speaker
And from there, think of, OK, what can I do to minimize my exposure to these situations? And how can I play to try and maximize my exposure to situations that I'm good at?
00:14:49
Speaker
and We've talked before on the podcast about like goalie fit in a team. I know that plays a big role in it too. If you can find a team that their defensive system works well with your strength as well, that's another part of the puzzle.
00:15:05
Speaker
um That one's a little harder to do, though, especially you know if you don't really have like a coach that understands that and is kind of willing to to have that conversation with you as well as the team.
00:15:20
Speaker
And unfortunately, we can't always control that. But what we can control is our own approach and how we think about our own game and taking the time to identify how you can play to best maximize your strengths. So um if you guys get some time and Hopefully you guys have an idea of kind of some of the areas of your game that you do need to improve on or that isn't as strong as some of the other areas of your game.
00:15:55
Speaker
um Because if you don't know that, then that's for sure step number one. We have to kind of go back, dissect our game, identify what that is and what areas that we aren't quite as good at. Is it...
00:16:08
Speaker
Getting into position. is it tracking pucks? Is it moving? um You know, is it our situational awareness, stuff like that? um Kind of identifying a couple of those areas is the first step. And then from there Yes, we need to have a plan on how we want to get better at those. But the other thing that we got to identify is how can we tailor our game around minimizing the exposure to those situations? So again, if you're a very explosive goalie, you move really well, but maybe you're a little bit smaller and it's hard to make saves on straight shots, right? Have a conversation with your D-man and say, hey, on a two on one,
00:16:51
Speaker
I'd actually rather you cheat a little bit more to the guy with the puck and I'd rather take that pass across. and then even still like you can be a little bit more aggressive if you can move well enough to get across the net you can be a little bit more aggressive to make it easier on yourself to stop the puck because you're covering more net you don't have to track it as much it's more of like a blocking situation um not that i'm condoning playing
Improving Movement Efficiency
00:17:18
Speaker
a blocking style of goaltending because i'm not a huge fan of it but
00:17:22
Speaker
ah You kind of get the gist of of what I'm getting at there. So um that's the biggest thing is identifying what it is you need to work on and then thinking about what situations expose that the most.
00:17:38
Speaker
um So again, if it's if it's the movement across the net that we're struggling with, the situations that expose us the most are off the rush, our power plays, um stuff like that. So how do I approach playing those situations to minimize the ability that I'm going to get torched on a pass across the g net, right? And if we do get torched on a pass across the net,
00:18:06
Speaker
instead of trying to say, okay, I gotta work on nothing else but my foot speed, maybe we can find other things that we can work with that help, even though it's not necessarily like the quote unquote fix. So like we talked about before with the movement,
00:18:23
Speaker
efficiency in our movement can make us so much quicker without actually having to be quicker. Like just getting a proper rotation, just leading with the head, the body, the hands, loading our weight to make a good strong push across. Like those are the things that can make us more efficient and can actually make us quicker without having to have quicker foot speed.
00:18:47
Speaker
So that's another thing, too, is think of different angles as to how I can, you know, work on these shortcomings um so that it's not just like reps reps, reps, reps, reps. You have to have that quality behind the reps and you have to have that intention behind the reps to what am I trying to accomplish and what's my goal? Right. So.
00:19:12
Speaker
Mostly just the biggest, um I guess, message of this today's podcast is just shifting your mindset into how you approach dealing with the weaknesses in your game and identifying a little bit more how you can actually maximize when you're in in the elements of the game that ah complement your strengths.
00:19:35
Speaker
um So that's kind of the gist of it all. um Again, I'm not saying that you guys shouldn't be working on the things that you're you're struggling with, but just have a different approach. Ask yourself, is there a different way that I can work on this and get better at this without um You know, just trying to hammer home the same thing over and over day in and day out.
00:20:05
Speaker
And then the other thing is, how can I put myself in better positions and better situations so that I'm not exposing the things that I'm struggling with a little bit more?
00:20:17
Speaker
um So with those two things in mind, take some time to reflect on your game, figure out what it is you think you need to improve on the most, and then start to approach it a little bit different and how we can kind of minimize that and maybe have a different approach into the way we develop that skill set.
00:20:38
Speaker
um So it's kind of a quick one today. Part of that's kind of due to my voice too. So I apologize for for that, guys. um But again, i just want to say thank you to you guys for, um you know, the continued listenership, for tuning in kind of week in, week out. It does mean a lot to us. I know sometimes we probably go through some things that, know,
00:21:04
Speaker
not everybody always agrees with, but that's why we kind of like you know doing stuff like this, opening up the discussion, trying to give different perspectives. Because as we all know with goaltending, it's all a lot of gray area. It's not black and white. There's a lot of variables that go into. And our job as goalie coaches is to give you guys multiple angles to kind of think about. And like if we talk about the actual on ice stuff, multiple tools, and then you guys can kind of pick and choose what works for you and kind of take that and mold it into, you know, your game and into the success that you guys want to see.
00:21:42
Speaker
um So with that, I encourage you guys also to get other perspectives on things. So listen to some other goalie related podcasts, talk to some other goalie coaches and kind of get some insights because um each goalie kind of takes a piece from every goalie coach that they go with and every kind of resource that they yeah they listen to and touch on and all that. So.
00:22:04
Speaker
um But yeah, appreciate you guys having us be a part of that um that process for you. It does mean a lot to us and we we really appreciate you guys tuning in.
00:22:16
Speaker
um With that being said, one of the biggest things that you guys can do to help us grow the show and to kind of keep doing this sort of stuff is you can share ah the show with a friend.
00:22:27
Speaker
um That's a big difference. That helps kind of grow our reach and and get the message out to more goalies. The other thing you can do is you can like and share on any platform you're on, whether it's Spotify, whether it's Apple Podcasts, whether it's YouTube. um That helps a lot too.
True North Goaltending Updates
00:22:44
Speaker
And then you can also follow us on any of our socials. So Facebook and TikTok and YouTube is True North Goaltending. and Instagram is yeggooliecoach.
00:22:55
Speaker
um You can always check us out too at truenorthgoaltending.com. We are very close to rolling out the new booking system and a couple of new cool things that we've got um coming down the road.
00:23:06
Speaker
um And at some point in the next like week or two here, we should have the new website as well switched over and ready to go. um So there's a lot of cool things coming. Connor and I have kind of made it our mandate this spring to the spring and summer to get some more content put together for you guys because I know we've been lacking a little bit on that front. And then we also do have our goalie camps over the summer. So actually we sold out our one week long one. We opened up another four day one that's already half booked.
00:23:40
Speaker
um So there's only 12 spots left for that one. We only have five spots left for our beginner camp. And then we also have a ring at camp. And that one's a little tougher to do. i don't think a lot of people realize um that there's an option out there for ring at goalie development. But if you are or know a Ringette goalie that wants to come to the Edmonton area kind of near the end of August, ah we do have a Ringette goalie camp going on as well with our dedicated Ringette goalie coaches.
Episode Conclusion
00:24:11
Speaker
um So that's ah that's kind of all that we have today, goalies. Thanks again for tuning in. Hope you guys have a good spring season. um Have a good summer kind of going... into before we get back into the grind for next season. Appreciate you guys tuning in.
00:24:30
Speaker
Hope you guys make some saves. Take care, goalies.