I'm weak high blocker side...
...among other places. But most goals go in there. Any tips?
Posted Nov 18, 2010, 2:30 PM UTC
919
If you're going down too early (giggidy) then be sure you shrug your shoulders to get bigger and get that blocker out a bit from your body. To the young kids I call it "Monster up."
Otherwise, you need practice using your blocker. We tend to have a ton of practice catching in our everyday life (tossing beers or balls or whatever). You need practice using that blocker. So some day at a practice, get your glove tied to your body and save everything with your blocker.
If that doesn't help, then you can always cheat to the blocker-side to entice shots to the glove-side. Don't do this by more than a quarter-step.
8
Towards the end, I was really hoping your advice would be to start blocking things in my everyday life. Buddy tosses me a beer I turn my wrist out and block it to the ground. Then celebrate.
Thanks for the advice, I like it!
8
No reason why you can't do that anyways. Bonus points for deflecting it into other people.
3
Never waste beer!
2
find a lighter stick if strength rather than technik is the problem
4
You need those fins that Garth Snow had.
3
Are you talking about when you are in the butterfly position or just in your ready stance?
2
Stand up.
3
Before games I have 2 people line up all the pucks in front of the net and alternate glove shots and blocker shots. Most goalie in my league just do glove side shots to get warmed up, try having them shoot at your blocker side this will give you that repetition. The blocker side is typical everyone's weakest spot though.
Also I agree with you instead of catching things run around just blocking things people throw at you.
3
Practice practice practice. Find the best shooter you know and have him shoot pucks at you. Tell him to predominantly shoot high blocker but randomly mix it up shooting elsewhere so you can't just anticipate it.
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2
Most goalies understand they need to cut down the angle horizontally, meaning the farther out of your net you are the less space is available to either side of you. Advanced goalies learn that they also need to cut down the angle vertically. Almost all shots are shot in a straight(ish) line from the ice, if you are out of your net enough you'll almost never have to raise your blocker to stop a shot. Imagine a laser line from the puck on the ice to the cross bar as long as your blocker is taking away a majority, if not all, of that space you shouldn't have to be throwing your blocker up high to reach those top corners. Come out and challenge and pucks will just hit you.
2
Get strong with your blocker side arm for speed, use the entire arm to save, because you can get your elbow up higher and faster than your entire blocker. when I save high like that i swing my blocker side elbow up and my glove side arm towards the blocker side, gets my arm higher faster, and keeps the glove under it for an insurance measure to catch anything that would otherwise land in your house.
1
What is your arm position in your stance?
Where do you feel you are weak (low/high/both)?
1
High. I am pretty decent with my legs and low blocker. But shots often go over my shoulder or blocker and it frustrates me endlessly.
1
Definitely strengthen your arm. I've had surgery on that shoulder, which has significantly weakened it (Dislocating it 20 times tends to do that). The more strength the arm has, the more quickly it will move. Also, practice without a catching glove. It helps everything.
1
Get a 30 pound weight for your stick or your blocker hand to practice with. Failing that a nice chunk of cold rolled steel works. You will feel much faster and confident when you take it off.
edit Heavy hands for the glove works excellent too
1
That actually sounds legit and doable. On both sides. They have those like army weights that can strap to your wrists. Just find somewhere outside the glove to put em.
1
Then you're like every other butterfly goaltender in existence.
1
Buy a bigger blocker.