Can I just come clean for a second? I mean, we all know I have an atrocious glove hand and no hand-eye-coordination whatsoever, but good lord, you'd think I'd be able to catch a freakin' tennis ball off a wall. It's truly amazing how ridiculously awful I am at this exercise. Like, to the point that it's pretty humorous. Here I am, doing goalie off-ice stuff, one of the biggest no-brainers of which is catching a tennis ball off the wall, and I'm all thumbs. I can't catch the damn thing to save my life. And I end up swearing a blue streak at myself, which really does wonders for my performance, I'm sure. No wonder the cat perches on top of the wall and watches me.
Anyway. There I was this morning lobbing the ball off the wall and trying to catch it (I'd nab it about 4 times in a row and then it would all go to shit again), when it took a very weird bounce, hit the table to my left.... and completely disappeared. As in gone without a trace. I didn't even hear it land. I'm mystified. In searching for it I found an awful lot of dust bunnies, but no tennis ball. It's going to drive me nuts until it turns up, too.
Oh yeah, and I got another shutout. Yay! Looking strictly at the numbers, that's 2 shutouts in the last 3 outings. Woo and hoo! However... I can honestly say I really didn't do much to earn the last one. I may have had 12 shots. That would be a generous estimate, too. Pretty much the entire game was played in the other team's zone, so much so that after the first period, one of my D said to me "Hey. Nice... stop." Har har. I informed her that I did in fact have TWO shots thank you very much. So, I feel a little guilty being all happy about the goose-egg, because I almost feel like I really didn't earn it. I'll shut up now.
One thing I've noticed myself doing lately is getting all ballsy with the poke-check. Several times I've completely surprised a player by lunging and stabbing the puck right off their stick. I usually do it if I'm already down and I can't maneuver my stick the way I need to in order to corral it, so I shoot it out instead. I know not everyone's a fan of the poke check but I'm really starting to love it. It's not something I come charging out and do on breakaways*, so I don't really feel like it's a big risk, technique wise. It sort of just happens in certain situations. The bench always seems to love it, and the player who just got sniped usually makes some kind of extremely unsatisfied noise. And I love making players make noises like that.
*Hmmmm, I think I actually did do it on two breakaways in mens' league this season. So that's not a completely true statement. But both times it worked, so there.
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3 comments:
If you have a problem just using your bare hand for it, maybe you would do better if you used a baseball or softball mitt? Just an idea (from a forward, nonetheless).
Yeah, so glad it's not just me with the tennis balls. What MrC tells me is to actively catch the ball, and don't just wait for it to hit your hand. Like, move your hand TO the ball.
The advice didn't help me much but maybe it will help you. It makes sense, but I still suck at it. Though half my problem is I'm a bad thrower, too.
#14- that kind of defeats the purpose... I just have to gut it out and get better at it.
MsConduct- whew! Ok so there are at least two of us. I don't feel so bad now. I will have to try MrC's advice next time I'm torturing myself. I think a lot of the time it's hitting the heel of my hand and careening off to the side, instead of being cradled in my palm. (awww. cradled.)
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