ice hockey goalie equipment

Help. I wanna be an ice hockey goaltender, can you help me?

i just recently quit cheerleading, i did competitive all star cheerleading for 2 years, and i cheered for my school for 4 years. All the years i cheered I was a back spot. Im generally tall and im very strong.
I can follow hockey very well, i've watched the NHL for years.. Im a huge Pittsburgh Penguins fan. I know the rules and everything..but I wanna actually play hockey. My favorite position is goalie, so i really wanna train to become a goalie. Any tips on where to begin? I go skating at the rink all the time with my friends, (im a good skater), but i don't own ANY hockey equipment.. Plus, I don't know how to tell my parents this is what I wanna do.. HELP ME!!

You need to do the strengthen your legs to do the splits and do constant bending for the very quick body switches and changes you need for blocking a shot-on-goal.

And of course, you need to anticipate where the puck is going to go at you....pucks go as fast as 100 mph.

Definitely, you will need to work on special eye exercises to help with your reaction time as the puck shoots towards you. Exercises may include a field-vision test that tests your peripheral vision, which is often used to detect glaucoma...where you click on every red spot that flashes at you at all types of directions.

A few more pointers....

If the puck is going to go above the stick area (you often use the stick on the ground to block shots), use the big glove goaltenders use to stop the puck for a glove save. Otherwise, there is about a 45-65 percent chance that this shot will go into the net.

And always, always, make your profile big as the shot heads towards you. Spread yourself as much as you can to lessen the chance that the puck will go past you and into the net.

And of course, there is the inevitable "puck goes through your legs" shot, which likely counts for about 34 percent of all goal shots. For this, you better not rely on the splits to block a shot...close up your gaps between the legs so that the puck stops at the legs instead of going through the legs. To finish off the save, dive right into the saved puck into the body so that the referee will set off the "play is over" or "dead ball" whistle so that you won't have to worry about offensive players trying to take your saved puck away.

As for telling your parents, I hope they are hockey fans. Tell them that you love the excitement and adventure of blocking shots and all that.

Hope this helps.