Often, coaches don’ t know where to start or they are afraid to contradict what their goaltender has learned from their private goaltender coach. Our goal is to provide our coaches the knowledge on and off the ice to take on this bigger role
MANITOBA HOCKEY MANITOBA MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NATALIE WILLIAMSON, BANTAM TRIPLE A WESTMAN WILDCATS
Often, coaches don’ t know where to start or they are afraid to contradict what their goaltender has learned from their private goaltender coach. Our goal is to provide our coaches the knowledge on and off the ice to take on this bigger role
in Initiation( 6-Under) hockey and that we ensure there’ s a full team rotation in Novice( 8-Under) hockey. All the fundamental skills and physical literacy components covered in Initiation hockey translate into a strong foundation of a goalie when they’ re ready to commit to the position at around nine-years-old. Novice rotations should have everyone open to trying the position at least once, but ideally twice, then after the team rotation is complete the several keeners who want to try it more and will likely become full-time goalies by age 9. Even further, in Atom and even Peewee, we need goalies to keep developing skating, puck skills, and game sense. This is easily achieved by not having back-up goalies sit on the bench when it’ s not their turn to start a game. Ideally, the back-up that game will bring his or her goalie equipment to the rink, but they will dress and use their player’ s equipment to play as a skater in that game. Not only is this more fun for the goalie, it’ s significantly better for their long-term goalie development. It’ s commonly stated in our clinics and goalie discussion that goaltenders do not need to be the fastest skater on the team, but need to be among the best in terms of mobility and control. Now that the Pathway is in place, what Hockey Manitoba is working on is ensuring that we communicate what we need done to help goalies and also to ensure we have an adequate delivery for supporting goalies. The establishment of qualified regional goalie mentors from across the province is still a fledgling process, but is starting to get traction. The goal of regional mentors is not to service goalies one-on-one but to focus on delivering the Level 1 Pathway components to all teams and coaches so that they can carry forward throughout the 36 GAME ON 2016- 17 ROSTER DEADLINE EDITION
season with the core basics of goalie development. Hockey Manitoba has also entertained the possibility of a goaltending seminar aimed at including coaches, parents, private service and goalies themselves with a seminar-based program to bring all stakeholders together for information sharing and development strategy. However, for nearly a decade now Hockey Manitoba has offered the“ Coaching Goaltenders” specialty clinic available to any minor hockey association in the province. This clinic is essentially the Level 1 portion of the new Pathway, which covers basics for the everyday coach on how to best help their goalies in practice and games. Minor hockey associations can access this clinic by contacting the Hockey Manitoba office, there is no cost for the instructor or travel, the association simply provides a classroom facility and 1.5 hours of ice-- as is the same for all specialty skills clinics offered. From Sawchuk to Broda, later on Hextall and Belfour, our province has been able to produce some world class goalies. At present day we have Calvin Packard and James Reimer in the National Hockey League along with Chris Driedger on the door step. The future is bright with some talented young Manitoba goaltenders playing in or drafted into the Western Hockey League as well as the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. Our goal is to enhance the potential for all of our goalies by simply providing a proper development base to effectively learn the position with an athletic foundation and a true love for the position. As with anything in our game we need to keep it interesting and fun. We need to allow goalies to flourish over time and build upon their unique skill sets rather than try to manufacture them in a predetermined box. We look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to develop the best goaltenders in Canada-- and the world. n