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Goalie Science

Goalie Science

By: Elite Goalie Method
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Goalie Science is a podcast by goalies for goalies. The podcast covers hockey rehab, performance and science, and is hosted by former professional hockey goaltender Dr. Jamie Phillips and professional goalie coach Derek Bujan Listen in each week as we discuss the latest science and science-adjacent topics in the hockey world, and cover in depth topics for athletes, parents, coaches and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Elite Goalie Method LLC Hockey Science
Episodes
  • Why Your Goalie Plays Better When They Stop Thinking

    Why Your Goalie Plays Better When They Stop Thinking
    Oct 20 2026

    Charlotte Payne Update
    46 saves on 47 shots, 2-1 win over Union at Delaware. Buj’s take: she is the most complete goalie he has ever developed and there was never any doubt she would get here. The off-ice variables are what separate the goalies who make it from the ones who don’t.

    Devin Kulie on the Unconscious Brain
    Kulie described his best games as ones where his conscious brain stays out of the way. When he is smiling and having too much fun, he shifts into conscious mode and gets beat. Jamie and Buj break this down through motor learning theory: cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages of skill development. In a game, goalies need to be autonomous. The second you start thinking about how to make a save, you are already behind the play.

    Confidence Training vs. Competence Training
    Confidence training, telling your goalies where you are shooting, produces a short-term bump and a long-term decline. Competence training is hard, feels bad in the moment, and produces massive long-term gains. Both coaches train competence over confidence and the results over a full season reflect it.

    The Arousal Curve and Pre-Game Routines
    Everyone’s optimal zone is different. Eric Comrie played sewer ball before warm-up. Braden Holtby sat alone in a dark room with a towel over his head. Both were right. Your job as a goalie coach is to help your goalie find their zone and then protect it, not push them into yours.

    The 1% Stat
    One out of 64 NHL starting goalies is under six feet tall. That is not doom and gloom, it is math. Smaller goalies have to be consistently better than taller goalies to get the same opportunity. The earlier they understand that, the better.

    Pre-Scout Strategy
    Look for trends, not tactics. Give your players something they can actually use in real time. Buj tells the story of putting “five-hole open on wraparound” in a pre-scout 20 years ago, the coach ripped it up, and the team scored a wraparound five-hole goal two periods later.

    Book Recommendations
    The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler. Behind the Bench by Craig Custance. Sean Avery’s autobiography. Burke’s Law by Brian Burke.

    Shoutouts
    TJ Hughes scored his first NHL goal off a Nathan McKinnon pass against the Penguins. Gabby Brazil hit the top fitness percentile on her team at Roger Williams University in her first year as a D3 goalie. Buj’s STA U16 goalies have three shutouts in a row and four wins in a row.

    Buj’s Survivor Pool
    His U12A Admirals team is running an NHL Survivor Pool starting October 31st. DM Buj on Instagram to enter. Estimated prize around $2,500 Canadian. He wins every year and will remind you of that.


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    56 mins
  • The NDL, Rebound Control Myths, and Coaching Pet Peeves

    The NDL, Rebound Control Myths, and Coaching Pet Peeves
    Oct 7 2026
    Episode: 152Hosts: Jamie Phillips and BujRecorded: Monday, October 5, 2026The NDL ExplainedThe National Development League is USA Hockey's attempt to create a Quad A tier with 36 to 40 teams, structured like a junior hockey organization, designed to feed the USHL. Teams would operate at U15 and U17 levels with unlimited out-of-state American players and a cap of two international players per roster.For Fox Motors Hockey, it is a damned-if-you-do situation. Join and risk losing local bubble players to travel costs and distance. Don't join and risk becoming a second-tier AAA organization that bleeds top players at 15 and 16.The rumored rule banning NDL players from signing with major junior programs would be fatal. It pushes the best American players away from the league entirely before it ever gets started. Buj's solution, stated for the fourth year running: just make the USHL part of the CHL.NCAA International Player CapA rumored 20% cap on international players in NCAA D1 hockey came up as a side discussion. Jamie doesn't think it survives the legal exposure. Buj, as a Canadian, admits he'd welcome it. Both agree it would accelerate the fracture of the NCAA model and hand the CHL back its dominance over the junior-to-college pathway.Pet Peeve 1: Changing Stance on Day One of CampJamie's biggest one this year. Goalies coming back from high-performance camps convinced their stances are broken after a single ice session. The problem: you cannot evaluate a stance in structured drills with stationary shooting. You need to see a goalie in real situations, under read pressure, over multiple days.Changing a goalie's stance without that context undoes years of development, creates self-doubt, and makes them play uncomfortable. There is no universal perfect stance. Let the goalie be athletic first, then make targeted changes if something is demonstrably not working.Buj's example from the day before recording: a smaller U15 goalie playing extremely wide, equipment too big, pre-programmed to drop straight down. Only after 30 reps of the same miss pattern did a stance adjustment become warranted. He explained why, pointed to Lucas Dol of Anaheim as a reference, and let the goalie decide. That is the right process.Pet Peeve 2: Making Changes Without Explaining WhyWhen goalies can't explain why they do something, you've built a robot. Both coaches emphasize teaching goalies to understand their game, not just follow instructions.Example: a goalie doing a blocker-side elbow wrap on the post with no idea why, because a coach told him to. The fix was explaining the dead arm concept, walking through all the transitions it enables, and letting the goalie decide if it felt better. It did. Changes stick when goalies understand the reason behind them.Pet Peeve 3: Fix It at the Next Level ThinkingMaking preemptive changes based on hypothetical future problems. Nobody knows what will or won't work at the next level until a goalie gets there. You risk creating present-level problems by dismantling what's currently working.Example: a high-level college goalie being pushed toward more RVH use before playing a single pro game. Jamie's position: if it's not broken at your current level, don't fix it. When you get to the next level and something doesn't work, fix it then.The Roberto Luongo Rebound Control StoryTwo years in New York working exclusively on rebound control. It never improved. He got traded to Florida. New goalie coach simplified the approach: you give up rebounds, so let's work on tracking them out and repositioning. Hall of Fame career followed.The lesson: rebound control is not a skill you directly train. What you train is tracking, positioning, and balance. Stay square through the shot, track the puck off your body, and the rebound goes where your body naturally puts it. Goalies who say they need to work on rebound control are usually being coached to steer pucks rather than read and react, which creates worse outcomes on both the original shot and the rebound.Pro Coaching vs. Private CoachingAn honest conversation about the career crossroads both coaches face. Moving up the pro coaching ladder means censoring opinions, accepting being the whipping boy when goals go in, and playing a political game neither of them is interested in right now.The Sheldon Keefe screaming at Steve Briere clip from the Leafs Amazon Prime series is referenced as the most accurate depiction of what the job actually looks like. Jamie's stated preference on record: AHL, ECHL, and prospects development. That's where the development work actually happens. If anyone in a position of power is listening, he wants the development role, not the NHL bench.Gear CornerBower's new one-piece skate with a connected boot has surfaced in leaked retail brochure images. The concept checks both boxes: the performance stiffness of a fused one-piece boot with the flexibility benefits of the connected system. Buj wore one-piece Trues when playing in Manitoba and...
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Should Europeans Be Banned From Major Junior?

    Should Europeans Be Banned From Major Junior?
    Sep 10 2026

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    1 hr and 22 mins
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