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Trouble Shuffling and feeling stuck when needing to slide left or right down low and even diving.


OldSchoolGoalie

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I've had two Ice Hockey sessions so far and my background is mostly inline with some ball hockey (I also never played Ice Hockey as a player as an adult or skated much on ice). I'm running into two major problems in the net during Ice Hockey that I need to correct.

1. I cannot Shuffle for the life of me, I don't know but it just feels like my edges are dug in and I cannot really do it. For reference I have 4mm runners with 5/8" hollows. When I played inline there was no shuffle like what you see with Ice Hockey, either you physically lifted your skate and did a side step, or you did a T Push (opening up holes), or C Cut for depth. Does anyone have a really good video or some step by step guide I can follow that goes over weight transfer and edges? I assumed and I'm probably wrong, but I thought to shuffle to the left I would be on my inside edge of my right and left skate, then I put my weight on my right side to push left but my left skate just wont budge. I don't want to lift my skate, and I wasn't sure if I'm just supposed to have the lead foot at a 90 degree angle to slide it like when you're gliding?

2. Freezing up on down low shots is a problem. What I mean by this is when I played inline I already knew my sliding ability really wasn't there even with pad covers, however if I needed to be square to the puck on a shot as the play changed because it went over left or right I had no problem pushing off on one side then landing down doing a half butterfly or full. I even had no problem with diving, same with Ball Hockey which I did a lot of diving due to mobility. With Ice Hockey I really feel dug in and stuck, and less explosive and for whatever reason not as willing to dive on ice. I have no problem dropping straight down and kicking a leg out, but to push off I'm just too slow to re-adjust myself to be center with the shot down low. What gets me most is I'm tracking the puck just fine, and I can see where it is going as I track it right into the net, but my body just doesn't respond properly and in the back of my mind I'm already thinking why didn't I just dive it was an easy save.

Thankfully Inline Skating has worked well for when transitioning to Ice because I was able to skate forward, backward, T Push, C Cut and stop on my first try on the ice with of course room for improvement. I have very little Ice Skating practice as I mostly did this as a kid. But I feel very immobile when I need to make more smaller movements as I cannot slide, and I have some problem where I don't drop and slide left or right or dive for some reason. On breakaways oddly I'm more willing to get down but I slide all over the ice sadly up close.

I have 1 H and 30 Mins of free ice time from Monday to Friday every week so any advice on how to improve would be greatly appreciated. Also I play more of a Hybrid Style, and will Stand up more and resort to dives (at least this is how I played inline). I'm on the shorter side 5ft 6" and don't have the longest legs (torso is longer which makes me fit into Senior Mds Chest Protectors). Looking at going tomorrow to practice some more, not sure if I need some days off or not but I'm using my time as best as I can to find all the faults and try to correct them.

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Ice goaltending is so much less restrictive in my opinion. I can relate your inline with my street hockey or ball hockey in my childhood. Movements are more restricted and less fluid because you can't slide down from one side to another, it's all mostly stepping and playing your angles/depth really well.

With your size, you most likely learned how to position yourself to the best of your ability. On ice, you get the advantage of following the puck laterally without turning forcefully and losing space or coverage. For the most part, practice makes perfect and you'll eventually get the hang of it. Visualisation helps quite a bit. Break down the movement in steps, ex. step 1, transfer load on push leg, step 2, bend knee on sliding leg, step 3, de-engage skate blade, step 4, follow through with shoulder/hips/gloves/stick in one motion.

If your ice time is pure shinny, you have lots of opportunities to mess around and try stuff with little impact on the game (minus the 1 or 2 ego heads). 

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3 hours ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

I've had two Ice Hockey sessions so far and my background is mostly inline with some ball hockey (I also never played Ice Hockey as a player as an adult or skated much on ice). I'm running into two major problems in the net during Ice Hockey that I need to correct.

1. I cannot Shuffle for the life of me, I don't know but it just feels like my edges are dug in and I cannot really do it. For reference I have 4mm runners with 5/8" hollows. When I played inline there was no shuffle like what you see with Ice Hockey, either you physically lifted your skate and did a side step, or you did a T Push (opening up holes), or C Cut for depth. Does anyone have a really good video or some step by step guide I can follow that goes over weight transfer and edges? I assumed and I'm probably wrong, but I thought to shuffle to the left I would be on my inside edge of my right and left skate, then I put my weight on my right side to push left but my left skate just wont budge. I don't want to lift my skate, and I wasn't sure if I'm just supposed to have the lead foot at a 90 degree angle to slide it like when you're gliding?

You kind of answered your own question here, see bold

Generally you want to be flat on both edges on both feet when cutting around your crease, makes movement easier on your body
Once you've committed on your edges, you've essentially committed to the shot
You're creating an extra step for yourself if there the puck carrier makes any adjustments, or an option opens up late for them

Having both a relaxed/tracking stance and a shot ready stance helps
Practice moving around in a relaxed stance, then when the puck is in a dangerous area or you feel a shot is coming, snap your feet outwards into a shot ready stance

All 3 core skating techniques are a push-pull movement with your lower body (T-push, shuffle, C-cut).  Given your example

  • weight on R skate and on the balls of both feet
  • push off R, weight shift to L and L lands at destination, pull your trail leg back to set. 
  • toes square to puck entire time, but follow the curved top edge of the crease so you remain square when puck is between the faceoff dots
  • adjust your feet accordingly once puck dips to the halfwall, bad angle, dead angle zones as you don't need to be as square to fill up more net
Quote

2. Freezing up on down low shots is a problem. What I mean by this is when I played inline I already knew my sliding ability really wasn't there even with pad covers, however if I needed to be square to the puck on a shot as the play changed because it went over left or right I had no problem pushing off on one side then landing down doing a half butterfly or full. I even had no problem with diving, same with Ball Hockey which I did a lot of diving due to mobility. With Ice Hockey I really feel dug in and stuck, and less explosive and for whatever reason not as willing to dive on ice. I have no problem dropping straight down and kicking a leg out, but to push off I'm just too slow to re-adjust myself to be center with the shot down low. What gets me most is I'm tracking the puck just fine, and I can see where it is going as I track it right into the net, but my body just doesn't respond properly and in the back of my mind I'm already thinking why didn't I just dive it was an easy save.

Sounds like a muscle memory thing to me.  Work on tracking rebounds properly (eyes-head-hands) and chase rebounds in any type of warmup/practice environment you can

Generally speaking on ice you don't need to dive when you can slide, as it keeps you in better position and is easier to regain your feet
Also generally speaking when in doubt retreat to post on these bang-bang plays, you can always bump off it if the play goes the other way

Your eyes-head-hands help you center on the new angle, so get those square first and the rest of your body will follow.  Drive your push leg up toward chest as you plant your foot.  Then push to fill the new space. Lead with a leg to cover low and jam a hand down and forward, like a wave coming down over the puck

The closer you can keep your push leg to your body's center line, the more power you can generate and gives the steel better attack angle through the duration of the push before your boot bottoms out

Edit

Here's a vid

 

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18 minutes ago, RichMan said:

Ice goaltending is so much less restrictive in my opinion. I can relate your inline with my street hockey or ball hockey in my childhood. Movements are more restricted and less fluid because you can't slide down from one side to another, it's all mostly stepping and playing your angles/depth really well.

With your size, you most likely learned how to position yourself to the best of your ability. On ice, you get the advantage of following the puck laterally without turning forcefully and losing space or coverage. For the most part, practice makes perfect and you'll eventually get the hang of it. Visualisation helps quite a bit. Break down the movement in steps, ex. step 1, transfer load on push leg, step 2, bend knee on sliding leg, step 3, de-engage skate blade, step 4, follow through with shoulder/hips/gloves/stick in one motion.

If your ice time is pure shinny, you have lots of opportunities to mess around and try stuff with little impact on the game (minus the 1 or 2 ego heads). 

For inline I always skated out and never played deep. When the play was developing you would never see me on the goal line, I was always skating to the top of my crease and further (depending on rules - some places wont allow a goalie to leave the top of the crease). Then I would match the speed as I went backwards keeping that distance to cut off the angle. Ball hockey I played out a bit but not too far because I cannot run backwards. When I first started playing inline I played deep and it was pretty much an open net for the most part. I'm trying to do the same with Ice Hockey by going out more and being aggressive, but my lateral movements are so poor right now I'll need to fix it with shuffles.

The part about dropping left or right or even diving might just be due to not being used to the surface (ice), and the fear of over sliding or something. Oddly enough if someone is in my crease I actually drop with less thought once they're close enough. No idea why I freeze up otherwise.

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5 minutes ago, Chenner29 said:

You kind of answered your own question here, see bold

Generally you want to be flat on both edges on both feet when cutting around your crease, makes movement easier on your body
Once you've committed on your edges, you've essentially committed to the shot
You're creating an extra step for yourself if there the puck carrier makes any adjustments, or an option opens up late for them

Having both a relaxed/tracking stance and a shot ready stance helps
Practice moving around in a relaxed stance, then when the puck is in a dangerous area or you feel a shot is coming, snap your feet outwards into a shot ready stance

All 3 core skating techniques are a push-pull movement with your lower body (T-push, shuffle, C-cut).  Given your example

  • weight on R skate and on the balls of both feet
  • push off R, weight shift to L and L lands at destination, pull your trail leg back to set. 
  • toes square to puck entire time, but follow the curved top edge of the crease so you remain square when puck is between the faceoff dots
  • adjust your feet accordingly once puck dips to the halfwall, bad angle, dead angle zones as you don't need to be as square to fill up more net

Sounds like a muscle memory thing to me.  Work on tracking rebounds properly (eyes-head-hands) and chase rebounds in any type of warmup/practice environment you can

Generally speaking on ice you don't need to dive when you can slide, as it keeps you in better position and is easier to regain your feet
Also generally speaking when in doubt retreat to post on these bang-bang plays, you can always bump off it if the play goes the other way

Your eyes-head-hands help you center on the new angle, so get those square first and the rest of your body will follow.  Drive your push leg up toward chest as you plant your foot.  Then push to fill the new space. Lead with a leg to cover low and jam a hand down and forward, like a wave coming down over the puck

The closer you can keep your push leg to your body's center line, the more power you can generate and gives the steel better attack angle through the duration of the push before your boot bottoms out

Edit

Here's a vid

 

Thanks! This is really helpful! I'll try this tomorrow and post back. I also think some of my problem is I'm too focused on trying to skate properly and move around and this is also impacting my ability to focus on saving.

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6 minutes ago, Chenner29 said:

You kind of answered your own question here, see bold

Generally you want to be flat on both edges on both feet when cutting around your crease, makes movement easier on your body
Once you've committed on your edges, you've essentially committed to the shot
You're creating an extra step for yourself if there the puck carrier makes any adjustments, or an option opens up late for them

Having both a relaxed/tracking stance and a shot ready stance helps
Practice moving around in a relaxed stance, then when the puck is in a dangerous area or you feel a shot is coming, snap your feet outwards into a shot ready stance

All 3 core skating techniques are a push-pull movement with your lower body (T-push, shuffle, C-cut).  Given your example

  • weight on R skate and on the balls of both feet
  • push off R, weight shift to L and L lands at destination, pull your trail leg back to set. 
  • toes square to puck entire time, but follow the curved top edge of the crease so you remain square when puck is between the faceoff dots
  • adjust your feet accordingly once puck dips to the halfwall, bad angle, dead angle zones as you don't need to be as square to fill up more net

Sounds like a muscle memory thing to me.  Work on tracking rebounds properly (eyes-head-hands) and chase rebounds in any type of warmup/practice environment you can

Generally speaking on ice you don't need to dive when you can slide, as it keeps you in better position and is easier to regain your feet
Also generally speaking when in doubt retreat to post on these bang-bang plays, you can always bump off it if the play goes the other way

Your eyes-head-hands help you center on the new angle, so get those square first and the rest of your body will follow.  Drive your push leg up toward chest as you plant your foot.  Then push to fill the new space. Lead with a leg to cover low and jam a hand down and forward, like a wave coming down over the puck

The closer you can keep your push leg to your body's center line, the more power you can generate and gives the steel better attack angle through the duration of the push before your boot bottoms out

Edit

Here's a vid

 

Did you have to turn it into a Thesus?! Geeze. :D  I like Dahan but dude is so fired up in his videos. I wonder how many Red Bulls he drinks before each session? 😜 

4 minutes ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

For inline I always skated out and never played deep. When the play was developing you would never see me on the goal line, I was always skating to the top of my crease and further (depending on rules - some places wont allow a goalie to leave the top of the crease). Then I would match the speed as I went backwards keeping that distance to cut off the angle. Ball hockey I played out a bit but not too far because I cannot run backwards. When I first started playing inline I played deep and it was pretty much an open net for the most part. I'm trying to do the same with Ice Hockey by going out more and being aggressive, but my lateral movements are so poor right now I'll need to fix it with shuffles.

The part about dropping left or right or even diving might just be due to not being used to the surface (ice), and the fear of over sliding or something. Oddly enough if someone is in my crease I actually drop with less thought once they're close enough. No idea why I freeze up otherwise.

It will come to you, you'll see. When I subbed in a ball hockey game in the gym some years ago, I completely forgot i wasn't on ice and tried to do a butterfly slide on a breakaway shot, keeled over like a a Kremlin statue LOLLL.

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6 minutes ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Thanks! This is really helpful! I'll try this tomorrow and post back. I also think some of my problem is I'm too focused on trying to skate properly and move around and this is also impacting my ability to focus on saving.

@Chenner29has some excellent advice. Especially about engaging the edges and then having difficulty shuffling. 

It's why getting a wide, low stance is problematic due to you losing a lot of mobility in both T-Pushes, and especially your ability to shuffle. 

 

Edited by coopaloop1234
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5 minutes ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Thanks! This is really helpful! I'll try this tomorrow and post back. I also think some of my problem is I'm too focused on trying to skate properly and move around and this is also impacting my ability to focus on saving.

I've told a few of my customers "Happy Feet", just relax and get comfy.

Happy Feet Dancing GIFs | Tenor

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Just now, coopaloop1234 said:

@Chenner29has some excellent advice. Especially about engaging the edges and then having difficulty shuffling. 

It's why getting a wide, low stance is problematic due to you losing a lot of mobility in both T-Pushes, and especially your ability to shuffle. 

 

I generally have a shoulder width stance for the most part with my more hybrid stand up style. Looking forward to trying this stuff. :) 

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9 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

@Chenner29has some excellent advice. Especially about engaging the edges and then having difficulty shuffling. 

It's why getting a wide, low stance is problematic due to you losing a lot of mobility in both T-Pushes, and especially your ability to shuffle. 

 

Also why Vasi is a monster, he can still generate a ton of power out of a wide low stance

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2 hours ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Thanks! This is really helpful! I'll try this tomorrow and post back. I also think some of my problem is I'm too focused on trying to skate properly and move around and this is also impacting my ability to focus on saving.

No, you have the process correct

  • You can't get into position to make a save until you have the skating skills to get there precisely (square, angle, depth) - ideally ahead of time, but just in time works too
  • Manage your weight shifts so you are in control and set when you hit your destination
  • Strength on your edges means your upper body is shifting around less as you move
  • Become a really good asymmetrical skater:
    • Think of your lead foot as your sail to get you there quickly and efficiently, trail foot as your rudder for fine adjustment
    • Helps you square up in two moves (skate-stop) as opposed to 3 moves (skate-stop-pivot)
    • Efficiency and weight management helps you set up for transition if the shot angle changes
  • The better you are at skating the more aggressively you can challenge/retreat
  • Smooth and efficient = fast
  • Focus on form first, then add speed and power

Think of it this way
If you see 20 mins of zone time and make 30 saves a game, assuming each save takes 1 sec (which is generous), what are you doing for the remaining 1170 seconds?

Focus on the skating first

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1 hour ago, Chenner29 said:

No, you have the process correct

  • You can't get into position to make a save until you have the skating skills to get there precisely (square, angle, depth) - ideally ahead of time, but just in time works too
  • Manage your weight shifts so you are in control and set when you hit your destination
  • Strength on your edges means your upper body is shifting around less as you move
  • Become a really good asymmetrical skater:
    • Think of your lead foot as your sail to get you there quickly and efficiently, trail foot as your rudder for fine adjustment
    • Helps you square up in two moves (skate-stop) as opposed to 3 moves (skate-stop-pivot)
    • Efficiency and weight management helps you set up for transition if the shot angle changes
  • The better you are at skating the more aggressively you can challenge/retreat
  • Smooth and efficient = fast
  • Focus on form first, then add speed and power

Think of it this way
If you see 20 mins of zone time and make 30 saves a game, assuming each save takes 1 sec (which is generous), what are you doing for the remaining 1170 seconds?

Focus on the skating first

Thank you! Very helpful!

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Sadly today didn't work out as planned. Normally the drop in when I come in the mornings is fairly empty but to my luck a couple of guys came out (not even enough for a game or half ice or whatever) but enough for shots. I gave them the heads up I'm practicing on my movement, ect... but my time was short lived after they only wanted to just do slap shots at the face off circle near the goal crease which always seemed to be at my head - and these were canons too. After the fourth time getting hit in the head I just skated off and left. Not sure what they were trying to do.

I'm thinking to just go to Stick and Skate with my gear to practice more, then move into playing some games once I got the skating part down. They have 2 hour slots twice a week so plenty of time at the place I go.

Edited by OldSchoolGoalie
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7 hours ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Sadly today didn't work out as planned. Normally the drop in when I come in the mornings is fairly empty but to my luck a couple of guys came out (not even enough for a game or half ice or whatever) but enough for shots. I gave them the heads up I'm practicing on my movement, ect... but my time was short lived after they only wanted to just do slap shots at the face off circle near the goal crease which always seemed to be at my head - and these were canons too. After the fourth time getting hit in the head I just skated off and left. Not sure what they were trying to do.

I'm thinking to just go to Stick and Skate with my gear to practice more, then move into playing some games once I got the skating part down. They have 2 hour slots twice a week so plenty of time at the place I go.

What assholes!! Never fun to live that. Been there myself and I don't get why they do that. It's also always worse the younger they are. They don't gain anything in their game or hurting the goalie for that matter.

Hope it's better at the other spot.

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1 hour ago, RichMan said:

What assholes!! Never fun to live that. Been there myself and I don't get why they do that. It's also always worse the younger they are. They don't gain anything in their game or hurting the goalie for that matter.

Hope it's better at the other spot.

Yea, they were around 18-22 from what I could gage. Even if I wasn't in net those shots were going for the glass and dropping behind the net, which is just a useless shot that has no value. I wonder what coaches teach kids as they're going up, because these guys apparently played minor hockey from what they told me.

One inline team I played with had some people who played AAA, and during warmup pre-game I got that same treatment. During the actual games very rarely does this happen because the other team is actually trying to score. It has happened with less experienced shooters just looking for a hard shot with zero accuracy and hoping for rebound play, and I honestly never cared about it in a game.

Either way, there will always be such people in this sport no matter if I go to league play, organized pick up, or just some random rink with a bunch of guys out. I find it far less the older the group is.

The other spot is just a stick and skate, I think they have families coming out or whatever of all ages, and those light or foam pucks. My main goal is to get my movement down, so maybe I should just go to some public skate, but stick and skate allows me to use my full gear with a net.

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52 minutes ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Yea, they were around 18-22 from what I could gage. Even if I wasn't in net those shots were going for the glass and dropping behind the net, which is just a useless shot that has no value. I wonder what coaches teach kids as they're going up, because these guys apparently played minor hockey from what they told me.

One inline team I played with had some people who played AAA, and during warmup pre-game I got that same treatment. During the actual games very rarely does this happen because the other team is actually trying to score. It has happened with less experienced shooters just looking for a hard shot with zero accuracy and hoping for rebound play, and I honestly never cared about it in a game.

Either way, there will always be such people in this sport no matter if I go to league play, organized pick up, or just some random rink with a bunch of guys out. I find it far less the older the group is.

The other spot is just a stick and skate, I think they have families coming out or whatever of all ages, and those light or foam pucks. My main goal is to get my movement down, so maybe I should just go to some public skate, but stick and skate allows me to use my full gear with a net.

I played with the older crowd (55+) a decade ago as a filler for a season or 2. They had more of a passing game, a few deeks. No slap shots, just wristers. Some younger leagues will implement the no slap shot rule to avoid injuries, mostly for the players in the way of the shot, not us loll. Warm-ups is another whole ball game. Make a statement in the change room before anyone hits the ice, "any stupid shot to my head, while my back is turned or 5 foot windups, I'm out! Got it??". Use your own words but players need to hear it. They get to shoot all game, while we only have 12-20 shots at most to be ready.

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5 hours ago, RichMan said:

I played with the older crowd (55+) a decade ago as a filler for a season or 2. They had more of a passing game, a few deeks. No slap shots, just wristers. Some younger leagues will implement the no slap shot rule to avoid injuries, mostly for the players in the way of the shot, not us loll. Warm-ups is another whole ball game. Make a statement in the change room before anyone hits the ice, "any stupid shot to my head, while my back is turned or 5 foot windups, I'm out! Got it??". Use your own words but players need to hear it. They get to shoot all game, while we only have 12-20 shots at most to be ready.

I'll have to be more vocal in these pick ups. Looking back on this I should've just skated out of the net, went to the boards or other side which was empty and did some practice then went home. Being a bit more "reformed" I tend to remove myself from situations now a days when I'm heated up enough. I still remember my early inline days flipping people into the net when they would try to run me. 🤣 Few hacks here and there, now I'm more controlled.

On that note, I don't even know how people can react to those super close up cannon slap shots. My first reaction would be to get in front and center to the puck, and drop down while covering as much as possible by playing the percentages. Being shorter though I'm more prone to head shots like this and Ice Hockey pucks just hit different than inline!

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55 minutes ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

I'll have to be more vocal in these pick ups. Looking back on this I should've just skated out of the net, went to the boards or other side which was empty and did some practice then went home. Being a bit more "reformed" I tend to remove myself from situations now a days when I'm heated up enough. I still remember my early inline days flipping people into the net when they would try to run me. 🤣 Few hacks here and there, now I'm more controlled.

On that note, I don't even know how people can react to those super close up cannon slap shots. My first reaction would be to get in front and center to the puck, and drop down while covering as much as possible by playing the percentages. Being shorter though I'm more prone to head shots like this and Ice Hockey pucks just hit different than inline!

Your first reaction is right. When someone is in close and winding up for a bomb, all you can do is gain depth and drop into a blocking butterfly.

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On 10/5/2022 at 3:39 PM, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Either way, there will always be such people in this sport no matter if I go to league play, organized pick up, or just some random rink with a bunch of guys out. I find it far less the older the group is.

 

That's funny, usually when I go to stick and puck/stick time, it's always Timmy Tryhard who plays in adult copper/bronze shooting as hard as he can from the circles when I'm lined up to someone else. 

The 18-22 kids who have played any kind of decent hockey are smart enough to dick around with the puck until I line up to them

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33 minutes ago, Chenner29 said:

That's funny, usually when I go to stick and puck/stick time, it's always Timmy Tryhard who plays in adult copper/bronze shooting as hard as he can from the circles when I'm lined up to someone else. 

The 18-22 kids who have played any kind of decent hockey are smart enough to dick around with the puck until I line up to them

I just have bad luck! :D The older guys I've played with have enough sense thankfully to actually aim for my pads. glove, and blocker to get me warmed up and not to just clock in their hardest shot at point blank at my head, or pull off some move like its a shootout for the cup like the younger crowd I've played with. But either way, my personal experience doesn't mean that it is this way all around.

I'm going for Stick and Skate tomorrow and probably early morning shinny before that to get some extra skating in and I'll see how it works out. I just don't have any tolerance for slap shots to the head for these drop ins.

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So Stick and Skate worked out way better than Shinny in the mornings as almost no people show up for the 5AM. I got shots from all over the place in evening stick and skate allowing me to practice quick movements, down low saves, half butterfly saves, and recoveries. Overall this is probably a better use of my time and I'll probably get more accustomed to skating under pressure much faster than just one or two people taking turns shooting on net.

Bit gassed considering the volume of shots, plus going down on those break aways. The different skill levels are nice. I got slap shots, wrist shots, and some skating towards me moving quickly forcing me to practice my lateral movement. After every shot if possible I would reset to the center goal line and back out.

Good time!

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14 hours ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

Got some practice in, so I can move about a foot or two before catching an edge. I also noticed my feet get really tired from doing shuffles... 😮 But at least more progress is happening now.

Awesome, keep grinding and systematically put yourself through what you need to improve. 
One big mistake I have noticed with goalies who do not have much formal training : they do not hold their crouch through the shuffle, so their head and shoulders bob up and down. You want your eye line to be consistent throughout your movements as it gives you context for where the crossbar behind you
Be disciplined with your approach and focus on the details, you’ll see big gains and the game will seem to slow down 

3 hours ago, OldSchoolGoalie said:

After every shot if possible I would reset to the center goal line and back out.

Good time!

Also a good opportunity to map the rink out by landmarking. 

Obviously centered to center ice means you are on your angle there

Centered on the 45 should set you square to the face off dot 

Outside foot (closest to boards) on the 45 should set you square to the board and blue line 

inside foot (closest to center ice) on the 45 should set you square between the face off dot and outside hash 

Think about how you’re standardizing your movement. Ie-if your shuffles hit precisely 6” laterally every time you can map the entire ice surface out from your crease 

If you have a couple extendable dog leashes and a skater you can learn a lot in 30 mins 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/8/2022 at 12:15 AM, Chenner29 said:

Awesome, keep grinding and systematically put yourself through what you need to improve. 
One big mistake I have noticed with goalies who do not have much formal training : they do not hold their crouch through the shuffle, so their head and shoulders bob up and down. You want your eye line to be consistent throughout your movements as it gives you context for where the crossbar behind you
Be disciplined with your approach and focus on the details, you’ll see big gains and the game will seem to slow down 

Also a good opportunity to map the rink out by landmarking. 

Obviously centered to center ice means you are on your angle there

Centered on the 45 should set you square to the face off dot 

Outside foot (closest to boards) on the 45 should set you square to the board and blue line 

inside foot (closest to center ice) on the 45 should set you square between the face off dot and outside hash 

Think about how you’re standardizing your movement. Ie-if your shuffles hit precisely 6” laterally every time you can map the entire ice surface out from your crease 

If you have a couple extendable dog leashes and a skater you can learn a lot in 30 mins 

So far so good! I'm at the point now where if I get challenged I'm able to skate up past the top of my crease and poke check or do the inverted Y with good success. I also found my skating is improving just by getting thrown into the fire. Majority of the time if I'm at the top of the crease and square on angle I stop 95% of the shots with the odd one squeezing through. I still need to better work on my aggressiveness when skating backwards, but my patience has paid off big time by not reacting early.

Shuffles are coming along better, and oddly I do them better under pressure in a game than just stick and skate, no idea why... ?

I can say for certain I prefer ice hockey over inline, and especially ball hockey. Even though I play more of a stand up - hybrid style I can hold my own. I do need to work on sliding better because I get beat on 2 on 0s. Even when I played inline I had a choice to either go out and play the angle with the intent to dive, or play deep (which doesn't work well due to my size), and hope for the best. Very few times can I poke check or intercept the pass as any smart player wont get that close, and will pull you off as far as they can before the quick pass.

My only issue is my skates feel loose after being warmed up. Not sure how to correct this sadly, or if wax laces is the way to go? On days where I have a morning and evening skate my evening skate is perfect and nothing get loose.

2 games next week, and I'll see how that goes! Thanks for all the tips.

Edited by OldSchoolGoalie
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