Stepping is a crucial part of making the save as a lacrosse goalie. It allows you to get your body in front of the ball and make it easier to move your stick to the ball. Generally speaking, goalies are taught to step in 2 parts: lead step and the push step.
The lead step is when the foot closest to the ball moves towards the shot, simply by picking your foot up and moving it towards the ball. The push step is when the foot opposite side of the ball
Explodes off the ground and propels you towards the ball, giving you some extra power and speed behind your lead step.
From my observation as a dedicated lacrosse goalie coach for the past 7 years, A lot of goalies become over reliant on the push step as opposed to the lead step, and I was certainly guilty of this throughout my playing career. The photo below provides a blatant example of precisely what I am talking about, as this is very common on low shots in particular:
As you can see, I’m pushing off my back leg, but my front foot isn’t going anywhere. If that shot is going straight into the off stick bottom corner, I’m not doing myself any favors here as far as making the save goes. Now let’s take a look at what you should be striving towards with your lead step:
Here, my lead step clearly cuts the path of the shot and I get my body in front of the ball. This is what you are looking for on every shot.
The whole point of stepping is to get your body in front of the ball, so therefore, your lead step is the most essential component of stepping to the ball. Also notice how I don’t turn my hips: everything stays square to the shooter. Also, my hands are out in front of my body, both my top and bottom hand.
Now, how do you actually practice this and get better at it? The Lacrosse Goalie Drill Library is an outstanding resource if this is you. It has over 170 drills, training plans, checklists, monthly group coaching calls, and so much more to get you locked in for this spring. If you are a dedicated lacrosse goalie but don’t know what tools and drills you need to improve, this is the definitive solution. Click here to learn more.
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