Tag: goaling

It’s tough being a goaler sometimes.

You don’t hear defenders being told to practice their rebounding multiple times each week, or midcourters having to do extra sessions to make sure they’re hitting the goal circle.

But when it comes to being a goaler, often it’s an expectation that you’ll be putting up shots at home in your own time.

So how often should you be shooting?

We once read an article on Silver Ferns legend Irene Van Dyk (arguably the best goal shooter of all time) in which she which outlined her shooting program, which included at least 200 shots every day.

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Here’s a player who was the best in the world, and she was putting up 200 shots a day to make sure she remained the best in the world, and kept on improving.

Now, no one is expecting players to be shooting hundreds of goals every single day, but if you’re struggling with accuracy and consistency with your goaling on game day, it might be time to look at how often you practice, and the type of practice you do.

HOW MANY AND HOW OFTEN?

If your favoured positions are goal shooter and/or goal attack, unfortunately they come with some added responsibility that the other positions just don’t have: being that you’re the only players who can actually put the goals on the board.

For you guys, completing an extra couple of goaling sessions throughout the week is the bare minimum you should work into your schedule, if you really want to improve and perform consistently on game day.

Not everyone loves getting outside and putting up shots, but what’s worse: finding 15-20 minutes a couple times a week to do some goaling practice, or feeling crappy for days after a below-average shooting performance?

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At the very least you should be arriving 15 minutes before warm-ups at training and on game day to practice your shooting and get things grooved before taking the court. Outside of this, two sessions is the minimum your should aim to complete during the week, if you really want to improve.

SESSIONS WITH PURPOSE

Any shooting practice is better than no shooting practice, but it’s far more motivating to do your sessions when they’re planned, targeted and specific.

Putting up a hundred or more shots a day is great, but can you produce the same consistency when you’ve done five hard workloads before receiving the ball in the circle?

Giving each session throughout the week a specific purpose is a great way to stay motivated to put in the hard yards, particularly as most of the time you’ll be on your own.

Here’s an example of how you might split up three sessions throughout the week:

SESSION 1 – TECHNIQUE

Purely a shooting session, focusing on the technique of the shot and finding the groove in a variety of different shooting positions.

SESSION 2 – HEART RATE/FATIGUE

A session in which each shot or group of shots is preceded by 10-20 seconds of hard running or movement.

This could be footwork, sprints, goaler moves or any combination of those – the aim being to elevate the heart rate and breathing before you have to stop, steady and try to execute your normal technique when you’re fatigued.

SESSION 3 – PRESSURE

The hardest aspect of shooting to recreate in training/at home is pressure, whether that be defensive pressure from an opponent, or mental pressure within the game itself.

Having a parent or sibling putting hands over the shot is a solid substitute for defensive pressure (particularly if you add some movement/fatigue before putting up the shot), and you can also create a bit of mental pressure by including little scenarios in the session.

Hitting a set number of shots in a row from specific areas or distances is a great way to subtly include pressure – miss a shot, you go back to zero and start from that spot again.

Even better – add a sprint if you miss, so you have to manage both pressure and fatigue within the same drill.