u/jarude87

Took my 4yo to U6 stick 'n puck. I suit up in my full tendy gear because the kids have a blast scoring on a "real life goalie" (debatable). My kid loves playing both skater and goalie but has only been on the ice 3 times in his goalie gear. I'm 39 and grew up playing local rep and going to goalie school and never once had any useful goalie coach support within my team or minor hockey organization, so I'm well used to being "outspoken goalie kid standing up for myself" and "only person with any distinct goalie training or knowledge whatsover". I'm sympathetic to the plight of young goalies. I also head coached my kid's U5 group and have a year's experience of herding cats on the ice.

First time we went he was a skater and buzzed off with his buddies under another adult's supervision while I stayed in net. There was a constant stream of kids standing at the top of the crease banging pucks at me and I had a great time sliding out of the way and flopping all over the place so kids could score. It was actually a fantastic way to practice edgework, kids had huge smiles, parents were thanking me, and I was absolutely wiped at the end. I'm thinking "parents are having a well-deserved break because I'm an adult having fun with the kids." Cool.

Most recent time, kiddo decides to be a goalie. I give him a heads up it's going to be a lot different from the scrimmages he played in - no downtime, lots of shots, and we'll be taking breaks throughout. I'm hesitant due to how last time went but figured I'd be playing bodyguard anyways and parents would be jumping in this time to make sure their kids don't do anything stupid as a very obviously tiny kid moving very slowly will be in net.

I spent the entire time policing the front of the net, shooing kids out of the way. Parents sat there and watched their kids just stand in the crease and slap pucks. Shot me dirty looks as I told their kid to wait and let my kid stand back up again. Had to engage full coach mode and fully block kids from shooting, push them back from the crease to the slot and group them to shoot one at a time. Even had to tell a kid not to drop a big celly every time he scored. Absolutely no parent involvement or supervision whatsoever, just casually watching their kids with no awareness at all that this is not appropriate. After 15 minutes of parents with their thumbs up their asses doing nothing I "pulled" him, put his skater gear on and let him rip around before he started getting upset.

Even worse: there was a 6yo goalie at the other end of the ice. He was getting similarly caved in, except his dad was just fucking standing there. I went over to play with my kid and I ended up doing the same crease bodyguard routine, shooing kids away and literally saving pucks so he could get set and not get dinged in the bucket while recovering. All the while his dad just sat there blank-faced watching his kid get torched and struggle. I went over to chat and opened with a friendly "oh hey, another goalie dad here, eh?" and he unsurprisingly said "yeah he loves it but I don't know a thing about it, just trying to learn I guess." As directly as appropriate I commented on how he could use a hand with the pacing and making sure he has time to get set and it just flew over this dude's head. This is after I literally physically shooed kids out of the way of his kid. Just absolutely no awareness in the slightest that a 6 year old shouldn't be subject to a shooting gallery and that the grown-ups in the room should be making sure the kids are making safe plays i.e. not 3 shots going off at a tired kid recovering to his feet.

The fuck. It's not just minor hockey orgs who don't know shit about fuck goaltending-wise. Absolutely no one does. I'm not concerned about my kid as much - I can be his advocate, and he's sure as hell not dressing as a goalie at stick 'n puck again - but seeing this 6 year old struggle while his own parent just sat there thinking this was totally cool was absolutely mind-boggling. No wonder there's a goalie crisis in Canada at least - just a complete cultural and common-sense lack-of-awareness surrounding the position. Makes a lot more sense as to where the "goalies are headcases lol" thing comes from - the unmoderated mental impact of playing the position without any support is real.