I spent some time recently at the National Arena Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio, a popular educational event and exposition for the ice rink industry. I was a there as a guest of USA Hockey and part of a goalie development committee.
Myself and three other goalie coaches from throughout the country met with USA Hockey leaders for two days to revamp the goalie coaching sections of the Coaching Education Program. Our goal was to make sure the messaging was consistant throughout the various materials and easy to follow for coaches assigned to teach kids how to play goalie.
We worked on goaltending sections in the Level 1, 2, 3 coaching certification powerpoints, handbooks, online modules and usahockeygoaltending.com website.
We also made plans to expand the video library by adding videos that show various technqiues and drills. The updates should be in place by the fall.
We had some great discussions on various goaltending topics and techniques. I’m confident we made significant improvements to the curriculm that will help youth hockey coaches feel more comfortable teaching the most important position in the game.