Imagine this.  You're getting ready to go on the ice.  From the
locker-room you can hear the sold-out crowd getting anxious.  Your team
is banging their sticks, yelling.  It's finally time.  You take the ice,
and take your lap while the crowd goes nuts...your team circles around
you, everyone's yelling...GO TEAM...GO TEAM...Kill 'em...rah rah...
 
then everyone leaves and there you are standing all alone.
 
and waiting...
 
while the play is at the other end...
 
and there's a whistle...
 
and you're still waiting...
 
Good thing coach got you all pumped up like everyone else.  Because now
you're shaking and you're sweating...and you haven't even touched the puck
yet.
 
Goalies need to be motivated in a special way.  What does a coach tell
every player to do on his first shift?  Throw a good check.  Hit
somebody.  Why?  To keep all that energy flowing and to settle the
nerves.  But as a goalie, I sometimes have to wait three or four (game)
minutes before I even touch the puck (and that may just be an icing).
     I'll say it again.  Goalkeeping is 100% different from what skaters
do.  It's a sport in and of itself.  So why would you want to coach
goalies the same way?
   _________
   |__   __|  _    __   This message brought to you by...
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      | |    | | / /            TERRY P. KASDAN
      | |    | |/ /        e-mail: [log in to unmask]
      |_|    | |\ \
             | | \ \    * Visit my homepage on the Web *
             |_|  \_\  http://students.uiuc.edu/~t-kasdan
 
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