As a former Athletic and All Academic Goaltender for Michigan State University, Jeff Lerg knows exactly what a goalie needs to be successful in practice. 

Lerg started his presentation at TCS Live 2024 describing his curiosity to find an important answer for Coaches: how do goalies prefer to start practice? A self-run survey with 153 goalies showed that 80% of the participants want goalie-specific warm up drills. They want to move and touch the puck and get their reads in before jumping into a full team drill. 

When asked when goalies preferred to do small area games, 73% answered at the end of practice. 

Goalies are often in their own bubble in practice and are not always accounted for in what they need to be successful. Unlike standard players, goalies often need more work with their pre-shot movement and lateral movement. Jumping right into a drill with players shooting at them is not the most effective way to allow goalies to enhance their game in a team practice. Lerg highly recommends allowing goalies to get prepared and get their touches in at the start of practice. Lerg advocates that having time for goalies to get properly warmed up for practice will lead to a practice that will more fully develop the goalies. 

An additional area Lerg stressed is that goalies need confidence playing for you as a coach. Giving them the opportunity to feel the puck and be fully ready for practice shows trust and care from a coach which can lead to a better performance between the pipes.

Noteworthy Timestamps:

• 0:00 Background as a small goalie
• 2:00 What’s the ideal first drill for goalies?
• 2:55 When to play small area games?
• 5:00 Goalie warm up drills
• 8:40 Full ice drills