penny for your thought

[ShellSh0cked]

I've been playing ice regularly once or more a week for the last year plus (1 year 3 mo) from a mainly roller background. I play low level beer league and we try to rent out ice time for practices each week as well.

I started out paying a lot of attention to skating fundamentals and consciously incorporating butterfly technique to my mostly stand up game; as in roller once you're down you're pretty much out (learned to play before the advent of slippery tape or slide plates).

I've come a long way positionally and in down movement, and while I still have a long way to go (ie sliding into saves instead of extending first and then sliding to recover, amongst many other things), I'm noticing that I'm starting to become a bit too passive at times.

I used to take pride in my desperation saves and never giving up on a puck, and making saves I had no business making. However, improved positional play meant easier saves, and expecting the puck to hit me. I'm finding that I'm losing an aspect of my game I shouldn't be losing and I'm not sure about what to do to stop that from happening.

For example last night I dropped and blocked a shot with my gut, couldn't trap it so it went straight back out for a bad rebound below the slot. Instead of telescoping out to take away more net I just stayed in my butterfly hoping for a block. I must have been about one foot inside the crease since the first shot was from pretty close. Then their center beat the back check to the puck and rammed it hard and low stick side. I extended my leg as far as it would go but it wasn't wide enough and it went in.

I mentally acknowledged that I should have moved out or poke checked it ahead of the shot; then reset for the next play. Afterwards however it got me thinking how odd it felt not to take the initiative on that kind of play. Help me I think someone put an Allaire in my drink!!!

[RollrGoal]

I'm thinking it maybe has to do with your confidence in inline vs your confidence on ice.

Perhaps because you're just getting used to moving a certain way on ice, different than you're used to, you are more hesitant to try the same moves, lest you "mess up an easy save". What if that forward just cranked the puck back into your belly? If you had tried to slide over, you would have been caught out of position.

This is all just speculation, but I felt the same way when I switched. There is a lot more experience to be had on ice even if you're a grizzled vet of the sportcourt.

I go through funks every now and again where I catch myself and mentally go "why didn't you do this instead?"

Now that I have many more hours of skating under me, I feel that much more confident on my skates and the goalie maneuvers have almost become an afterthought. Instead of thinking "plant, rotate, push" I now just say "I want to go over there" and just push and go. I definitely could not do that a year ago.

Keep plugging away and logging that ice time. Pretty soon you'll feel your old self coming back.

Now where's my penny? College kid's gotta eat y'know!

[ShellSh0cked]

I think you got this backwards. This is not roller vs ice at all.

Again, I've been getting a lot better in down movement and skating technique, since I started playing ice. Insecurity is not the problem. Technique is not the problem either, as when I started playing ice I still had a lot of fight in me as well as desperation and sprawling saves; just not enough shuffling and sliding. Most other goalies in my league have no concept of depth, and they only slide along the red line when the puck goes behind the net.

Like I said above, the more butterfly I incorporated into my game in the past year or so, the easier the saves became; and the less I had to resort to flopping. I'm starting to pick up on a trend which is the point of the post above: I'm being too passive at times, remaining on angle but not being aggressive enough on the puck.

To paint a more complete picture, I saw a lot more shots last season, about twice as many a game (top 2 teams moved up a division, my top 4 D got a lot more solid).

I don't miss the fatigue in the 3rd period from seeing 40+ shots, but I'm very aware that my focus is a lot better when I'm pressured. Easier saves thanks to better positioning and skating + seeing 50% less shots = I'm getting casual out there sometimes, and it's costing me some goals I would have normally stopped.

Thanks for your input!

[Trent33]

Do you think you're just getting overconfident with your "new" abilities?

I can somewhat relate: sometimes I find myself intentionally *not* putting myself in the best position just so I can try and make an easy save difficult, because I like the challenge. Often I'll get burned doing this, but it keeps it interesting. I don't know why I keep doing this, but I do Other times I'm just tired/lazy and only go 80%, but this doesn't sound like your problem.

Thoughts?

[Oats]

In my experience battling for the puck/ball is a learned habit as much as anything else. You don't seem to have a technical issue here so I think you already know the answer: stop sitting back, stop being lazy, and recover correctly.

[ShellSh0cked]

Yeah no it's not like I'm slightly trailing the shooter so I can make a sliding save at all. It's not messing up a recovery so I'll have to sprawl for the secondary shot.

It's the difference between staying put in my butterfly when a rebound comes a few feet in front vs scrambling to cover it up or poke it.

I know what the problem is; just want the aggro back since it used to be part of my game and I now find it lacking

[ljohnston11]

I had/have a similar problem, got new pads and starting changing my style (referenced on this board several times, sure you guys are all too aware of my situation! ).

I find that when I have my hands up and out in front I play more aggressively and don't have that "blocking" mentality. Helps with poking and covering rebounds much quicker, as well diving.

When my hands begin to drop due to being tired or just forget I fall into that blocking mode.

[Oats]

Sorry maybe I worded that poorly, what I meant by "recovery" was whatever positional adjustment or in your case poke check you want to use to recover control of the situation. But again, It seems like you know what you want to be doing. I don't know what answer there is besides "do it." Maybe watch some inspirational videos to get you in a competitive mood? Stomp your feet around in the crease to make you more aggressive? Like I said before, it seems to me that competitiveness and reaching a good mental state is more of a habit than anything else and will come back with practice at being agressive.

[CoopALoop1234]

Originally Posted by Oats

Sorry maybe I worded that poorly, what I meant by "recovery" was whatever positional adjustment or in your case poke check you want to use to recover control of the situation. But again, It seems like you know what you want to be doing. I don't know what answer there is besides "do it." Maybe watch some inspirational videos to get you in a competitive mood? Stomp your feet around in the crease to make you more aggressive? Like I said before, it seems to me that competitiveness and reaching a good mental state is more of a habit than anything else and will come back with practice at being agressive.

I agree.

I'll have games where I feel like i'm not taking control of making saves and am merely a pylon. It really comes down to how aggressive you want to play.

I always have my best games where I can hear my internal dialgoue say: "Mother-#$%# hit me with the puck, #$%^ing HIT ME!!".

My worst games go along the lines of: "Oh man, this looks like a dangerous play. Oh, this might hurt too, be gentle."

tl;dr: My game performance reliees upon my ego being a total badass.

My advice: become a major badass.