Vaughn Hockey: Article on Dynamic Post-Save Recovery

I subscribe to Vaughn Hockey's email new's feed which helps supply me with plenty of equipment highlights and updates.  But in addition to that, Vaughn has also dedicated themselves to providing excellent articles for goalie development.  You too can sign up for Vaughn's email resource updates at the bottom of their homepage.

Yesterday, I received a great article detailing the importance of post-save recovery.  The term "post-save" is used in goalie coaching circles to encompass rebounds both bad and good.  Post-save seems to be the preferred term since it is more positive and has connotations that a goalie is more in control of the situation.  The word rebound, while on the face of it is neutral, does have a negative feel to it in the world of hockey.

The term "recovery" most often refers to regaining control or getting back on one's feet, but used in conjunction with dynamic, post save recovery means that the goalie is also responding to the rebound with movement or some other dynamic element.  I often say to my goalies that, "the recovery is not just about getting up, it is about getting into position" or "the recovery is  the repositioning"!.  Modern goaltending technique has made vast strides of allowing goalies to recover or regain control and re-positioning themselves to a new shotline in one fluid motion.  Watching games of elite NHL goalies only 20 plus years ago, highlighted how terribly inefficient goaltenders were at using their recovery to reposition.  The result was a lot of desperate and scrambling save attempts on second and third rebounds.

While most goalie instruction works to eliminate or at least minimize the need for a dynamic post-save recovery, I would say that a large percentage of shots from the borderline of the reactive zone and closer will result in saves that create rebounds and most of those rebounds will be uncontrolled.  These rebounds will necessitate some "dynamic post-save recovery".

The Vaughn article, while quite technical,  parses five important elements to be very efficient on a post-save recovery.  Please have a read.  I'll later post five drill plans that I use that coaches can snag to help goalies work on all five of those key elements.