What does goaltending consist of? Movement techniques, save techniques, stick play, speed, and agility? Yes, but above all, it's about environmental perception. What we see and what we do with that information. In other words, reading the game.
Is reading the game just a trait that some have and others don't, or can it be taught?
Since game reading is such a crucial aspect of goaltending, how can we possibly teach it?
Goalkeepers do indeed learn when they're exposed to situations where they can't succeed without game reading. However, this method alone is slow and inefficient, and we want to give our goalies the best advantage we can.
In our training repository, we have exercises that you can use to practice observation skills. But here are a couple of ideas to get started: Begin a dialogue with goalkeepers about game reading. Discuss what factors should be considered in game reading and encourage goalies to talk about different game situations.
- Create exercises where the goalkeeper needs to verbally state the number of threats in the attacking zone
- Create exercises with numerous options
- Exercises that are too challenging without some anticipation force players to read the game
Since game reading is such a crucial aspect of goaltending, how can we possibly teach it?
Goalkeepers do indeed learn when they're exposed to situations where they can't succeed without game reading. However, this method alone is slow and inefficient, and we want to give our goalies the best advantage we can.
In our training repository, we have exercises that you can use to practice observation skills. But here are a couple of ideas to get started: Begin a dialogue with goalkeepers about game reading. Discuss what factors should be considered in game reading and encourage goalies to talk about different game situations.
- Create exercises where the goalkeeper needs to verbally state the number of threats in the attacking zone
- Create exercises with numerous options
- Exercises that are too challenging without some anticipation force players to read the game