Many of the goalie drills that you see being practiced focus on positioning within the crease. This makes sense because if a hockey goalie cannot get into position to cut down the angle or make the save, then the odds are not in their favour to be successful.
I feel that goalie drills focusing on hand eye reaction can also make a huge impact on performance, but I believe this type of training is under utilized. How often do you see a hockey goalie move across the crease, get in position, but simply miss the puck with their glove? Admittedly, this does not happen all the time, but one bad goal every three or four games can have a dramatic effect on your save percentage.
Figure Skating
Before going over a few of the goalie drills I use for training hand-eye coordination, let's consider what we are training. Hand-eye coordination requires the athlete to track the puck with his eyes, then those impulse travel through the nervous system to be interpreted by the brain which will then send out response impulses to the muscles which cause you to move laterally and reach for the puck with your glove or to poke check the puck off the skater's stick or any other response your brain deems necessary.
Although we cannot really increase the speed of our nervous impulses, we can improve the speed of interpretation and reaction. Think of the first time you played your favourite video game. When I was a kid the game was PacMan and I remember starting out chomping the little dots on the screen and dodging the ghost for about eight seconds before the ghost got the best of me and my PacMan character was disintegrating before my very eyes. But then as I played more and more, my fingers learned how to control the movement with more skill - it was as though I did not have to think about what I was doing - my hands just reacted. This is what I am trying to do with the following drills - expose you to numerous blocker and glove saves training your body how to react.
Goalie Drills
The first drills is just a ball drop which teaches you to quickly track the ball and get your hand on the ball. Here is how it works:
Your training partner will hold one ball in each hand (you can start with a tennis ball, but then work your way down to something smaller like a squash ball). She holds her arms straight out in front of her at shoulder level. You will stand right in front of her facing her hands. Without warning, she will let one ball go and you must catch it. To make it more challenging you can decide which hand you must use to catch it - so if she drops the ball on your right you must catch it with your right hand, the ball on the left you must catch with your left hand. Your next goalie drill for hand eye coordination is catching the ball off the wall. Again you will need a training partner and some tennis balls.
You will stand approximately ten feet from a solid wall. Your training partner will stand approximately 10-15 feet behind you. You will both face the wall. You will stand in your ready position and you may wear your glove and blocker for this drill. Your training partner will throw a tennis ball past you so it strikes the wall and then rebounds somewhere toward you. You will move laterally to position yourself for the save and either glove, block or smother the ball. If the ball gets away from you, you must run it down and then run back to your starting point - that is your punishment for missing the save. As you perfect many of your basic goalie drills focusing on movement, don't forget to include some drills for hand-eye coordination. Although the speed of transmission for your nervous impulses is pretty much maxed out, you can increase your speed of reaction by practicing thousands of saves over the course of your off-ice hockey training.
Two New Off Ice Goalie Drills to Improve Hand Eye Reaction
Maria Mountain, MSc is a Fitness Coach and the owner of Revolution Conditioning in London, Ontario. She is trusted by Olympians, professionals and amateur athletes to help them perform at their highest level by implementing her efficient and effective training systems.
If you are a hockey goalie looking to take your game to the next level, visit check out http://www.ultimategoalietraining.com or for more training tips visit http://www.hockeytrainingpro.com
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