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Pictures courtesy of Woolston Photography

At Bandits, my staff and I have adapted and set forth a system which we call “THE HOUSE”. This system allows goaltenders to be simple while still staying efficient no matter what situation is oncoming.

The simplistic efforts of the house theory work effectively once put into proper use, simplifying a goaltenders game in and around the crease. Think about a stick house that everyone has drawn on a piece of paper, now think about the post being the starting point of that house. Draw the exterior of the house from post to post with the peak of the roof being the very center point of the ice, about two feet above the crease. The sides of the house should begin to angle up when you hit the corner of the crease, therefore producing the center peak of the roof approximately two feet above the crease.

The house is where a goalie lives and breathes. If a goaltender stays within the house, they will stay very efficient and will likely limit the amount of extra movement they have to use. If a goaltender moves outside of the house, they will begin to use a lot more effort and force themselves to be more “athletic” then need be. If this happens, then a goaltender will be put out of position for rebounds, cross ice plays, back door passes and even in tight goal mouth passes.

On the other hand, if a goaltender doesn’t come out far enough to play the exterior edges of the house,  then a goalie will not be taking away the three things every shooter at every level needs to score a goal which is TIME, NET, and ICE.

A shooter has the most net/ shooting angle when they are standing in the dead center of the ice. For this reason a goaltender wants to be on the “peak of the roof” about two feet outside of the crease to take away TIME, NET and ICE from a shooter.

As a shooter moves off the wing and toward the boards, his shooting angle decreases with every stride. A goaltender no longer needs to be two feet above the crease as it becomes overkill which in turn may cause the goaltender to be out of position for any secondary shot or any passing attempt to a secondary player.

Playing the house is also a very effective way to play rebounds or backdoor passes. While perfecting this theory in recent years with my staff, we have found that goaltenders will tend to “chase” the puck or “attack/push” out to the shooters stick. What this does is leaves the goalie vulnerable to the only place a shooter can go and that’s to the short side. What the goalie really should be doing is beating the shooter back to a post to seal off his only option which is again is the short side.  Pushing and pulling into a tight sliding butterfly type saves are a key save selection in this situation. When executing this save selection properly, the goaltender must be sure to hook the post with the ankle break in his pad. This ensures that not only the bottom half of the net is covered but it also allows him to snug up his lead shoulder to the short side post which will prevent any shoots to beat them high.

Playing the house properly and staying under control while executing it will take some practice to perfect this skill but I’m extremely confident that once a goaltender sharpens this skill set, they will find a happy medium between being out of control and being too much of a blocker.

The 2012 holiday Christmas clinic recap video & pictures ARE UP!

For those that attended our 2012 holiday Christmas clinics in Detroit and Grand Rapids, MI, (92 goalies in all) THANK YOU for making the clinics another GREAT success!

Pictures taken by: Woolston Photography

Below is some video from his recent summer training and some GREAT action pictures:

Action Pictures:

Bandits has been Michigan #1 Year Round Goalie School Since 1999 for several reasons; our dedicated staff, detailed instruction and the ability to push our students out of their comfort zone at all times.

As we always say, seeing is believing. Enjoy our videos and hope to see you at a BGS clinic/camp real soon!