Des,

He is playing a lot better.  He is staying in the ready position longer and his focus on the puck has improved too.  We can see that he is more aware of where the puck is during practice and is not flopping around so much in front of the goal.  They have their first game this week so we will see if more transfers to the game situation this week.  Thanks for all of your help.  It is a great experience for Khrystjan.  He is learning a lot.

Thank You

Last weekend, my team went to Duluth for a tournament, pretty much our last tryout. On the last day of the tournament, they told me that I would the back-up for Varsity and starter for JV! Not many 7th graders can beat out a freshman, and back up for a senior! I owe most of my success to The Goalie Club! Thanks to all the staff that have helped me through my life as a goalie!

With Thanks

Des-
We just had to send you an email of thanks. Last night Brady found out that he will be the “A” team goalie. We attribute that success to your program and the way you work with those kids. AMAZING! He was able to beat out three other kids that have been goalie since mites, one that plays year round and works year round with goalie coaches.

Brady got his first taste of what it means to be a goal tender at your Mankato day camp last year. It allowed him to have a successful 1st year in the net as a full time goalie. But, that weeklong camp at Shattuck this summer took him to a whole new level. Since that camp, the physical part seems to be more natural for him, and mentally, he has a “go get ‘em” attitude that was never there before. He worked hard to get that A spot, and we are very proud of him. (We can tell he’s proud of himself too.)

How much do these kids hang on your every word? Well, what you said to Brady at the refresher class Sunday night in New Ulm resonated with him. He is good at stopping the first shot, but rebounds are his weak spot. You told him at the break away station, “it’s either your puck or mine” and it sunk in. The kid is now moving like lightning trying to make it HIS puck all the time—not just the first shot.

Here’s a copy of the email sent to us from Jeremy Reed, the hockey operations manager, regarding Brady’s tryout:

“I will give him a call this afternoon. I want to talk with him, more than what I had time for at the rink last night. You should be very proud of him, he had a very good tryout :)”

Thanks again, Des, for sharing your knowledge and passion of goal tending with Brady!

Hey DES, just sending you an email to let you know I had tryouts this past week. All of my training at The Goalie Club paid off. I made the A Pee Wee team. See you soon.

Des:

From a parental standpoint, what I notice in his play post camp is that his skills are sharpened. He is much more confident and sure of himself in the net.

Thanks again for helping out with the rides. Much appreciated!

Des,

Just wanted to send you a quick note and let you know we are serving as a billet family to a young man that went to your camp from peewee's through bantam's. His name is Dakota (Cody) Bishop. He is playing in Hudson WI for the Hudson Crusaders. Ross was wearing his goalie club t-shirt the night he arrived and his eyes lit up when he saw it. Ross had a great time at camp again this summer and we hope to bring him to some of your Sunday skill sessions this year. Thanks again for all that you do at camp.

Just wanted to let you know that Luke was chosen to play on the U14 Newfoundland team. The Atlantic tournament will be held in October on Thanksgiving weekend. He is really excited. Thanks

Thought I would pass on some good news. Preston was asked to tryout for the Russell Stover '98 AAA team and made the team.

The coach had seen Preston play against the Kansas City Stars team and was impressed. He asked around to get a phone number and called (the day before) to ask if Preston could come to their invite tryout the next morning. Preston showed up and looked great. He was then asked to go to the team practice the following week-end so the coach could get another look at him and have their U16/U18 goalie coach get a look at him. He went and looked good again. Decision was made and Preston made the team.

Coach Des,

I just wanted to reach out to you and thank you for a wonderful camp experience for my son, Jack. He left last Friday sky high and extremely confident after spending the week with you and your staff. As you may be aware, finding a goalie coach in Montana is fairly difficult. We have a couple of them in our organization, but they won’t give him the time of day until he’s at least a bantam player. In spite of this obstacle, this young man has an incredible desire to be the best. So for him to get some formal training at the level your camp provided was tremendous. Your staffers have had an amazing impact on Jack and I commend each and every one of them for their professionalism, efforts to gets the kids to take risks, and positive feedback. While I personally hold no illusions about his future as a goalie (or hockey player in general) he has told me that his sole goal is to someday become a goalie at Shattuck. I think this is the ultimate compliment to you. He will be back next year!

Thanks again,

Coach Des,

I MADE THE TEAM :D thank you so much for helping me prepare!

Dear Coach Des,

Thank you for the opportunity for my boys, Rocky and Chris from NJ, to participate in the "Snipers" program at your Elite Goalie Camp which was held at Shattuck St. Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota this summer. Both boys have attended many hockey camps in the past few years but they picked your camp as the BEST CAMP EVER!

Rocky and Chris had a blast shooting over 400 pucks a day and making new friends! They learnt from your high level coaches, experienced goalies, and outstanding facility which was second to none! They loved every bit of it.

I definitely recommend your camp to all hockey players who desire to improve their shooting skills.

Thanks again for a great camp and we look forward to enrolling in your upcoming camps.

My daughter first met Des and the other TGC coaches at an association goalie clinic that he was putting on. She was only 4 yrs old at the time but she had a blast and the coaches were all terrific in helping her despite her young age. We signed her up to try a couple of the TGC Sunday clinics at Shattuck to see if she still enjoyed it and how TGC developed someone so young. That was 8 years ago now and we have hardly missed a Sunday clinic since then and attend their summer camp every year. TGC is the highlight of her season every year and she loves working with all the coaches and seeing all the friends she has made there each week. In our opinion TGC is far and away the best goalie training around.

My son began training with Des in the summer of 2004 and has been an active member of TGC for 7 years. The combination of technical expertise, supportive staff and strong peer relationships have been a perfect fit for him. He has developed a very solid technical base from which to grow as a goaltender and formed strong relationships with both TGC staff as well as fellow members. Coach Des posses the qualities of high integrity, strong interpersonal skills and world class technical knowledge. These attributes have allowed him to have great success as both a mentor and goaltending coach. When I asked my son to summarize his TGC experience he said " they push me to be my best and are truly committed to my long term development."

Why TGC?

It is simple.....TGC is simply the best when it comes to training all levels of goaltenders. My son has been training with Coach Des and the TGC staff for more than 4 years. Coach Des is amazing with the goalies. The first thing that I noticed is that Coach Des knows every student by name, where they play, and their experience level before they even step out on the ice for the first training session. It is apparent that many of the goalies are very surprised when he greets them using their name during the warm-up skate. Goalies respond to him because he takes a vested interest in "who" each goalie is. He communicates with each goalie, always building their awareness and self-esteem. Coach Des has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with the students. The TGC philosophy is based on building on each goalies strengths as well as provide tools and alternative techniques to improve any weaknesses that a goalie may have, rather than dictate how a goalie should play. Coach Des carefully selects his support staff, ensuring that they bring the same personal focus when working with the goalies. He and his staff come thoroughly prepared each training session with a fun but challenging practice plan and they execute it flawlessly. The focus of each practice plan begins with skating and edge work (which is often overlooked by most other goalie training providers) and follows through with 4 or more "skill stations" where a drill to enhance specific skills are taught.

The bottom line is we choose TGC because of Coach Des, his staff and quality training. My son would not be the goalie that he is without Coach Des and the TGC staff.

Coach Des-

Thank you so much for the great week of goaltending! Coming from a small town with a limited hockey program, we’ve noticed that the goalie tends to get thrown between the pipes and forgotten. Because of your instruction, Brady kept my head spinning with all of the movements, positions, etc. that he learned about each day. He learned A LOT, had a lot of fun, (and of course, sweat a lot). Your staff should be commended as well! Brady repeatedly talked about how great all of the coaches were. He was never lost in a crowd hoping for answers to his questions; the personal attention he received was good for all aspects of his game—physical and mental. I can hardly wait to see him play this winter.

Thanks again!

Hi Coach Des,

I just wanted to send you a note to thank you for such a great camp. Dan thoroughly enjoyed the whole week. This was without a doubt the best goalie camp that Dan has been to.

Hey Des,

As matter of fact, one of the two head coaches of the Swedish National Goalie Development program reflected over SSM, saying that "apparantly they have a solid goalie program at the SSM". They now know that the program has a name that I told him..... Yours.

Des,
The goalie camp was great.... Mary has been talking about and applying everything she experienced and learned that week both on and off the ice, she also has been reviewing the coach comment boolklet. She had a AAA game last night and I noticed the difference during and after the game, she truly has become a better player and person.Thanks also for the bargain from Elk River to Prodigy, See you next summer! and hopefully a couple Sundays during season.

Coach Des - just a note as to how impressed I was with the short portion of the Prodigy camp that I watched this morning at the Ice Gardens. The kids' focus was really something to behold. I was wondering if my son Ryan had bit of more than he could handle as I watched the hard work being done on the ice and the difficult drills, etc.

On the way home he said this is easily the best camp he has ever attended and it was getting a little easier at least as compared to how he felt after Monday. He said he is really learning a lot and he likes the feedback on technique, etc.

Just thought you would like to know.

The Goalie Club and Des Christopher have been a valuable addition to our hockey program at Shattuck –St. Mary’s. His approach to teaching the skills for the goaltender position are based on a solid base of fundamentals which is the same as we have for all of our players in our program. Our goalies have benefited from Des and his staff’s time spent with our kids both on and off the ice. I would recommend The Goalie Club for any goalie looking for professional instruction, from great people.”

I would like to tell you how much your program has help AJ through out the years. I believe, and he agrees with me, that TGC has helped him to improve as a goalie. We are impressed with his development and we are amazed at how well he has preformed this year. Your group and one-on-one sessions are outstanding! I do not think he could have become the goalie he is to today without the help of your program. His team, this year, was on the edge of not making it to the regional tournament. Their last game of the season was a do-or-die situation. AJ played out of his head that game by holding off the other team’s 39 shots and helped win that game 2 -1. It was amazing to see him actually perform the techniques that you teach him at TGC. To see him perform the Kippirsoff (?) and make save after save was the highlight of my day. His too!

My son’s experience with Coach Des and The Goalie Club has been nothing but positive. Coach Des’ coaching technique and positive attitude have had quite an effect on Garrett. The last four years that Garrett has utilized The Goalie Club and Coach Des exclusively, he has increased his skills and confidence to a level to enable him to make the Prep team at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School. The Goalie Club offers goaltenders from all levels of experience a camp or clinic where they can feel comfortable with their skills around the others at the camp and a chance to improve upon those skills. Camps utilize on and off ice activities as well as video review. The Goalie Club allows you to choose the student/coach ratio and It offers weekly clinics so you can continue to fine tune your skills during the season. Most importantly, it offers you Coach Des, a coach that cares about each goalie and their development and a coach that will be there on the ice with your goalie at each and every camp or clinic.

Since I started working with Coach Des and the TGC staff a few years ago my game has improved immensely. TGC not only stresses the importance of the basic fundamentals, but also adds the latest styles and techniques to make your game as successful as possible. They accept nothing but your very best, and their passion for the game will likely rub off on you as well. They also focus on developing the complete person as much as the complete goaltender, knowing that your success on the ice starts away from the rink.

I have been training exclusively with Coach Des and The Goalie Club since grade school. From learning the basic fundamentals to advanced situational play, on and off the ice, Des has helped me develop into the goaltender I am today. A starting varsity goaltender in high school, a top performing goaltender in the State High School Championships, and now playing in the USHL - TGC made it happen for me!

As a parent who has watched my son between the pipes for the past 13 years I have confidence in recommending TGC to anyone who is serious about reaching his or her full goaltending potential. I have seen TCG develop my son into a complete goalie. They have done this by building a strong and unique relationship with my son through their personal training programs and camps. They have helped him understand the game at a higher level, developed him into a technically sound goaltender, and have increased his speed, reaction time, lateral movement and rebound control through their training on and off the ice. This program has made him a confident goaltender who has reached his goals of playing Junior A hockey and he has earned a DI scholarship. He continues to train with TCG in his effort to be the best goaltender he can be and to strive for his ultimate goal of tending net at the pro level of hockey.

"When my son Isaak, at the determined age of 7, declared himself a full-time goalie, I did what any youth hockey coach would do, I bought a book. 'How hard could it be to teach goaltending anyway' I thought? Through the next season I learned just how much I did not know about the complexity of this position. THis is when I began the search for someone to take over teaching and coaching my knowledge thirsty net minder. We tried many of the camps and clinics being offered in the mtro area with various levels of success. When we found The Goalie Club we knew we finally found what we were looking for - a place where we could get fundamental and situational training tailored to his needs; a place we could return again and again without having to start over with a new coach. TGC works!"

"Six years ago our daughter Lauren came home from school and announced that she wanted to play hockey, as a goalie. She also proclaimed that her goals were to play D1 and Olympic hockey. Pretty lofty goals for a 4th grader, especially since we knew very little about hockey and even less about goaltending! So we sought out training for her and an education for our family. As luck would have it, Des Christopher was running a goalie camp in our hometown. What an incredible experience! That camp gave our daughter the foundation she needed to pursue her goals. Over the past six years it has been truly amazing to watch our daughter progress physically and psychologically by working with Des and The Goalie Club staff. Their knowledge of this demanding position and their ability to connect and communicate with our daughter has allowed her to clearly understand what she must master to progress to the next level. If your child wants to become the best goaltender they can be, I strongly urge you to contact Des about joining The Goalie Club. It has been the best hockey decision we have made!"

"TGC offers the best camps, clinics and instructors around. My daughter always looks forward to working with coach Des and the TGC staff. Over the last four years the TGC staff has given her the individual attention she has needed for her personal growth as a goalie. The TGC has helped her boost her confidence and improve her skills both physically and mentally. I can't say enough about what a great job TGC does. I would recommend TGC to other parents or goalies. Thank you TGC."

"My son Danny had been to many goaltender camps, and didn't find one he liked until he met Des. We've been with Des and his camps, and wouldn't go anywhere else. Des challenges the goalies to get better, and encourages them at the same time. He's great on both the technical and the mental aspects of being a goaltender. We're happy we've spent so much time with Des and would recommend his camps to any goaltender that wants to improve."