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 12U level:

12U marks another stage of progression in youth hockey, and that’s true at goalie.

While goalies should still be splitting time, the position is starting to gain more definition at this game.

“12U is probably when kids are going to start identifying that hey, I'm a goalie now, and you know they put the time in to have that that background in the sport,” Thompson says.

Instead of having basically the entire roster play goalie at the youngest ages or having roughly five options at 10U, by this age there are likely to be two or three goalies on a roster that rotate full periods of play during games.

“A team can have a little bit of creative license,” Thompson says, “but the goal is that we're just going to slowly increase time but still not have that entire game to anybody's self yet.”

Another likely adjustment at 12U is the size of the ice sheet and the net

“As far as skills go, this is traditionally when they're hoping that teams are transitioning to a full ice game with a full net,” Thompson says. “So ideally at 8U you they're playing cross ice hockey and in small nets and at 10 you they're playing half-ice hockey in intermediate nets, and at 12U is when now they're going to be on the big sheet with the big nets.”

With that comes new techniques to learn in addition to continuing to work on the fundamentals of movement and skating.

“A big part of this is going to be positioning,” Thompson says. “So I'd say at 12U we start introducing things like angles, squareness and depth. We’re just really trying to help them better take up that larger net size and be able to read the rush and be on angle and all these different things that are now going to happen with the larger ice surface.”

Off-ice training for goalies might look a little different than it does for skaters, but not by much.

“I would say at that age, the only time I would really specialize in off-ice for goalies would be just to kind of make it fun,” Thompson says. “Like if it's juggling and you're doing it because you're a goalie and you want to work on hand-eye coordination, then that's great. If it's going to inspire them because they love being a goalie and they feel like this is what they do as goalies, that’s great.”

But the athletic building blocks remain the same.

“They're just trying to really build that coordination, that balance, that strength,” Thompson says.

One thing to consider at this age, Thompson says, is that as goalies become more defined at their position at 12U, they need to feel included as part of the team.

It’s a specialized position, but goalies are still valuable teammates.

“I would not recommend having goalies off to the side doing their own thing while the rest of their team does the other stuff,” Thompson says. “That's another area that we need to be really mindful of is that in some areas of the country, the goalie has almost become a private contractor and not an actual team member.”

That’s not healthy at 12U or for future development.

“We need to keep goalies involved,” Thompson says. “We have a lot of good goalies that are not so good teammates when they are in their own little goalie bubble their entire career.”