In hockey, a fan from afar will
tell you to find the biggest player you have and put him in between the pipes
because he takes up so much room. This player might not be able to skate very
well and may be the least athletic person on the team. I see this situation all
the time at the youth levels, and I even experienced this problem when I was
trying to become a young net minder.
At higher levels of hockey and
even with successful high school teams, the clumsy, oversized kid who can
barely skate from blue line to blue line is no longer the goaltender. Instead,
the strongest skater, who is the backbone of the team, is now sitting in the
blue paint rather than scoring goals.
Goaltenders in hockey have to be
extremely strong on their skates because goaltending requires a great amount of
footwork and coordination that does not always meet the naked eye.
So, before you see your youth
hockey coaches throw the nose tackle of your football team in between the pipes,
ask if that is really the smart choice to benefit the individual in the net and
the rest of the team. When youth organizations do this to a young talented team,
it can have devastating consequences from squirts on up to high school or
midgets.
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