Ashleigh Johnson. Wow.

The camera angles and various vantage points in the Olympic coverage give us a great opportunity to see near-perfect goalie position in action. Not to mention, a master class in how to block the lob shot.

So when you watch the Women’s Team play next, pay attention to a few things Johnson does so well:

-Base position: Look at her hip angle and hand placement, as well as her ability to stay in her spring-like base and attack the shot.

-Aggressiveness: From above, you can really see what an amazing job Johnson does inching out of the goal to challenge shooters, laying out to prevent the pass to the center and then immediately recovering back over her hips to her base, all the while attending to the shooter.

-Corner Lunge Move: When her fundamentals are aligned, it simply seems impossible to score on her, even with a high corner shot from close range. The only hope outside shooters seem to have is to present an effective fake and then shoot immediately following which then forces Johnson’s hips to drop. It’s awesome to see such pristine fundamentals in action at such a high level, with the stakes so high.

-Lobs: Johnson has blocked a number of well taken lob shots. The various camera angles allow us to watch her fluidly and explosively drop back into the goal, extending her shot blocking arm across her body just as the ball drops. This, then, allows her to come farther off the goal to challenge the high corners and prevent center passes.

 -Jack Bowen