Keeping your head in the game
© Bandits Goalie School - 2008
By: Dr. Hugh Bray
Sports Psychologist - University of Michigan
The focus of this column is to introduce and explore the importance of developing the mental skills necessary to become a better goaltender.
While these skills are not a substitute for the athletic skills essential for goalies, current sports research suggests that if an athlete develops mental skills along with physical skills their performance improves.
Let’s begin with mental skills that are directly related to a goaltender’s play. In later columns the focus will be on the pre-game preparation skills. A hockey game has a start and a finish, a physical time line, if you will. There is no way to transport oneself physically to the second or third period if the game is only in first period. There is no physical time travel.
All of the players are physically at the same point in the game. However, athletes also bring emotions and thoughts into the game that are not restricted to this physical time line of the game. A goaltender may choose to focus on a great save that they had made the period before or be angry about a goal they had let in. They might worry about an upcoming shot or think about winning the game. Mentally and emotionally there is no time line. One can think about being in the future or think about being in the past. By the same token, one can worry about the future or be angry and upset about the past.
In our seminars there is a saying that we use to identify this issue: “The past is a canceled check, and the future is a promissory note. The present is where our cash is, so spend it wisely. It’s a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.”
This idea reflects the athletic concept of being able to “play in the zone.” This is a special state where everything just seems to flow together and it may feel like you are playing at regular speed and everyone else seems to be in slow motion. This skill is “being in the moment, physically, emotionally, and mentally”. It’s quite easy to accomplish what this is like. Just get a hammer, a board, and some nails and pound the nails into the board while holding onto the nail with your finger and thumb. If you’re not “in the moment,” you’re likely to hit your other hand with the hammer.
I worked with a professional goalie, who said he had learned to not let it bother him if a goal was scored against him. I thought this was a strange remark for an NHL goalie to make so I asked him to explain that statement to me. He said he put all of his efforts, physical, mental, and emotional skills into keeping the puck out of the net. Once the puck crossed the line it was history and he needed to get back to focusing on keeping the puck out of the net. He went on to say that the memory of the puck going into the net was very upsetting and disturbing to him and it actually affected his ability to deal with the next shot he faced. He thought that if he had no memory of the goal being scored he could stay in the present. The goal and the thought of the goal was mental baggage that he didn’t want to drag from the past into the present. Consequently, he was able to focus all of his attention to the next shot. He went on to say he did the same thing with exceptional saves. They were in the past, they belonged in the past, and the thought of that good feeling interfered with his ability to stop the next shot.
“A memory is a terrible thing for a goalie in a game” was his closing remark on the subject. Before he left I asked him about learning and improving from mistakes and wasn’t that important to become a better goalie? He stated that he noticed, that when he was younger, he would replay a mistake over and over in his mind to the point that he actually learned how to make the mistake even better almost like he was rehearsing to make the mistake again. A sandwich approach was developed, a slice of bread, a filling, and a second slice of bread to use after a mistake occurred. So after a mistake he briefly thought of a sandwich and what each part represented. The first slice of bread he focused on correcting the mistake. He saw himself actually moving and being successful. The filling was his cue to focus clearly on the mistake as it had just happened. The second slice of bread was again seeing the corrected and successful move as clearly as possible. By the time the ref was ready to drop the puck again he had corrected the mistake twice and his mind and emotions were back on stopping the next shot.
The goalie said the same thing about winning. At the start of a hockey game winning is in the future and I don’t need the future invading my present. When I stay in the present and focus on each shot winning is more likely. If I worry about the future and winning I can’t focus on stopping the puck as well and my team is more likely to lose. The present, that’s the goalies gift, so hang onto it.
It is important for the goalie to identify what they can control in and about a hockey game and those things that are beyond their control. The one sure thing a goalie has control over is their reaction to what happens in the game.
Research has shown it is not so important what happens to you, what is important is how you take it. The way you react to bad events, a goal against, a penalty, or bad call can have a huge impact on your team and can actually affect how your teammates play. The more effort a goalie spends trying to control things that are not controllable the quicker they tire themselves out mentally and emotionally. So what can you control? Most of your effort should be devoted to your play, what you think about, what messages you tell yourself, and how you behave. Most everything else is outside your control.
Hugh Bray is a licensed psychologist who currently works with the University of Michigan Hockey Team as their team psychologist. In the past he has worked with the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings of the NHL. For several years he was the sport psychologist for the National Developmental Program of USA Hockey in Ann Arbor. He was the 1990 team psychologist for the USA Olympic Hockey Team. He has delivered daily seminars to the Jr. Elite and Pro Elite Goaltenders in the Bandit’s training camps. He has a private practice working with many elite level athletes in various sports including an Olympic Champion and National Champions. He is available for individual consultation through Bandits Goaltending Schools.
To learn more about Bandits, go to: Bandits Goalie Camp - Learn to Rob the Shooters Blind! 
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