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A B O U T U S
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"Working with Mike every day during the N.H.L. lockout helped prepare me mentally & physicaly for life in the N.H.L. We remain good friends and I wish him and Canadian Goaltending Academy all the best."
Cristobal Huet , Chicago Blackhawks
CANADIAN GOALTENDING ACADEMY
The importance of quality training and instilling good practice and game habits is vital to the development of any goaltender. Because of our playing experience, we understand that, Thanks to our teaching knowledge, we are able to address it.
1st and foremost at Canadian Goaltending Academy the focus is and always will be crease speed, the emphasis however is control. Speed without control leads to sloppy goaltending, which in turn leads to nothing but trouble:weak goals,inconsistent positioning, poor rebound control & slow recovery and transition to name a few. This is one aspect of the position that we will not overlook.Whether it is a young goalie who needs to correctly execute the movement first through repetition and then add the element of speed,or an older goalie who must learn to harness that speed and add patience to his or her game, we will not hesitate to stop a drill in order to correct and give proper instruction and advice.
2nd of all, Net Awareness is another area that must be and is addressed in our training formats. When a goalie understands what is behind them, or how much net they are covering, they can confidently maintain their positioning and make a controlled save. A goalie who is uncertain about their positioning will often do more than necessary in attempting to stop the puck. In doing so they actually expose more holes, over compensate and cover less net and risk getting beat on the initial shot.
3rd and perhaps most importantly, Vision. Goalies need to develop the skill of seeing and tracking the puck in order to properly time their save selection. Dropping into a butterfly block or sliding on every situation is not going to efficiently work all the time. Understanding where the shooter is and recognizing at what angle the puck is approaching the net at will allow the goalie to decide if they need to go down and activate their legs or if they can simply hold their position and allow the puck to come to them.
O/T As directors of this company Ray and I assure you that everyone on our staff is a goalie and has trained and is still training vigorously with us. By knowing our drills and systems, this allows all of our staff to be on the same page and allow us to have consistency in teaching, demonstrating, and execution. We are all well aware of the difference between training and executing a drill for an 8 year old verses an 18 year old or a Pro. We all take great pride in assisting in the development and creation of good habits for any of our students regardless of their gender or level of play.We take pride in having the ability to correct mistakes and at the same time praise good work and good effort. It is our job to teach not only the Elite , but to develop all levels of goaltenders. All of our goalies have the ability to be a living testimonial to what good teaching and knowledge can bring them providing they believe in it, trust it and continue to work at it while they grow, mature and gain more experience. We can only show them the way. It is up to them to play the games, make the saves, believe in what they do and yield the benefits and success that comes with hard work, discipline, desire and dedication to the position. The elevation of their game, skill level and confidence is why we do what we do on a daily basis.
An Interesting Read
Have you ever noticed the reaction of Calgary Flames goalie Mikka Kiprusoff after giving up a very weak goal or after making the most unbelievable save of the night? It is exactly the same! He raises up his mask & takes a drink of water. Why? Because he, like every other high level goalie understands that that particular play is just one very small piece of the puzzle that requires at least 60 minutes of total concentration to complete. Every goalie strives to attain that feeling of quiet, calm, confidence, but maintaining that is not always an easy task. Quite honestly, it takes years of playing experience, suffering the losses & celebrating the victories to understand this fine balance not only throughout the course of the season, but within each game itself. So the next time you see a goalie go for a skate after the whistle, understand that what he is trying to do is settle down and recompose himself for the next face off .I try to explain to my younger goalies that the easiest way to maintain that composure is to have a really bad memory. You need to be able to put behind you that last save or that last goal & prepare yourself for the next shot or before long you will have two goals to worry about. This is the game within the game. It can be an emotional roller coaster at times and the goalies who are able to control their emotions the best are the ones who will be consistently successful. When I trained Cristobal Huet during the NHL lockout I knew that he was destined for success not solely because of his abilities but more so because of his temperament. He never allows himself to get too high after a great win or too low after a defeat. He just doesn,t get rattled. This serenity allows him and his team to compete against any other team on any given night. It is never hard to keep a positive attitude when everything is going well. However , when facing adversity, it is even more important to remain upbeat , maintain that same passion for the game and demonstrate that when everyone is expecting you to fold under pressure , you are capable of rising above it all, with ice water flowing through your veins to be the glue that keeps your team together. Then there is the game between games, the media!! Whether it refers to a professional sports journalist or your team mates parents, there will always be praises and or criticisms. Unlike the game within the game, here we can allow ourselves to dedicate some time to understand what our mistakes were and practice to correct them, but as we approach game day, once again we need to dismiss them and clear our heads in preparation for our next opponent. It is always a great moment when an older experienced player can pass on some of his or her wisdom to the younger generation. For me it was John Vanbiesbrouk. At my first training camp with the New York Rangers, he warned me of the New York media and the importance to accept and disregard both the accolades and the criticisms and that through the course of a season the positives always out way the negative. Although shoulder surgery and the arrival of Mike Richter prevented me form ever having to deal with the New York media, 10 years later at the 1998 Olympic games in Nagano, Japan, John and I sat together in the athletes cafeteria and spoke about how two completely different career paths brought us back to the same place in search of realizing the same dream of playing for an Olympic Medal.
Writen by Mike Rosati (C) Aug 2007
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