Ah the age old question. How many times have you, your friend, your coach, your cousin’s uncle’s sister’s friend yelled, “Keep your glove up!” It’s easy to say, but it gets a little tricky to understand and apply once you put the gear on. So let’s get to it, where should your goalie’s glove be?

If you looked in a mirror, is this how you look right now?

You’ll notice, every goalie has a different position for their glove. Some keep it low and tucked in, some keep it up high and rotated inward. So unfortunately, your cousin’s uncle’s sister’s friend is wrong. It’s not “keep your glove up”, but “keep your glove ready.” Your goalie should have their glove ready, in a slightly relaxed position in front of their body. Your goalie might like to make the windmill glove save, or prefers to catch the puck like it’s a baseball. The point is, the glove needs to be in a position ready to strike and snatch the puck.

The 3 keys to remember:
– Glove ready
– Relaxed, not rigid
– In front of the body

In an ideal world, we’d like to be searching for the puck as in extending that glove hand forward from our body to catch the puck. Think of baseball, they’re not catching it to the side but in front of them. A good rule of thumb we offer some goalies is to have either our middle finger or pinky finger parallel to the ice to help keep their glove in a strong position to catch the puck.