What's wrong with these goalies???

I often ask that question these days when I see goalies play both here in Europe or North America. Why? Simply because there seem to be a couple of bad trends going around and really hurting goalies performance. So what are these trends?

Blocking vs. controlling the puck

Mainly seems to be caused by this school of goaltending where coaches force their goalies to play with their hands tight / close to the body in butterfly so that they leave no holes. This often causes goalies balance to be too far back and they lock themselves to the position and make it harder for them to react to anything that happens after initial shot or pass if they have misread the play. They also give way too much net for the shooter as having hands too far back reduces the coverage a lot compared to having them out front properly. Look at this video where Nikke Bäckström is working with proper save technique and catching pucks in front & controlling them: Link to video

Overuse of paddle down

This also seems to be more and more a trend that has been learned since kids have started to play goal. I guess it is very effective at young age and then it becomes hard to get rid of it once it has been used constantly at young. It’s amazing to see how many pro goalies abuse their game by overusing paddle down & also really hurt themselves by doing it A) Too early and for B) Too long. They open way too much of the net on the blocker side, tie themselves to the ice and have hard time to follow plays etc. Don’t get me wrong, paddle down is a good move when used in correct situations with correct timing. There are certain close plays, wraparounds etc where this move is very effective, but you use it at right time and quickly.
There are trends in hockey always and some of them come and go. I hope these 2 trends will go away sometime soon.

Finnish goalies to North American schools?

We have been talking about this type of organized program for a couple of years and now the plans are starting to come together slow but sure. All this is based on those numerous calls and questions we have been getting from goalies in Finland and also various teams and schools in North America. Our goal is to have the program ready to be announced early 2010 and then have the first goalies to move to North America the following year.

Program will be fairly simple and consists the following services:
• Advisory and consultancy services for candidates
• Creation of proper CV’s and introductory videos
• Introductions and recommendations to interested teams / schools
• North American showcase camp starting summer 2011
• Training & coaching advisory to prepare the candidates for the game in North America

Overall Finland has some great goalie coaching available and most of the good level Finnish junior goalies have gone through good fundamental training and have capabilities to play at real high level. That’s why Finnish junior goalies are also interesting to North American junior teams and schools, but the number of them playing on the other side of the pond is still way too low considering the amount of potential we have. Goaliepro’s program is going to be designed to aid in filling this void.

Personally I believe that it is a very good path for these young men to go after their hockey and career dreams through U.S. college hockey system. There’s nothing better getting a great education for free while also playing hockey at a very high level. Once these players have graduated from their schools (usually 4 year programs) they can go after their professional hockey careers, but if that doesn’t work they also have good degrees already and are ready to approach other professional / business careers.

For college, these kids need to graduate from Finnish high school first (ylioppilas) and pass U.S. language (TOEFL) as well as SAT tests. We will also advice on the TOEFL and SAT tests / process once our program starts. Every student needs to clear also the scrutiny of NCAA clearing house both academically as well as with their amateur status. So remember that you can’t dream of college hockey if you have signed a professional contract or if you have been participating at professional game, even as a backup for one game.

There will be a lot of opportunities for the kids also to play junior hockey at U.S. before being eligible for college hockey. We have several junior teams already asking about possibilities to get Finnish goalies on their roster. This option can be a good one to get visibility as the colleges scout the best junior leagues in U.S. all the time.

As part of preparations we have started to collect data on potential Finnish junior goalies. As the next step we are also contacting junior teams and colleges at U.S. to find out which ones are interested in our prospect information once the program starts.

Stay tuned, we will be live with this program early 2010.

Busy summer for goalies!

This summer has been real busy and I have to admit that I have not had enough time to keep this blog updated, but here’s a brief try to do something about it.

First of all we have been working with a group of very talented goalies and done several new things, developed new methods etc over the summer months. Now we have last 2 weeks of our EuroPro workouts at hand and after that those goalies will join their teams and I will continue workouts with Nikke Bäckström for a bit longer before he is off to Minnesota again.

Here’s a short write-up about the goalies in our workouts. On top of that we have had KooKoo’s Antti Härmä with us for most of the workouts.

Here’s some photos from our summer workouts

Also new photos of the masks delivered to our goalies just this week

Out of our goalies Bernd Brückler has already joined his KHL team Torpedo. What a great improvement by Brucks. His lateral movement, balance and hand positioning was greatly enhanced this summer. I really hope we will have a chance to continue to work together and follow-up with his improvement. Here’s a brief video showing some of the development.

Ari Sulander has been working hard and does not look like he is already 40 years old. We are still modernizing his style and enhancing it. Sulo has also lost some weight and is way ahead of last season in physical tests and also in his technical development.

Lukas Flueler has been working with his personal trainer at Switzerland and will join us next week for our Finnish goalie camp week.

Nikke Bäckström has recovered from his hip operation faster than expected and was back on the ice just 9 weeks after the operation. He is well on his way to be in good shape for the NHL opening game.

Jan Ropponen has had an agenda to correct his movements that have been too rushed and unbalanced. We have also been correcting his lateral movement speed by combining different parts of the technique and executing movements simultaneously. Nice improvement in July after working hard on the issues in may and June.

Antti Härmä has been working with our other coach Ale Jääskeläinen hard every week. His movements are much smoother and faster and Ale has also helped Härski a lot with his hand positioning.

Look for additional videos and photos soon from our camp week.

Goalie Community TV launched

http://www.goaliepro.com/fi/yhteiso/CommunityTV/



Check out the new Goaliepro Community TV. This is a place where goalies can upload their own videos and have other forum members comment them as well as get help & opinions from Goaliepro's coaches. Discussions usually take place at GP's forum where we have launched English section (moderated by CubanPuckstopper). Cuban can also help on registration process and other issues concerning usage of the GP Goalie forum.

Link to Goaliepro's English discussions: http://www.goaliepro.com/foorumi/viewforum.php?f=9