EQUIPMENT

''If you want to be a great goalie, you have to be a great skater!''

 

Here is one piece of equipment that has to be perfect in order to ensure proper skating techniques, but to often it is worn incorrectly, especially with younger growing goalies. 

 

First, you want to make sure the skate is the proper size, and there are no areas where it feels tight or pinches your foot. It is usual that new skates will feel tight in the beginning but over time they will start to break in. I do recommend that when you purchase new skates that you put them in the skate oven at the store, this will help the skate to mold to your foot quicker.

 

Please do not use your oven at home you will only end up melting your skates!!!

 

If over time it still pinches your foot in some areas, most hockey shops will have a punch where you can stretch out the exact point where it pinches. 

 

I know what parents are thinking:  “My kid is growing so fast and I can’t afford to buy new skates every year.” 

 

My answer is: “Hold off on the new glove and blocker for a while, your skates are more important.” 

 

Skate Sharpening    

How you sharpen your skates is also very important, as everybody likes a different hollow (the radius of which your skate is sharpened) and every skate sharpening machine is different, and every person sharpening skates has a different technique. 

 

The only way to ensure you get your skates sharpened so they feel the same consistently is to go to your local hockey shop and get your skates sharpened, have the person sharpening your skates tell you what the radius is, then when you find a radius that is perfect write it on your skates and always go back to the same person and have them sharpen your skates the same way. This should ensure consistency. 

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