Camps, Training and Skills

My dad tells me you can do anything you want but you need to try harder than everyone else because the world isn't fair. And at that point he leaves the amount of training I want to do up to me. He gives me a list of options, camps in our area and skills courses that have proper goalie training which don't conflict with my team commitments and I sign up for as many as my parents can afford. Honestly I play to get better, I have more fun when I do well. This year I racked up almost 40 hours of on ice time by the time try-outs were over. That is not including any dry land training, palates, sports base team building activities... Yes, given the choice I would far rather be playing sports with my friends rather than playing on my computer.

If I don't feel like playing my parents take me to the hospital, they know I must be dying if I turn down an opportunity to head out on the ice. If there is no specific need to play as goalie some times I opt to go out and play forward or defence, it makes no difference. It's just fun to change it up once in a while.

Now it should be understood that 3 hours a day is enough for me unless there is something special going on, like a tournament or fun day activities... however ice time is not always cheap if available at all... so I play somewhat less than I like. This is how I get my hockey fix:
Preseason is the time to take advantage of hockey camps, weekend or week long they should provide a nice mix of on ice time, stretching, exercises and team building activities or games. For goalies you always look for a good instructor to goalie ratio, every time you add another student it cuts the time the on ice instructor is spending with you.

Try-outs are a valuable source of ice time, you may not want to play on the team you are trying out for but sometimes there are opportunities especially for goalies where they will let you try-out, sometimes even for free. They may be looking for extra goalies and hope to win you over, they might just want to scout out the competition or need a warm body in net to help them select their forward line... use any ice time you can get.

Skills Nights can typically supplement your normal weekly practice routine... however most are typically focused on players skills. If there is not a goalie coach on the ice and they are just using you to take shots on net, you should be looking for a huge discount. If you are lucky and you find a skills course that runs throughout the winter, mark it down as a priority, better to miss a weekly team practice with no goalie coach and take the skills course with a goalie coach.

Public skating is another overlooked source of ice time... equipment or not, the more you skate, the better you get. Weather you go with your school or it's an activity your town or community centre runs it's typically focused on getting people on the ice as a form of exercise and improving the communities health... in such they are typically very low cost or free.

Pickup Hockey or Shinny schedules are posted for many communities and involve minimum gear, few rules and an opportunity to play with friends and people of different ages. We learn a lot from playing with our peers who have a few years on us or a little more experience. Playing with the older kids is typically the highlight of my week.

Fun-days and Non sanctioned hockey... little towns and big all across this country host a number of fall fair fun days, adult child tournament, Christmas break 3 on 3tournaments, or other hockey based activities. These are also and excellent source of fun and practice.

Games, team practice and tournaments, the standard 10 hours of ice time a month allotted to the normal folks. See if you can practice with the team 1 division up, you may be able to get an extra 2 hours of practice a week and if they need someone to fill in, you are already use to playing with the team. You can start to see the hours I spend on the ice each week, so if I slack off, if I'm not first in the race around the rink, if I show up in player gear to work on my stick handling, if I'm lying on the ice taking an extra 30 second breather... don't bother me, I'm just out here to have fun like the rest of you. The extremely small amount of time I show a sub par performance here has been made up for other places... move on to another child that needs the help ;) Just know when game time rolls around, it's all business and I'm up for anything they throw at us because I eat, sleep, and breathe hockey.

Ringette... there we went and said it. Apparently Ringette is a vastly different sport than hockey, it's fast paced, there is a lot of passing, they are better skaters than hockey players and a bunch of other stuff the girls will tell you to keep you away. Honestly, a different cage on the helmet, a bug swatter glove and you are pretty much set. Keep the round thing out of the net. There may be a little more action up top and it's a little easier to get faked out since the round thing sticks to the end of the stick like a magnet... but other thn that... keep the round thing out of the net. Good for another 2 or 3 hours a week, extra games, tournaments and more trophies/ medals/ awards/ parades in my honour... lol, jk... it's fun.
Preseason 100+ hours Dry Land Training not including Soccer or Soccer Camps
Preseason 40 hours Ice Time, Camps, Training sessions, and Try-Outs ($800/year) includes dryland
Weekly after making a team
Totals about $3500 this season not including gear or about 10/hour of ice time, avg 10-11hours/week... From what I hear these numbers are low compared to most because of cheap ice time we get in the North.

This doesn't include post season tournaments or playoff games.

Comming Soon GoaliePow Skills / Training / Drills