Goalie coaches

Something I feel is worth bringing up before the start of the season are goalie coaches, actually more so the lack of goalie coaches. Wherever I go a lot goalies always tell me that they've never had a goalie coach and that they get the feeling of just "sitting there" in the net at practice. That they don't get attention or feedback from the coaches and when they do it's most often something general like "good communicating" or "don't give up the short side/first post".

No offense to head coaches, I know first hand how hard it is to be in charge of the entire team and at the same time find good feedback to give the goalies. As a matter of fact it's close to impossible. But if you have two or more coaches in your team, one of them should definitely have a little more responsibility for the goaltenders. 

I also meet a lot of coaches who say they want to help their goalies but that they don't know how or where to start. I completely understand not feeling comfortable or experienced enough for a certain task, I've had that a thousand times and if you really want to make something work, you can. It's even easier in this instance because there is no other choice than to deal with it - if you have goalies on your team (which I'm guessing you do), you need to take care of them.

The good thing for those of you who might not feel experienced enough to take on your goalies - it's not necessarily about knowing more than your goalie. Like I wrote earlier there are goalies out there who literally feel invisible in their teams, that probably only gets noticed when they do game deciding saves and nothing else. Can you imagine how big a difference you as a coach can make just by paying attention and learning to notice the efforts, the small positive things and intentions.

You will be able to make such a big difference only by listening and letting the goalie bounce thoughts/feelings/ideas off you. You learn a lot by doing so and the goalie will also start trusting you more and more when they notice that you're really trying to help them which will help both of you in the long run. Classic win/win.

Open questions

If you want advice on how to start helping your goalies I can recommend asking open questions. They are questions designed to help the other person reflect on him/herself and arrive at a conclusion together. 

Example:

- What are your thoughts on that situation?

- I don't know, it's really hard when they...............

- What would you have wanted to do differently?

- Maybe I should have................

- Sounds good, give that a try next time and we'll take it from there.

Not only does this include the goalie in the decision making which makes any actual change in the net more possible since they themselves got to choose what to do, but it also makes them feel more included which further instills trust between goalie and coach. It's very important to get the message across that you're there to help and not to decide.

Ask for permission to give feedback

It might sound a little strange to have to ask for permission, but try to put yourself in this position:

In the middle of practice, you're tired, dehydrated, filled with adrenaline and annoyed that things just aren't going your way. Now someone approaches you and spoonfeeds you advice that you didn't ask for and really didn't want to hear right now. No doubt the coach only tried to help you, but what was the actual outcome? The advice most likely didn't stick because you're just not receptive right now and instead you get annoyed with your coach who poked you at the wrong time. 

The effect of asking for permission is quite powerful. If you ask that question and someone, even slightly unwillingly replies "yes" they have subconciously made themselves more receptive to advice which makes it more likely to stick. Also it includes them in the process and again lets them know that you're trying to help and not trying to boss them around or show them up. Trust increases and you grow as a team. 

It's about helping, not deciding.

I am no authority in these matters, these are only advice on tricks that I've learned to use and found very helpful and my hope is that it will be helpful to some of you. I also wanted to shine some light on how easy it can be to make a really big difference for your goalies with relatively little effort, so when you look at your coaching staff for this season - please make sure that someone takes a little more responsibility for the goaltenders. 

Thanks for reading! 

//Pontus