Lacrosse Goalie Drills

A lacrosse goalie, by virtue of his specialized task which is to keep the lax ball away from the goal, can benefit much from lacrosse goalie drills. These lacrosse goalie drills should be aimed at developing the goalie’s skills in shots defense, reflex, passing, shooting, and saving shots during falls; however, it is highly advisable for the drills to be modified from time to time to avoid the tedium of having to do the same drills over and over.

1. Shots defense warm-up drill. The lax goalie can be considered the most battered lax player. In drills like this, the ultimate goal of the lax goalie is to keep the ball away from the goal.  In this drill, the offense (could either be the coach or other team members) stands on hash marks (or at least 10-15 yards away) and shoots at the goal at various angles and heights including bounce shots.
2. Lacrosse goalie reflex drill. In this drill the goalie faces a wall about 5 yards away. An offense man stands behind him some distance away (preferably another 5 yards) and throws the ball to the wall. The goalie then tries to block the ball from hitting the wall. The drill enhances the goalie’s reflexes as he will only get a visual on the ball at the last minute.
3. Lacrosse goalie passing drill. The goalie should not only be good at fending the balls off from the goal but should also be skilled in passing to clear the ball and for creating fast breaks. The drill starts out with two lines of lax players on both sides of the net. The team captain or coach takes position midway the lines and the goalie, and shoots at him. The goalie tries to save the shot, and for each successful save he calls out, “Clear!” As soon as the call is given, a lax player from the lines runs up and cuts out, and the goalie passes the ball to that player. The team may or may not impose penalties on the goalie’s sloppy performance.
4. Lacrosse drill goalies in a fall. It takes skill to tend a goal, but even greater skill to tend it from a very uncompromising position. This drill is a modification of the shot defense warm-up drill; that instead of an upright position, the goalie lies on his side, on his stomach and even on his back, and have the team members take a shot at you.