Ice Hockey goalies are the most important position in hockey. Off-ice training is very essential for becoming a successful ice hockey goalie. The purpose of my research is to find the different ways to train off-ice for goalies, including different exercises that are most effective and vision training to become the most successful you can be as a goalie. This paper will provide the benefits of off-ice training for goalies, and how it improves your overall performance on ice. By the end of this paper, I want to help others understand the importance of off-ice training and how it benefits goalies and helps them achieve their full potential.

   Flexibility is a key aspect of becoming a great goalie. One of the main ways into becoming more flexible is stretching. When you are stretching you want to make sure that you go slow and push farther with each stretch. You should also pay attention to your breathing while stretching, when you exhale pause after. It helps release the tension and it makes stretching more comfortable. Some basic stretches you could do are Seated groin stretches, side lunges, and butterflies to help open up your groin and loosen the inner thigh muscles. Many people think that stretching is to loosen up your muscles, but if your muscles become too loose then the muscle becomes weaker and your joints have a wider range of motion which can put more stress on the joint and can put more pressure on the muscle which can lead to injury (Orthoinfo).

   Goalies need to have great vision and the ability to see and react when the puck is coming at them. Many people don’t train their eyes as a goalie, but your eyes are the most important part so you need to start training them properly. It's a hard habit to overcome, but staring at a computer or a phone for a long time can be dangerous to the eye. One of the best ways to improve your vision is by playing catch. Playing various sports is also very beneficial to hand-eye coordination and overall vision. Some sports that could play are ping-pong, tennis, and basketball which are all helpful (Schwab and Memmert). 

   When training as a goalie you want your legs to be strong and have explosive power. There are many ways to train your legs, some are good and some are bad. Before you start training do a warm-up of a 5-minute jog to get the heart rate up. A lot of people think that machines are the best way to train your legs, but actually, machines cause more injury and many of them are a waste of time. A better way to train legs than using machines is by using free weights. Plyometrics help with the explosive power in your legs. The best plyometrics to use are Broad jumps, vertical jumps, and single-leg hops. Some plyometrics can harm your body such as the jumping jack press which if done improperly can blow out your ACL and permanently damage your knees. Next start a single-leg exercise, weighted single-leg squats are ideal also another good workout is weighted lunges and step-ups. Those workouts help a lot in making your quads stronger so that you are able to move from post to post as fast as possible (Yaremko).

   In conclusion, hockey goalie training is a very complicated process that requires a mixture of physical, mental, and technical skills. By adding in a variety of training methods like, vision training, lower body workouts, and flexibility stretches, goalies can improve their skills and help their team even more. Even though there is still a lot more to learn about goalie training. There is still ongoing research on this topic going on which will continue to help goalies reach their full potential on the ice.