The 5 R's
© 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.
No matter how hard one tries, they simply cannot change the past. There is no rewind machine or do-over’s in life or in a hockey game. What has already happened is history; it’s over and done with. It doesn’t matter if it was a great save or a move that allowed a goal to be scored, it is in the past. You can only really have impact on the very next play, or the incoming next shot by focusing on the “NOW” in the game. You must change your mental approach to the upcoming action. We have discussed this previously in terms of the “here and now”. Hockey is a game that is open for mistake opportunities and every player makes mistakes. A good deal of the time when a player makes a mistake it can be caught and corrected by another players actions, but when a goalie makes a mistake, it usually goes up on the score board. There is a tendency to focus on mistakes made which keeps the goalie’s thoughts in the past which makes it much more difficult to play effectively. To combat this, a skill called the Five R’s is useful to develop to keep your game
in the present.
Bouncing back after a bad play or allowing a goal is crucial. This is the skill that allows a goalie to come back strong and effective after a bad event. A GOALIE CANNOT AFFORD THE LUXURY OF A NEGATIVE THOUGHT. After a bad event, negative thoughts come into the mind. The harder one tries to get them out of their head the stronger the thoughts become. A key component is passive thinking. Your thoughts are really nothing more than ideas you create. If you allow them to become too powerful they tend to stay planted in the mind. In actuality, your thoughts are quite similar to waves coming up onto the beach. A new wave is sure to follow the last wave. You can learn to control your thoughts and allow a new thought to replace the old negative thought just like the waves on a beach. A new thought is only moments away. Don’t focus on the negative thought and don’t fear the negative thought, simply allow a new thought to replace it. Remember whatever thought you resist will persist.
The Five R’s can be developed in practice and can be very effective in keeping your head during a game. The Five R’s are; RELEASE, RELAX, REGROUP, REFOCUS, and READY.
1. RELEASE: any bad thought or feeling about what just happened in the past. One time focus on how to correct the problem then let it go. Your thought can be the wave moving back from the beach as a new wave comes in to the beach. Remember, you have already mentally solved the problem at this point.
2. RELAX: by taking a deep cleansing breath. Inhale very slowly and deeply (Using a full 5 seconds to take in a breath), hold the breath for 5 seconds, and then exhale very slowly (Using a full 5 seconds to let out the breath). Allow your body and mind to relax.
3. REGROUP: and pick your head and shoulders up. Hold them high. You’re a fine goaltender and you want to communicate that to everyone and let it shine through. Remember it’s not so much WHAT happens to you, but rather HOW you take what happens to you. Remind yourself of your strengths. What has just happened in the past does not usually predict what will happen next in the game.
4. REFOCUS: think, focus, and concentrate on the upcoming action sequence. Tell yourself what you plan to do and how you will do that. Think about effort and outworking your opponent. Take control of the way you talk to yourself. In your mind, paint a picture of what you want to happen and hold onto that picture.
5. READY: for play by directing your attention to focus on getting information necessary to perform your job. This allows you to make effective choices for all the options you have in any game situation. Select the correct option and move.
These five steps can easily be completed in the time it takes the ref to get the puck from the net and have it ready for the next faceoff. However, these steps do require regular practice if you’re going to use them effectively in your game.
Two items have been mentioned in these steps, one is “how you talk to yourself” and the other is “paint a picture”. To improve these skills, it will be necessary to do a homework assignment. In our seminars, a task that I have every athlete complete is “The ideal coach/ideal athlete” exercise. To do this you will need to take a piece of paper and divided it into 4 squares by drawing a line in the middle of the paper from top to bottom and then half way down the side draw a line across the center of the paper from side to side. In the top left square put in all of the qualities of an ideal coach. This can be a coach you have now or it can be a combination of characteristics of coaches you have had in the past. In your mind what makes a good coach. In the top right square what makes up an ideal goaltender. How do they think, how do they train. Anything you can think of that makes an ideal goalie. In the bottom left corner put in how an ideal coach works with a player. How do they talk to the player and most important how does the ideal coach correct mistakes? In the bottom right corner put in what you feel the goalie’s responsibilities are to improve their game. How do they respond to criticism? That’s your home work and it needs to be completed before the next column. Oh, one last thing, please do exactly as I ask and follow my instructions for the next second or two and have somebody read the next statement to you, or you can read it to someone else and ask them what happened.
Ready.... don’t think of a
red sports car....
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 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 Goalie School, go to: Bandits Goalie Camp - Learn to Rob the Shooters Blind! 
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