Any teams that don't know how to coach goalies?

[Falcon Z]

This upcoming season will be my junior year and my third year on varsity as the goalie. Now, I hadn't played goalie before or ever considered it ever in my life. How did I come about being the goalie, you ask?

As a freshman, we had no goalies. They either graduated, or they had surgery and couldn't play. Basically, when I was passing on the third day of practice, Coach came up to me and asked me if I would like to try goalie because I had raised my hand the other day at the first practice/clinic. So, they give me this bag of total crap, mis-matched, really old goalie stuff and this ancient, 10 pound stick.

The other goalie was forced to play girls lacrosse because her dad, the boy's jv coach, heard that we needed another goalie.

Over the season, I learned 5 incorrect ways to goaltend and hold the stick. I played mostly the whole varsity games though. Basically, I was better at taking shots than the other girl. She quit the next year.

I had to learn how to be a goalie at the Amonte LAX camp and 2 or 3 preseason clinics.

[spenny]

sadly this is all too common. unless one of your coaches is a former goalie you are probably going to get short shrift.

if you dont have a goalie coach, camp,s DVDs, and the goalie forum here are your best bets.

[lilaxgurl23]

As Spenny said, your situation is pretty common which is really unfortunate. I too went all throughout high school without a formal goalie coach. Heck, even my head and assistant coaches knew nothing about being a goalie. The best they could do was warm me up and say either "watch the ball" or "step to the ball" even though they really had no idea why they were saying that. The best thing is really to get to camps where they'll have specific coaches and hours to work with the goalies only. That's pretty much how I had to learn, but if you take what they say and actually practice it (which is extremely hard by the time season actually rolls around and you've probably forgotten some things and there's non one there to correct you), it's well worth it. DVDs are also really good I never had invested in one, but I always wished I had. There's also a lot of good tips on the goalieman's site. I forget the URL, but if you search for his No Rebound pocket, there's a coaches and player's cornere where a lot of advice is given. Last, we do have a specific goalie forum with many tips and drills to get you to your best.

[spenny]

http://members.aol.com/westonlax/us.htm

excellent site, and jon's book is really, really worthwile.