Great points. Prour father of a 13 year old goalie here who started playing goal in PAL because no one else wanted to in 4th grade. As it turned out, he was one of those rare ones born to be a goalie even at that early age. The reflexes were there, but of course the instincts other than to come out and hit some kid on the crease weren't. That took time and training and coaching, maturity, nothing more. So now, at the ripe old age of 13, he has learned to stay in the cage unless he has to, he tracks the ball, plays the stick and even more, controls the defense which is were most goalies do not get to when they are developing. he has always saved more then 60% of the shots, but accoridng to all the expert parents on our teams, any shot taken he should have saved of course. So anyone who critiques a goalie at the age of 8 or 9 are uneducated about the difficulties of the position and to be honest, its a lonely role for these kids as well because u r the hero and the goat all the time. | 
