Mentality and Equipment

[KagedAnimal]

Ice hockey pucks are frozen and goalies regularly drop their knees quite forcefully to the ice to make saves. A shot to the shin or a knee to the ice will shatter bone. Field lax goalies wear minimal padding mostly because the "ideal" method of making saves in field lax is "catching" the ball. We train to make every save with our stick, not with our bodies. I usually find that if i get hit in the legs its because my step was good but my hand speed was not. Foot speed and hand speed are equally important in field lacrosse, especially to limit the zingers.

I sometimes wear shin guards if I know we will be doing alot of shooting drills during training. As fast as you get, you face many more shots in training than you do in a match thus the percentage chance of taking a rip to bone is higher. On these days I will also usually don the padded box as well.

In matches, I go minimal. Could just be in my head but shin guards, thigh padding, padded boxes just make me feel slower both in the goal and on clears where mobility is important. The only time I wore a shin pad was when I got a bone bruise 3 days before flags finals after taking 3 crank shots to the same spot. This was 3 months ago and its still healing.

[angliru23]

I've been a keeper now for a Month. I played field and inline hockey before, always as a net minder, wearing A LOT of padding...and I have to confess, stepping into goal for my university lacrosse squad was much more nerve racking than I could ever imagine, I guess because I was conditioned to being covered in pads over every inch of my body.

I think that fear of the ball is natural, your body tries to avoid injury, hence the flinch reflex...and I would say that, to me, that shouldn't be derided or looked down upon. However, I do think that that fear can be trained out, you just need to become acclimatized to being shot at over time. In my first training session, I didn't make a single save, but I took perhaps five shots from close range on my bare legs (inexperienced shooters), and by the end I was a nervous wreck. A mate of mine asked me to stay behind after training, and we did two extra hours of shooting, he started at a distance and slowly ramped up the power. Each time I got hit in the legs or body, he would reduce the shot speed, and start to ramp it up again. After a month of extra sessions, being shot at increasingly fast, and really focusing on proper technique, I am now feeling ten times more confident than I was when I started, even when I get hit.

I found the key to confidence was pure mentality...every time I saw some one set up for a shot, every time my mind flashed to thinking that I wasn't protected enough, I would stare at the shaft of the stick, and tell myself that good technique would protect me, to the point I would have a mantra in my head during training. 'Stick high, hands out, knees bent.' I've now managed to transfer my faith in body armor into faith in technique...all it took was a good mate who helped me build the self confidence I needed, and a few extra sessions to get acclimatized. In the beginning, I was desperate to strap on as much padding as possible, but I realized, the more I caved into the fear, the more I indulged it, the worse it became. Now, every time I feel exposed, or vulnerable, I just focus on the mantra, and visualize the ball hitting the stick head. Visualization is a massive part of it, if you see yourself getting hit or hurt, you will.

Loose the leg pads, gain some mobility, and just imagine that ball stopping in your mesh.

[Dalenator]

If a goalie wants to wear extra protection, I honestly have no qualms with it, infact it shows a little common sense.

1st point is that playing lacrosse is it's part time, a hobby, and when we're done with it for the day, we return to our lives, do our jobs, commitments which rely on our bodies to be working.
The position of goalie is full of easily gained injuries, ones that can put you out of not just the game for a while, but work even.(hard to type, labour or drive with a broken hand)
so why wouldn't you want extra insurance against injury?
same for lifelong niggling injuries (painful calcium deposits on the shins). I gained a tender shin from a score overzealous D-pole thumps, i can only imagine what numerous lacrosse shots will do.

2nd is that there are more than enough people in the sport who are inexperienced at shooting, rely mainly on power, random slips, interference, rebounds and exhaustion can cause a shot to go off. those are the shots that are going straight for your nuts, so amount of protective wear should be matched to the level of attack man you'll be facing.

the reason college lacrosse goalies wear so little is because accuracy at that level is much better, shots don't go for the body, they go for the net, leaving most saves to be stick saves only(they still get hit, but much much less).

from my experience of being a goalie, I'd put football shins pads and shoulder pad bicep guards for my knees on top of the usual stuff. the result, I became pretty much fearless i had full trust that my kit would take off the sting of shots and allowed me to focus on stopping the shot however instead of 'how much is this one going to hurt'

last bit http://laxallstars.com/how-to-become-a- ... se-goalie/