Reaction Time for Hockey Goalies Essay

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Reaction time is the most important issue of the hockey goalies’ professional skills. Having the most challenging occupation, they should provide a good reaction time in order to get better results among the colleagues. A successful hockey performance requires a good reaction and an outstanding motor ability. Although it is obvious that reaction time is the basic characteristic of the goalies, the experienced goalies may not have more skills than the novices due to the inborn indices of all sportsmen.

According to Mori, Ohtani, and Imanaka (2002), skills are the important types of perceptual processing, and “expert sports players are superior to novices in perceptual skills” (p. 214). Being more competent, the expert goalies provide more efficient performance due to an ability to recognize the particular elements and take advantage of the situation. Besides, they demonstrate a better understanding of the technique and body characteristics of the opponents. However, the most important skill that helps the professional goalie to provide better results is the ability to move fast and to repel the pucks. However, in most situations, reaction time is an inborn skill that can be improved while the years of training. Obviously, the years of practice develop the skills. As the result, the experienced goalies provide automatic movements without thinking (Hutchison, 2009). In this case, the process of decision-making that makes the reaction slow is replaced by the momentary reaction. Within the hockey performance, such replacement helps to make the game more interesting and the goal moments sharp. Therefore, the experts have better results of the pucks’ repulse. According to the article “Science of Hockey: Goalie Reaction Time”, speed of the puck can exceed 100 mph (160 km per hour) and, during the game, goalies can lose from 5 to 7 pounds of the bodyweight (“Science of Hockey: Goalie Reaction Time”). As we can notice, goalies have to move all the time and demonstrate an outstanding reaction during the game in order to catch an excessively fast puck.

Haché (2002) says that reaction time is one of the most important issues that impact hockey players (p. 12). Obviously, the supreme influence of speed determines the experienced players and novices. It is the favorite moment among the fans to observe the reaction of the goalies that save the gates, flailing the pucks. The goalies’ response to the slap-shots, scores, or repulses is the key element of the game which is very popular among the fans. This unique quality is basic for every goalie. Therefore, it is impossible to imagine a team with a player without a good reaction time. From the beginning, only good-skilled people can think about such a career. Later, developing the inborn skills, the experienced players become worldwide famous heroes. A memory function helps to develop genetic qualities. Therefore, the reaction time of the hockey goalie depends on both inborn factors and training.

As the fastest game on the planet, hockey requires an outstanding reaction time. The goalie’s movement helps to make the game breathtaking and thrilling. Obviously, reaction time as the basic characteristic of the goalies provides great results. However, it would be wrong to insist that experienced players always provide better results than novices. Reaction time is an inborn skill that can be improved by pieces of training. Therefore, even the young goalies can demonstrate a good reaction.

Reference List

Haché, A. (2002). The physics of hockey. US: JHU Press.

Hutchison, D. (2009). Reaction Time in Goaltending. The Goalie Magazine. Web.

Mori, S., Ohtani, Y. & Imanaka, K. (2002). Reaction times and anticipatory skills of karate athletes. Human Movement Science, 21, 213–230. Web.

Science of Hockey: Goalie Reaction Time. (n.d.). Exploratorium. Web.

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