Tips for young goalie

[michael732]

My eight year old son is showing some interest in playing goalie. I would like to work with him in the off season but need some tips for someone who has never played the game before. Should I start him off just playing catch?

[GBaschski]

That's a good place to start. When he's throwing with you, though, make sure he's wearing his gloves and using a goalie stick.
After he's used to passing and catching, you can get a goal (any goal works, like a pvc hocky goal. A real lacrosse size goal isn't neccessary yet) and start shooting easy ones for him to stop. Then, have him throw on the pads and helmet, and put some harders ones on him. It's important that he realizes he WILL get hit sometimes, and that he can handle it. That could turn him off to the position.
Good luck!

[PuLsE_SpEeD]

First of all let me tell you your son made an excellent decision. :thumbsup:

Playing goalie was probably one of the best choices I've made in my lacrosse career. Although you don't get the glory of the goals it's always great knowing that you stopped the other team from putting a shot on the board.

First of all make sure your son has all the proper equipment which would be:

Helmet (with throat guard)
Chest Pads
Gloves (your son is pretty young, so at this point he really doesn't need goalie specific gloves, any pair would be fine)
Cup
and of course a Goalie stick.

Catch isn't the main thing you should be working on, but it is necessary that he knows how to do so. The main thing I would do is either buy a goal for him and yourself to practice with, or go to your local field to practice. Make sure your son does all of the following things:

Make sure he is 'stepping to the ball' when you shoot, he shouldn't just stand waiting for it to hit his stick, when he steps to the ball not only will it hurt him less, but he actually covers more angle on the goal.

If your son flinches as the ball comes towards him that will be the first thing you will need to work on, if he doesn't stop doing that on his own there is a good way of stopping it from happening, but it requires about 4 people to do that, hopefully he doesn't have that problem.

Your son should be able to catch the ball, not just block it, if your son makes an awsome save just to have it rebounded to the attack it's pretty sad, make sure you don't just buy any stick from the store and play with it, have it properly strung.

Make sure your son is in an 'athletic stance' his knees should be bent, and he should be on his toes, ready to attack the ball, not standing up-right.

Your son should always keep his eye on the ball, he should be using looking through his top hand to see where the ball is and keep an eye on the ball at all times, not the stick, not the shoulders, or eyes, just the ball. Make sure his arms are out away from his body so he can move them more quickly. Your son should be trying to stop shots with his stick, not his body.

Later as team-play is factored in your son must be able to clear the ball down the field, and talk to his defense to let them know where the ball is.

As a shooter, you should work the 6 basic areas a goalie should be able to stop shots from: stick side, and off stick side high, side, and low. If you see he is struggling on one shot in perticular take a few more shots in that area so he can work on it. I have problems with my offstick side (as most goalies do) so I work on how fast I can move my arms across my body. Don't shoot too hard though, keep in mind it's just a warm up.

I hope that helps and tell your son he's made a great choice.

[laxngoalie]

I recommend the Bill Pilat goalie tape at www.lacrosse.com
Also, try peak performance goalie camp. Google it you should find it. Its a big camp, but they really adapt to all skill levels

[mdrv185]

My son has been goalie for 3 years now, and will be entering 9th grade this Fall. The 2 camps he has attended are not "goalie" camps, however he finds that their instructors are always having him change his style.

Does Pilalt's camp accomodate for different styles or is it "my way or highway"? I have found that they don't reply to email other than a standard reply.

Was hoping you could help since you've attended.

Thx

[TheStok]

A good thing for a youngster goalie to learn would be the techniques. All of the goalies we get can catch and block well, but they dont grip the techniques for a bit.

[laxngoalie]

I'd say pilates camp is pretty set in his ways, but peak offers a variety of perspectives, as does the Player's Choice Billy Daye goalie camp. Those camps bring many ideas as to arcs, positioning and overall play as a goalie

[LCNlaxman]

To add on to Pulse's sorta-list, when looking at the ball, make sure he watches it at every moment a shot is going on. From when the attackman is about to shoot to when he's making the save, he should be watching the ball. Have him work on watching everything possible, and by this, i mean, try to get him to develop a good "field sense." In other words, a good sense of what's happening on the field and what might happen plus what to do if it were to happen. About posture, make sure his arms are not held out as if to "punch" the ball. The elbows should be bent at 90 degree angles with loose wrists and ready-to-move shoulders. A way to explain this is, relaxed but ready to move. Knees should be bent a fair amount, as Pulse stated. He shouldn't be standing up, nor squatting, kind of half way. Feet should be a little wider apart than shoulder width.

Good luck and welcome to The Lacrosse Forums!

[UNCdefense]

im not a goalie & honestly what they had to say sounded great, i just wanted to note that him getting started young is the biggest benefit of all....ive only been playing for one eyar but i LITERALLY played everyday for at least 2 hours(excluding workin out times & practices)
anyway more important fact i wanted to tell you something about Jay Pfeiffer Syracuse's old goalie.....final game(2 years ago) the shot was going high, so Jay went high then it was faked & went low so he squeezed his legs to make the save.....GOALIES are insane & jsut getting him started this young is great man my hat off to ya

[diggerlax]

i have played goalie for two seasons and what i foundotu to be the best is make sure you kid is always loose and never tence. make sure he knows were the ball is at all times and have him tell his defenders were it is ( i cant tell you how many times i called otu a cutter and my defenders saved my but ) but ya call out everything thats goin on , inform his whole team.


Also adding on to Pulse make sure he always watches the ball, he should be watching it so closley that he can see the spin on the ball. What i did for that just to start out i had my coach put dots on the ball ( in light colors like grey and yellow) and he mixed up a bunch of colors and started to shoot at me and as he trew them i had tofind that dot and tell him what color was on that ball. that really helped out for me.