LacrosseGoalieTips.com Podcast

In today's podcast, Coach Edwards lays out a plan to help your goalie with a simple practice system to start every lacrosse practice.  

The last thing on a busy coaches mind tends to be the goalie.  They with their goalie would just be able to take care of themselves.  However, spending just the right amount of attention on your goalie sets the tone for a great practice with your whole team.

Be sure to download the free Lacrosse Goalie Cheat Sheets. 

And before you consider spending big bucks on your next lacrosse camp, consider joining Lacrosse Goalie University with Coach Edwards

When it comes to training lacrosse goalies (or any athlete for that matter) a common mistake is often made to weight the stick. The idea is that if an athlete is throwing something, moving something, kicking something...wouldn't it be better if we made that thing...heavier?

Take the stick for instance.  It's no secret that in the Three Keys To Making Any Save the third key, Moving In Front Of The Ball takes the most time.  And the main part that goalies tend to focus on is moving the stick and usually with just their arms...

So you might think it makes sense to make that stick heavier.  And you wouldn't be completely wrong.  Just partially wrong.

Check out the full post here: https://lacrossegoalietips.com/should-a-lacrosse-goalie-weight-his-her-stick-for-practice/

When it comes to coaching young lacrosse goalies you've got a lot to be concerned about.  After all they are one shot away from getting hurt and wanting to quit.  So let's make sure we do this right.  In today's video, Coach Edwards breaks down four great tips for coaching young lacrosse goalies.  Follow these tips or risk losing your goalie forever.  Follow these tips and put them on a path to greatness.

Tony asks: "What are some fundamental tips for coaching young lacrosse goalies."

My answer: It doesn't really matter if you're dealing with U5, U8, U12, or even a high school goalie.  Starting them right is critical and the first place you're going to want to focus is with their Physical Ability.

You can start getting a lacrosse goalie stronger physically at ANY age.  Don't wait. (Check out my Three Keys video to learn why.)

If a goalie is weak physically that's going to lead to lack of confidence in the cage.  It has never failed, when I have a goalie who is strong physically they develop a confidence over the ball.  If they are weak physically and it looks like the ball is going to rip through their chest like a wet paper bag, they don't need more shots...they probably could learn how to do a push up.

Because from strength comes confidence.  And from confidence comes a better base ability to stand in front of a ball destined to hurt if it hits you.

But this isn't exclusive to lacrosse goalies because it's true with all sports and it's a fundamental component to all the athletes I work with.

With young and new lacrosse goalies, they are weak in their body and weak in their hands to wield a stick.  So get a stick in their hands as much as possible.

And it doesn't have to be a goalie stick.  A goalie stick is big, cumbersome, heavy.  How well do you think they will be able to move that?  It's like doing a curl with a fifty pound dumbbell versus a five pound dumbbell.  You don't just keep trying to lift the fifty pound do you?

Now that's a bit of an exaggeration, I know.  But seriously.  Think about what your goalie needs to get to, and then progress.  I talk a lot about progression inside Lacrosse Goalie University

Confidence is so huge for a lacrosse goalie!  We can make a lacrosse goalie better...quicker...if we maintain their confidence than if we try to get them to "suck it up" or "tough it out."  

I was in a coaches discussion group on Facebook and was sick to my stomach at the insensitive, outdated, just-plain-ignorant comments about how a goalie should be coached.  It floored me.  And it's one of the reasons I started my own Facebook group for lacrosse goalies, parents and coaches.  In my Facebook Group: Creating The Lacrosse Goalie of the Future I help goalies all day avoid the common pitfalls that keep good goalies from being great.

• Wear protection! Listen, you don't have to wear it forever.  But you are new or young, or just feel a little tentative about getting hit somewhere, pad up.
• Move the shooters back.  Put down a stick or a cone or get some field marking paint and put a line on the field.  Just move them back.
• Use tennis balls.  Seriously.  If college programs can use tennis balls in 3v2 drills, you can probably be using them with your goalie.

They use softer balls and small courts in tennis.  Tennis!!  Where the ball is already soft.  So if those tennis kids can do that, so can you.

If you're dealing with lacrosse goalies who are U8 or U10 I'm not a fan of being goalie specific, yet.  We need those kids to get out of the cage and play out in the field to develop themselves physically and to learn the game from other areas of the field.

A goalie who understands how the atttack play, and how the defense plays, or the midfielders, they start to learn offenses and defenses.  Being a good lacrosse goalie isn't just about stopping the ball and running a clear.

Understand that the approach to improving a lacrosse goalie, at any age, is primarily the same.  Follow these steps and you'll be well on your way to creating a recruitable lacrosse goalie.

Using video to look at your game and to learn from it is invaluable. It shocks me how everyone now has a high definition camera in their pocket but very few people actually put it to good use. Why is that? Do you not want to be "That" guy/girl?

In today's episode, I answer a question from one of the members of our Private Facebook group. "Hey coach, what sort of checklist do you use when breaking down a lacrosse goalie on film?" Film, for those of you to young to know, is also known as video, lol.

I'm not sure why it is, but we have more ability to video ourselves but nobody is doing it.  Maybe you don't want to be THAT guy, or THAT girl, or THAT parent, or THAT coach; but really? Why not? 

At the end of the day, the more ability you have to look at your game and learn from it, the better.  So get that camera out, get it on a tripod, and then review it.  And be sure to be using our Lacrosse Goalie Cheat Sheets if you haven't done so already.

1. Stance: Your ability to make a great save starts with a solid athletic stance.
2. Positioning:  Once a goalie's stance is ok, are they in the right position to make the save.
3. The Three Keys:  Did you use the Three Keys to know where you're breaking down?
4. Recovery and Awareness:  Is the goalie learning from that goal that just went in our just sulking about it.

(Watch the video to hear me explain just how I go through each step.)

When you break a goalie down like this you can really pinpoint why they're not making the save and then you can adjust your practices accordingly.

You can grade every save just like you would goals that go in.  A goalie can improve even on the saves he or she makes by asking, "Could I have made that save any better?  Any cleaner?"  That is what a true professional would do and it's not anything you need to wait to do.  You can start right now. Today.

By using video you can really accelerate your improvement, and I don't know a single, motivated,  lacrosse goalie who doesn't want to do that.  But hey, if you want to double the time it takes to get better, go right ahead.

But ultimately, you need to believe that not only can you save every shot, but you can make those saves cleaner and cleaner.

Has this video moved you to make a change in your game?  To add video?  To get a tripod? To not fear being THAT goalie?  Tell me about it in the comments below.

What does it take to have your best tryout ever?  Well, in today's Facebook Life Coach Edwards discusses just that.

It doesn't matter if you've been playing year round, or just picking up a stick after a long break.  You can still have your best tryout if you follow these steps:

1. Get as prepared as possible and know what's coming.  Step one is all about getting prepared tactically for the tryout.
2. Do you trust all of your equipment?  What do you need to get repaired, replaced.  
3. We'll talk about the three steps to get ready physically.
4. You don't have a ton of time to change anything at this point technically, but you might be able to tighten things up a bit.

I go into a lot of detail in each of those four steps to have your best tryout ever.  And finally, we're going to talk about embracing the butterflies and what to do if you're feeling nervous.  

Last year I worked with a lacrosse goalie who was having one of their worst off-seasons ever.  They were headed into the season in not the best head space.  When the dad called me to see if we could work together, I'll be honest, I didn't think this goalie was going to be able to turn things around.

But we focused on the four steps and with some tweaking, we got this goalie on track to not just make the team, but become a starter.  It was pretty cool.

So have a listen and be sure to Subscribe to our podcast channel on iTunes if you're not already subscribed.  

The post Three Tips For a Great Lacrosse Practice For Goalies appeared first on LacrosseGoalieTips.com.

When it comes to coaching a great lacrosse goalie practice, a great question is, "What can I do so my goalies have the best practice possible?"

Most coaches and parents focus too much on what drills they should be doing.  Forget the drills!!! Your goalies probably aren't good enough to stray too far from the basics.

Keep this in mind, most unique drills don't come out of necessity, they come from entertainment.  Think about it for a moment...if I have you at a camp for three days and all I do is shoot on you, you're probably going to get bored.  So funky drills get created to entertain and THEN people try to explain them with logic to make it seem like it has to do with eye-hand, or coordination, etc.

• How To Be Physically Ready

I'll talk about why your goalie needs to be physically ready to hop in the net BEFORE any shots are fired.  A cold stiff body isn't going to help you and in fact it might hurt a lacrosse goalie and his/her development.

• Why Visualization Can Accelerate Your Development

Would you like to get a 2x,5x, or 10x improvement on your goalie with every practice? Well visualization can do just that.  Before a goalie sees a ball at practice they can prime their brain even before they hit the field.

• Why Progression Solves (or ruins) Everything

If you put a ten pound weight on your foot, it's not a problem.  But if you drop a ten pound weight on your foot, it can be a huge problem.  Same goes for the shots your goalie faces in practice.  I explain what to focus on and how to use our free Lacrosse Goalie Cheat Sheets to make sure your helping your goalie in the best way possible each and every practice.

Are you subscribed to our LacrosseGoalieTips.com Podcast on iTunes? If you're not, I want you to head over there and do that today.  I don't want you to miss an episode.  I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance you'll miss out on those.  Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

I hate it when I see really bad information being shared in discussion groups on Facebook so that's why I (finally) created my own. Every Wednesday at 3:30 EST I do a Facebook Live ONLY for the members of that group.  So if you're a parent, a coach, or a lacrosse goalie, you're going to want to get in there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/creatingthelacrossegoalieofthefuture/

The goalie's "grade" for their performance is NOT the scoreboard.  So how do you know if you've played at your best and if you're really improving?  The Cheat Sheets and the Scorecards will tell you: https://lacrossegoalietips.com/lacrosse-goalie-cheat-sheets/

And when you’re ready to work with me One on One, why not book a call: https://www.Lacrossegoalietips.com/call. If you’re serious about taking your game to the next level and become a recruitable lacrosse goalie, we’ll get on the phone and identify what your number one problem is, how to fix it, and how we might be a fit to work together.

If you’re an athlete who sometimes struggles with Negative Thoughts in your head, Coach Edwards has a free guide on how to Master Your Automatic Negative Thoughts here: http://athletespecific.com/ant-download/

When it comes to being a lacrosse goalie, you're not stuck in that crease all the time.  You can come out and make a play, especially when your defence is sleeping and not very good.

Have a listen to today's podcast and hear my advice on what this lacrosse goalie should have done and why this dad shouldn't worry.

Be sure to join our Private Facebook Group: Creating The Lacrosse Goalie Of The Future: https://www.facebook.com/groups/creatingthelacrossegoalieofthefuture/

And grab our free lacrosse goalie cheat sheets: https://lacrossegoalietips.com/lacrosse-goalie-cheat-sheets/

And when you’re ready to work with me One on One, why not book a call: htps://www.Lacrossegoalietips.com/call. If you’re serious about taking your game to the next level and become a recruitable lacrosse goalie, we’ll get on the phone and identify what your number one problem is, how to fix it, and how we might be a fit to work together.