Tell Me About Being a Hockey Goalie

[Anonymous]

My DD plays on a 10U coed house team. This is her 2nd year playing. Recently she had the chance to play goalie and loved it. Now she wants to tryout for a 12U girls travel team as a goalie. I’ve had 3 hockey parents tell me it’s terrible being a goalie and don’t let her switch. That if you’re backup you’re never on the ice. That goalie parents don’t mingle with other parents, that the pressure of being goalie can weigh too much on a kid.

Is it really all that bad? We’re going to work with a goalie coach to see if she really wants to make the switch. But I’m wondering if we should be encouraging her new passion for the sport or steering her away and having her remain a winger.

[Anonymous]

Being goalie is a lot of pressure, for sure, but also it's great. My DS has a good friend goalie and that kid plays all the time - he is constantly playing for other kids sometimes when their team is short -and there is a lot of goalie coaching - much more than regular players. If she is interested and wants to try, I would let her.

[Anonymous]

If she loves playing goalie and is reasonably athletic, go for it! On the girls' side, there is a huge shortage of goalies, so you can easily switch to a new team needing a goaltender if she finds herself in the backup role at her current club. There are a lot of great training/private instruction options to help her get up to speed and improve if she is motivated.

[Anonymous]

PP here--forgot to say, look on sideline swap for used equipment to get her started. The hardest part about being a goalie parent IMO is the $$$!

[Anonymous]

Goalies are born not made. I would let her continue on this - there is something in her that sees a path to success.

[Anonymous]

The goalies on both my kids' teams alternate games. Also, younger goalies sometimes play house as a skater, to keep that option open. Go talk to Wolfe hockey if you're in Maryland!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she loves playing goalie and is reasonably athletic, go for it! On the girls' side, there is a huge shortage of goalies, so you can easily switch to a new team needing a goaltender if she finds herself in the backup role at her current club. There are a lot of great training/private instruction options to help her get up to speed and improve if she is motivated.

Girl goalies are always in demand. In the DMV, Wolfe Hockey is great for private, semi private and group goalie lessons and camps. My advice would be to invest in those to start, and if you can swing multiple hockey camps this summer, do one goalie specific camp and one regular camp where she’ll get a lot of shots on her. Some clubs will have goalie skills clinics or may contribute to individual training during the season. Coming up, look for skill clinics in advance of tryouts. Call around to girl teams and let them know you have a beginner 12U girl goalie and I bet you’ll have a lot of interest.

Locally, Replay Sports in Rockville is best spot for used goalie equipment. Limited hours but you can call ahead and ask let them know you have a new goalie; be prepared to spend a solid 90 minutes there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD plays on a 10U coed house team. This is her 2nd year playing. Recently she had the chance to play goalie and loved it. Now she wants to tryout for a 12U girls travel team as a goalie. I’ve had 3 hockey parents tell me it’s terrible being a goalie and don’t let her switch. That if you’re backup you’re never on the ice. That goalie parents don’t mingle with other parents, that the pressure of being goalie can weigh too much on a kid.

Is it really all that bad? We’re going to work with a goalie coach to see if she really wants to make the switch. But I’m wondering if we should be encouraging her new passion for the sport or steering her away and having her remain a winger.

It’s horrible. Begged DC not to be goalie. Goalie is the villain if they lose and never the star. And ppl always blame the goalie, even if the puck got through the rest of the team first. I have to sit away from the other parents bc if I hear any negativity, I will lose my cool.

There is immense pressure on GKs, which is why they are special ppl. But as a parent watching, it’s so so so stressful.

And if they are not #1, they do all the work but then don’t play. So you sit there watching everyone else’s kid.

[Anonymous]

We love our goalies. On my son's team, they play half of each game. We know the goalie families and we all hang out; it's all one team. And we never blame the goalies. Again it's all one team.

Girl goalies are high in demand. If your team dominates, sometimes the goalies don't see a lot of action.

[Anonymous]

Is it a hook for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it a hook for college?

There are fewer spots and teams don’t take 1 every grad year. (Some do but few). And you are competing against foreign players too.

So. Yes. Sort of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD plays on a 10U coed house team. This is her 2nd year playing. Recently she had the chance to play goalie and loved it. Now she wants to tryout for a 12U girls travel team as a goalie. I’ve had 3 hockey parents tell me it’s terrible being a goalie and don’t let her switch. That if you’re backup you’re never on the ice. That goalie parents don’t mingle with other parents, that the pressure of being goalie can weigh too much on a kid.

Is it really all that bad? We’re going to work with a goalie coach to see if she really wants to make the switch. But I’m wondering if we should be encouraging her new passion for the sport or steering her away and having her remain a winger.

Goalies are going to goalie.

If she has the skill set and the disposition, go for it.

It's a high pressure position though. So, make sure she's solid with herself. There will always be soft goals. No avoiding that. And there will be times when she's the hero.

Can she deal with that?

Superstar to gah, what the hell.

Being a hockey goalie is a psychological experiment as much as anything. If she's confident in herself - and she has good reaction time - yeah, let her do her thing. But the pressure is more intense than any other position. So, make sure she has the disposition for that noise.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the advice and pep talk! We are gonna let her try when she first started hockey she wanted to be a goalie but after taking a very long break from hockey decided to be a skater. So her going back to wanting to be a goalie is full circle.

Thanks for the used store recs. I’ll definitely look into getting used equipment. Our jaw dropped when we started pricing out the goalie equipment.

Psychologically it will be harder on us than her so I don’t think it will bother her.

We’re gonna start with private lessons and see how it goes from there. We’ll let her do what her hockey heart wants. Thanks everyone.