As some of you know, I started dabbling at playing goalie this past year. While in net, I faced a left-handed player with whom I used to give private lessons. When I first came across him, he was a shooter, but he didn’t know the finer details of goal scoring.
I taught this player the left-handed player’s ‘cheat code’. Little did I know that two years & a hat trick later, I’d be cursing the day I taught him that. After all, all three goals utilized the cheat code.
Natural Positioning Bias
When first starting out, goalies tend to position more to the player than the puck. As they become more advanced, this obviously changes. Yet, there is a natural bias that can occur in the heat of battle.
This often means that the easiest shot for the shooter is the short-side shot. Why?
Left side of the net for lefties
Right side of the net for righties
If you study the data on shooting, you’ll see the same trends. Right-handed players end up shooting more on the glove side. Left-handed players tend to shoot more on the blocker side.
This also is the easier/lazier shot.
Shooting across your body involves more muscles and contouring into a proper body shape, particularly the core. There are fewer muscles to engage and people are naturally lazy, particularly when time is of the essence. It’s much easier from a technique and muscle standpoint to go short-side (goalies, you’re welcome).
Hand Positioning
“6-Hole” is a spot located right above the goalie’s pads, but below their hands. Here is an example from a recent practice (refer to the blue boxes below).
Stick Element
A second key thing to notice here is how the stick is still covering the 5-hole (between the legs). This naturally leaves a goalie’s blocker hand higher when going down into a butterfly position.
In slow motion, we can see how this naturally delays the reaction to a low blocker shot. While the glove hand starts to come down as the goalie drops, notice how the blocker hand stays elevated. This is valuable reaction time lost. Now if only my assistant could hit his spot, this would’ve found the back of the net!
Left Hander’s Cheat Code
If you’re a left-handed shooter, you know where to go = short side, low blocker.
Further Reading - Shooting posts
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