Library: DRL — Goalie Drills (Part 2)
DRL — Goalie Drills (Part 2 of 4)
DRL-16 — Two-Ball Reaction
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Hold one ball in each hand, arms out to the sides at shoulder height. Toss one of them, underhand, toward your goalie — without telegraphing which. Mix it up randomly. As you get comfortable, add the color call version: shout a color at the same moment you release, sometimes matching the ball you threw and sometimes not, and the goalie must catch the ball you actually threw regardless of what you shouted.
HOW TO DO IT
- Goalie builds a stance, eyes soft and wide, taking in both hands at once without staring at either. This wide, unfocused look is called soft eyes.
- Tosser releases one ball. The goalie's eyes snap to it and lock — hard eyes — and track it all the way in (DRL-14).
- Catch, hold the eyes on it one second, reset.
- 20 reps. Score clean catches.
- Level 2 — the color call. Tosser tosses both balls at the same time and shouts one color. The goalie catches only the called color and lets the other one go by. This is the version that trains real decision-making.
- Level 3 — the double. Tosser tosses both balls a half second apart to different spots. The goalie catches the first with one hand and the second with the other. 12 reps.
COACHING CUES - "Soft eyes wide, then hard eyes locked." - "Do not guess. Guessing is losing early." - "Let the wrong ball go. Discipline is a skill." - "Lock the instant it leaves the hand — not before, not after."
COMMON MISTAKES - Staring at one hand. The athlete pre-commits and is late on half the reps. Coach the wide starting gaze explicitly. - Ball-watching the tosser's eyes. Some tossers telegraph with their eyes; that is fine to read in a game but it hides whether the drill is working. Tosser should wear sunglasses or look straight ahead. - Chasing the second ball in the color-call version. The rep is failed if the athlete touches the wrong ball. - Losing the stance while the eyes work. The feet fall asleep.
PROGRESSIONS - Add a third ball and a third color. - Add movement: goalie shuffles between two cones and reacts on arrival. - Use live balls, full gear, at real shot speed for grades 9 and up. - Add a stick and require a catch in the stick rather than a hand.
REGRESSIONS - Tosser announces the hand before releasing. - Move to 10 feet, toss more slowly. - Use hands only, no stick.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Clean catches out of 20 at level 1. - Color-call accuracy out of 15 at level 2 — this is the real number and it is humbling. - Reaction film: at 240 frames per second, measure the delay between release and the goalie's first hand movement.
DRL-17 — Tennis Ball Tracking
HOW TO DO IT
Work through these in order. Each is 60 to 90 seconds, with 30 seconds rest between.
- Two-hand chest. Stand 10 feet from the wall in a stance. Throw the ball at the wall at chest height and catch it with two hands. Track it all the way in. 60 seconds continuous.
- Right hand only. Throw with the right, catch with the right. 60 seconds.
- Left hand only. 60 seconds. Expect this to be ugly at first. That is the point.
- Cross catch. Throw with the right, catch with the left, and alternate. 60 seconds.
- Low targets. Throw at a spot two feet off the ground so the ball comes back low and fast. Stay low, do not bend at the waist. 60 seconds.
- Random angle. Throw at the wall at an angle so the return is unpredictable. Move your feet to the line of the ball (DRL-08). 60 seconds.
- Step closer. Move to 6 feet from the wall and repeat step 1. Less reaction time, faster hands.
- Stick version (grades 6 and up). Same patterns, catching the tennis ball in the goalie stick. A tennis ball in a goalie head is a genuinely hard catch and builds elite soft hands.
COACHING CUES - "Stay in your stance. This is not catch — it is goalie training." - "Soft hands. Catch it like it is an egg." - "Feet move to the ball, even six inches." - "Off hand gets more reps than the good hand."
COMMON MISTAKES - Standing straight up. The drill becomes a game of catch. Stay in a stance the whole time. - Bending at the waist for low balls. Bend the knees. - Only throwing at chest height. The comfortable spot is the least useful one. - Catching with stiff hands. Balls bounce out. The hand should absorb. - Skipping the off hand. The most common shortcut and the most costly one.
PROGRESSIONS - Move to 6 feet, then 4 feet from the wall. - Use a reaction ball for unpredictable returns. - Add a light jog or lateral shuffle between catches. - Add the stick, then require the ball to be caught cleanly with no rebound. - Do a full round immediately after a conditioning burst.
REGRESSIONS - Move back to 15 feet. - Allow one bounce before catching. - Use a larger ball (racquetball or playground ball). - Cut work intervals to 30 seconds.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Clean catches in 60 seconds for each pattern, logged each testing week. - Closest working distance: the shortest distance from the wall at which the athlete can catch 20 in a row. Track it in feet; it should shrink every grade year. - Off-hand gap: right-hand count minus left-hand count. Drive this toward zero.
DRL-18 — Dusk & Flashlight Tracking
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Same underhand tosses as DRL-14, 15 feet away, in fading light. If you have a second helper, have them stand behind you and sweep the flashlight beam across the goalie's face at random moments — not held on their eyes, just passing across, the way stadium lights and headlights do. If you are alone, hold the flashlight in your off hand and let it swing naturally as you toss.
HOW TO DO IT
- Start at dusk — enough light to see the ball, not enough to see it easily. Do not start in full darkness.
- Run 20 standard tosses (DRL-14 mechanics) in the fading light. Call out what part of the ball was seen after each one.
- Add the light sweep. The helper passes the beam across the goalie's field of view during roughly one third of the tosses, at random. The goalie must hold the track through the glare.
- The re-acquire rep. Tosser holds the ball still, helper shines the light directly at the goalie for two seconds and then off, and the tosser tosses immediately as the light cuts. The goalie must find the ball from a blinded state. 10 reps maximum — this is taxing.
- Finish with 10 clean tosses, no light, to end on success.
COACHING CUES - "Do not close your eyes. Squint if you must, but keep them open." - "If you lose it, look where it will be, not where it was." - "Trust your stance. In bad light your feet keep you honest." - "Late is better than never — finish every rep even if you lost it."
COMMON MISTAKES - Closing the eyes on the glare. Understandable and fatal. Coach the squint instead. - Turning the head away from the light. The body follows the head and the goalie is out of position. The head stays aimed. - Giving up on the rep once the ball is lost. In a game the ball is still coming. Finish. - Running the drill too long. Eye fatigue is real. Cap it at 10 minutes.
PROGRESSIONS - Move to a darker setting with a single light source. - Add a screen: a second helper stands between the tosser and the goalie and steps across at the moment of release. - Add movement — the goalie shuffles pipe to pipe between tosses. - Combine with DRL-41 once body reading is established.
REGRESSIONS - Brighter conditions, no flashlight. - Larger, brighter ball. - Announce the toss.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Catch rate in low light versus the same athlete's catch rate in daylight on the same feed. Closing that gap is the goal. - Re-acquire success: clean catches out of 10 on the blinded reps.
DRL-19 — Focus Point Work
THE THREE FOCUS POINTS
A goalie's eyes have three jobs in sequence, and each has a home:
- Wide — while the ball is far away and being moved around the perimeter, the eyes are soft and wide, taking in the whole field: ball, cutters, slides.
- Narrow — as the ball carrier turns toward the goal, the eyes tighten onto the hands and the head of the shooter's stick. This is the ball's launch pad.
- Lock — at the moment of release, the eyes lock onto the ball itself and do not leave until it is stopped (DRL-14).
Wide, narrow, lock. Say it. Rehearse it. It becomes automatic.
HOW TO DO IT
- Place your small target at chest height, 10 feet away. This is your stand-in for a shooter's hands.
- Build a full stance.
- Wide: let your gaze go soft. Without moving your eyes off center, notice three things in your peripheral vision and name them out loud — "fence, tree, garage door." Hold 5 seconds.
- Narrow: snap your eyes onto the target. Everything else blurs. Hold 3 seconds.
- Lock: name one specific detail of the target out loud — "the crack in the tape." Hold 2 seconds.
- Reset the eyes to wide. That is one rep. Do 10 reps.
- The breath anchor. On the shift from wide to narrow, take one quiet breath out. This links the eye routine to a physical calming action, which is what makes it work under pressure.
- Between-shot version. After a goal or a whistle: eyes to a fixed neutral point (the top of the far pipe, or the number on your own glove), one breath, then back to wide. This is the visual half of the Reset (MEN-01).
COACHING CUES - "Wide, narrow, lock." - "Your eyes have a home. Send them there." - "Breathe on the narrow." - "Between shots, look at your glove — not the scoreboard, not the shooter's face."
COMMON MISTAKES - Staring hard the entire possession. Eye muscles fatigue and attention collapses. The wide phase is rest. - Narrowing onto the shooter's face or body. The ball does not come out of a face. - Skipping the reset look after a goal. The eyes stay on the ball in the net and the mind follows. - Treating this as optional because there is no ball. This is a real drill with a measurable effect on save percentage under pressure.
PROGRESSIONS - Have a partner walk the target around a perimeter while the athlete runs wide-narrow-lock. - Add live feeds: the athlete runs the routine before every toss in DRL-08 or DRL-14. - Add a distraction: music, a talking partner, or a sibling trying to break their focus. - Use it in a real scrimmage and self-report how many possessions had a clean routine.
REGRESSIONS - Do it with two phases only: wide and lock. - Hold each phase longer, 8 to 10 seconds. - Do it seated at first to learn the eye control without the physical demand.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Routine rate: in a scrimmage or a drill block, on what percentage of possessions did the athlete run the full wide-narrow-lock sequence? Self-scored honestly, or partner-scored. - Reset time: seconds between a goal and the eyes returning to a neutral focus point. Under three seconds is the target.
4. SAVE MECHANICS
Now the ball gets stopped. Every save in this section obeys the same three-part order: eyes to the ball, foot to the line of the ball, hands to the ball. The hands arrive last but travel fastest. If the feet are missing, the hands are reaching. If the eyes are missing, nothing else matters.
Two shapes carry a goalie through most of a career, and both are named so a 9-year-old can remember them under pressure:
- Rainbow high. On a high shot, the top hand travels up and over in a small arc — like drawing a rainbow — so the stick head arrives above and outside the ball, and the hands stay in front of the body, not behind the head.
- Lawnmower low. On a low shot, the top hand drives down and out to the ball, and the stick head goes down like pushing a lawnmower — out in front, not raked back toward the feet.
SAFETY REMINDER: every drill in this section that uses a live lacrosse ball requires full goalie gear — helmet with throat guard, chest protector, cup, gloves, mouthguard. Soft-ball versions are provided for every drill so that the mechanics can be learned safely at home.
DRL-20 — Rainbow High — High Saves
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Stand 15 to 20 feet away. Toss underhand to a spot just above your goalie's shoulder — right side, then left side, mixed randomly. Aim about a foot outside the shoulder and a foot above it. Do not aim at the face. Pause two seconds between tosses. If your goalie is catching everything easily, move a step closer or toss a bit firmer, not higher.
HOW TO DO IT
- Build a full stance (DRL-02). Hands out, stick head already up and visible in the top of your vision. Starting with the hands high is half the battle.
- On a high shot to the right: lead step with the right foot toward the ball (DRL-07), short and hard.
- The rainbow. The top hand travels up and out in a small arc to a point above and outside the ball. The stick head stays in front of the body the whole way — imagine drawing the top of a rainbow in the air between you and the shooter.
- The bottom hand stays low and close to the body, acting as the pivot. It does not fly up.
- The stick head arrives on top of and slightly outside the ball, angling it down and away from the goal rather than up over your own head.
- Eyes track it in (DRL-14) and the chin comes up with the ball.
- Reset the stance completely before the next feed.
- 10 feeds to the right, 10 to the left, then 20 random. Rest 45 seconds between sets. 3 sets.
COACHING CUES - "Rainbow — up and over, in front." - "Top hand leads, bottom hand anchors." - "Never let the stick get behind your ear." - "Stick head on top of the ball, angling it down." - "Step, then reach. Not reach, then step."
COMMON MISTAKES - The stick going behind the head. The single most common high-save error. The save may be made but the rebound goes over the shoulder into the goal. Fix: put a partner's hand or a pool noodle just behind the goalie's ear; the stick must not touch it. - Both hands flying up together. The bottom hand rising kills stick control and leaves the low corners wide open. Fix: hold a small ball or a rolled sock under the bottom-hand armpit for ten reps. - Leaning back away from the ball. The head goes backward instead of the hands going forward. Fix: cone behind the trail foot; touching it voids the rep. - No lead step. Standing still and reaching. - Ducking. The athlete flinches downward. This is a fear response — go to the Brave Hands progression (DRL-27 through DRL-30) before pushing speed here.
PROGRESSIONS - Increase feed speed, then move to live balls with full gear. - Feed from an angle rather than straight on, so the goalie must be on the arc. - Add a second shot immediately after the first (feeds DRL-26). - Move to a real shooter at 12 yards, grades 9 and up, full gear.
REGRESSIONS - Tosser announces the side before tossing. - Move to 10 feet and toss very slowly, or hand the ball into the spot. - Shadow the rainbow motion with no ball at all, 20 reps a side. - Use a tennis ball and no stick, catching bare-handed above the shoulder.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Save percentage on 20 high feeds at a fixed distance and speed, logged each testing week. - Stick path audit: on video, count how many reps had the stick head travel behind the ear. Target zero. - Rebound quality: how many saves came down in front of the goalie versus behind them.
DRL-21 — Lawnmower Low — Low Saves
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Stand 15 to 20 feet away. Roll or toss the ball so it arrives at your goalie's shin or knee height, about a foot outside each foot. Alternate sides randomly. Rolling the ball along the ground is a perfectly good version of this drill and is actually harder in a useful way. Pause between reps.
HOW TO DO IT
- Build a full stance. Knees already bent — a tall goalie cannot make a low save.
- On a low shot to the right: lead step with the right foot at the ball, driving the knee toward it. The step is longer here than on a high save — think of stepping over a puddle.
- The lawnmower. The top hand drives down and out, pushing the stick head toward the ball and out in front of the body, the same motion as shoving a lawnmower away from you. The stick head arrives in front of the near foot, not beside or behind it.
- The bottom hand stays close and slightly rotates, letting the head drop cleanly.
- The body follows the stick. The chest comes down over the ball, the back stays flat, and the head stays over the play. Do not drop to a knee unless smothering (DRL-25).
- Angle the head of the stick slightly down and forward so the rebound goes into the ground in front of you rather than bouncing up and out to a shooter.
- Eyes track it all the way in. Chin drops with the ball.
- Rebuild the stance. 10 feeds right, 10 left, 20 random. 3 sets.
COACHING CUES - "Lawnmower — push it out and down." - "Knee to the ball." - "Stick head in front of your foot, not behind it." - "Get low with your legs, not your back." - "Nose over the ball."
COMMON MISTAKES - Raking the stick back toward the feet. Produces a rebound that squirts straight back into the slot. Fix: place a cone one foot in front of the athlete's lead foot; the stick head must arrive past the cone. - Bending at the waist. Back rounds, head drops, balance is gone, and the athlete cannot recover for a second shot. Fix: return to DRL-01 hip hinge work. - Standing tall in stance so every low ball becomes an emergency. Fix: stance holds (DRL-03). - Dropping to both knees. Removes any chance of a second save. Only smother (DRL-25) uses a knee, and only deliberately. - Turning the stick head sideways, which makes the face of the pocket unavailable.
PROGRESSIONS - Move to live balls with full gear. - Add bounce feeds (this becomes DRL-23). - Feed from an angle so the goalie must step across the arc. - Chain to a clear immediately after each save (DRL-36). - Live shooter at 12 yards, grades 9 and up.
REGRESSIONS - Roll the ball slowly along the ground. - Announce the side. - Perform the lawnmower motion with no ball, 20 reps a side. - Feed at knee height rather than shin height until the pattern is clean.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Save percentage on 20 low feeds at fixed distance and speed. - Rebound placement: score each save 1 if the ball ends up in front of the goalie inside the crease area, 0 if it squirts to a dangerous spot. Target 80 percent or better. - Stick-in-front audit: on video, count reps where the stick head arrived behind the lead foot.
DRL-22 — Off-Hip Saves
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Aim at the goalie's hip bones — left hip, then right hip, mixed. Not the ribs, not the thigh. The hip is roughly where a pants pocket sits. This is the spot the goalie will get hit on most, so tossing softly is fine. Firmness comes later, and only in full gear.
HOW TO DO IT
- Build a full stance with the hands genuinely out in front. The entire off-hip problem is created by hands that start on the body.
- On a shot at the hip: the elbow leads. The top-hand elbow lifts and drives out and away from the ribs, which creates the room for the stick head to drop into the hip line.
- Rotate the top hand, turning the face of the stick head to the ball. On the stick-side hip the pocket rotates down and in; on the off-side hip the goalie punches the stick head across the body, keeping it in front.
- Step at it. A small lead step opens the hip and gives the hands room. Standing square and trying to save a hip shot is how goalies get handcuffed.
- Attack out, never back. The hands go toward the shooter, meeting the ball early where the angle is easier.
- Track it all the way in. Rebuild the stance.
- 10 feeds to the stick-side hip, 10 to the off-side hip, then 20 random. 3 sets.
COACHING CUES - "Elbow up and out. Make room." - "Punch the stick across, in front." - "Meet it early — the ball gets harder to save the closer it gets." - "Hands out in stance, or this save is impossible."
COMMON MISTAKES - Hands starting on the chest, which makes the hip physically unreachable. - Dropping the elbow into the ribs, which locks the arm. Fix: shadow reps with a partner holding a hand where the elbow should travel. - Turning the hip away from the ball, a flinch that opens the goal and exposes the tailbone. Go to Brave Hands (DRL-29) if this shows up. - Reaching back toward the goal line to intercept, instead of forward. - Neglecting one side. Everyone practices their strong hip. Do more reps on the weak one.
PROGRESSIONS - Increase feed speed; move to live balls with full gear. - Feed from an angle so the hip is already rotated. - Add a bounce version (bridges to DRL-23). - Live shooter from 12 yards, grades 9 and up, hips only for a full set.
REGRESSIONS - Slow, announced feeds at half distance. - Soft-touch ball or tennis ball, no gear, focusing purely on elbow path. - Shadow reps, 20 per side, no ball.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Save percentage by hip, tracked separately for each side. The gap between sides is the number to close. - Elbow audit: on video, count reps where the elbow stayed pinned to the ribs.
DRL-23 — Bounce Shots & Short Hops
THE THREE BOUNCE ZONES
- Long hop — bounces well in front of the goalie and is rising when it arrives. Play the ball after the bounce, hands high, ride it up.
- Short hop — bounces just in front of the stick. The hardest one. Play it immediately off the ground, stick head down and out, catching it at the instant it leaves the surface.
- In-between hop — the ball bounces right at the goalie's feet. This is the one that beats people. The fix is to move: step forward and turn it into a short hop, or hold and let it become a long hop. Never freeze in the in-between.
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Bounce the ball on the ground somewhere between you and your goalie so it hops up at them. Vary where you bounce it: close to you (long hop), close to them (short hop), and right at their feet (in-between). Announce nothing. Start slow.
HOW TO DO IT
- Build a stance with the stick head already low enough that dropping it is a short trip.
- Read the bounce point the instant the ball leaves the tosser's hand. Eyes go to where the ball will hit the ground.
- Choose: early or late. Step forward to take it early, or hold position and take it after the rise. Announce the choice out loud for the first two weeks — "early!" or "late!"
- Drive the stick head down and out in front using the lawnmower path (DRL-21). On short hops the stick head is almost on the ground, angled forward.
- Keep the body low and behind the stick, so anything that misses the pocket hits the chest.
- Track the ball through the bounce — the eyes stay on it during the hop, which is exactly when most goalies blink.
- 20 mixed bounce feeds. 3 sets, 45 seconds rest.
COACHING CUES - "Read the spot on the ground first." - "Early or late. Never in between." - "Stick down, out in front. Body behind the stick." - "Eyes through the bounce."
COMMON MISTAKES - Freezing on the in-between hop. The cure is movement, not better hands. - Stick head raking back so the ball skips under it into the net. - Standing tall and stabbing down late. - Turning the head away at the bounce. The bounce is loud and surprising; goalies flinch. - Practicing on an inconsistent surface, which teaches nothing and causes injuries.
PROGRESSIONS - Increase speed, then move to a live shooter deliberately bouncing shots. - Add angle: bounce shots from the wing bounce sideways, not straight. - Wet-surface session (grades 9 and up, full gear) to learn the skid. - Chain to a clear after each save.
REGRESSIONS - Slow, high-arcing bounces with a soft-touch ball. - Announce the bounce type. - Roll the ball first so the goalie masters the low stick path.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Save percentage by bounce zone, tracked separately. The short-hop number is the true test. - Decision audit: how many in-between hops were converted to early or late by moving? Target 100 percent.
DRL-24 — Five Hole
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Roll or toss the ball straight at the middle of your goalie, between their feet, at ankle to knee height. Mix these in with a few shots to the sides so the goalie cannot pre-commit. Straight-on and slow is fine; the challenge here is technique, not speed.
HOW TO DO IT
- Build a stance with the feet slightly outside shoulder width, toes turned slightly out (DRL-01). That is the correct base and it is not the problem. What creates the five hole is an exaggerated base — feet far wider than the shoulders — because the gap between the legs then grows faster than the stick can cover it.
- On a ball down the middle: the stick comes down the center line of the body, top hand driving the head straight down between the feet, face of the pocket to the ball.
- Squeeze the knees inward slightly as the stick drops, so any ball that misses the pocket hits the inside of a leg rather than passing through.
- Do not step sideways. A five-hole shot needs a small step forward, or no step at all — a lateral step opens the hole wider.
- The chest stays over the ball, back flat, head down with it.
- The alternative save: on a hard low center shot, the goalie may collapse the knees inward and drop the stick between them — a "V" shape with the stick in the middle. This is a legitimate, deliberate technique for grades 8 and up. It is not the same as falling down.
- 15 center feeds mixed with 10 random side feeds. 3 sets.
COACHING CUES - "Stick down the middle, knees squeeze in." - "Do not step sideways on a middle ball." - "Feet just outside the shoulders. An exaggerated base makes the hole." - "Body behind the stick, always."
COMMON MISTAKES - An exaggerated base. Feet far outside the shoulders — the number one cause. Slightly wider than the shoulders is correct and stays correct; a stance that keeps creeping wider through a session is the failure. Re-measure the stance (DRL-01, DRL-02). - The stick living outside the body line in stance, so it has to travel across before it can travel down. - Stepping laterally on a center shot, widening the hole at the exact worst moment. - Kicking at the ball with a foot. Legal, but unreliable, and it teaches the wrong first move. - Turning the pocket sideways so the ball hits the plastic sidewall and rebounds out.
PROGRESSIONS - Increase feed speed; move to live balls with full gear. - Feed from an angle so the center line shifts with the arc position. - Mix five-hole shots into a random-quadrant set so they cannot be anticipated. - Live shooter, grades 9 and up, told to hunt the five hole.
REGRESSIONS - Roll the ball slowly straight at the feet. - Announce center feeds. - Shadow the center stick drop 20 times with no ball.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Five-hole save percentage on 15 center feeds, logged each testing week. - Stance width check: measure the distance between the insides of the feet in stance. It should be slightly wider than the shoulders, and it should not grow over a session.
DRL-25 — Smother Technique
WHEN TO SMOTHER - The ball is loose inside or right beside the crease and an opponent is closing. - A rebound has died at the goalie's feet. - The goalie has clear possession opportunity and no safe outlet.
WHEN NOT TO SMOTHER - The ball is outside the crease with a teammate closer to it. Smothering out of the crease gives away position and, at higher levels, the ball. - There is a clean, fast outlet available. Scooping and clearing is faster than smothering.
HOW TO DO IT
- From a stance, step to the ball with the near foot.
- Drop the front knee toward the ball while keeping the back foot under you — this is a controlled half-kneel, not a dive.
- The stick head goes over the ball first, trapping it against the ground with the back of the head or the sidewall, whichever presents.
- The body follows and seals: chest comes down over the stick, off hand comes to the ground for balance, and the goalie makes a wall between the ball and any opponent.
- Call it loud: "BALL! BALL! BALL!" so the defense knows possession is secured and starts the break.
- Get up fast. Push off the ground with the free hand, bring the back foot under the hips, and stand into a stance or into a clear. Getting up is part of the rep.
- 10 solo reps: drop a ball at random spots at your feet, smother, get up. Then 10 partner reps with the ball rolled in unpredictably.
COACHING CUES - "Stick first, body second." - "Seal it — no daylight." - "Call it loud so your defense hears you." - "Up fast. The rep is not over until you are standing."
COMMON MISTAKES - Diving flat. The goalie is out of the play and cannot get up. Use the half-kneel. - Body first, stick second, which lets the ball squirt out under the chest. - Silent smothers. The defense keeps checking and a whistle or a scrum follows. - Smothering everything. Over-smothering gives up easy possessions that a scoop and clear would have converted into a fast break. - Slow to stand. The advantage of the save is wasted.
PROGRESSIONS - Partner rolls balls to random spots at increasing speed. - Add a chasing partner who arrives one second after the ball, so the seal has to be real. - Chain smother into an immediate outlet pass (DRL-36) with a timer — target under 2.5 seconds from smother to release. - Add a decision layer: partner calls "smother" or "scoop" at random after the ball is loose.
REGRESSIONS - Practice the half-kneel and seal with a stationary ball, no urgency. - Do it on a soft mat or thick grass first. - Remove the get-up requirement while learning the shape.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Seal rate: out of 10 partner reps, how many balls stayed completely covered? - Smother-to-release time: stopwatch from the ball being covered to the outlet pass leaving the stick. Under 2.5 seconds is strong. - Decision accuracy: out of 10 loose balls, how many correct smother-or-scoop choices?
DRL-26 — Rebound Control & Save-and-Recover
THE THREE REBOUND OUTCOMES, BEST TO WORST 1. Caught. The ball stays in the stick. Possession, immediate clear. 2. Directed. The ball is deliberately pushed down and out toward the corners or the sideline, away from the middle of the field. 3. Squirted. The ball bounces off the stick or body randomly, usually into the slot, and a shooter buries it. This is the outcome the drill exists to eliminate.
HOW TO DO IT
- Set two cones out wide at roughly 45 degrees on each side of the goal, about 8 yards out. Those are the safe zones. The area directly in front of the goal is the danger zone.
- Partner feeds at controlled game speed to random quadrants.
- Goalie makes the save with correct mechanics (DRL-20 through DRL-24) and angles the face of the stick so the rebound travels toward a safe zone. On a high save, the stick head angles down and out. On a low save, the head angles forward and to the side.
- Score each rep: 2 points for a clean catch, 1 point for a directed rebound into a safe zone, 0 for a rebound into the danger zone.
- Recover immediately. Before the ball has stopped rolling, the goalie is back in a full stance, aimed at the ball, feet loaded — weight on the balls of the feet, heels floating, knees holding tension, nothing leaving the ground. Say "reset" out loud on every rep.
- 20 reps. Total the score out of 40.
- Second-shot version. A second partner stands 8 yards out with a ball. One and a half seconds after the first feed, they shoot. The goalie must have recovered in time. 15 reps.
COACHING CUES - "Catch it if you can. Direct it if you cannot." - "Rebounds go wide, never up the middle." - "The save is not the end of the play." - "Reset before the ball stops rolling."
COMMON MISTAKES - Admiring the save. The athlete watches the ball roll away. Fatal against a crashing attack. - Flat stick face, which sends rebounds straight back to the shooter. The face should always be angled. - Recovering upright instead of into a stance. - Recovering onto flat, dead feet. Getting back into the shape is only half of it; the feet have to be loaded again or the second shot is faced from a standstill. - Recovering without re-aiming the toes and chest at the new ball location (see DRL-12). - Falling or over-committing on the first save, which makes recovery physically impossible.
PROGRESSIONS - Shorten the second-shot delay to one second. - Add a third shot in the sequence. - Require a clear after the third save, so the chain is save, recover, save, clear. - Add a crashing attacker to make the smother-or-clear decision live.
REGRESSIONS - Slow the feeds and lengthen the second-shot delay to three seconds. - Score rebounds only, with no second shot, until placement is consistent. - Use soft-touch balls.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Rebound score out of 40 on 20 reps. Log every testing week. A score above 30 is strong. - Recovery time: film and measure from the moment of contact to a fully rebuilt stance. Target under one second by 11th grade. - Second-shot save percentage compared to first-shot save percentage.
5. BRAVE HANDS / FEAR REMOVAL
This is the signature progression of the LAX Goalie Hub program, and it is the reason many goalies in this program outperform more athletic peers.
Every goalie is afraid of the ball at some point. That is not weakness — it is a correct response to a hard rubber object flying at your body. The problem is that fear expresses itself in the body as a flinch: the head turns, the eyes close, the hands pull back toward the chest, and the shoulder rotates away. Every one of those movements makes the save impossible. A goalie does not fail to save the ball because they are afraid. They fail because of what fear does to their body in the last quarter second.
You cannot talk a goalie out of a flinch. You have to train it out, in small, safe steps.
The Brave Hands progression works because it removes the actual danger first — a rolled sock cannot hurt anyone — and rebuilds the response pattern with the athlete's nervous system relaxed. Then it adds speed, then hardness, then gear, then game reality, one layer at a time, never faster than the athlete's body can accept.
Rules for the whole progression: - Never skip a level to save time. A goalie pushed to Level 3 before Level 2 is automatic will develop a deeper flinch than they started with. - Move up only when the athlete is bored. Boredom at a level is the signal to advance. - Any flinch means drop back one level for that session. No shame, no discussion. - The athlete controls the speed dial, always. They say "faster" or "slower," and the tosser obeys immediately and without comment. - Never use this progression as punishment or as a toughness test. The moment it becomes a dare, it stops working and starts causing harm. - The gear rule is set by the ball, not by the drill. Soft ball — a sock ball or a tennis ball — needs no gear. A regular rubber lacrosse ball means full gear, always, with no exceptions. That is why Levels 1 and 2 are ungeared and Levels 3 and 4 are not.
DRL-27 — Brave Hands Level 1 — Sock Ball, No Stick
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Stand 10 feet away. Toss the sock ball underhand at your athlete's chest, shoulders, and hands. Aim at the body on purpose — the whole point is to let it hit them and let them discover it does not hurt. Watch their face. If their eyes close or their head turns, say nothing critical; just toss the next one a little slower. Praise open eyes, not catches.
HOW TO DO IT
- Athlete stands in an athletic ready position (DRL-01), hands out in front, empty, palms forward.
- Tosser tosses the sock ball at the chest. The athlete catches it with both hands out in front of the body, eyes open the whole way.
- Every fifth toss, the athlete deliberately does not catch it and lets it hit the chest, eyes open, watching it hit. This is the most important rep in the drill. It proves nothing bad happens.
- Progress through zones: chest, right shoulder, left shoulder, right hip, left hip, and low.
- The rule is eyes open. A dropped catch with open eyes is a successful rep. A clean catch with a blink is a failed rep. Say that out loud to the athlete.
- 25 to 30 tosses. Finish while it is still fun.
COACHING CUES - "Eyes open. That is the only rule." - "Hands go out to meet it." - "It is a sock. It cannot hurt you." - "Watch it hit you. Watch it the whole way."
COMMON MISTAKES - Closing the eyes at contact. Film the face and show the athlete. Most do not know they are doing it. - Turning the head or the shoulder away. - Hands pulling back into the chest at the last instant — a "catching with the body" pattern. - The tosser throwing too hard to speed things up. This level is not about speed at all. - Parents laughing at a flinch. Never. It shuts the athlete down and makes the fear private. - Substituting a real lacrosse ball "just to try it." The moment the ball is regular rubber, the gear rule changes and this is no longer Level 1. That is DRL-29, in full gear.
PROGRESSIONS - Tosser moves to 8 feet, then 6 feet. - Tosser increases speed slightly, only when the athlete asks for it. - Add two sock balls tossed in sequence. - Move to DRL-28 when the athlete is catching with open eyes 20 times out of 20 and looks bored.
REGRESSIONS - Move to 15 feet and toss in a high, slow arc. - Have the athlete simply watch tosses go past their shoulder without catching, eyes open. - Roll the sock ball on the ground for the first minute to lower the stakes entirely.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Eyes-open rate: out of 20 tosses, on how many did the eyes stay fully open? Filmed and counted. Target 20 out of 20. - Catch rate as a secondary number only. Eyes first, always.
DRL-28 — Brave Hands Level 2 — Sock Ball, Stick, Close
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Same as Level 1, but now stand 10 feet away and toss firmly at the goalie's stick-side shoulder, off-side shoulder, hips, and low. You may throw with real pace now — it is still a sock. Mix the locations randomly and shorten the pause between tosses to about one second so it feels like a rapid-fire game. Watch the eyes.
HOW TO DO IT
- Goalie builds a full four-callout stance (DRL-02) with the stick.
- Tosser fires sock balls to random quadrants at a brisk pace.
- Goalie makes real save mechanics on each one — rainbow high (DRL-20), lawnmower low (DRL-21), elbow-out on the hips (DRL-22).
- Every fifth ball is a body ball, intentionally not saved, so the athlete keeps proving that contact is survivable, now while holding a stick.
- Rapid-fire rounds: 10 sock balls as fast as the tosser can throw them, then rest. The pace is what makes this level valuable — there is no time to think, so the pattern must be automatic.
- 3 to 4 rounds of 10 to 15 tosses.
- Close-range finisher: tosser steps to 6 feet and throws 10 at moderate pace. Extremely short reaction time, zero danger. This builds enormous confidence.
COACHING CUES - "Attack it. Hands go out." - "Eyes open, chin at the ball." - "Fast is fine — it is a sock." - "You are not dodging. You are meeting it."
COMMON MISTAKES - Reverting to the flinch once the stick appears. Very common. Drop back to DRL-27 for a few minutes, then re-add the stick. - Turning the shoulder away on hip shots. - Ducking on high tosses. Coach the rainbow explicitly here, where it is safe to fail. - The tosser aiming at the face. Never, even with a sock. It rebuilds the flinch. - Reading "helmet optional" as "gear optional with any ball." It is optional here because the ball is a sock. Swap in a regular rubber ball and the answer is full gear, always — and the drill has become DRL-29.
PROGRESSIONS - Move to 6 feet, then 5 feet. - Two sock balls thrown a half second apart. - Add movement: the goalie shuffles pipe to pipe and gets tossed to on arrival. - Move to DRL-29 when the athlete is calm, aggressive, and asking for real balls.
REGRESSIONS - Return to Level 1 for a few minutes. - Move to 15 feet with a slower pace. - Remove the stick for one round.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Eyes-open rate out of 20 at brisk pace. Target 20 out of 20. - Save percentage on rapid-fire rounds — a useful confidence number, since it is usually high. - Closest comfortable distance: how close can the tosser stand before the athlete tenses? Track it in feet; it should shrink.
DRL-29 — Brave Hands Level 3 — Live Ball, Full Gear
WHAT THE TOSSER DOES (script for parents)
Stand 20 feet away. Toss the ball underhand and slowly — slower than feels useful to you. Aim at the chest protector first, then the shoulders, then the hips, then low. Between every few tosses, ask: "Faster, slower, or same?" and do exactly what they say, with no comment and no encouragement to speed up. Your job here is not to challenge them. Your job is to prove the gear works.
HOW TO DO IT
- Athlete gears up completely and checks every piece before the first ball.
- The contact demonstration. From 15 feet, the tosser throws 5 balls softly directly at the chest protector. The athlete does not save them — they let them hit the gear and watch them do it, eyes open. This is the whole foundation of the level.
- Zone by zone. Move through chest, shoulders, hips, and low, 8 slow tosses per zone, with the athlete using full save mechanics.
- Random zones, 15 tosses, same slow pace.
- The speed dial. The athlete asks for a small increase. The tosser gives a small increase — not a large one. Run 15 more tosses. Repeat only if the athlete asks again.
- Finish with 10 tosses at a comfortable speed so the session ends in confidence, not at the edge.
COACHING CUES - "The gear works. You just proved it." - "Hands out, eyes open. Same as the sock ball." - "You own the speed dial." - "Attack the ball. The worst place to be is halfway."
COMMON MISTAKES - Skipping the contact demonstration. It feels unnecessary and it is the most important part. - The tosser increasing speed without being asked. This breaks trust and can set an athlete back months. - Ending the session at maximum intensity. Always finish at a comfortable pace. - Gear that does not fit. A chest protector that is too big or a helmet that rocks will produce real pain and a rational flinch. Check the fit before blaming the athlete. - Running this drill when the athlete is tired. Fear rises with fatigue. Do it early.
PROGRESSIONS - Increase speed in small steps across weeks, always athlete-directed. - Move from underhand tosses to real overhand throws. - Shorten the distance to 12 to 15 feet. - Move to DRL-30 when the athlete is comfortable with real throws at 15 feet.
REGRESSIONS - Switch to soft-touch lacrosse balls at the same distance and pace. - Return to DRL-28 with sock balls for a full session. - Increase distance to 25 feet and add arc to the toss.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Eyes-open rate out of 20 with live balls, filmed through the helmet cage. - Comfortable working speed: the speed the athlete requests, tracked over weeks. It should rise on its own without pressure. - Flinch count per session. Trending toward zero is the goal.
DRL-30 — Brave Hands Level 4 — Game Speed, Eyes Open
HOW TO DO IT
- Warm up fully first. Never start a live-speed block cold. Run a Level 3 set (DRL-29) at moderate pace as the on-ramp, every single time.
- Stationary shooter, 15 yards, 75 percent speed. 15 shots to random chest-down locations. The goalie runs full mechanics and full eye tracking (DRL-14) on every one.
- Step in. Shooter moves to 12 yards, still 75 percent. 15 shots.
- Full speed, 12 yards. 15 shots at the shooter's real velocity, chest-down.
- On the move. Shooter dodges from the wing to a shooting angle and shoots at full speed. The goalie plays the arc (DRL-31), stays aimed (DRL-12), and saves. 15 reps.
- The eye check. Every fifth shot, the goalie calls out the color of the shooter's gloves or a number on their jersey at the moment of release. If they cannot, they were not tracking.
- Finish with a set at 75 percent to end clean.
COACHING CUES - "Same eyes as the sock ball. Nothing changed but the speed." - "Attack it early. The ball is easiest the farther from you it is." - "You are not surviving shots. You are hunting them." - "Call the color. Prove you saw it."
COMMON MISTAKES - The late-session flinch. Fatigue erodes courage before it erodes mechanics. Watch for the first blink and end the block. - A shooter who creeps closer or aims higher. Set the rules out loud before the first shot and enforce them. - Skipping the on-ramp and starting at full speed. The fastest way to reintroduce fear. - Treating this as a test of toughness. It is a technical drill with a nervous-system purpose. - Ending the session on a bad rep. Always end clean.
PROGRESSIONS - Add a screen: a teammate stands in front and steps aside at release. - Add bounce shots at full speed (DRL-23), in full gear. - Add a second shooter and alternate without warning. - Chain to a clear on every save (DRL-38).
REGRESSIONS - Return to 15 yards at 75 percent. - Return to DRL-29 for a full session. - Use soft-touch balls at game speed, which preserve the visual demand with lower stakes.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Eyes-open rate under live speed, filmed through the cage, out of 20 shots. - Color-call accuracy out of 10. - Save percentage at each speed and distance, logged in each testing week and compared to the athlete's fatigued numbers from DRL-05.
6. ARC & POSITIONING
A save that never had to happen is the best save in lacrosse. That is what this section is about.
Every shot a goalie faces has two numbers attached to it: how hard it was hit, and how much net the shooter could see when they hit it. The goalie controls the second number completely. Two goalies with identical hands will have wildly different save percentages if one of them stands in the right place and the other does not.
The right place is not a spot. It is a path — a shallow curve in front of the goal that our program calls the Rainbow Arc, because when you chalk it on the driveway it looks like a rainbow lying on the ground. Walking that curve keeps you square to the ball (chest and toes pointed at it) and keeps the two triangles of open net on either side of you as small as they can possibly be.
Four ideas stack in this section, in order:
- Where the path is (DRL-31) — the shape itself.
- Which points on the path matter (DRL-32) — Three Homes for young goalies, Five Spots for older ones.
- Why the path works (DRL-33) — the geometry of cutting down the angle, made visible with a rope.
- How far off the line to stand, and what to do when the ball goes behind the net (DRL-34, DRL-35).
Almost everything in this section is SOLO. Arc work needs no ball and no partner — it needs chalk, a driveway, and repetition. This is the single most productive thing a goalie can do alone.
DRL-31 — The Rainbow Arc
WHERE THIS ARC SITS — THE THREE PATHS
The Rainbow Arc is the shallow arc, and the shallow arc is the baseline. Its top sits 8 to 12 inches in front of the goal line, and it is the path most of your play is run from. There are two others: flat — straight across, on the goal line — which is how you get squared up to a shooter, and which on a skip pass to the far side of the field is the fastest path of travel, because straight across beats the ball to the new angle; and deep, 2 to 3 feet forward, which is what you step out to when the situation calls for closing down more aggressively. The deep arc is DRL-11. Learn this one first, make it home, and treat the other two as choices you visit.
HOW TO DRAW THE ARC (do this once, then leave the chalk down for the week)
- Mark the two pipes. On a real goal, they are the two front posts. On a driveway, set two cones 6 feet apart — that is the exact width of a lacrosse goal.
- Find the middle of the goal line — halfway between the pipes, right on the line connecting them. Mark it with an X.
- From that X, step straight forward (out toward where the shooter would be) about one and a half of the athlete's foot-lengths — for most youth goalies this is 8 to 12 inches. Mark that point. That is Top Center, the deepest point of the arc.
- Now mark the two ends of the arc: stand just inside each pipe, a few inches in front of the goal line. Those are the pipe positions. Mark both.
- Connect the three marks — left pipe, Top Center, right pipe — with a smooth curve, not a triangle and not a straight line. It should look like a shallow rainbow lying on the ground, bulging out toward the field.
- Add four more marks evenly spaced along the curve so you end up with seven total. These are your footprints.
HOW TO DO IT
- Stand on Top Center in a full goalie stance (DRL-02) with your toes touching the chalk line.
- Walk the arc, slowly. Shuffle (never cross your feet — DRL-09) from Top Center to the left pipe, touching every chalk mark with your lead foot. Your toes stay on the line the whole way.
- Shuffle back through Top Center to the right pipe the same way.
- Do 4 slow laps like this. Slow means slow. You are teaching your feet the shape.
- Add the aim point. Put a ball, a cone, or a water bottle out in front of you about 12 feet away and to one side. Every time you stop on a chalk mark, check that your chest and toes point directly at it. If they do not, turn your whole body until they do. That is being square.
- Move the aim point. Slide the ball a few feet along an imaginary circle around the goal. Shuffle along the arc until you are square to its new position. Freeze. Check.
- Repeat step 6 for 10 to 12 ball positions, working all the way from one side to the other.
- The eyes-closed lap. Close your eyes and shuffle from pipe to pipe and back. Open them. Are your toes still on the chalk? If yes, the shape is going into your feet.
COACHING CUES - "Toes on the rainbow." - "Chest at the ball, always." - "Deep in the middle, tight on the pipes." - "Slide, do not step around. Feet never cross." - "Shallow is the baseline. Flat and deep are choices."
COMMON MISTAKES - Walking a straight line instead of a curve. The athlete moves flat across the goal mouth and ends up too far out at the pipes, leaving the near side wide open. Fix: chalk it. You cannot argue with a line on the ground. Be exact about which flat this means. The mistake is flat as a default address — the path the feet take on every ball, every time, because the curve was never learned. Flat chosen deliberately, to beat a skip pass to the far side and arrive square on time, is the right answer; the goalie settles back onto this arc once they are square. Default flat is the error. Chosen flat is a tool. - Standing too far out. New goalies feel brave standing forward, and then every shot goes behind them. Top Center is inches in front of the line, not feet. Stepping out to the deep arc (DRL-11) is a deliberate situational choice, not a place to live. - Losing the pipe. At the ends of the arc, the athlete drifts out and away from the post. On the pipe positions your back foot should be close enough to tap the post — that is how you know you have no gap behind you. - Turning the head instead of the body. The eyes find the ball but the chest still points straight ahead. Square means chest and toes, not just eyes. - Crossing the feet on the way around. This is how goalies fall down. See DRL-09.
PROGRESSIONS - Erase the chalk marks one at a time across the week until the athlete is walking the arc on a blank surface, then re-chalk to check accuracy. - Have a partner walk a ball around the outside at jogging speed while the athlete mirrors on the arc, staying square continuously rather than in freeze-frames. - Add the Compass callouts (DRL-12) so the athlete is aimed and on the arc at the same time. - Move to game speed: partner sprints the ball from wing to wing; athlete must arrive square before the ball stops.
REGRESSIONS - Use only three marks — left pipe, Top Center, right pipe — and shuffle between those. - Walk it without a stick so all the attention is on the feet. - Do it indoors on a hardwood floor with painter's tape, where the line is easy to see.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Chalk test: after 10 laps, are the toes still landing on the line? Score it out of 10. - Squareness photo: stand the athlete on three different arc points and photograph from the ball's position. Their chest should be facing the camera, dead on, each time. - Eyes-closed accuracy: pipe to pipe and back with eyes closed, then check foot position against the chalk. Within 6 inches is a pass.