Have you ever felt slow on the ice? Have you ever felt as though the pace of play was too much for you? Have you ever felt surprised at a play because you weren't ready? We all have at one point or another. This is a common problem among goaltenders as they move up the ranks and continues on into levels as high as collegiate and professional hockey, though we may never admit to it.

The first step in (re)gaining control as goaltender is understanding the position in terms of a process. Playing goal will be much clearer in your mind once you understand that each and every movement has a certain time and place for execution. Goaltending is a collection of individual steps put together consecutively to create an entire process. For example, a broad save-making process would involve the stance, save, control of rebound, and recovery. Each of those steps may have its own sub-processes, and should run cleanly and without weakness in order to maximize fundamental save-making excellence.

A second factor in helping your save-making process run cleanly is to examine the number of steps involved. It should be pretty easy to understand that the fewer number of steps, the faster our process will be from start to finish. The faster our process, the quicker we are. The quicker we are, the slower the play is around us. And thus, we (re)gain control of the play. This is just a sliver of what happens to goalies as they move into college and pro hockey. Play moves faster and the amount of time given to make a save becomes smaller. Older goaltenders will pick and choose their spots to be more or less aggressive to guard their save-making process from spreading too thin or becoming over-complicated. Simplicity is the key to quickness and mental clarity.

An interesting goaltending metaphor:

I was getting my oil changed one day when I started reading a review of the newest BMW M3. The article had words and phrases that got me around to thinking of this new M3 as a metaphor for goaltending. In the description, the new M3's engine had "fewer moving parts" with which it ran under "reduced friction." I thought about how pertinent it was to our theory of goaltending as a process. We can make our save-making process easier on ourselves (reduced friction) if we can find a way to move and make saves with "fewer moving parts." Those fewer moving parts involve both the area we cover and how many steps it takes us to complete our save-making process. The article finished quintessentially by saying the M3's "lightweight valvetrain creates superfast throttle response leaving the engine an unparalleled willingness to rev." The excellence of BMW's design and reputation to be the fastest and the best shines through in this review. It might sound odd to the average person, but I learned alot about goaltending just by getting my oil changed.

If you were to attend one of my camps, you would see how this whole issue is central to how I teach younger goaltenders. Adjectives I commonly use in camp are "clean" and "precise." I want my goalies to strip away all excess movement in order to streamline their overall goaltending process. Every movement, save, and position should be a helpful part of our save-making process. Any habit that does not further that process should be removed. Do you think goalies in the NHL, and the AHL for that matter, facing 90+ mph shots have time to incorporate unnecessary habits? Not a chance.