Learning to skate..

[varano]

Greetings goalies. 

A bit about myself first.  Kind of deprived as a kid, was never taught to skate. Played ball hockey instead my whole life.  I'm 37 now. At 27 my wife took me skating for the first time and I loved it. One hour in I fell and broke my elbow.  Never skated again for 5 years. Tried it again and never felt comfortable because I was scared of getting hurt.  I tried again but still afraid. 

 

I'm getting tired of playing ball hockey now so I finally got the balls to start skating again and gave myself a goal to play shinny in January of 2024.  I'm really loving it. I'm learning by myself skating two times a week for an hour.  I'm on player skates right now trying to learn the three priorities. Skating forward, skating backwards, and stopping.  I'm picking it up fast and I'm happy with my progress.  I've skated 12 times or so now and intend to hit my goal of getting another 30 skates in by the end of the year.     

So, when I asked on goalie reddit for advice, they told me to learn things like crossovers and backwards crossovers and what I'm really trying to do is just learn goalie specific stuff so I thought I'd turn here to ask.   

 

My plan was to get a firm grasp of the three things I mentioned, buy goalie skates, and then work on stuff with pads on like t push, shuffle etc. 

 

Does this sound like a good approach for what I'm trying to do?  

[coopaloop1234]

It's not a bad plan, but being a proficient skater with even "player" movements is still important. 

I put "player" in quotations because anything a player does on the ice is part of a goalies tool of tricks. Goalie specific movements are an add on, not the sole focus. 

Are you going to be using lots of crossovers in your normal play? Not really. 

Does it contributes massively to you feeling confident in your edges and normal movements? Absolutely. 

Ultimately, being a comfortable and proficient skater as a whole will benefit you far more than just focusing on goalie specific movements. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by coopaloop1234

[Fullright]

coop's advice is spot on.

learning all 4 of your edges is key. usually goalies, contrary to common misperceptions, are very strong skaters; we have to be. most can fly in player skates without all the gear.

take your time and work on your crossovers - resist the public skate temptation to get good going right over left only. learn how to pivot from front to back and vice versa. be patient - it will come. once you get it down, the goalie stuff just comes. 

welcome! lots of really good goalies here; ask questions if you like and you'll get sound answers.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Fullright

[seagoal]

3 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

It's not a bad plan, but being a proficient skater with even "player" movements is still important. 

I put "player" in quotations because anything a player does on the ice is part of a goalies tool of tricks. Goalie specific movements are an add on, not the sole focus. 

Are you going to be using lots of crossovers in your normal play? Not really. 

Does it contributes massively to you feeling confident in your edges and normal movements? Absolutely. 

Ultimately, being a comfortable and proficient skater as a whole will benefit you far more than just focusing on goalie specific movements. 

So spot on.

Any foundation work is easy to sleep on because it's not always obvious or noticeable, but it is always there underneath anything you do playing goalie.  It's easy to trip on yourself just doing little things like turning around to grab your water bottle and it's really easy to look like a fool if say you get pulled late in the game and your team is yelling at you to "skate!" to the bench.  Being comfortable with foundations of skating are lurking beneath stuff like this. Of course, technical goalie stuff like pushes is all edge work. 

Foundation is what you build everything else on and the foundation is 100% skating.  Don't sleep on it.

Edited August 22, 2023 by seagoal

[johncho]

I'm not a fast skater on player skates, but I consider myself a very good skater in terms of agility and leaning on my edges. Having played out for most of my life helped tremendously when I transitioned to playing a goalie.

Learn all you can.

[mr_shifty1982]

My advice might be a little different than the others. 

I never grew up skating as I'm originally from Israel. I did when I was 13-15 for fun and wasn't good, always wanted to be in net as soon as I laid my eyes on hockey.  Played lots on the street, gym, in net too. I had a good understanding of the sport. 

When I was maybe 25-26 I skated again, took it up and got the crazy idea to start play hockey, mind you, I always wanted to play in net as I said. I would be a good player IF I knew how to skate well.  I took up 10 power skating lessons and from there played as a player for a D division for a year, mind you again...an average or below average skater. I wasn't having much fun. 

One day I said screw it and got goalie equipment, I didn't care. I played shinny for probably 2 years, all year...it was a struggle but I got down the basic movements, while again, being an average skater. 

I'm 41 now, in great shape, and a pretty good goalie. Better than your average beer league goalie, I'm athletic as well and played many other organized sports which helped me. See the thing is, it's the process, and you sticking to it, improving, watching videos. I was never coached but I got by.  You don't have to be the best skater if you got the movements, shuffles, cutting angles, reading the play, t-pusges etc.  You can do it, but your heart needs to be in it.  I stuck to it, and after 11 years in net I'm pretty good, and I don't even play in those lower level leagues. 

My fondest memory was playing vs Cammalleri 4 years ago. 

One point of advice that will help you, is going on 4mm blades and not 3mm...I think it will help you. 

 

Edited August 27, 2023 by mr_shifty1982

[varano]

I appreciate all the replies.  Im working on a little of everything and paying attention to my edges a little bit more rather than skating around and stopping alot.   Lemons (swizzles) seemed impossible to me off the start but now that I have a better grasp on edges its getting easier for me.  Ive spent alot of time recently trying to button hook alot and get used to just moving around the ice differently. It will come in time.   I appreciate everyones feedback. 

[estogoalie]

Definitely get comfortable with regular skating before you aim for goalie specific stuff. It might be good to get some in-line skates and practice even more around the house or in the neighborhood. You can easily log more time like that compared to going to 1 hour ice sessions 1-2 times a week. Movements are generally the same, Ok except stopping, but anyway, should help you get on your way faster.

For goalie specific movements, you'll need to strap some pads on and find a place where you can practice movements on the ice somewhere. Or maybe see if you can find like a goalie clinic somewhere. Or find a team that is willing to take a goalie that is just learning his way.

Good luck!

[varano]

On 8/26/2023 at 4:35 PM, estogoalie said:

Definitely get comfortable with regular skating before you aim for goalie specific stuff. It might be good to get some in-line skates and practice even more around the house or in the neighborhood. You can easily log more time like that compared to going to 1 hour ice sessions 1-2 times a week. Movements are generally the same, Ok except stopping, but anyway, should help you get on your way faster.

For goalie specific movements, you'll need to strap some pads on and find a place where you can practice movements on the ice somewhere. Or maybe see if you can find like a goalie clinic somewhere. Or find a team that is willing to take a goalie that is just learning his way.

Good luck!

Funny enough someone asked me to ref roller hockey so I just got some inlines!

[Scythe]

During warmups at a Thrasher game I went to one of the goalies on the visiting team lost an edge in the corner and went into the boards.  

I don't know why I'm telling this .. I guess because when it happened I thought to myself " hey it happens to the best too"  

[varano]

Just thought I'd follow up on my journey 

Mid September, I bought some goalie skates and started practicing on those. Found out real quick that goalie skates are significantly easier.  I started doing drills for hours.   I took the plunge and went to local shinny. As expected, I made an ass of myself and felt happy doing it.    A couple weeks later someone got my number and begged me to play a d division game.  I told the guy straight up I have no place playing there and he still asked me to come. We won 5-2.  Felt great.     

I started picking up inline skating too and it's been helping me. 

A guy running a Sunday morning skate asked me to come play with them and now I'm really getting quality practice time.  Every week I'm getting better and I feel like my skating is improving every week too.   I'm feeling great. Playing ice hockey for the first time in my life and I feel blessed 

Edited October 17, 2023 by varano

[coopaloop1234]

5 minutes ago, varano said:

 I took the plunge and went to local shinny. As expected, I made an ass of myself and felt happy doing it.   

Buddy, it's pretty rare to come out of a shinny game and not look like a complete ass lol. So sounds like you're fitting in nicely. 

Quote

A couple weeks later someone got my number and begged me to play a d division game.  I told the guy straight up I have no place playing there and he still asked me to come. We won 5-2.  Felt great.     

I started picking up inline skating too and it's been helping me. 

A guy running a Sunday morning skate asked me to come play with them and now I'm really getting quality practice time.  Every week I'm getting better and I feel like my skating is improving every week too.   I'm feeling great. Playing ice hockey for the first time in my life and I feel blessed 

This is how it starts and how it snowballs. Keep getting those ice times and never be afraid to take a game that you know is at a higher level than you. 

There's a good chance you'll flounder, but, my biggest strides in my journey have come from playing against guys that are way better than me and forcing myself to adapt.