Hockey goalies hone their skills at fundamentals camp

One of the toughest positions in all of sports is that of a hockey goalie, and net minders ages 6 to 11 honed their skills during a five-day fundamentals camp at the Glenview Community Ice Center recently.

Evanston native Stu Gould, who now lives in Naperville, runs the Good as Gould school of goaltending, and the fundamentals camp was one of 11 camps that he and his team of coaches run for players from the mite level to Triple-A

Gould said the camps help goalies work on the fundamentals of goaltending.

"You have to build from the bottom, from the mite all the way on up," Gould said.

During the first four days of the camp, goalies were divided into groups of four and rotated through several two-minute long stations, where they work on stopping breakaways, poke-checking pucks from skaters, minimizing rebounds, and angles and screens.

During the screen drill, for example, another goalie, taking the role of a forward, would stand in front the goalie to make it harder to see a shot coming from the coach. The goalie participating in the drill would work to see around the screening player and stop the puck.

"What's really cool is, on Friday, we do what's called a skills competition, and we take everything that we learned and put it into a 'fun day' and we have five awards that we give out. Hardest worker, most improved, shooting gallery, breakaways and a rapid-fire drill," Gould said. "And not everybody gets a trophy. We always explain that to kids. You have to earn a trophy; we don't just give a trophy,"

In many hockey organizations, from house league to club teams, the forwards and defensemen, known colloquially as "skaters," often receive the bulk of attention from coaches simply because coaches were former skaters themselves and might not know to properly coach goalies.

Gould said goalies in some organizations receive specialized instruction just once or twice per month.

Good as Gould has accounts with 15 youth hockey teams and helps provide the specialized instruction that goalies need.

"We work with everybody's style. We don't try to change it," Gould said. "That's why we've been in business for close to 37 years."

Among the skills coaches help goalies work are proper stance, keeping their stick on the ice, keeping their hands up, and skating. If the goalie is a good skater, it's going be easier for coaches to work with the goaltender, Gould said.

"Skating is very important, and if they play other sports that does help. If you're a good athlete, your hand-eye coordination and your skating, it's all going to come together," Gould said. "It's going to be easier to teach that goaltender.

"You know, some people just do one sport. They don't try other things. I think you should try other sports, which will help you at goaltending," Gould said.

Sometimes, particularly at the youth level, there is a tendency to blame the goalie for losses, when in fact hockey is a team game, and Gould works to address that misconception.

"As a goaltender, you have the best seat in the house. It can be gratifying at times, and it can be heartbreaking at times," Gould said. "But there's an old saying, 'you have to get past five (players) to get to the goalie,' so we have to come up big for them too."