How To Be A Lacrosse Goalie

Hi! My name is Tom sounds like rigglestone or Tom Tank as I'm know at Hillcroft. I play for Hillcroft sounds like during the southprem. We are currently based in London.

Basically, I'm the goalie, a left handed goal keeper and I'm just going to explain a bit about how goalies are meant to be positioned, maybe explain about the kit and we'll go through some of the key things, the basics. The first thing is about a goalies position, so in a goal, you have a crease around you, a 9 foot radius crease. So that's the area that the area goal the attackers go, the midfield or opposing team can't enter.

You always got this safe zone you can go, kind of private. The key things about positioning are you've got a line, an arch that you should follow at all times. So when the ball is moving around the goal you should have 3 or 4 steps from left to right as the ball comes around the goal.

They set up in a set of six so the guys around the outside of the pitch and generally you'll be on your post on one wing so as a left handed goal keeper my right hand will always be secured on the right hand post so that means that you've got the right hand area covered, so you've got your stick on the left covering the bulk of the goal. You take your step around, so you take your first step, you then got some gap on your right you might need to cover so again when the shot comes in you just have to make sure you're stepping in the way of the ball. Get your best possible chance of blocking it either with your body or getting your stick to the ball.

So you should follow your arch, you've got your four steps around and you will eventually near to your left post, so a left handed goal keeper my stick is still on the left so I leave a bit of a gap there, so the closest I get is about a foot from the left hand post. On to your right hand keeper his stick stays on the inside of the goal when he is on his left hand post. Other than this, so when you've got your positioning set, it's about stance.

So you should always be on the balls of your feet. So you should have your heels almost off the ground just so you could almost initiate your first step, you're ready, you have your weight forward so you're ready to make that step, . You have your knees slightly bent; your feet about shoulder width apart and then you have your stick always in front of you.

So you always have your stick held up, you always have your thumb eyes high so you're ready to cover top with your stick at the top or you're ready to drop low when you're ready to get down to low shots. The next key thing about saving is not getting your stick to the ball but it's moving your feet. So when a shot comes in you have to make sure you step towards and across the path of the ball.

So when you got a shot comes in, no matter what the trajectory is, the height, you should be making sure you're stepping across that imaginary line where the ball would come through so covering the play of the ball and getting your best possible chance of saving the shot. The only other thing you've got is to predict I guess, you can look at the players and a lot of the players you should be able to read how you think they are going to shoot. There are thing like if they are coming in they are winding up, you should almost be ready to save low first because the quickest/shortest path would be at the bottom of the goal.

Or if they raise their shot comes from low to high you're ready to rise up to it and you've got a longer time to get to the ball, and similarly from the top down if they're coming in like this, you want to be stick up high ready to follow the trajectory of the ball down and give yourself the best opportunity to save the ball. That's my rundown and a quick guide on how to be a lacrosse goalie.