Basic Goalie Stance

Your basic goalie stance will be the most important part of your game. Especially when you are learning. It is so important because everything that you do in net requires you to start at your basic stance, move into your basic stance, and move from your basic stance. Everything you do is built off your basic stance.

There are some pretty basic guidelines that you should follow. Although all goalies have a different stance there are a couple of things that all great goalies do for maximum performance. In the end it all comes down to how you feel. If you feel that some of these techniques don't work for you than don't use them but they are just guidelines.

Things to keep in mind when going into your basic stance:

- Feet a little wider than shoulder width

- Knees bent to a comfortable angle

- Chest up facing the puck

- Stick on ice about 12-16 inches in front of you

- Both arms even height out in front of you

- Hands facing forward and open towards the puck

- Shoulders and arms relaxed

- Put 50% of your weight on your heels and 50% on the balls of your feet

- Even weight on each leg

Here is a good basic stance of all-star goalie Steve Mason.