David Belitski’s presentation at TCS Live in St. Andrew’s College immensely benefited goalie and regular coaches alike. Belitski starts his goalies with simple posture and edge tactics, and he runs every practice with the Barrie Colts of the OHL.
These drills are helpful for coaches because Beltiski isn’t presenting anymore; he’s just coaching. He’s focused on the player and the small details they can improve. Taking care of those minor details will significantly impact a player’s overall game.
You don’t have to be a goalie coach to run these routines. As long as you know how a goalie should look, you’ll be able to recognize the posture control necessary to execute these movements.
“When you see a duck swimming, his legs can be going quick but the upper body stays the same. It’s the same for a goalie.”
A few clips of Belitski’s presentation and you can start to see where the upper body posture breaks down. Goalies are so good at covering the bottom of the net these days, players always look to go upstairs. Goalies need to be able to rotate, slide, and push while keeping their upper body solid and their hands at the ready. Belitski wants goalies to maximize their edge work, and that takes a lot of power and concentration. The more we practice these movements, the less goalies will have to think when it comes time to play a game.
They’ll just play.
So let’s start making saves. Goalies need a certain level of comfort with what their net looks like from their perspective. Shooters might not necessarily understand the angle or what the goalie sees. We determine the angle by tying an imaginary rope from the point the puck leaves the stick to various spots in the net. The goalie might take up a lot of the net in the shooter’s eyes, but the goalie only feels all the holes and around them to which the dangerous end of the rope can be tied.
And yes, Belitski did bring actual ropes with him! He demonstrates the angle of release point, a good scoring chance in the house, and you can almost see the light bulb turn on in the goalies’ eyes.
Everyone wants big goalies these days, but the most important thing is how the goalie determines the size of their net and the angles of the shot. Instead of getting the biggest goalie possible, find the right goalie who knows how to shrink the net.
“As a goaltender you don’t have to beat the shooter, the shooter has to beat you.”
Noteworthy Timestamps:
- 0:15 Line skating fundamentals
- 5:00 Working on balance/edgework
- 10:00 Little net vs big net shooting angle demonstration
- 15:30 Shooting glove/blocker
- 19:30 L/H Net Drive drill
