Shortly after creating the Chopped Stix for my hockey skaters, it struck me that my goalies could benefit just as well from those little blocks of wood. In fact, every member of my Junior High School and HS Prep Teams used those Stix on many Saturday morning off-ice sessions at the Lakeville Athletic Club.
-- Dennis Chighisola
Chopped Stix for Hockey Goaltenders
As I suggested up above, I think every hockey player -- skaters and goalers -- will benefit from Chopped Stix work. That's why I'm first including the original video that I'd produced for my skaters. It explains the way my Chopped Stix came about, and then rough directions for making your own set... http://coachchic2.s3.amazonaws.com/Chopped%20Stix.flv If parents or coaches want my honest opinion, it would be to have goaltenders do every single one of the exercises I prescribe in that video for skaters. Besides puckhandling skills being helpful to goalers, I think the core strength and balance type exercises would be extremely helpful to their game. Now, for the special exercises I ultimately designed using Chopped Stix for hockey goaltenders... http://coachchic2.s3.amazonaws.com/GoalerChopStix.flv I'm hoping members notice how little space is needed to use the Chopped Stix. So, when we're talking individual goalies here, I think the exercises could easily be accomplished in a den, garage, basement, or bedroom. If you're coaching a team, I would have the entire squad do all of the drills, with the goaltenders ultimately just adding their own exercises near the end of a workout. With that, I'd love to hear feedback -- from players, parents and coaches -- about your own experiences with the Chopped Stix for hockey goaltenders.
