Complete Goalie Manual-Part II

The Complete Box Lacrosse Goalie

(Part 2)

A book for beginners to coaches;

and a little something for everyone in between.

By Laurent Gagnier

Table of contents

Part VI Advanced techniques

Part VII An integral part of the team 

Part VIII Attributes: Mental and Physical

Part IX Expectations: Age awareness, quarterbacking

Part X Drills

Part VI Advanced techniques

    An average goalie will perform above average against average players if he is good at covering his angles. There

will always be a small percentage of players who are what we call the elite! For those players an average goalie 

might save 75% of shots with good positioning. For higher level of lacrosse goaltending, it is not enough to be big 

and have perfect angle coverage!

Great shooters see through the head of their stick! Great shooters can change the sticks position from the highest 

point on their strong side to the lowest point on their weak side in the blink of an eye. Which means, the shot can 

come from anywhere within the radius of the circle of the illustration below. I call this the shooter’s circle of attack (CoA).

A shooter’s circle of attack.

    So are there only 5 angles to cover? Actually there are 5 angles times all of the points in the CoA! There are an 

infinite number of shot angles for a lacrosse goalie. It would be impossible to cover absolutely all off them. So, as 

goalies, what do we have to do?

There are basically two techniques for a lacrosse goalie to counter the shooters CoA: “Playing the Stick” and “Take Away”.

Playing the stick, although it sounds self-evident and easy, the title is misleading. Playing the stick actually means 

playing the stick side of the player. In other words, the goalie should position them self between the players 

vertical center and the end of the stick.

Playing the stick

    As I mentioned before, great shooters can change the position of the head of the stick very quickly! It can move 

from anywhere in the CoA to any other point of the CoA in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, the convention for 

shooters is to stay on the strong side of the floor when attacking. This means that most of the time a shot is 

coming from a shooter, where the shooters body is closest to the boards and the stick closest to the center of the 

floor. From the goalies point of view: right handed shot would be on the right side of the floor and a left handed 

shot will be on the left hand side of the floor. As discussed in the basic angles we move from position to position 

but the goalie now makes small adjustments, not to the player but the players stick side.

    Take Away, is the other technique, this is where a goalie intentionally leaves a shot open enticing a shooter to a 

open portion of the net and as the shooter is releasing the goalie shifts positions and quite literally takes away 

the shot. This is a risky technique if you do not really know a shooter. It also typically only works once or twice. 

Good shooters will recognize the move and the next time they will shoot at where you were not what you gave 

them.

Other common Goalie challenges are:

    Fakes, as players skills improve, their ability to fake increases. Goalies tend to focus on the head of the stick

 and some with excellent reactions can do this with success. For the rest of us whose reaction time is not quite as 

good; we can focus slightly past the shooter. This puts the head of the players stick in our peripheral vision. If we 

trust that part of our sight we can actually react faster to the ball as it exits the head of the stick and we are less 

likely to move on a fake. Train yourself to watch for the ball leaving the stick as opposed to the ball. Once it leaves 

the stick, then keep your eye on it!

   Behind the back. It takes a long time for shooters to perfect a behind the back shot. But as a shooter moves 

through the house from their strong side to their weak side this is a very good way for a shooter to increase the 

amount of net they can shoot at. While a goalie shifts, following the ball, from left to right or from right to left there 

comes a point in time where the shooter has run out of room on their forehand shot. This is when a goalie will see 

the behind the back shot. The behind the back shot is the lowest % success shot in the game so unless you are 

absolutely positive that a shooter will go with a behind the back shot you should not give up the post the shooter 

is  moving towards. A normal shot is the most effective and most accurate, so if you cheat off the post 

anticipating a behind the back shot you will likely get beat on the post side. Good movement through your angles 

and reacting to the less likely is your best defense against this shot.

    Quick stick is lacrosse’s equivalent to a “one timer”. This comes down to goalies agility and practice in moving 

from each of the base angle set positions to any other set position. You simply have to get there as fast as the  

ball. This where it is absolutely critical to stay on your feet! Shooters practice crease to crease passes all the time. 

So if a goalie drops to his knees on a crease to crease and that quick stick becomes a pass instead of a shot; that 

goalie just conceded a goal. If you stay on your feet, you have a chance to get back across. Quick sticks (most 

commonly crease to crease) are not limited to crease to crease by the way. They can come from anywhere.

Crease to top, shooter to crease… literarily if you can think it, it can be done! I even had a shooter take a pass while 

cutting through the house. The pass was late, so he did a quick stick behind his back! I have only seen it once and 

it was once too often! The point is, if you get lazy or don’t train on the 5 set positions you haven’t got a chance to make these saves.

** A note for the defense, if there is ever more than two crease to crease passes, the defense failed! **

   Breakaways are very common in lacrosse. With offences designed around the fast break, goalies are often

 faced with one on one situation. Generally speaking the advantage lies with the shooter. The most common 

school of thought for defending a break away is to hold your ground, trust your angles and be the last one to

move. Use your reaction skills to get to the ball if it is going to find the back of the net.

A Lacrosse stick’s design is such that fantastic fakes can be made; a shot can look like it is coming from one side 

and suddenly it is coming from another. I have even had a player do a quick stick with a pass to himself off the 

glass behind the net. Over the last 3 years my son and I have been working on a different method to deal with 

breakaways and fakes. We have been having success, my self in masters’ lacrosse and my son who has played 

Peewee, Bantam and playing up in Midget with this new method.

The methodology stems from the basic genetics of our species. Our heads are designed for hunting: both eyes 

face forward like a predator’s eyes. We are genetically programmed to react to movement. This is why a fake 

works for a player. How can goalies use genetics to turn the advantage to the goalies side of the floor in a 

breakaway situation? Simply put, if a goalie can time a major movement slightly before or as a shooter

commits to  releasing the shot, the shooters eyes will be drawn to the movement and the shot tends to go 

towards the movement as well! This is a timing critical move, move too soon and the shooter has time to pull his 

focus back to where he was originally aiming or find a new corner to shoot at, move too late and the shot can be 

already by you. This technique requires lots of practice! Shoot out competitions at the end of practice are the best 

time to practice this.

Part VII An integral part of the team

It is easy to think of a goalie as the last line of defense. But how many coaches think of the goalie as the first part 

of offense? After the shot is stopped the goalies job should not stop. This following section describes how

 goalies can be part of your overall team strategy. Picks, outlet passes, using the crease, breakout, supporting 

the power play, loose balls and intercepting passes are all aspects of a lacrosse goalie’s game. I know of no other 

sport where a goalie can be so versatile and effective in making your team successful by doing more than just 

stopping a shot.

Starting an offense:

When a goalie recovers a ball following a shot, the goalie should look to make the pass that the teams break out 

scheme demands (short pass away from the bench, medium passes, fast breaker from the floor away from the 

bench or even fast breaker from the bench). If the goalie cannot find an open player to pass to within the 5 second 

rule, they should step out the back of the crease behind the net. The crease is now the goalies shield. The shield 

comes from the rule that an opposing player(s) cannot cross the crease to reach another player or shorten their 

route to the ball.

If a player pursues the goalie, the goalie can move around the crease keeping the opponent at the opposite side of 

the crease creating time and space for the goalie to find an open player. The goalie has to keep an eye up the floor 

for an open man because eventually a runner will catch up.

This is also why a goalie needs to be able to cradle and pass while running (shuttle drills are for goalies too!).

Other starting offense options are situational:

• If the defense is collapsing to their own zone, then the goalie can casually step out of the crease and do a stick to stick exchange with a player entering the floor on the line change.
• If the defense is playing a full court man to man, your goalie can step out of the crease to be a 6th player. This provides an outlet pass option which tends to free another player of the pressure creating an open man to pass to and move the ball up the floor. When giving an outlet pass option to your team mates, step out of the crease on the opposite side or away from the player with the ball. This will give you your shield again.
• If a player recovers the ball outside the crease and is being harassed so that they are unable to make a pass, then the goalie can choose set a pick. This can be in open floor or at the back of the crease with 1 foot inside of the crease. This creates a very small lane for the player and allows them to use the crease as a shield like above creating time and space. Both the behind the crease and open floor picks are especially helpful when short-handed and the opposing team has two men pressuring the ball carrier.

A goalie can support an offense by being aggressive retrieving loose balls and moving the ball back up the floor 

quickly. Especially on a power play, a goalie’s quick loose ball recovery can keep a tired defense on the floor. It can 

create scoring chances if the line change is poorly timed. Some very advanced goalies (and this is extremely rare) will 

actually move up over a third of the floor and quarterback an offense by calling out audible plays or identifying miss-

matches between players.

As a defender, a goalie can also look to intercept cross-crease passes by quickly moving the head of their stick 

from the set position to above their shoulders. This is tricky and risky but the payoff can be huge if you have an 

alert fast break player on the floor.

Part VIII Attributes: Mental and Physical

    For this section I turned to a friend and co-coach Rob Reynolds. His roots are deep in lacrosse, he played as a 

child, his sister was a goalie and his parents were long time volunteers in the Gloucester Lacrosse Association. 

But it was not for this reason I turned to him for this section. He is, among other qualification, a Level 4 certified 

Ski instructor and Examiner (roughly translates to the international level). As we talked about this book and 

specifically how we could prepare goalies we realized that there was much that a goalie or goalie coaches could 

learn if they looked at the goalie not as just part of the team but also as an individual sport elite athlete. The 

following is a result of that thinking…

Physical Attributes

Although goalies need to be as physically fit as the remainder of the team and need to participate in the regular 

fitness plan designed for the team, there are a few key physical attributes that will need more attention amongst 

goalies than with the rest of the roster. Unlike the rest of the teammates, goalies play the entire game, not just a 

handful of shifts with a well deserved rest between each. To compound the fact they play the entire game, their 

equipment is considerably heavier and warmer than their fellow teammates. Goalies need a high level of physical 

fitness, endurance and stamina. These attributes can be achieved through the regular fitness program the

entire team is exposed to. In addition to this, a “Goalie focused” fitness plan will pay particular attention to developing 

reflexes, flexibility and agility.

• Great goalies are known to have “cat like” reflexes. Fitness plans and drills incorporating the use of balls, hand signals, verbal cues or the introduction of the unknown that tunes a goalie’s reaction time to split second occurrences will stimulate a goalie’s sensory system, thus improving reaction time. These types of drills will improve a goalie’s reflexes in games when moving body segments to intercept a fast moving ball destined to hit the back of the net. Finely tuned reflexes will also allow the goalie to move within the crease as required in order to follow the attacking team’s passing plays and ensuring he is always well positioned for an eventual shot on goal.
• In lacrosse, as in most sports, a goalie must be able to follow the play. The farther out the play, the goalie follows with his eyes. As the play gets closer and closer to the net he is defending, he depends more on his body’s ability to move in order to stay with the play. Lacrosse is a very fast paced game where the ball moves at tremendous speeds, it is not uncommon that a “quick stick” pass will have a goalie moving in one direction while the ball changes direction and heads the other way. Flexibility gives the goalie the ability to stretch and reach in a different direction while his momentum continues in its original path. These types of saves are spectacular and often follow with “how did he do that” echoing from the crowd. A complete stretching routine for goalies will develop flexibility, allow for the defender to remain lose and limber and to contort his body to the needs of each shot directed his way.
• Both reflexes and flexibility will lead to an agile athlete. Agility helps goalies move on a moment’s notice to meet the challenges of the attacking team. Skills like hopping, jumping, “burpies” and especially balancing exercises all develop a goalie’s ability to move his body in an appropriate manner with the quickest reaction time possible. Station training is a great way to compress many different types of activities into one organized training session

Mental Attributes

    Goalies are often referred to as the last line of defense. This puts the goalie in a unique situation where he  

can be labeled the hero or the one who let the team down. Many defensive errors can occur as a play develops 

from the attacking team’s end into a goal against the defender. Most of these errors go unnoticed or without 

blame however everyone sees the goal that was let in by the goalie. A certain level of mental toughness is 

required for someone to stand between the posts and bear this amount of pressure. Goalies are unique, they 

dress different, their role is different and are imposed a higher level of responsibility. Being a goalie can be 

referred to as an individual sport within a team environment as he is easily identified by the crowd for both the 

good and bad. Mistakes will happen; bad goals will be let in. Strong goalies are mature enough to maintain

their  composure in these situations and put it behind them. This is essential as the goalie plays the entire 

game and does not have the opportunity to take a break in order to reboot. The sooner he puts a bad goal in

the past the sooner he will regain his focus and concentration in order to get back in the game. A goalie needs 

to be courageous, one for the extra weight that he bears on his shoulders, not necessarily from his equipment 

but mainly from the points mentioned above and also because it takes a certain breed of person to stand in 

front of a hard rubber ball travelling through the air at 100 miles per hour!

Goalies need to be strong communicators as they are essential to the defense of the team and often see more of 

the floor than the other players. As a play progresses, the goalie is well positioned to follow the play and 

communicate to the players allowing them to better organize the defense. This also requires a certain level of 

alertness in order to stay in the game, even when the play is in the other team’s zone. The best goalies develop a 

telepathic ability to read and understand the game in order to do the right thing at the right time.

    A goalie will live many highs as well as many lows and will need to be strong enough to deal with this. He needs 

to accept that it is alright to make mistakes as this is how he will learn. He will receive positive and negative 

feedback at some point from players, coaches or parents. Although we want to discourage negative comments 

towards a goalie, they happen and a goalie’s armor is to protect his body from the ball not his emotional state. A 

goalie needs a tough skin in order to avoid getting down on himself by allowing a negative comment to get the 

best of him. Being a goalie is a high stress, but high reward position.

For the coaches and parents out there, not everyone is the same and often our approach needs to be tailored to 

the individual. We need to first understand the type of person our goalie is in order to develop an appropriate 

approach to preparation, development and feedback. I remember many years ago listening to a former National 

Team Ski Coach speak on athlete preparation. Although this was many years ago and I don’t remember the 

majority of the speech, the one thing that has stayed with me over the last  twenty some odd years is when he 

spoke about changing his approach depending on the athlete as they entered 

the starting blocks. One athlete needed an aggressive voice stating that the country was counting on her and that 

the whole nation was watching, he’d continue with comments like, “you are the best, you can beat the others, 

show them who is number one”. This athlete needed the coach to impose a certain level of stress in order for her 

to perform to her maximum potential. On the other hand, another athlete needed to be calmed and

relaxed in order for her to perform to her max. In a soothing voice he’d provide comments to her to put her at ease. 

“It is just you and the mountain, it is just another run like we do in training, it is not a big deal just left and right 

turns on the snow”. It is important for us to understand what makes our goalies tick and what approach is

required for that individual in order to influence a certain performance or reaction. In many cases the wrong 

approach can do more harm than good, we need to remember that it is confident, comfortable athletes we want 

standing between the pipes. Whether a goalie needs to know that the team is counting on him or that he is just 

another player on the floor, whether he needs to be pumped up before the game or given some alone time to relax, 

it is our place to identify the needs of the individual in order to be more effective in the development of the athlete 

and his emotions, as well as contributing to the goalie’s effectiveness with regards to the entire team.

People have different ways of learning; recognizing and adjusting your approach to the dominant learning style of 

your goalie will increase the success of his development. Learning styles are often combined in order to provide a 

stronger effect; people can be classified in the following learning styles;

• The Watcher – Good listener, visual, learns by watching
• The Thinker – Needs to understand
• The Feeler – Receptive learner, catches on quickly
• The Doer – Practical and functional, learns by doing

The emotional state of a goaltender is directly related to his confidence level when he dons his pads for a big 

game. The way a goalie thinks, reacts and processes information are key to ensuring the proper positive 

approach is used in his development. This will ensure the goalie can achieve his maximum technical potential 

and more importantly promote a lifelong love for the game.

Part IX Expectations

    Coaches need to have the right set of expectations which are age/skill appropriate to the goalie they are 

coaching. The information in this book is designed for the end game: becoming a great goalie. If you as coaches 

teach with the techniques in this manual when you see a goalie is ready for the next level or the next advanced 

skill or even go back to the basics from time to time you will see improvement from your goalies and your teams 

will benefit from a skilled quarterback who is an integral part of your lacrosse team.

As a Coach you are expected to protect your goalies, set ground rules and enforce them on floor. If you do this simple 

thing you and your team will be rewarded ten times over.

Part X Drills

All drills should include your goalies. They need to learn to pass and catch on the run, pass from the crease and face 

literally thousands of shots to get to their potential. Include them in all shuttle drills.

As I mentioned before coaches should use the philosophy of “practice as you play” but to accomplish this for a 

goalie you have to make a few goalie friendly twists. You will find that most of these variations will benefit your 

shooters as well. Here are three common drills we use in Lacrosse but with my goalie friendly variations on them. 

This will give you an idea how you can make any shooter drill a little more goalie friendly.

Drill for the team:

Horseshoe drill:

Set up players in a semi-circle around the net and allow shooters to shoot on net from various distances. The shots 

can be consecutive around the horseshoe or alternating sides. Shooters should be on their strong side.

Goalie friendly variations:

• Add a defender in front of the shooter and have the shooter shoot of the shoulder of the defender. Have the defender stand still or check the shooter as he releases his shot.
• Have the shooters turn their backs to the goalie. On a whistle have the shooter spin and target the net.
• Add a defender to #2 above but have the shooter roll off the defender taking a shot as soon as they clear the defender. (Slightly more advanced: allow the defender to stick check after the roll.)
• Increase and decrease distance to from the shooters to any of the above or insist on a type of shot. (i.e. bounce shots only)

Breakaway drill or shoot out competition:

Players leave from center floor, run towards the goalie replicating a breakaway.

Goalie friendly variations:

• Add pursuit. Have a chaser…
• leave a few steps behind the shooter
• leave the bench from on the defenders end of the floor
• Have one goalie make the breakaway pass to begin the drill at one end of the floor. Have players stay at the shot end of the floor then have the other goalie start the drill.

Star Drill:

Players start in the 5 offensive positions making passes through the 5 points having the shot come from the top of 

the house. Variation: players follow their pass.

Goalie friendly variation: Have the coach call the shot randomly. The next player to next receive the ball shoots regardless of the position.

Just for the goalie:

Reaction drill:

For this you need 24 or more tennis balls and a tennis racket. Standing mid-way between the top of the crease and 

the 25’ line, “shoot” each tennis ball (using the tennis racket) is as quick succession as possible. Have an

assistant feed you the balls to increase the speed. The goalie should try to get to every ball.

Angles drill:

Have the goalie set to position one. Then call out various positions 1 through 5 and have them move from position 

to position increasing the speed of the position changes. Try calling out random numbers, not just 1 through 5 or 

vise-versa.

A last note:

“Heat Management”

Box lacrosse goalies are always at risk of heat exhaustion. Make sure you have plenty of water breaks and ensure 

your goalies drink. On exceptionally hot days you can have your goalie participate in shuttle and running drills but 

have them drop off leg their guards and pants (make sure they have shorts). Always encourage your goalies to 

pass and catch with their uppers on because this is how we play!