ADM Kids

What we think of as universal truths about goaltenders don’t hold up to scrutiny.

No, not all of them are quirky or superstitious.

No, they aren’t necessarily less athletic than skaters nor does one size define the position.

But there is one thing that does hold true across all levels: Every hockey goalie had to start somewhere, and their stages of development along the ways are critical to success.

Their evolution has different markers at different youth age groups. Steve Thompson, USA Hockey’s Manager of Goaltending Development since 2019, recently shared some age-specific goaltender development tips.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways for the 10U level:

By 10U, in contrast to younger ages, there might be players who identify as goalies rather than a bunch of players giving it a try.

“Kids are playing all three positions and are still not specialized quite yet,” Thompson says. “But I do know that kids are going to start to naturally gravitate towards that position. Hopefully through that 8U and 6U experience, there's a few that loved it and others that just kind of did it because they were supposed to.”

For those young players developing a passion and joy for playing goalie, a foundation of skills can start to be taught and formed, Thompson says.

“I think one thing that athletes really love is being given a task and then working hard at that task and showing their coaches and their parents that they've accomplished that goal,” he says. “So coaching is important.”

That said, coaching goalies at that age should still focus on simple things and fundamentals.

“We don't want it to be the total wild west, but we also don't want to overcomplicate things to the point where it's overwhelming and becomes a job,” Thompson says. “Some simple things we're trying to work on are a basic goalie stance trying to give them a foundation to how to help them move and cover the net. Skating would be another foundational skill. We would be working on shuffles, T-Pushes, C-cuts, butterflies, the basics.”

All of those things can be incorporated into small area games and other activities that make the process seem fun.

“We're playing all these different kinds of small games that are really heavy in skating, but the kids don't know it,” Thompson says. “They think they're having a piece of candy and little do they know they're actually getting all the vitamins they need to be healthy and strong, you know, and I think that's been a big shift for a lot of coaches.”

Additionally, the pool of goalies on a 10U team would narrow from where it was at younger levels, when basically every player be given a share of the action in each game.

Here’s a scenario for a 10U team that has five kids who want to play goalie.

“We would recommend that if you're playing 12-minute periods at that age group, one goalie would play the first half of the first period, the other goalie would come in and play the second half and be the closer for the first period. They would split at the halfway point of each period, and then the other three would be playing out and scoring goals and, you know, working the other side of the game.

“It’s just kind of alternating throughout the season as to who's in that and who's out of net. It’s giving them a little bit more time and attention, a little bit more time to play the position, but still not so much that it's super overwhelming for them.”

As 10U kids start to sort themselves out by size to a degree, Thompson also cautions against weeding out potential goalies because they lack prototypical size or have yet to master skills.

“To tell a kid not to try because of their height is doing them a disservice. I think that's part of the American Dream is having these extremely high aspirations that maybe a lot of other people think you're crazy to even dream for,” Thompson says. “The other side of it is there's a lot of kids that end up not making it regardless of their body prototype, but because they strived for these things, they end up having so many amazing tools in their toolbox in life.”