Be A Pro Goaltending School | DrillOfTheMonth / January

Drill of the Month - January

Warming up Properly

When a goalie comes onto the ice he/she should not be just beginning a warm up. Before getting dressed the goalie should do some form of cardio exercise to warm the muscles up i.e. a jog, run the stairs, or skipping. Following the cardio activity (should be done to get a sweat not until fatigue!) some stretching should be done. Muscles targeted should be groin, quadriceps, hamstring, IT band, calves, hips, and arms. Following this routine the goalie should get dressed.

The actual drill for January is a warm up when entering the ice. Again rather then going right into stretching the goalie should find an area on the ice, preferably the crease, to do warm up patterns. A good number of patterns to do are 2.

As seen in the picture below, the first crease, there are 5 blue X's. Each X represents a place for the goalie to move to. I recommend that the movement between the points be a T-Push as opposed to a shuffle or telescoping.

For the patterns the goalie can pick between the 5 X's and move in any pattern they choose. In the second crease is an example of a pattern. This pattern is known as X pattern.

The goalie will start on the post and push to position 1 and stop. After stopping and getting set the goalie will then push to position 2 and stop. Finally the goalie will push from 2 to 3. After this the movement the goalie will then do it the opposite way.

Remember the pattern must be down equally both ways. Like a weightlifter, they will not to 15 reps on one side and just 5 on another, or there will be a muscle imbalance. Please make sure that you do not have this problem and do it equally on both sides.

As a recommendation the patterns should be down 3 times each way, again your goal is no fatigue it is to warm up!

For the advanced goalie butterfly slides and power pushes may be added to the patterns.

(you may click on image to enlarge)

Selected photos courtesy of OHLPhotos.com
Page last modified on May 24, 2007, at 04:14 PM

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