Chitown wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:48 am
I know in my heart that I should NOT venture into this topic, BUT I had 3 coaches at JHU (Coach Fewster, Chic & Scotty), all of whom are in the Hall of Fame. Another Coach, Ace Adams, got me my first and only coaching gig.
Here is what I learned: Most goalies need cat-like reflexes (if they start thinking too much, it can be disastrous), most goalies are "head-cases" (if they lose confidence, you are screwed) and need to be treated carefully, and warm-ups are done pursuant to a developed system and with precision: starting with slow outside bounce shots and working inward towards the Goalie. A player is NEVER given the job to warm-up a Goalie. Warming up a Goalie needs someone with experience. Chic or Scotty warmed up our Goalies. No one else.
We always had good goalies, surrounded by good defensemen and good defensive middies.
I have no other comments and nothing else to say.
Indeed, this is what makes this thread fun to participate on.
I've mentioned my credentials plenty, 3 generations of tenders, all at a high level, son is particularly analytical and has coached a bunch of D1 and D3 tenders. It's fair to say that years and years of watching goalies, including their warm-ups, as well as experiencing thousands of same ourselves, we'd have an opinion on this topic.
Chitown's post is right on, though I don't know that I'd go so far as to say "never" on a warm up from a non coach. But I'd never do it game day with my starter nor #1 back-up. It would be a rare that I wouldn't have one of the coaches, or me, do any warm-up as it needs to be someone fully trained to do so.
Warm-ups, most especially game day, must be highly intentional. They have a rhythm that is designed to build and maintain confidence, as well as sharpness of eye, warmth of body movement. They are not a new teaching opportunity, other than perhaps being conscious of field conditions, and perhaps reminders about opponent shooting tendencies, etc (though that should have been adequately drilled the day prior), so a simple reminder would suffice.
Heavy heat on game day should only be applied after the tender is well warm and sharp. The objective of such is solely about feeling confident that the heat is no big deal to handle. The shooter's objective should NEVER be to score repeatedly, but rather solely in working the tender to be relaxed and smooth in their movements, all of which have been drilled and drilled and drilled previously.
Again, game day warm ups, pre-game and at half-time, are all about being warm and confident, the latter being the #1 objective. Attitude is essential. The tender should leave the warm-up, smiling, confident, loose and eager to take on the opponent.
Personally, I never felt fully great until I'd taken a shot or two to the chest or leg and got that adrenaline jolt in response to a bit of 'pain'.
Now, whether the shooting coach is someone who can bring truly high heat or not is far less important than the seriousness of the approach to the exercise. The head coach or the dedicated goalie coach or whatever coach needs to be very, very serious about this task. The goalie corps will respect and appreciate that seriousness as well. And they'll respond in kind.
If that primary coach cannot himself bring the very high heat, a good drill in pregame is two shooters at top line, fed by one or two of the other goalies behind the goal. For this drill, a coach or player with a hard shot can be involved, though under the close management of the coach. The shooter needs to recognize that the objective is to show high heat, not to score repeatedly. Just do enough to build confidence versus heat.
Now, that's all game-day. Other kinds of intensive work during the week and off season involve all kinds of other work, putting various sorts of challenges in front of the tenders to conquer.
Again, all of that, too, needs to be highly intentional.
The process of training skills, refining technique, etc, and the building of confidence is not a one day process!
But it can be fouled up by poor game day management.
On the reputation re 'head case' of tenders, I think that
all players benefit from serious attention to game-day process, confidence in one's preparation, confidence in one's team mates. Great coaching respects this reality and manages it proactively.
That said, perhaps more than any other position, goalie play is impacted more by the state of mind achieved than raw physical ability, though again, all player positions are impacted by mental state. But the goalie faces much more "failure" than any other position, rivaled only by the FOGO. And the differential between success and failure is not a matter of a burst of 'effort' signaled by a whistle but rather relaxation and focus in the moments of highest stress. Again and again and again.
Somehow, the goalie needs to truly believe that whatever may have just occurred during the game, he is fully capable of making the next save no matter how terrific the next shot may be. It's not 'cockiness' but rather well-informed deep down confidence than enables such resilience. And that's extremely difficult to achieve, or to maintain, if the 'voices' around one at practice, off the field, in one's head, are saying something different. There's always going to be negative voices, but they needn't be the most important.
So, the environment that coaches build is crucial to at least provide the opportunity for such confidence to be built in each tender on the roster.
Of course, that may not be enough...it also depends on the tender having the emotional resiliency to go through adversity and come out all the more competitively driven. Very hard to measure, but I think it's quite crucial. (Corollary: I think it's particularly difficult to predict such resiliency when the kid is being recruited as a freshman/sophomore given early success based on 'athleticism').
I don't know whether Grant Jr's involvement is because of his shooting ability (I rather doubt it) but I'd take it as a potential signal of seriousness. But the real question is the actual seriousness of approach, not necessarily which coach is assigned.
Nor do I have an opinion re Benson.
I am, however, confident that Joe Cowan would have taken the task quite seriously.
But I'm not so sure that Joe's involvement in warm-ups wasn't a finish up from Scott or Chic, giving the tender some looks once warmed up...I'll try to remember to ask him next time I see him!
