Stepping to the ball, common sense says no but goalies say yes. Well maybe not at first and when they do it is often shy slow steps that really dont improve position. With the Glyde goalies are able to work on their step in an easy to see way. If they step too low they will kick the glide which with bright colors is easy to see and adjust to. If they dont step at all well that shows too since it will still be between their feet. Another case of simple yet perfected, the Glyde from Discover Your Game is the next tool in our bag for training goalies.
Every coach has the struggle of teaching young goalies to step into a shot. It really doesn’t make sense to step into a hard rubber ball flying at high speeds but it is effective. This causes goalies to drag their feet or not move them at all which is honestly terrible not only because goals get scored but far more so because the goalie then is embarrassed by the goals that do go in. The Glyde is a simple triangular tool that helps goalies work on getting their feet up and over. The initial placement for the Glyde is between both feet so that as a goalie steps they must lift their back foot over the Glyde so as to not knock it over and get into position. This sets the initial step in a good placement and gives goalies a good idea of moving fluidly.
This entire process can be aided for many goalies by adding the DYG Tracer (see review here on lacrosseplayground.com) which will force them to step then with the Glyde make sure that step is high and fast.
After placing the Glyde between a goalies feet for smaller steps you can set it to the side of either foot in order to encourage stepping with the correct foot and stepping further for shots that are a reach or during a recovery from a rebound. We found that the Glyde is easily used to create stepping situations at any skill level.
Our tester for the Glyde was again Rafael and he found the Glyde to work best when coupled with the Tracer. During scrimmages he did ask to use the Glyde as well for 2 practices moving the Glyde to different positions based on what we wanted him to work on. Be it cross crease passes to quick sticks, inside shots, or long outside shots he saw the Glyde as an important tool to getting on his toes and stepping appropriately. Every practice we hold now has some work with the Glyde and the Tracer involved for all of our goalies as it has shown significant improvement in just a couple of weeks.
Coaches definitely pick at least one of these up there is just no better tool for getting your goalies moving their feet quickly and accurately to where they need to be.
OTHER USES
I’m a faceoff guy so I am always looking to see how these tools can help us at the X. The Glyde is a tool for working on stepping and the faceoff requires a very important step as well. The first step off of a pop can be hazardous if you drag your feet you can get caught up on a players stick lunging to try and save the face off and by setting the Glyde where my face-off guys would release to they had to make sure their first step was high and fast. Also with the new rules to facing off that remove our hard work towards the skill of keeping the ball off of a face-off we now have to worry about controlled ground balls that get over any opposition in their path. The Glyde is just the right height to work on popping the ball forward over a stick and close enough to make a easy unopposed scoop. It may be different but so are the rules guys so lets use every tool that can make us just a little quicker and a little better.