Goalie Development

Additional Goalie Tips

• Ringette goalies use butterfly, but for 90% of the time should be standup goalies since the ring is much bigger and easier to stop along the ice. The butterfly is used as a high percentage save or as a slide to prevent back door goals

• Ringette goalies' hand position is usually high, elbow against rib cage ("I can't you hear you" pose), unless the goalie is VERY tall

• Ringette goalies should "pancake" themselves to be WIDER rather than standing up. Most ringette goals are scored on the far sides, so the wider and fatter the goalie can appear the better, as it will take away more of the shooting areas (white net) from the shooter

• Ringette goalies rarely ever "paddle down" with the side of the stick on the ice, since the ring cannot go 5-hole as easy and the ring rarely goes through pad holes

• Ringette goalies using the Keely trapper should slap down on the ring to pick it up (like swatting a spider)

• Ringette goalies are "blocking" and "first save" goalies, since the crease area is a protected area and there is a triangle in front of her. There is no need to teach catching with the glove or channelling of the ring to the corner off of pads. Very few goals are scored in ringette off of rebounds since the triangle in front of her will fight for loose rings

• Ringette goalies need quick recovery to a standing position

• Ringette goalies need to slide back and laterally to opposite posts to protect back door passes

• Ringette goalies should practice throwing rings at home, as it's hard to practice this during shooting drills

• Ringette goalies (Atom and above) need to communicate the shot clock status to the team (10 seconds and less)

• Ringette goalies stand against post and never put one pad down, since they always stand up (in hockey they have one pad parallel to the post and the other along the ice when the play is in one of the corners). Ringette goalies don't do this since rings cannot be deflected as quickly from the corner, and the ring cannot squeak through as easily as a puck

• Ringette goalie stick position is not in front of them as in hockey, and can almost be right against the pads. The objective in hockey is to deflect the puck up to the chest, whereas in ringette the ring does not need to be deflected, it just deadens on the stick for the most part. The key part of ringette goaltending is to have stick down on the ice to protect the five-hole

• Ringette goalies shuffle a lot as the ring is worked around the triangle, much more than hockey goalies, so many drills should include lots of shuffling and opposite post slides...t-pushes are not used as much as shuffles, as girls circle the triangle

• Ringette goalies on breakaways are similar to hockey goalies with 1 exception...they really cannot commit until the player commits. This is because the shooter can change direction at any time as there is no puck handling and the ring stays on the stick like glue

• Ringette goalies (good ones) cannot be scored on from more than 20 feet out...it's very hard to beat the goalie from that distance since the ring is so big...the focus of advanced ringette goalies is for her to identify shooters and tendencies and communicate with her triangle to avoid low slot or "hot spot" shots that are 10 feet and closer

• Ringette goalie crease awareness is critical because in ringette, due to only having 6 players down in the slot, it makes for many cross-crease passes and more open ice. Goalies out of position and losing sight of the ring are easily scored on