Ah, my favorite subject.

This is the most important player on the field. He should have more impact on your team than any other position. You want to get close to your goalie or goalies. The coach must develop a special relationship with his goalie, one where they both can grow. This is fundamental to the system of lacrosse that we present here. You should warm him up yourself every day. It's amazing what this will do for the coach's stickwork, but more importantly it gives you one on one time with your goalie every day. The goalie is a tool for the coach to plant the seeds he wants his team to grow.

The system we will present over and over in as many ways as we can is that the entire defense is centered on protecting the goal and ultimately HELPING THE GOALIE MAKE THE SAVE. For example: your defender does a good enough job defensively on a shooter and makes the check at the right time to take 5 mph off the shooter's shot so that your goalie can make a "great" save. Everyone feels good in these types of situations except for the team that is shooting.

Protecting the goal is the concept for defense that we will keep coming back to, because when your team is in any situation, settled or chaotic, this is the instinct which will help a team always be stingy. You are not worried about some guy on the other team "going off" on whoever he is matched up with because everyone is looking to help protect the goal. The goalie, as the eyes for his defense, must always be in position to see as much as possible.

Physical skills and quickness are obviously things that you want in a goalie. Maybe the two most important characteristic of a goalies: He must not flinch or duck, ever! And He must want to play the position!

Everyone on the team should know the importance of the goalie position. Always make the distinction that it is the position that is important, not the individual who plays it. Hopefully, you have someone who is able to rise to these kinds of expectations and play the position with leadership and passion. All the best goalies that I have known have been, shall we say, somewhat 'quirky', some more than others. Do not be frightened by this. In most cases it will work for your team in one way or the other. Where many players can be given something to work on that will keep them busy for days, a goalie really needs to be nurtured every step of the way.

We try to have the goalie be part of some kind of "live" drill during a good portion of practice. 3 on 2's, 4 on 3's, fast breaks, etc. We find these to be more valuable than too much scrimmaging. In a 2 on 1 drill with a goalie and 1 defender, the goalie becomes the focal point and is making saves in live situations. Sometimes, especially early in the year, scrimmaging can be kind of a mess. When they start playing better and catching the ball all the time, we start 6 on 6 scrimmaging more. The team needs to earn scrimmage time.

The goalie is the heart and soul of the defense, and also its eyes and ears. He is also usually the last person protecting the goal. He is the player that often starts the offense as well by how well he can get the ball to our attack. He might even take it over the midfield line himself once in a while, although you don't want to encourage your goalie to get too far away from the goal unless he's got a gift.

We often ask our teams not to elect the goalie captain. He is a captain just by his position. By not electing him captain, however, he never has to leave a warm-up before the game to go flip a coin. Also, he will not lead the team in calisthenics every day at practice. We like to get our goalie warm-up started before cal is finished. This way he will be good and warm by the time the team is finished line drills. It also encourages the goalie to work on his own preparation and to begin building a ritual that prepares him to play this most demanding of positions.

BUILDING AN ARC

It may be spelled with a C rather than a K, but the arc that the goalie learns to move on will serve him as just as an ark would serve in a sea of chaos, and that is often exactly what the area in front of the goal is. When the goalie learns to order this chaos for his team it is amazing how much you can keep out of your net.

Start building your arc today

Take time while your team does cal and line drills. Encourage the goalie to come out a little early if at all possible. The goalie should have already jumped rope and stretched before he ever gets in the goal. He needs to have his heart rate up a bit before his warm-up.

We will talk about goal line extended throughout this book. Think about what it is and remember it.

Start with the ball in your stick at the goal line extended on goalie's right. You are at 9:00 (X, or center behind = 12:00), about 15 yards from the goal with the stick in your right hand. Being farther out helps both coach and goalie more easily see the arc. Walk counter-clockwise, show him the ball. Don't throw it. Walk slowly. Take note of how much goal net you can see. As you reach the top of the arc in the center of the field (6:00), the goalie must be centered at the top of his arc out from the goal. It is not important how far out he comes at first. It is much more important that the coach take note of how much net is shown, and begin to help the goalie sense how to take that away. When you get around to 3:00, turn and walk the arc back, this time with the left hand. Make sure the goalie is lining up with the ball, not the man who has the ball.

Keep moving this time, going all the way around the 360 degree circle. When the ball goes behind, the goalie wants to turn and face it with his stick above the crossbar (top hand slides down to center of handle-bottom hand on butt) for a possible pick of a pass. He should be out from the goal a bit, where he can take a large pivot step and get himself tucked on the pipe on either side when the ball comes around.  Practice his move to the pipe from behind the goal a lot.

Inside his arc is where the goalie is in control

Try to get the goalie to just take comfortable steps, not too big or small. Things happen fast in a game and he needs to build a pattern of smooth steps right from the beginning. Calm amidst chaos. It rubs off on a team.

After you have done this for a couple of minutes, start taking easy shots on the goal. Only high shots, but both left and right. You're trying to build a rhythm, so you must be accurate. Speed of shot is not important right now. Tell him to "Step to the ball" every time someone shoots. Also tell him always to "Lead with your hands.” These coaching cues will become automatic as you teach.

Begin running the ball around as you shoot. Move faster, but don't start shooting harder. You want the goalie to make as many saves as possible. Don't get in the habit of going out there and trying to beat your goalie. You want to be able to throw the ball in good spots so he can learn how to make good saves. The coach must hit spots for the goalie to learn how to defend them.

Baby steps

There is a line down the middle of a goalie’s body. If the ball is coming on his left side, then he must lead with his left foot. Right side, right foot. This is simple, but important. Step to the ball, and step through as the catch is made and the goalie looks to pass the ball. Get him to start looking right away. Put a traffic cone at the center of the field in early season warm-ups so that he can really always think about the fact that HE is the center of the field and will move and direct his defense accordingly.

When the shot comes to the goalie's off-stick side, the stick should cross straight in front of his face. No twirling or rolling the stick head. His stick head should move in a straight line, not a parabola, towards saves.

Good Position defines the arc

If the goalie gets way out of position, simply stop and let him turn around to see where he is. He will correct himself. This kind of coaching is really fun. Remember that more than anything, we are trying to take the net out of the shooters view. Also, it is hard to overemphasize the pipe. The more time a goalie spends on pipe as the ball moves around the better. For one thing, when the goalie is on pipe, there is no guesswork as to where the next movement will be. He should always come off the pipe slowly, almost reluctantly if possible.

Step by Step

One foot steps, then the other slides into position. No choppy steps. Feet should not be more than shoulder width when in position. A goalie’s weight should be on the balls of the feet, ready to pounce on the ball, ready to move to the ball, wherever it comes from.

Make sure the arc is smooth. Ideally, it takes the goalie only 2 or 3 steps to get to the top of his arc, and the same to get back tucked on the pipe. The movement of the goalie in the arc is more up and back than it is side to side. Have him hug the pipe until the ball is well above the goal line extended. Again, staying on the pipe as long as possible so that there can only be one direction the goalie will have to move. This will help him learn to anticipate, without going too early. It will also assist in teaching your defense how to differentiate “easy” saves from “hard” ones.

To find the pipe it is okay to tap the pipe with the handle of the stick. It is not okay to turn around and look for it. Some coaches say it isn't good to tap the goal, because he might be tapping when the shooter is shooting. I agree. Don't tap the goal while the shooter is shooting. I also say that within the confines of good self-discipline, the more "style" shown by a goalie, the better. You don't want your goalie to be a clone but rather you want him to be the guy that can lead your team on the field.

The goalie must learn to trust his arc to help him make saves, because it will. He must get agile to the point of being able to dance in the crease. Sometimes it's a waltz, sometimes a jitterbug, and sometimes it's a slam dance in front of the goal. Prepare him for all three.