THE BASICS
Basic Stances, Character Habits, Puck Tracking Skills, Athleticism and Skating is what it come down to at the start.
The 3 Basic Stances
You can See the basic Shot Stance(Price) and Skating Stance (Quick: should have a straighter torso) we will also talk about Tall stance (Wolf Below) often with your kids.
At Home:
A lot of skill basics can be worked on at home; from working on tracking (eyes on puck, make sure head turns as well), Gathering rebounds (bringing the puck close to your body with your stick to freeze it), Shot Stance, Basic Butterfly (when a goalie goes down on his knees), Now adays thanks to artificial ice even skating can be worked on at home! The list goes on.
The one thing I will say is, these extras should only be done if your child wants to or if the coach asks him too. Parents hold back from coaching your kids, let us worry about that and you support them.
Stick Sizing
The Old School stick on the ice mantra is long gone. The stick should only be flat on the ice in your "Shot Stance" (look at the top for reference). Rule of thumb, when feet are twice as wide as shoulder length.
Tying pads properly will make the world of difference in you child's ease to skate and comfort on the ice.
To the right you have "old" pads, which i see a lot of new goalies using. If you can try and purchase new, youth pads, the technology in them by far surpasses the old pads. New youth pads are actually designed for kids, as opposed to being mini versions of adult pads.
Worst case, I've highlighted a couple of main areas below with the "red" arrows. The higher one is to highlight around the calf muscle, that strap should be quit snug. If you have only velcro's you can tie them all snug, if it's the straps, only tie the calf support tight. Secondly, you'll notice the bottom arrow pointing to the skate, that's because there is no longer a strap there. If you have one, tie it as loose as possible.
GET LACES NOT BUNGEES
While this won't be the first thing you do as a goalie parent, it will be soon enough!
Get laces and replace those bungees. I know Bungees are a lot easier to tie up, but they're also a lot harder to move with for movements on the ice as well as on the posts.
Aim to have 2.5 - 3 inches of knots in the lace before going around the skates. Make sure to loop around the the first "hole" in the skate then back in front before heading to the second "hole" and going to the top of the skate. Be sure to Triple knot the leftover lace on top of the skate.
"It Takes A Village"
"Leadership is not so much practiced in words as in attitude and actions"
If you care about your child playing top levels more then they do, you make want to rethink your situation.
