LacrosseGoalieTips.com Podcast

LacrosseGoalieTips.com Podcast

By Olympian - Jonathan EdwardsSportsEducation
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LacrosseGoalieTips.com Podcast episodes

  • D1 Lacrosse Goalie Having Freshman Overwhelm

    Coach Jonathan Edwards addresses a Division 1 freshman goalie's concerns. It is common for Division 1 freshmen to over-hype themselves and perform poorly as they adjust to a completely new lifestyle. Coach Edwards offers tips on how to rein in adrenaline and get in the swing of things through stress management and focusing on the day ahead of you.

    12 min
  • Podcast – The Division 1 Lacrosse Finals
    Coach Jonathan Edwards reflects on what the Division 1 Lacrosse Finals prove to him – the evolution of the game of lacrosse is leaving goalies behind. As technology for shooters becomes more advanced and shots get faster and faster, Coach breaches the controversial subject of better protection for goalies and a change in the way lacrosse goalies approach the game.
    0:24 – Coach Edwards observes the game of lacrosse getting faster with bigger, more accurate shooters every year.
    0:54 – Lacrosse goalies are the only ones that try to catch the ball across their bodies.
    1:52 – The point when the ball is just too fast for a goalie to save.
    2:18 – The controversial truth – lacrosse goalies are under-protected.
    3:04 – Goalies aren’t evolving enough to keep up with today’s technology.
    Introduction
    Coach Edwards here with LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com and LacrosseGoalieTips.com, and I just wanted to give my thoughts on the 2014 Division 1 Lacrosse Finals. I’m doing this as an audio in my truck because I drive today. I’ll probably do a blog post as well as a video, so you might see this twice but it will be a little different each time.
    Bigger, Faster, Stronger
    My thoughts on the lacrosse championships every year is, “Man, the game of lacrosse is getting faster and faster and faster, and the shooters are getting bigger and stronger and more accurate, and the lacrosse goalie is not evolving accordingly.
    The Only Goalies
    As lacrosse goalies, traditionally we wear very little equipment and we play one-handed, basically, we play with a stick in our one hand. If you’ve heard me talk before about this, it kind of blows my mind. We’re the only goalie in any sport that tries to catch the ball or puck or whatever, across his or her body. We’re basically saying, “I’ve got my stick in my right hand,” or whatever it is, “My stick’s in my left hand,” and let’s say my stick’s in my right hand, and that shot is to the left side of my body. The goalies are trying to reach across to make a save, and it rarely happens.
    Reaching Across the Body
    So many goals this year are taken from 12, 15 yard shots, 80, 90, 100 miles an hour, and they’re going off-stick high and the goalie is trying to reach across their body to make a save and they’re just not getting there, and I hate that save. Or if the shot is above off-stick hip, the goalie’s trying to rotate the stick across to make the save.
    When the Ball Moves Too Fast
    When you learn how to play the game, you’re going to learn how to make this save. But one thing I’m realizing as I’m watching the Division 1 finals is that there’s a point, and I’ve known this for a long time and I’ve shared this with our readers and our listeners, there’s a point when the ball is moving too fast that you cannot move effectively. You cannot move that top hand to the ball. However, you’ve got a bottom hand and you’ve got a hip and knee, and off-stick foot to to make that save, and goalies aren’t making them because they’re not protected enough.
    Lacrosse Goalies Are Under-Protected
    What I’m saying and what I want people to start to think about is that lacrosse goalies are under-protected to make saves against the shots they’re facing now. It’s just plain and simple. Goalies need to stop playing straight up, they need to take a half-step to their off-stick side. They need to start playing both-handed in my opinion. If they’re standing with their left foot on the left pipe then their stick needs to be in their right hand.
    The Controversy
    If they’re standing with their right foot on their right pipe, that stick needs to be in their left hand. No more of this, “I’m going to try to rotate the stick across.
    5 min
  • Why I Loved Brett Queener Part 2

    Timestamps
    0:32 – Coach Edwards explains the concept of “goalie RAM,” the processing power that helps goalies like Brett Queener figure out what to do with the ball before they get it.
    1:23 – The typical thought progression of a lacrosse goalie and coming up with a better plan.
     2:32 – What to do when your team doesn’t have a man-advantage.
     3:18 – Why coaches should let their goalies use their advantage and leave the cage more.
     4:22 – Coach Edwards urges goalies to be a threat on the field.
    Introduction
    Coach Edwards here at LacrosseGoalieTips.com, and we can call this one, “Why I love Brett Queener Number 2.” But more importantly, I hope you watched that video last week that I posted, if not go back and check out the last post and the “Why I Love Brett Queener” lacrosse video. A bit of a man-crush really. Nothing major.
    Goalie Processing Power
    Here’s the deal. One of the things I want to talk about is this concept that I’ve kind of coined of a “goalie RAM,” like RAM on your computer – processing power. One thing I noticed in that video is that a lot of times, Brett Queener will make a save and he will just take off. No 4 seconds in the crease, he will just make that save and he’s gone. Why?
    Well first off, as any great goalie will do, before the shot is taken, he’s already thinking in advance what he’s going to do with that ball. If you’ve watched some of my videos in the past, I’ve talked about how your first look on a clear should be right back at where the shot was taken from, because if it was done on a dodge, most likely you have a teammate who is just beyond that player.
    Figuring Out What To Do With The Ball Before You Get It
    Let’s say your main middy gets beat, the middy’s the top or the bottom. Their middy comes down, shoots on you, you make a nice clean save, your middy should take off. Boom,  gone. But you can only get to that bit of mental processing power if you are mentally capable to comprehend everything else that’s going on.
    As a new goalie you’re thinking first, “Oh my god, is this going to hurt?” second, “Oh my God, I caught it,” third, “What do I do with it now?” Because you haven’t had time to think about it, and that’s okay. Every goalie goes through that progression, whether you are ten years old or you are 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Every time you make a jump to a better level of player, like a shooter, you come across that.
    What I want you to notice in that video, and I’ll repost it below here, is that he’s able to know what he’s going to do before he gets the ball, and you need to come up with that as well. There are certain little basic rules. One I just explained, like where that first shot or pass goes on the clear.
    When You Don’t Have A Man Advantage
    Second one to think about is you’re a man down, which means when you get a ball on a save, it’s six on six technically. It’s not seven on six clear, so you don’t have a man advantage. So you’ve got to know what you’re going to do. I find that mostly for young goalies, they make mistakes when they have to freelance.
    Lacrosse is a team sport, so even when Brett Queener runs out of the cage, his team knows what to do. They’re just treating him like any other player on the team. They’re treating him just like a middy who got the ball in the cage and now he’s busting upfield. Not a goalie.
    Use Your Advantage As A Goalie
    A lot of high school teams, they’re nervous, their coaches get nervous. They tell their goalie, “Get back in the cage, get back in the cage!” When I hear that it just makes me cringe, because I’m thinking, “Let them go! Figure it out!” That goalie needs to be just as offensive, and when that goalie makes their first pass, don’t just turn around and go back to the cage, keep on going.
    6 min
  • Why I love Brett Queener Part 2

     

    Coach Jonathan Edwards sings the praises of goalie Brett Queener, and explains how Queener is able to make a plan for the ball before he has it. Coach Edwards encourages goalies to work on their own processing power, and lays out how lacrosse goalies can use their position to the advantage of their team and become a threat on the field.

    6 min
  • How Many Lacrosse Goalie Sticks Should A Lacrosse Goalie Have?

    Coach Jonathan Edwards unveils the golden number of sticks any lacrosse goalie should have in their arsenal: 3. Coach gives tips on how and when to use them and creating equipment consistency. Coach Edwards also shares his philosophy on whether or not buying the most expensive equipment for your goalie will be worthwhile in the long run.
    0:29 – Coach Edwards enlightens lacrosse goalies on the perfect number of sticks: Three.
    0:41 – The hierarchy of sticks. The game stick, the practice stick, and the warm up stick.
    1:15 – Creating equipment consistency.
    2:00 – Breaking in your C stick and using it to experiment.
    3:31 – Your hands don’t change, your sticks do. Get used to playing with unfamiliar sticks.
    4:05 – Parents should buy cheap sticks for young kids, but once the goalie is grown, investing in a titanium shaft is worth it.
    Introduction
    Hey there. It’s Jonathan Edwards with LacrosseGoalieTips.com and LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com and today we’re going to talk about how many sticks should you have. For some of you parents listening to this, you’re probably going to cringe at what I’m going to say here, but I just wanted to share for some of the goalies who were pretty excited about what I’m going to say.
    Three Goalie Sticks
    So what’s the perfect number of sticks that you should have? The answer is 3. Moms, dads, it’s kind of like the number of sheets you should have in your closet. You should have one on the bed, one in the closet, one in the wash. The same thing is true of lacrosse sticks.
    The ABCs
    Goalies should have basically a game stick, like their favourite stick that is game ready. This is like your A stick. The thing is, you don’t use your A stick all the time. You use your B stick in practice. Your B stick is your stick that you use in most of your practice, not including the warm up. Your third stick, or your C stick, is the stick that you take shots with in warm up.
    Creating Equipment Consistency
    Here’s the deal. What we’re trying to do here is create a consistency of equipment and have backups. I remember vividly in junior high school playing on my varsity high school team. I had a stick which I broke. It was the first stick that I ever broke and I only had two sticks. I had one stick I used all the time and I had a backup that I rarely used and it had a pocket that I didn’t really like. I couldn’t throw with it. I hadn’t cut the shaft down and it was just a mess. We don’t want to have that happen.
    Breaking in Your C Stick
    As you get more advanced, you want to have a minimum of two or at least three. In warm up when you’re just taking straight shots from a coach or a player, that’s when you really want to break in that back up, the third stick or your back up stick. You want to get that stick throwing equally as well as your main stick and that’s going to happen when you get a lot of shots taken at it. That’s how you’re going to break in that pocket quickly, and you’re going to save that A stick for game day. That game day stick is going to throw nice, it’s going to be your best one. It’s going to be broken in real well and you’re just going to be really confident with it.
    Experimenting With New Equipment
    The cool thing is your C stick is the one that you should try stuff out on. Maybe a different pocket, a different string, a different head, a different shaft. That stick in warm up is the one that you want to basically experiment with. When you experiment you get to try new things and it’s a lot of fun. A lot of fun too is, if you’ve got another goalie on your team, is to switch sticks for warm up just to get your hands used to using a different stick. I always say your hands don’t change but your equipment might.
    6 min
  • Podcast – Knowing the Rules
    0:11 – Kids know the basic rules, but do they know the ones that they can take advantage of?
    0:52 – Restarts are a great way to help your team and get an easy clear.
    2:49 – Knowing how the refs are trying to control the game is useful for a lacrosse goalie.
    3:20 – Which rules do you know? Learning them all will bring your game to a new level.
    4:04 – Coach Edwards shares an example of a possession rule goalies can use to their advantage.
    Introduction
    CoachEdwards here with LacrosseGoalieTips.com and LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com. I wanted to talk about knowing the rules.
    The Basics
    When I played back in high school and college age, and when I played club ball in Connecticut and went to Australia to play, one of the things that really helped me as a goalie was understanding the rules. A lot of kids think they know the rules, and yeah, they probably do, like don’t slash, don’t trip, don’t hit from behind, ball goes out of bounds it’s your ball, that sort of stuff, but as a goalie, you’re really in a position to dictate a lot of plays and understanding the flow of the game and what the refs are looking for, especially on restarts.
    Restarts
    Restarts are a way to really help your team. One of the things that I used to do was I recognized that if I had possession of the ball and let’s say I ran the ball out of bounds. I picked up the ball out of bounds or picked one of those spares that are always on the endline or grabbed one from the ballboy, if I stepped on the field and I had the ball in my stick, the ref would blow the whistle. Once I looked ready, the ref would blow the whistle.
    A Little Trick
    But if my team wasn’t ready, like we were making a change or if guys were just in the wrong position and our clear wasn’t set up yet, basically if our clear wasn’t set up yet and I stepped on the field with possession and there was an attackman in my face and the ref blew the whistle, I was in trouble because I had nobody to pass to. So a little trick that I did was, I would toss the ball onto the field of play but I wouldn’t pick it up.
    An Easy Way to Clear
    So let’s say I grabbed the loose ball at the endline, I came to the field and I would basically toss the ball, just underhanded, onto the field. And while I did that I would now look upfield, and the ref would rarely tell you to pick the ball up. What it allowed me to do was it allowed me to survey the field and know where my first pass was going to be. What could happen sometimes was I could have a player on my team who was in position, like let’s say I had a middy at the midfield stripe away from the benches, and he wasn’t covered. What I would do then is I would pick up the ball real fast and I’d say “Ref, whistle, whistle, whistle,” and he’d give me the whistle because I was ready and I would make the pass and we’d have an easy clear.
    Understanding the Refs
    I see a lot of goalies, they’ll just step on the field with the ball and they’ll have an attackman in their face, or maybe two if they’re really not smart, and the ref blows the whistle and they get jumped, lose the ball, and it’s an easy goal for the other team. So this is just one example of just knowing the rules and knowing what the flow of the game is like, knowing what the refs were trying to do, how they’re trying to control the game.
    Learn all the Rules
    I really encourage you to learn all the rules. Learn the rules around the crease. If you’re out of the crease and you’ve got the ball and you’re getting ridden pretty hard by another player, can you throw that ball back in the crease. Do you know that? Can you do that? Go find that out and let me know what you’ve found out, just as an exercise for you. Know the rules,
    6 min
  • Podcast – Should You Be Able To Clear the Ball or Save the Ball?
    0:24 – Goalies should have a serviceable level of throwing and catching skills so they can be an asset on a clear.
    0:53 – If the other team wants to face off and you can’t save the ball, your team will get annihilated.
    1:33 – Lacrosse goalies are ball stoppers, and clearing is usually taken care of whether the goalie is good or bad at it.
    2:19 – If a goalie is staying home more, Coach Edwards advises you do everything you can to improve at stopping the ball.
    2:46 – Field lacrosse goalies need more protection so they can stop the ball more.
    4:00 – Line drills, long passing, face dodging, and one on ones should be worked on by goalies who want to improve.
    4:34 – Advice for the coaches on how to incorporate the best drills for goalies.
    Introduction
    Coach Edwards here with LacrosseGoalieTips.com and I want to share with you today, should you be able to clear the ball or should you be able to save the ball? Which one’s better?
    Be an Asset on a Clear
    Over the years I’ve had some pretty good arguments with people on what’s more important. Should a goalie be able to save the ball or should a goalie be able to clear the ball. First off, if you’re listening to this I know that you’re a pretty smart goalie. You’re looking to improve. It’s only a matter of time until this is a non-question for you. Goalies need to be able to have a serviceable level of throwing and catching so that they can be an asset on a clear and not just a goalie in the cage stopping balls.
    Facing Off
    In terms of what’s more important, if you think about it this way, let’s say the other team wants to face off, comes down and you can’t save the ball. So the shot goes in and it’s a goal. Now it’s one – nothing. Now you go to the next faceoff and your team loses the faceoff and comes down and the team comes down and scores again. Now, because you can’t save the ball, now it’s two – nothing. Next faceoff, your team wins the faceoff, goes down the field. Their goalie makes a save. They clear the ball. It comes down to you and because you’re not a very good goalie you can’t save the ball, now it’s three – nothing.
    If You Can’t Stop the Ball, You Can’t Clear the Ball
    If you can’t make a save you don’t have the chance to clear the ball at all, so I would argue that the first idea a goalie needs to embrace is that first and foremost you are a ball stopper. You are a ball stopper and when your team can get into position to clear the ball, clearing isn’t really an issue even with a poor clearing goalie. If you look at it this way, also the rules have changed in lacrosse. There are different rules on restarts now. Especially in the college game where a goalie venturing out of the cage is not as common or as accepted in some ways. Goalies are kind of staying home more.
    Improve Your Ability to Stop the Ball
    If that’s the case, if a goalie is staying home more because the rules are changing a little bit and the focus is on ball stopping, then what I would say is that you also need to do everything you can to improve your ability to stop the ball. That can mean lots of practice time, it can also mean more equipment so that you’re better protected and you can stop the ball with more parts of your body, not just your stick.
    The Equipment Crisis
    I always say that the field lacrosse goalie is a little bit confused because they are trying to play it both ways. They’re dressed with less equipment than most players on the field and yet they’re in the position to be in front of balls shot at 70, 80, 90 miles an hour. With very little equipment on it doesn’t quite make sense to me.
    Making Good Saves
    I think a goalie who decides that they’re going to be protected and they’re going to be a ball s...
    6 min
  • Podcast – Should You Play up?
    0:09 – Goalies at any age could be asked to play up. If you’re not being challenged this can be a great opportunity.
    0:42 – Coach Edwards shares his experience playing in a men’s lacrosse league when he was in junior high school.
    1:21 – Playing up can either boost your confidence or ruin it, so think hard about who playing up will benefit more – you or the team.
    3:07 – Lacrosse goalies who play up should protect themselves physically and mentally.
    Introduction
    Coach Edwards here with LacrosseGoalieTips.com and LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com, and I want to talk about playing up. Should you play up?
    The Opportunity to Play Up
    There’s the opportunity every once in a while where a goalie will be called up and this is really easy if you’re good for your age group. This can happen at any age, it can happen at U8, U10, U12, it can happen in junior high, high school, I’ve seen it happen a lot.
    Playing Up If You’re Not Challenged Enough
    What can happen is, if you’re a good goalie and playing with your age group is not challenging you, then the opportunity to play up can actually really help you. I used to play in a men’s league when I was in junior high school. Obviously, when I got back to my junior high school team and my high school team, the types of shots I saw weren’t as good as the guys I was seeing on the weekends who were in their 20s and 30s.
    Boosting Versus Ruining Your Confidence
    Those guys that I played with were really respectful of me, I’ll be honest. I was like their younger brother. I remember a guy by the name of Hal Bean who really took me under his wing. Because I was a good goalie for my age and I was young and I was I guess more advanced for my age. What this ended up doing was it was a big confidence builder. Every once in a while I got hit with a ball that hurt. That can be what sets you back. If you play up and you get hit with a ball and you get hit so hard that it ruins your confidence, now we’re really walking back a step as opposed to moving forward a step.
    Assessing Your Skill Level
    Should you play up? If your skill level is appropriate for the age you’re going to, yes. If, however, it’s not that great, like let’s say your skill level is appropriate for your age and playing up is going to be a big step for you, sometimes the best recommendation I can give you is to not play up because I would rather see you just develop and be confident than to play up and be hurt and have a negative experience and have that ruin your confidence. Or worse, give you fear of the ball. That’s what the worst thing is, we don’t want fear of the ball.
    Why Were You Invited to Play Up?
    So really think through why you’re getting invited to play up. Is it because you’re fantastic and you really need that challenge? Then by all means, go. If it’s not going to be like that though, I often times question why. Who is going to benefit? Is the team going to benefit or is the athlete going to benefit? Pretty much everything I try to do, I try to be athlete centered, not program centered. But a lot of coaches don’t operate like that. Especially in the goaltending position. Every team needs a goalie, and if they don’t have a goalie, they’ll put anybody in the cage, right? So just keep that in mind as you go.
    Protect Yourself
    Playing up is not always the best opportunity. It can be a good learning one, but just keep it real. Pad up, wear extra padding if you need to to protect yourself. And by all means, make sure you’re always protecting your confidence more than anything. Because if we’ve got a good, confident goalie, we can do anything. But if we lose our confidence we can’t really do much at all.
    Conclusion
    Good luck with that. Leave me a comment below.
    4 min

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Follow Coach Jonathan Edwards as he provides tips and advice on how to improve your skills in the world of lacrosse.