You may have heard the saying “hockey is a sport of mistakes”. Well, that’s kind of accurate. Even the best players make a lot of mistakes, which make them easier to beat. That’s why beating a goalie in hockey is so much fun—you have the opportunity to make multiple shots, which increases the chances of scoring a goal. But how does one go about doing this? Let’s take a look.
Table of Contents
Shoot First
It’s important to shoot first in any sporting event, especially hockey. You never know what’s going to happen, especially when playing against a goalie. For instance, if a player is skating toward the goal and the goalie gets spooked for some reason, the puck may end up in the back of the net. This is why it’s important to take more than one shot per shift—you never know when you’re going to get your chance. So, as the saying goes, shoot early and often.
Score Early
When you get a chance to score, you should take advantage of it. Waiting too long to score can seriously hurt your chances of winning. It’s always better to score early and often than to sit back and wait for your turn. Once you get the feel for playing hockey, you’ll know when to pass the puck and when to shoot it. If you get a good start, it’s usually enough for the goalie to just play keep-away and let you do all the scoring. This can seriously decrease the chances of the opposing team winning, so keep that in mind before acting on any hunchs.
Use Your Hockey Skills
Even though hockey is a team sport, it’s still important to have the necessary skills to be effective on the ice. There are four main skills that you need to have if you’re going to beat a goalie: shooting, passing, skating, and hitting. To begin with, you should practice shooting as much as possible. Learn how to shoot both quickly and accurately. Once you have mastered that, move on to practicing passing and hitting the puck. Next, it’s time to work on your skating. Learn to stop, turn, and move at high speeds. The better you are at these four fundamentals, the better your hockey skills will be. Finally, make sure you work on your mental game. Throwing off your anxieties and concentrating solely on the game will help you to eliminate mistakes and will seriously increase your chances of winning.
Now, you may be thinking that this is all quite technical and might take you a long time to implement all of this. But, if you put in the time and effort, it’s definitely worth it. The more you practice, the faster you’ll be able to do all of this. And, the more you practice, the more you’ll be able to improve your overall game. So, if you are serious about wanting to beat a goalie, then start working on these skills now! They’ll seriously increase your chances of victory!