Playing goaltender in lacrosse is one of the most difficult and pressure packed positions in all of sports. Every goaltender must have a firm grasp of some fundamental knowledge in order to build experience and improve.

However, it is also important that each goalie develop a distinct style they can bring to the goal each and every time they are on the field.

One of the first things that helped me take my goaltending to the next level was learning from other goalies and watching what made them successful. Instead of being preoccupied with how good the goalie on the other team was and comparing myself to them, I began to study what made them good. Was it their clearing game? Was it their command of the defense? Was it their ball-stopping? I also tried to notice deficiencies in other goalies’ games so that I could attempt to eliminate those same mistakes in my own game.

What I came to realize was that there is no one correct way to play the position. There is no secret formula that can turn someone into a good goalie. There are, however, several key areas that goaltenders can focus on in order to improve. And from there, you can apply your own style to making goaltending fun and successful.

READY POSITION

A goalie’s ready position is like a building’s foundation. One of my favorite goaltending philosophies is that if you give yourself a chance to make a save on every single shot, you have at least that – a chance. If you take yourself out of position by lowering your stick or lunging, you don’t give yourself a chance to make a save.

For me, the key ingredient to the ready position is comfort. A goaltender should be able to sit in their ready position for extended periods of time. Personally, this means having my feet at shoulder width or a little wider, weight on the balls of my feet, hands in a comfortable spot out up away from the body, staring at the ball over my top thumb like a rifle site, shoulders and knees relaxed but confident, bent at the knees, not the waist, tension out of my knees and feet and in my abs and with eyes wide open to the play. If I’m able to do all these at once, it makes me feel like I have a chance on every shot.

Sound complicated? It can be. The above sentence has so many commas that it would never get past an English teacher’s red pen. But if you can break down your ready position and figure out a way to give YOURSELF a chance on every shot, your goaltending ability will rapidly improve. For anyone who has played much golf, you will understand the mindset. Nearly every golf shot is the result of repetition and practice. There are times on the driving range when you have to slow down to get your hands, shoulders feet and hips doing the right things while keeping your head still. The thought is that by the time you get out on the course, you are able to repeat those fundamentals and execute a quality shot.

The same is true in goaltending. If this means that you like your feet a little wider or narrower, then by all means, make an adjustment. But have a purpose. Don’t do it because it is easier. Do it because it makes you better. And make sure that you work on your ready position every day in practice.

KNOWING YOUR ARC

As I said before, many different goalies have different philosophies and none are necessarily better or worse than the others. Two of my favorite goalies are Long Island Lizard Greg Cattrano and my teammate Trevor Tierney. They are still among the best in the MLL and represent two contrasting goaltending styles. While Cattrano comes out on his arc and attacks the ball coming out of the shooter’s stick, Tierney waits back with his heels on his line and uses his extremely quick hands to get to shots. This shows that style has very little to do with a goaltender’s success.

No matter if you play very deep, very shallow or somewhere in between, knowing the angles on your arc is extremely important. Most goalies will try to square themselves to the shooter so that their ready position can help them make saves from anywhere. Some will give a little more to the stick side than the off-stick side (something I like to do a lot). Almost all goalies would do well to completely eliminate shots that score to the inside pipe.

Getting beat to the inside pipe is a Cardinal Sin for any goaltender in any sport and is one of my pet peeves as a player and a coach. By forcing the shooter to go around to the far pipe, you not only gain an advantage in reaction time, but if you are patient on the pipe, you can almost bait shooters into easy saves. This is why many defenses have a goal of forcing shooters down the side. It makes saving the ball much easier.

For a good demonstration of staying patient on the pipe and making hard saves look easy, watch Brian Dougherty of the Philadelphia Barrage. In our championship last year, Doc used his size to take away the near pipe, knew the shooters were going far side and gobbled up almost every easy shot.

My philosophy is to wait on shots that I feel I have a chance to react on and to take away net on shots where I don’t. I tend to come out a little more on my arc than most goalies and try to force shooters into taking shots I am ready for. Sometimes I can sneak out on my arc when a shooter catches the ball with their back to the goal and take up the maximum net possible.

COMMUNICATION

By far one of the most important aspects of being a good goalie is communicating with your defense. This does not mean yelling at them if they get beat. It means helping your defense force the offense into shots that are easy for you to save. One of the things I talked about in the last section was staying on the pipe and making easy saves to the far side. This is something you have some control over as you help direct the defense.

Even in a summer league or an all-star game, you can, paraphrasing the words of Jerry McGuire, help your defense help you. By letting your defense know when shooters are getting a little too close or making a loud “check” call on a cutter through the crease, you are making things easier on the entire defensive unit.

But, calling out ball position and check calls are only a small part of communication. It is the goalie’s job to help all the defense function as one unit. I consider my communication to be one of the strongest parts of my game. Having played for so long and now having coached for four years, my knowledge of the game has increased to the point that I feel comfortable behind just about anyone who will listen to me and is willing to work together.

Getting to that point takes a lot of “Lacrosse IQ” and trust by the defenders. By studying the game and studying what offenses like to do, I am able to help my defense by talking them through the rotations. For instance, if I notice that a team likes to draw a slide and get the ball behind, I might try to hold on our slides a little longer and if we do go, communicate the “rotate” call loudly and clearly to get everyone back in position.

A goalie’s best friends are their short-stick defensive midfielders. Get to know them and talk to them a lot. If the goalie and SSDM are able to communicate, a lot more options open up for the entire defense. One of my favorite calls to d-mids is “help the crease.” I will tell the far side middie to drop in and help out, whether the offense is dodging from behind or looking to feed from the wing. Sometimes just saying their name is enough to get them in to help disrupt the offense.

ATTACKING THE BALL

One of my favorite goaltending philosophies comes from former Johns Hopkins goalie Brian Carcaterra. I once heard someone say that he never let the ball hit him. Instead, he would attack the ball on every single shot, making sure that when he did make impact with the ball, it was he who was doing the hitting.

This is good for several reasons. First, it promotes stepping to the ball. Second, it means that shots have less of a chance to deflect off the goaltender into the net. Third, it’s an aggressive attitude that helped define Carcaterra’s style. It was an anchor that he could go back to, even if his ready position or angle was slightly off.

Attacking the ball has to be an attitude. It has to be part of a mindset that a goalie employs on each and every shot and play. Try to incorporate this mindset into your game every single time you take shots and never, EVER let the ball hit you first.

THE CLEARING AND RIDING GAME

A goalie needs to be in control of the clearing and riding game for his team. Make sure that you are incorporating this part of the lacrosse game into your overall skill level as a goalkeeper. Stickwork is part of it, but maybe more so is knowing how to make simple passes that allow your team to get the ball out quickly.

One of the things that drew me to Cattrano’s game was how quickly he would get the ball going the other way on a save. If you watch him sometime, notice how even if he leaves a rebound, he does not hesitate to dart out of the goal and scoop the ball to send the play to the other side. The key is not hesitating, because if you do, there are a bunch of meat-head attackmen who would love to slash your elbows. Get on your horse and don’t stop running!

Goalies sometimes forget the value of wall ball. Go to the wall every once in a while and get your hands and arms loose. You should be able to get the ball in and out of your stick with both hands as well as anyone else on the field. If you do, you become much more valuable to your team.

Above anything else, the clearing and riding game comes down to knowledge of the game. Keep learning.

PREPARING YOUR BODY AND YOUR MIND

Without getting too existential or anything, goalies need to be very in tune with their bodies and their minds. Drink a lot of water all the time. Don’t eat too much before practice. Take your stretching seriously. Have a comfortable warm-up that helps get your heart rate up and feel confident. These are just some of the little things that can help you take your game to the next level.

I love to jump rope, especially before a game. I think it’s important to find a ritual that you can do to help prepare to get in the goal every time. For me, it’s jumping rope, a good dynamic stretch and then some slow static stretching to clear my mind. Sometimes I listen to hip-hop, sometimes it’s rock and sometimes it’s just the sound of everyone else getting ready. Whatever it takes on that particular day to get focused mentally is what you need to do every time you play lacrosse. Some people are more laid back than me and can just relax before they get in. Different strokes for different folks.

Also, never underestimate the power of water. Dehydration will sap your performance quicker than anything else, so keep your muscles hydrated.

Once you are able to master these things, you can really get into the advanced parts of goaltending, like saving one on one shots, moving from pipe to pipe cleanly and confidently, and saving crease feeds.

Above anything else, a goalie should be able to do fundamental things in their own style and have fun in the goal. Get used to your body and your style and improve on things that you feel you are weak at. Never settle for being as good as you are and just keep learning.

He currently plays for the Denver Outlaws.