Category: PERFORMANCE

Keep your gloves in front of your body!

Holding your gloves allows you to be get control of more raised shots by being nearer to the incoming ball, instead of having to react to every shot; pushing into the save. This is important when facing faster and harder shots, where you have less time to react to the shot, and therefore have a harder time controlling where the rebound will end up.

An important feature of your ready stance is your glove positioning. If you keep your hands low and inactive, out of the way where they can only block low, you make them effectively useless; taking them out of action for a raised save. However, by bringing them up, where you can then be able to move with greater reaction to counter act the speed of the shot. As raised drag flicks are virtually unstoppable when roofed into the top corners, it is important to try and combat this. With your gloves in front of your body, you do not have to bring the arm up on the save; this makes it easy to get your glove on saves to control the shot and rebounds, rather than missing the shot entirely.

A raised glove stance is a technique used by soccer and ice hockey goalies to maximise shot stopping abilities by ‘being set’ before the shot, and works just as well when applied to hockey. The theory behind it is that with your gloves already ready; in position for the immediate save, you do not have to move as much on reacting to the shot. The closer you are to the ball, the less you have to react to the shot, due to forward preparation. It makes life easier shot stopping as you close down the shooter’s options, speeding up your reaction to the shot as you have more time to react by being nearer the incoming ball.

Being pro-active with your stance, you can actively challenge the shooter; covering space and limiting their shooting options. Mentally and physically ready for the shot, you are set before the play more able to deal with the impending strike.

Hands tight to the body

There is a tendency to routinely forget or ignore a proper ready stance, and be lazy in positioning your gloves, simply letting them drop to your sides. Limiting yourself in your ability to save shots by being held back against the incoming shot is not good: against a fast strike, you cannot react in time to stop it properly. The further your gloves are from the ball, the harder the save is; reacting late to the shot as it comes in and requiring you to lift your arms up high within an instant, whilst covering less space (so the shooter can see more of the goal, and you cannot close off options).

With your hands ‘back’ and close to your body, you are limiting your ability to make saves. There is also the possibility of interference, with your arms rubbing and bashing into your body, as you lock them into your stance, which can prevent full range of movement. Trying to be over reliant on reflexes is a bad idea – you simply cannot stop high shots with a low glove position. You can make the best use of your reflexes by having your hands already up for the save; increasing your reaction speeds against the shot and therefore reacting immediately, gaining the edge needed to stop the ball.

 Gloves out

With your gloves out in front of you, you can get behind the save more easily; with more power and speed. Logically, you are closer to the ball on the raised shot: the closer you are, the less you have to react (as you are already in position for the save) and can therefore reduce reaction times for a fast reflex save against screened shots or quick shots. By pushing out with strong momentum, and less distance to travel to meet the ball, you can power into the save and force the rebound away further, with the momentum.

In contrast, to a stance with your gloves placed down by your sides, you can be more flexible and active with your hands out, getting your gloves on every shot that comes your way; pro-actively reacting to shots, with greater movement and fluidity, rather than trying to push into saves outside your comfort zone (if playing a tighter stance). With your hands out in front of your body, you have less work to do, enabling you to react quicker with greater aptitude.

Against drag flicks, with great height and speed (i.e. crossbar height), it is impossible to bring your gloves up high enough from a low starting position to reach into a raised save; therefore, by having the gloves up and out in the space, you stand a better chance of reaching the ball on time.

Gravity works the same way, so it is easier to drop your gloves for a lower save, as you can quickly bring your glove down, facing the ball, to build up a blocking barrier (if needs be around the hip), when dealing with a shot around the body. If you face a lower shot than expected within this position, then you can simply bring your gloves down; reacting to the danger as it presents itself and blocking instinctively.

Pointers:

  • Hold your gloves out in front of you (about the third of a stick length or more) to move them away from your body

  • Try to get your gloves to shoulder or chest height to bring them up for higher shots

  • Have your elbows outside your body (bringing the arms out to the side so they are horizontal), so they do not interfere, and free up the range of available movement

  • With both hands out, you can be active with your rhp as well – don’t always try to bring your glove across, if you can make the block with your rhp

Working on strengthening your arms will help you in being able to hold your gloves out in your stance (without getting tired and then lazy) for the full length of the game, especially if you use a heavy stick – weight training (for keepers aged 16 and over) can be helpful with this. Wrist weights on the hands also be useful in building up resistance on glove positioning.

Fransisco Cortes of Club Egara (current Spanish number 1 keeper) is a great example to watch and learn from; he has a ready stance with his gloves far forward, consistently positioning all the time, in every game situation, in order to be active with his glove saves. You can watch highlights of him in action at the Euro Hockey league website , or search for “Spain hockey” or “Club Egara” on YouTube. Vogels (the well known Dutch no. 1) also uses the same glove positioning, out in front of his body (search for “Netherlands hockey”, “HGC”, or “Hoofdklasse” on YouTube to watch him in action).

Be active

The key to having your gloves out for saves, is making it become a standard thing. To make sure you are doing it, you have to programme your mind to get set in the same stance all the time. Train yourself to get into a proper hand stance every time you set for the shot, so that it becomes automatic during games. In training purposefully practise with your gloves out on all shots; this will then transfer into games where you will find yourself automatically pushing your gloves out.

Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide how you position your gloves, but having the gloves out does improve the ability to stop shots around you, with greater capability. It is not being passive, but the opposite; you are quicker moving into the save than when trying to push out from a tight stance, with the gloves close into the body, taking advantage of reaction times on really fast shots, to give yourself the best fighting chance of a save.

Slippery Stuff!

Hey guys and gals,

I don’t know about anyone else, but i love slide-tackling the striker thinking that they have just scored another goal because they get a 1v1 with the goalie. I’m ready and waiting, and then bam! they are on the ground and the ball is back over the halfway line.

Something that helps me achieve this is a small miracle called silicon spray. I spray a layer of this onto my leg guards before every game, (i have 3 practices and 2 games a week), and not only does it protect my pads from wearing down, it lets me slide alot faster on all turfs, (water and sand). Fast sliding means the striker mis judges your tackle, and the ball is yours.

One hint, don’t spray this stuff on your kickers otherwise you will find it alot harder to control the direction of the rebound, and if it get on the bottom of your feet then over you go.

You can buy silicon spray from a place like Repco, Bunnings, or any good automotive or engineering shop for around $10 NZD.

Videos of this great stuff to come.

Any questions please dont hesitate to ask.

Cheers,

Travis.

Strengthen Those Wrists!

Hey guys and gals,

“I see so many goalkeepers have there hands down by their sides and then cannot move them quick enough to get them to any aerial shots.” (Quoted from my coach).

I do it sometimes i must admit that, but i have found something that can potentially help the lazy people out there like me.

I’m thinking that stronger wrist muscles will make it easier to lift your stick and hands up to those high balls, and also faster.

So here’s my solution;

Its an extremely powerful gyroscope that can put up to 12kg(i think) of pressure on your wrists.

I’m not an expert about it but you can find a bit more info here.

I’m picking that it will be popular with strikers as well but lets not tell them our secrets just yet.

Hope it helps some of you guys.

Travis

Beginner to Advanced Goalie

Now that you’ve put on the pads and learnt the basics of ‘keeping, it’s time to put your ambition into action. To reach your peak and play to your best, you have to work hard to ensure your technique and game style develops properly. If you want the glory at the end of the hard journey, then you’ll happily work hard for it!

Now that you have conquered the basics of being the responsible iron man of your team, the real hard work begins. The hard slog to perfection is more difficult and apparent than it seems; remember that you’re not the only one out there who wants to make the team. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, but you have go out there and practise regularly to prove that you’re the best there is.

There’s no point turning up to a trial thinking that you can just get breeze through it. At the end of the day, when your parents have stopped watching your games, and you have unfamiliar teams and coaches, the only person you can rely on to push yourself is you. Make the most of your opportunities, and do the best you can, otherwise you’ll regret it later. There are a number of older people that you may meet in your sporting career, or workplace who’ll say “I could’ve, should’ve, would’ve but didn’t … get where I wanted to”.

If it’s your dream to make it big, and you want it that badly, don’t let that person be you: you should be prepared to do whatever it takes to get there, and have a smile on your face whilst you’re at it.

How to reach your pinnacle

In order to reach your best, (in fact most goalkeepers in whatever sport don’t reach their best years until they are in their 30s), you will have to work harder than you think is ever possible. Devoting your life to achieving your dreams is just that: you have to sacrifice every waking hour to the sport you wish to play. There are a number of areas that you will need to work on, other than the specifics of save making, to ensure that you can get to the level you deserve.

Constant training

The only way you’re going to stay at a high level is to practise, practise, and practise, and then practise some more. Training continuously week in week out, day in and day out may be extremely draining emotionally and physically, let alone the time management it involves with having to juggle school work or a job to support yourself. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and if your ambition is to get to the top one day, or to stay there if you’re already pushing yourself to the highest level of competitivesness, it makes it easier to progress at a quicker rate over a shorter period of time (rather than trying to play at your best by only training once a week).  Top internationals train something like 22 hours a week in their efforts to play thier best at the Olympics! Now that’s commitment!!

Improving your skill base

Now that you have a basic understanding of save types and game use, you need to be adding to your ‘bank of saves’. The more techniques you have under your belt, the greater the ability and chance you have of stopping different shots, the more capable you are to deal with specific situations, knowing how and when to make the save. The better chance you have of stopping the shot when you are forced to think on your feet, the better you will play, whilst easy-to-read game plays will give you the chance to dominate the game.

Improving your decision making

By watching other games, other keepers, whether in local or club games, online on field hockey websites (like videos on YouTube – do a search for field hockey, or more specific like the Olympics, or watch highlights on www.ehlhockey.tv ), or videoing yourself and watching it back, you can learn how to judge and read the game. Making the right decision will make you the best goalkeeper around: correct save selection, how you react to set plays, and whether or not you play aggressively. Obviously you cannot define how the game will go, but making the right decisions will get you the win. Reading the game will give you an edge, whilst making the right decisions will result in less mistakes, and therefore less goals.

Improving recovery

Recovery is important to your game, since having made the save you will need to recover in time for the next shot, and poor recovery or slow reactions will result in an easy goal for the opposition. By practising a number of drills specific to situations where quick recovery is essential and will separate the good from the bad; poor recovery will leave open net opportunities for the opposing forwards to get easy goals. It is necessary to improve your recoveries to keep you in the game, and up to the fast level of game play. Maintaining an appropriate level of fitness and working on specific body muscle groups to strengthen specific joints and movement, will help and benefit your recovery times.

More advice

Whilst this book may, and hopefully will, guide you through your progression as a developing goalkeeper in field hockey (yes, no matter how good we think we are, we should always be trying to push ourselves to the next level), there is still a lot more to learn about. Even though it can be a challenge to find specific and useful nuggets of information out there on the topic, if you look hard enough, you should be rewarded for your search.

Other books

Although few and far between, there are a few books out there with potential reading material to learn from, concerning how to keep your goal, there are a few gems of knowledge in existence; if you can find them that is. You can find some scraps of information on goalkeeping in old hockey books, with much better guides on stretching and body work found in ice hockey goaltending books. Keep your mind open to new ideas on diving saves and the like, or improving your mental game and rebound control you could read some soccer and ice hockey books.

Other resources

Watching live games

Another easy and great idea is to actually go and watch live games; even if it means watching a game played by one of your club’s teams. By watching the goalkeepers play, you can analyse and pick apart their game, working out their strengths and weaknesses, helping you to simplify yours; by realising their mistakes, you can reduce the number you make. After all, playing the game at the highest level always comes down to making the right decision in the right situation, so cutting down your options and selecting the most efficient will make you a better goalkeeper.

NZ Hockey Goalkeeping Resource

Here is a great Goalkeeping manual in PDF format produced by New Zealand Hockey.

“This booklet is designed for beginner goalkeepers as well as coaches who want help with specific training for their goalkeeper. It will also be useful for more experienced goalkeepers who want drills and games to improve their techniques.”

goalkeeper-resource

To download the NZ Goalkeeping Resource click here

You will need the free Adobe Reader to open the PDF. .

Diving stick saves

Diving stick side is the most obvious example of an athletic goalkeeper, with the goalie extended out low to the stick side to stop the ball along the ground. This is the most basic dive, the one websites or team training session leaders preached to you about. It’s the simplest, and the most obvious; it generally implies diving to the right with your stick. Diving stick side allows you to reach out to low shots that go past you on your right side, on shots that are often out of reach. Make sure you follow through with the saving motion; watching the ball into the save to ensure that you make full contact with your stick to stop the ball getting past you.

To make a successful diving stick save, you should follow this process:

  • Step off with your right foot in the direction of the shot

  • Lean out to the right and crouch slightly for the dive

  • Driving from the flat of your foot, make sure you get enough power in the movement

  • Dive out with your stick arm extended towards the incoming ball (if necessary, you can extend the stick out to get further reach)

  • Land onto the pitch, pushing the stick out to make contact with the ball for the save; angling the stick diagonally to push away the rebound

  • When landing the save, land on the hips and arms, absorbing the impact, landing the stick to make contact with the floor

  • Ball makes connection with the stick, which is then stopped and cleared to safety, if possible

  • After making the save, recover to the standing stance, ready for the next shot: be quick to react, so you don’t give the shooter extra time

Pointers

Stay low throughout the dive to cover the shot. When executing the save, slide the stick out and along the ground to control the dive. If the ball is still out of reach, you can extend your stick out to get distance on the save. You can angle the stick towards the back line to direct the ball to safety.

Avoid landing on the elbow, which will otherwise get easily damaged after continually diving onto it. Instead, try to land on your forearm (the front of the arm – elbow to wrist); pushing out with your arm to drop there.

The first picture is from Yahoo Euro Sport images; the second from Alex Master’s sports action photography www.alex-masters.com  

Lateral movement

Moving in shuffles is an essential part of getting around the D; staying in front of the play where you can block, rather than being side-on and turned away from goal.

Lateral movement (side to side) is the key area of movement around the circle. Think of your movement area as a mini semi-circle of the larger D you play in; this is the space you need to cover to protect your goal. By moving sideways, you can change your angle against the opposition; moving across to deal with the new attacker as the pass is made.

Shuffles

Shuffling is the essential form of movement for a goalkeeper to move across the face of goal. If you watch soccer goalkeepers, the move is very similar; basically, it is sidestepping across to the side you wish to move to. When pushing across from the pushing foot (depending on your left or right direction), make sure your keep in your ready stance, holding your hands up ready for a shot.

 

The following diagram illustrates the shuffle off the right foot moving to the right (the shuffle is a sideways movement, with you moving left or right to move into the space to your side):

shuffle2

Closing holes

With the shuffle opening up a large space between the open legs when moving, a lot of keepers (up to the pros; Stephen Lambert is a good example, and you could find footage of him actively doing this, playing for Australia in the recent Olympics). This closing off of open space when moving makes sure you have no space showing, in case of a shot; when facing a screen or in-close action when facing goal mouth scrambles, or when facing a deflection as you move across goal – more important in higher levels when shooters like to go for this area, as it is easy to expose.

When pushing across, lead the back leg into the lead leg, in order to close gaps by pushing to lock the pads together, or be as close as possible to block. This extra coverage against shots, with the security of no gaps. However, comes at the cost of movement (since it slows you down when moving to force your legs together, which can be costly when moving with speed against the play is vital). So if you’ve got to dash across the D to get back into space, then you have to balance the importance of speed, by ignoring the need to cover gaps and sacrifice coverage for extra movement.

lateral_move

Stick Choice

qna
Question:

Hi Jon,

Hope all is going well for you.

Tom’s hockey is continuing to go well – he is now 19 and studying Actuarial Science at the University of Cape Town and playing in their 2nd side. Both 1st & 2nd sides play in the Grand Challenge league, which is probably the strongest league in South Africa so he is gaining some valuable experience.

He is need of a new stick now. He has been using what I reckon is a predecessor to the Skinny, since age thirteen and it is finally now cracking slightly.

I think he should go for the Fatboy this time. His recent ability and confidence on his stick side has dropped slightly – last year it was stronger and he is trying to work out why this could be.

I read a couple of information sections about the merits of the Fatboy and the Skinny but I wondered if you could suggest which to go for?

Tom is physically quite strong and is about 6 feet 1 tall. I see there are two sizes 36.5 and 37.5 available – I presume that 37.5 would be best for him?

Any suggestions or advise would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Charlie

Answer:

Hi Charley,

Stick choice is really dependent on a lot of things, especially the style of goalkeeping Tom plays with his hands. Personally, I use the Skinny Thing Stick (37.5). I tend to play with my hands forward and about waist level so I take my stick back to make saves to my high right. This allows me to track the ball a little longer and since I’m taking the stick back most deflections off it are to the side. I like a light stick and I really like the weight and feel of the Skinny Thing. Some keepers prefer a little more weight and substance to their stick and the Fat Boy is for them. At 6’1″ Tom is best suited to a 37.5 stick, but Fat Boy or Skinny Thing is really up to him and his style. Hope that helps,

Jon

Moving around your D

Moving around your D is just as important as controlling it; if you’re not moving into position every time the ball moves, you’re not going to be into position to make the save. Shuffling is the main vehicle for moving around, for sideways movement across the D and between attackers, but don’t rule out running sideways, backwards or forwards – how else are you going to charge down the shot, or rush back to fill up space?

Moving with the play

To be able to react to the play’s development and be ready to make an immediate save when called upon, you have to constantly be moving with the play itself. With the change in pace and direction, you have to be adapting your position to match. If you are not and caught unawares, you make the opposition’s life all too easy; not being set on the angle and leaving a wide open net to shoot at.

Moving constantly to re-position in the arc (that has been talked about in previous articles; http://blog.obo.co.nz/2009/05/18/the-arc-around-goal/) will dramatically improve your shot stopping and ability to play the angles to your advantage, instead of being forced into a difficult save as the ball moves into the open space you were not ready for.

Focus on the ball

You can arrange your movements by where you are in relation to where the ball is; moving with the ball to keep up with the scoring chances and angles for incoming shots. Your head should be on a swivel, constantly checking to see where the ball is, in case a long pass or run has been made, and then moving your body to adapt to the change in play; kind of like a turkey in a farmyard!

When the ball gets past your half way line you can relax, but once it’s over the line and an attack can easily appear out of nowhere you need to be ‘switched on’ and alert; ready to spring into action.

What glue?

qna
Question:

My son is a hockey goalkeeper and owns a Robo hockey helmet. We purchased this fantastic helmet about a year ago. The only, ongoing problem we have is that everytime he removes the sweatband from inside the helmet, the piece of velcro which holds the sweatband in the helmet comes loose.

We have tried so many different glues on the South African market and nobody can give us advise as to which glue to try. After every practise and every match (probably about 4x per week) we have to re-glue the velcro to the helmet.

We are afraid of trying acid based glues incase the eat the padding in the helmet.

I would be extremely grateful if you could advise me as to which glue I could use or any solution to the problem.

Thank you!

Cheryl

Answer:

Hi Cheryl,

I’ve had a lot of success with that very problem using a product available in the US called Gorilla Glue. Below is a link to their website which has a “Where to Buy” section.

http://www.gorillaglue.com/

Hope that helps,

Jon