Goalie Coaching Philosophy: An Introduction to a Personal View

I had a great opportunity these last few months to work with Michael Lumsden of the Truro Bearcats and Breakaway Goaltending.  I met Mike through Jack Hartigan, the director of FinnGoalie, when I assisted Jack and the Bedford Blues Minor Hockey Association during their evaluation sessions for the 2012-13 season.  With the advice of my mentor, Steve McKichan, in mind, I have redoubled my efforts to work with as many professional and serious-amateur coaches, especially goalie coaches.  Mike and I have had many chances to work together for ours and others' goalie development sessions, and he has really come to influence me as an instructor.

Mike is a terrific character guy and is a dedicated and focused goaltending coach from whom I have learned a lot over the past while.   When Mike asked me to partake as an instructor during his spring sessions in Truro at the new Rath Eastlink Center, he didn't have to ask me twice.  I relish opportunities to see how other coaches operate, how they explain drills, what is important or the focus of their instruction, and to shamelessly steal their ideas, drills, and expertise.  One of the main ways that I can improve, I feel, is to immerse myself on the ice with other experts and their, sometimes conflicting, ideas about the position of goaltending and the sport of hockey.

Mike Lumsden working with goalies from Cole Harbour and Dartmouth

Over the last two weeks, as the Mike's hectic Fred Page Championship and RBC Cup run slowed down, I was finally able to sit and really talk with him and to have an opportunity to find out what makes him tick as goalie coach.  The other night at the end of Breakaway Goaltending's final spring camp sessions, Mike was to pose an important question to me, and one, that while I may have discussed with some coaches and parents, that I never written extensively about.  "Banger, what is your goaltending philosophy?"

It was a simple question, but deliciously complex and very penetrating.  I felt a little ashamed that I have never asked that question once in my life to any of the great goalie coaches that I work with over the years.  I know that I have always tried to divine what these individuals were about in their approach to goaltending, but I never held their feet to the fire and asked them directly.  This lack of forthrightness was definitely a major missed opportunity to really learn, not only details of a goalie coach's mindset, but a chance to put them on the spot and see how deep-seated their beliefs really are.  My concern is not to judge whether their philosophy is right or wrong, but to know what is important to them and whether it should be added to my ideas.

Anyways, on Mike's question, I had actually a pretty good concept of what my philosophy of goaltending is and I spent the next 90 minutes bending his ear on it.  Mike was a great enough guy to indulge me for that length of time, and by the late evening when I arrived home, I figured that I should write up as much of the basics that I described to him as possible.

Head instructor, Todd Bengert, gives Dylan from Dartmouth some set up adviceFrom my website, under the UE Edge tab, there is a short couple of paragraphs.  These were lines that I wrote in the early 90's when I was still trying to work and craft my own game.  I was looking for a motivating factor to push me along on what I thought can be sometimes a disheartening journey.  The lows in goaltending can be particularly low and the feeling of helplessness or lack of control due to the fickle nature of the position and chaotic nature of the sport can be immense.  I set that Philosophy of Upper Echelon more as a goaltender's philosophy.  That there is an answer to problem and that we, as goaltenders, must own our own game and control the all elements that are within our responsibilities.

Here, verbatim, is the text from the UE Edge:

THE PHILOSOPHY OF UPPER ECHELON

Although it may seem an overwhelming task, I feel any goalie who wishes for success must sincerely believe and strive to attain the creedo--Every shot is stoppable

Putting aside the obvious physical demands of meeting this goal, if a goalie believes in this creed, he will have an everlasting objective with his play. He will always be searching and striving to stop that one extra shot. And although no goalie will ever attain the goal of stopping everything (every game, all season long), the creed will keep him going forcing him to improve. As it has been said,"Excellence is not a destination, but a journey."

Now we live in a very competitive age with a lot of needless pressure, and as a result, I feel that this creed should be believed from within, not forced on the goalie from external influences like coaches, parents, teammates or media. As well and most importantly, failure to meet this objective is not a failure, but failure to believe that Every shot is stoppable is.

And while this way of approaching goaltending may be valid enough for a goaltender, as I have developed as coach and learned many things from a myriad of colleagues and students, it is not enough to hang my coaching hat upon.  In the meantime, since ending my competitive playing and focusing my energies as a coach, I am starting to feel a very strong solidification of my goalie coaching philosophy.  It is composed of three elements:

1.  Footwork is king

2.  Not puck-stoppers, puck-controllers

3.  The goalie as a part of a whole

This is not to say that I talked to Mike about those things in that above order.  In fact, I left number #1 unstated for a long time, because I did feel Mike knew very well about my passion for footwork being the underpinning of all goalie success.  With all the time that we have worked together, Mike has allowed me to take the reins for his kids' skating or footwork elements many a time.  I think this is from the intense feelings about the skill set that Mike may have sensed from me.

Our conversation, actually veered straight to number #2, as I thought this is not an obvious point.  I actually sand-bagged him a bit with a loaded question, so I could start my diatribe.Nicole Lowe in action during the high school provincial hockey championships in Windsor

#3 was something that I knew Mike was well aware of, and with him being involved in high level goaltenders at the Junior B and Junior A level, where there are 60 plus games and 100 plus practices in a season, he had a very deep sense of the importance of this issue.

For the next week or so, I'm going to outline each of these elements in more detail with the hopes of informing goalies, coaches, and parents where I'm coming from when I step on the ice or open my gob.  More so, I hope this can stimulate more conversation and critique either here on the blog, twitterverse, or in the corner of one of our rinks.  In order for me to sharpen my ideas about the position, I hope some of you take the hammer to what I write and feel free to let loose.