Question: I’ve been a goalie for about 2 years now, and I feel it is time to finally get rid of some of my protective padding. I currently wear the helmet, chest protector, gloves, and then I also wear hockey breezes and baseball shinguards. I also have smaller lacrosse goalie padded pants, but since I was unsure of my ability to make saves, I stuck with the breezers because they took up more space. Now that I’m more confident and more experienced, I would like to decrease my padding a bit. I was thinking about getting lacrosse shinguards because they are smaller and less bulky but I was wondering if you know of any that protect knee caps. I got hit pretty bad in the knee cap last year and I would like to prevent that from happening again, but maybe I just need to suck it up and be quicker than the ball so I don’t get hit there 🙂 When I have my padding on, I’m not afraid of stopping the ball with my body, so I’m not sure if I don’t wear shinguards and go down to my goalie pants if I’m going to block as many balls. I guess if you have any thoughts on the best way to lighten my load would be that would be great.
Also, do you have any suggestions on how to practice by myself? I don’t really have access to a brick wall to play catch against so I’m not sure what else I can do to keep practicing. I do have one of those baseball reaction balls that bounce in different directions that I sometimes play with. But that just works on hand eye coordination.
Thanks for your help!
Sam
Answer: Hey there Sam. My suggestion is to get some football pants. They have thigh pads and knee pads built into them. Also, if you get a good fitting pair, they conform to your body and are actually a little big thicker so the ball doesn’t sting as much if you get hit in a spot that doesn’t have any padding. You can wear a pair of sweat pants over them and no one will know you’re wearing them.
There are different qualities of football pants and the more expensive ones tend to have better fabric that conforms to the body better. Cheaper pants don’t really fit all that well. And since they are cut for a boys curves than girls curves you’re going to want to go with the higher quality pant so you’re not constantly pulling them up.
For shin guards you can then downgrade to soccer shin guards if you need them. Some goalies end up protecting the shin of the off-stick shin because it tends to get hit by balls the most. The stick side shin not so much.
The best advice I can give for playing by yourself is to get in front of a full length mirror and practice visualizing shots coming at you. Remember, the mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is imagined. So every time you imagine shots coming at you, and you move properly to them to make a save, you are reinforcing that loop in your brain that makes good saves. Usually the only thing that is different is speed and your ability to move to the ball.
I will visualize every night before I go to bed. It helps your subconcious play over and over high quality experiences that make you better. It’s a trick I used while training for the Olympics (in a completely different sport.)
So get in front of the mirror during the day and move to make saves with good position. Do them slowly, to reinforce proper mechanics, then when you got sleep at night, lie down and visualize yourself making big saves in games. By the time you hit the field you’ll think like you never left.
And finally, hit the weights. The best thing you can do is play another sport or hit the weights so you get stronger physically. If there is a strength coach at your school go talk to him/her and get on a program to get stronger. That will make the biggest difference to your game, and will help you move faster to the ball so you make more saves and don’t take them off the body.
Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes Sam. If you’ve got any more questions just ask.
Jonathan – The Goalie Guru
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