In his latest podcast, Coach Jonathan Edwards advises lacrosse goalies on how they can improve their stick skills. He explains the importance of being versatile in the cage, especially to keep up with the evolution of the game of lacrosse. Coach gives insightful advice on ways to master the techniques that will help goalies lay the foundation they need to make virtually any save.

0:10 – Kids just want the shortcuts, but if you want to be a great goalie you can’t be lazy.

0:38 – The better your stick skills are, the better a lacrosse goalie you will be.

1:20 – If an attackman or middy can hop in the cage and be decent, it’s because of their stick skills.

2:05 – Coach Edwards recommends that goalies get in line drills and gives some awesome tips.

2:34 – Improving your stick skills will lay the foundation you need to make every save.

3:16 – Don’t be lazy, go master the technique and let Coach Edwards know how you’re doing.

Introduction

Coach Edwards here with LacrosseGoalieTips.com and LacrosseGoalieUniversity.com and I want to talk about, how good should your stick skills really be?

 Bum Kids Want Shortcuts

 I get this question every once in a while where a goalie says, “Well, should I be able to use my off-hand?” And the first thing that I really think of is that this is just a really lazy question. I’ll be honest, because most kids, and I was like this too, you want the shortcuts, right? You don’t want to work exceptionally hard, you just want to know the answers so you can just kind of get it done. A question like this to me is just pretty lazy.

 Better Stick Skills Make a Better Goalie

 I can give you this answer in a couple different phases. I’ll tell you this. The better your stick skills are, the better a lacrosse goalie you will be. And I believe that the game of lacrosse is going to start to demand that goalies can play with both hands. I’m the first person to talk about this, this may be a little bit mind-blowing, but I do think that the way the game of lacrosse is going is that goalies are going to start to have to play with both hands. We’ll get into that later.

 A Living Example

 In terms of stick skills and catching though, the better your stick skills are, the better you’re going to be as a goalie. What proves this to me is, along my career, there are times when an attackman or a middy would hop in the cage just for fun, right? It’s the end of the season, maybe you’re out of the playoffs, in the practice it’s a day to kind of goof off, and Billy, who is our best attackman, grabs my equipment and hops in the cage just for fun. And what ends up happening, he’s pretty decent. He might be shy of the ball, not wanting to get hurt, but he’s got the hands to be able to catch and throw pretty easily. That’s the best example I can give of how having good stick skills can make you a better goalie right away.

 Line Drills With a Short Stick

 To do this, you really need to get in line drills and you really need to be working on your stick skills all the time. You don’t need a goalie stick to do it, I suggest you have a short stick. For girls, you should have a short stick that has a guy’s pocket in it, not a girl’s pocket. A good test is, you want to be able to throw a ball accurately on the run.

Laying a Foundation to Make Every Save

Let’s say you make a save and you run to the sideline. You want to be able to make a pass to the midfield stripe accurately with both hands. So if I’m running out of the cage to my right, I want to be able to make a pass up to midfield accurately that way. If I’m running out to the left, I want to be able to make a pass with my left hand accurately that way. That usually takes care of most clearing situations and most exceptions there.