The other night I was at a rink to conduct a private goalie lesson. Since I arrived early, I walked over to the other rink in the complex to see what was going on.
What I saw was an association goalie clinic in progress. And I was not impressed as it seemed to be unorganized and the goalies were not the focus. It looked like the drills were designed to entertain the shooters more than they were to help the goalies improve their skills.
The players were skating all over the place, joking around with their buddies and shooting pucks off the boards.
At one station, they worked on breakaways. Several players lined-up to participate. When someone scored, that player went off on some wacky goal scoring celebration much to the delight of the other players in line. The goalies, by the way, were not given any instruction as to how to stop the breakaways.
I felt bad for the goalies with the way they were being treated at what was supposed to be a special night for them.
Goalies must be the focus of association skill development clinics. They should not be play time for the players who volunteer to help as shooters.
