Training mentality, part 2 - acceptance and wasting energy

There have been fewer posts on here than planned. The reason for this is that I have a lot more going on now that I am studying sports science on top of my other jobs/assignments, so I will simply be writing only when I have time, energy and inspiration for it.

This is somewhat of a sequel to the previous post that was about training for your own sake whether it be on- or off the court, but this post will deal with training and playing on the court, in the goal.

There are too many moments during a practice or a game that steals energy from us, that affects the way we deal with the upcoming situation, drill or even the rest of the practice/game. An example of this could be a specific situation that led to a goal, since us goaltenders hate giving up goals. We want to have a shut out so badly, or at least give up as few goals as possible. That is why we are in the goal in the first place after all - to tend to the goal and make sure no balls cross the goal line, and failing to do so can be incredibly infuriating. Even more so when the ball finds the net in such a way that feels embarassing to the goalie, i.e when we give up an "easy" goal. When this happens we have a tendency to take it very hard and put a lot of value into that situation, but when we do one or more good saves we tend to shake it off as if we didn't do well, that the shot was bad or that we were lucky. It feels like the goalie has to do ten good saves to outweigh the goal we gave up... that doesn't feel completely fair and I can't see how that mindset can be good in the long run.

When I read the book The power within a few years back I learned a valuable tool when they interview NHL goalie coach Erik Granqvist (Swede, naturally). He talks about the importance of acceptance for a goalie and I have been working with this ever since I read about it, both in goalie training but in my life outside of sports as well.

I am sure most of you have heard of the cliché "learn from your mistakes" and it is a very good cliché, but it is almost impossible to learn from your mistakes and actually grow as a player/person unless you manage to accept your mistakes first. As long as you deny/ignore your mistakes it is incredibly hard to learn from them, so here is my advice to accept and learn from your mistakes (based on Granqvists C3A-method mentioned in the book, all credit to Granqvist.)

Accept - When the ball passes you and hits the net - accept it. It is absolutely fine to become annoyed, but in the seconds after it is very important to accept the fact that you have given up a goal, that someone beat you in a situation and actually scored on you. It doesn't matter if it happened due to a mistake by a defender, a last second redirect, poor vision or an own mistake, the ball went past you and there is nothing you can do about it. The only thing you can do is try to make sure that no additional shots get past you and the best way to do that is to accept the situation that just happened and focus on the next faceoff, the next ball.
How will you be able to make a 100% effort in the next situation if 5% of your attention is still towards the past situation?

Analyze - Do a quick analysis of the situation (can be anything from 2-10 seconds, or more) to more easily get a grip on the situation. this will make it easier to accept the situation while acceptance is a must for the analysis... sort of a circle of life thing.

What caused the goal?
Example - I left the first post too soon, leaving a space on the post which the player noticed. 
Or...
The ball hit a stick (unintentional re-direct) right in front of me when I was about to catch the shot, it bounced over me.
Or...
The intercepted our counter attack which led to a difficult 2v1-situation.

Archive -  Now that you know how the goal happened you have to sort and archive the situation into the appropriate folder. Was the goal a simple mistake on your part, for example dropping the ball into the goal? If it was, do you really need to put a lot of thought into that situation?
"Shit that was embarassing... I can't let that happen again, I'm not gonna drop the ball again, damn that annoying..."
No, you're better off sorting that situation into the mistake-folder, a folder where you put situations that you don't have to evaluate or think about too much. Accept the goal, acknowledge that you made a mistake but don't put too much thought in it. Anyone can make mistakes and everyone does them.

Move on - You've now gone over the entire situation. In one way or another you've given up a goal, you have accepted it, analyzed it and sorted/archived the situation into the proper folder and this is the last important point - move on. Regardless of if you've done something good or something not so good you have to move on to the next situation and the next shot, as long as the game is on. Don't let anything drag you down too far but don't let anything get you too high either so that you let your guard down. The game is not over yet.

Wasting energy

If you ask me, practice is the most important thing we do, It is a lot more important than even games. I am aware that this is a debate where people have different opinions and that is fine, and this is my opinion and my arguement in the case.

A development mindset always leads to results. A result-oriented mindset does not necessarily lead to development.

The games are a receipt that what we do at practice every week actually works and it is at practice we actually work to improve as players. Sure, games give routine and tons of experience but at games it's all about results and performance and stopping every shot in any way possible. But it is at practice, those 1½-hour shifts three times a week where we can learn, develop, try new methods and techniques. That's why it is so important that we make use of these practices so that we can ensure our own development and if we want to do that, we can't afford to waste all this energy on other things during that time.

Energy waste can be be one of a million things, anything that makes you focus on anything other than the practice or game you are at, too many to write down, but the message remains - find the method that helps you stop the energy waste, that helps you focus on the here and now. That will help you in the long run!

Training mentality, part 1 - Train for your own sake

First and foremost I'd like to explain why some of my posts aren't specifically aimed at floorball goalie traning but also touches other aspects of training or sports as I feel like this and other posts to come will be of a non-floorball specific nature. I also want to say that I strive for the posts on this blog cover the exact same material as on my swedish blog .

This post will be of a more personal nature while still covering a very important aspect of training.

When I started blogging I did so because I enjoyed it and because I could write about whatever I felt likt at the time, but last year I started writing less and less until I eventually stopped writing because I felt pressure. I felt like what I wanted to write wasn't specific enough towards floorball goaltending which isn't really a bad thing, but it took away the spontaneity and the creativity in the writing which in turn gave me some degree of writers block.

This year I'm more or less just going to "go for it" and write for my own sake and write more about what I feel like writing about which in turn hopefully (and very likely) will make for better reading as well. This also falls very well into the subject I will be writing about in this post which will become more obvious further down in the text.

As mentioned above I will be trying to touch on the subject of the mentality of training on- and off the court and to stop this from becoming the longest post in history I will do it in two shorter posts.

*For those who are interested I will end the post with a personal anecdote on the subject "learning by doing". I'm writing it last so those who just want to read the main point of the post won't have to do a lot of extra reading.*

Train for your own sake

Fun picture from a goalie session two years ago with Adam Gustafsson, Pixbo Wallenstam.

So, straight to the point. It can not just be me who thinks that other peoples' opinions are extremely boring? It's very often your hear or see how people nowadays care too much about others opinion, almost more so in the gym than anywhere else. (Yes, this part will be fairly focused on the gym but the principle is applicable in almost any other area of training.)

It's common for people to put a few extra kilos on the bar and execute the excercise with poor quality and higher risk of injury because the average person in the gym won't see the lack of quality but will surely notice the amount of weights being lifted which makes it look impressive to most who are watching. We like to avoid exercises that we haven't fully mastered and we are scared that it might not look good in the eyes of others, or we are scared of not looking "strong enough" because we might not lift as many kilos as other people. 

I have met many who say that they don't want people looking or judging them when the work out during my time as a personal trainer I had customers who said the exact same thing. Now, I could be giving words of encouragement like "nobody is looking" or "nobody is juding you" (which I probably did as a PT) but I won't say that in this case, because what do I know? Either they're looking or they aren't and either they're juding, or they aren't. My point is - what difference does it make, really? 

You are there for your own sake and people can think whatever they want. You are as strong and as experienced in the excercises as you are and that's good enough! You are supposed to lift the amount of weights that are right for you, do the excercises as deep as you can and if you want to do excercises that you haven't fully mastered yet you should do them, because the only way to progress and get better at the exercises and get stronger is by doing them. Last but not least you have to dare to make mistakes to be able to develop and get better. 

This is applicable in other areas than just the gym, for example the floorball court. If you have a movement that you're not as good at as the other ones, then practice that movement even though it might not feel or look as good as when you use the ones you're good at, because it will pay off in the end when you've improved and you can put another tool in your toolbox. Do the mobility excercises in the ares where you struggle the most even though you might not be able to do them as well as other people, because it is most likely those exercises you need the most and they are very likely the ones that will help you improve the most. Never midn what anyone else might night and do it for yourself!

This is the exact mistake I made last year - I cared too much about what people might think about what I wanted to write (this is still partly true and I admit I'm still working on it) and like I said that made me stop writing. However somewhere along the line I realised that the ones who don't like what I'm writing simply don't have to read it while the ones who want to read it will most likely still read it. That's why I will be writing for my own sake and that is also why I'm encouraging you to train for you own sake. 

As promised - a short anecdote...

Earlier this year I decided to, as a 26 year old man learn skateboarding completely without previous experience. I went to an enourmous indoor skatepark fully aware that all the skaters in there from the age of twelve and up would be a lot better than me since I couldn't even stand on the board at that time, but I had decided to learn. When all the maniacs flying across the place stood still for a moment I got on the board and slowly rolled across the floor trying to not fall off while avoiding all moving and non-moving objects. When I reached the end of the hall I got off, turned the board around with my hands and rolled back. I went at it like this for two hours, increasing the difficulty step by step and moving from flat floor to bigger and bigger ramps while fiften year olds absolutely flew past me left and right.

Eventually I decided to try a drop from an average sized half pipe. I stood there for a good while before I actually dared to push myself off the edge and not entirely unexpectedly I came to a sudden stop and fell face first to the floor with a crash. It must have looked hysterical.

After that I switched to a smaller drop where I felt more confident and I stayed there failing time and time again for about 25 tries (without crashing though), fully aware that everyone in the park had seen my struggling for the longest time with this ramp that youngsters managed with ease. I was encouraged after about fifteen times by a passing skater who had seen me at work and before I reached try number 30, I actually made it and I was encouraged and congratulated by a another couple of older random skaters who had also watched the whole show while skating about. 

That was really unexpected, but also really cool to be a part of! 

The point of this is that I didn't care in the least about what the other skaters might think about the 26 year old rookie and I just skated for my own sake, I had so much fun and I improved so much. When I left the skate park almost three hours later I wasn't just happy but proud. It was a powerful experience and I hope more people get to experience something similiar. 

Thanks for now and a special thank you to anyone who read all the way here! 

//Pontus

Goalie coaches

Something I feel is worth bringing up before the start of the season are goalie coaches, actually more so the lack of goalie coaches. Wherever I go a lot goalies always tell me that they've never had a goalie coach and that they get the feeling of just "sitting there" in the net at practice. That they don't get attention or feedback from the coaches and when they do it's most often something general like "good communicating" or "don't give up the short side/first post".

No offense to head coaches, I know first hand how hard it is to be in charge of the entire team and at the same time find good feedback to give the goalies. As a matter of fact it's close to impossible. But if you have two or more coaches in your team, one of them should definitely have a little more responsibility for the goaltenders. 

I also meet a lot of coaches who say they want to help their goalies but that they don't know how or where to start. I completely understand not feeling comfortable or experienced enough for a certain task, I've had that a thousand times and if you really want to make something work, you can. It's even easier in this instance because there is no other choice than to deal with it - if you have goalies on your team (which I'm guessing you do), you need to take care of them.

The good thing for those of you who might not feel experienced enough to take on your goalies - it's not necessarily about knowing more than your goalie. Like I wrote earlier there are goalies out there who literally feel invisible in their teams, that probably only gets noticed when they do game deciding saves and nothing else. Can you imagine how big a difference you as a coach can make just by paying attention and learning to notice the efforts, the small positive things and intentions.

You will be able to make such a big difference only by listening and letting the goalie bounce thoughts/feelings/ideas off you. You learn a lot by doing so and the goalie will also start trusting you more and more when they notice that you're really trying to help them which will help both of you in the long run. Classic win/win.

Open questions

If you want advice on how to start helping your goalies I can recommend asking open questions. They are questions designed to help the other person reflect on him/herself and arrive at a conclusion together. 

Example:

- What are your thoughts on that situation?

- I don't know, it's really hard when they...............

- What would you have wanted to do differently?

- Maybe I should have................

- Sounds good, give that a try next time and we'll take it from there.

Not only does this include the goalie in the decision making which makes any actual change in the net more possible since they themselves got to choose what to do, but it also makes them feel more included which further instills trust between goalie and coach. It's very important to get the message across that you're there to help and not to decide.

Ask for permission to give feedback

It might sound a little strange to have to ask for permission, but try to put yourself in this position:

In the middle of practice, you're tired, dehydrated, filled with adrenaline and annoyed that things just aren't going your way. Now someone approaches you and spoonfeeds you advice that you didn't ask for and really didn't want to hear right now. No doubt the coach only tried to help you, but what was the actual outcome? The advice most likely didn't stick because you're just not receptive right now and instead you get annoyed with your coach who poked you at the wrong time. 

The effect of asking for permission is quite powerful. If you ask that question and someone, even slightly unwillingly replies "yes" they have subconciously made themselves more receptive to advice which makes it more likely to stick. Also it includes them in the process and again lets them know that you're trying to help and not trying to boss them around or show them up. Trust increases and you grow as a team. 

It's about helping, not deciding.

I am no authority in these matters, these are only advice on tricks that I've learned to use and found very helpful and my hope is that it will be helpful to some of you. I also wanted to shine some light on how easy it can be to make a really big difference for your goalies with relatively little effort, so when you look at your coaching staff for this season - please make sure that someone takes a little more responsibility for the goaltenders. 

Thanks for reading! 

//Pontus

Let's take it in English!

I have been saying for quite a while now that I will do my best to try to run a floorball blog (more specifically about floorball goaltending) for quite a while now but I just haven't had the energy to do the work as it takes a lot more effort to write in English. However now feels like a good time to give it a try so here goes!


First of all I feel like it's necessary for me to introduce (or reintroduce) myself since this feels like a fresh start. My name is Pontus, I'm a 26 year old floorball goaltending coach from Sweden and I currently run a blog on the Swedish online floorball platform Innebandymagazinet. I have been coaching floorball on different levels for almost ten years and now I am very happy and proud to be able to say that I am actually making a living off floorball.

Målvaktsfokus started out as a blog (this exact domain) and is my company with which I arrange goalie camps and travel to do freelance goalie coaching. On a day to day basis I train the goalies in Pixbo Wallenstam in Gothenburg where I also work as a clerk in a floorball store called Innebandykungen. The last few years I have also tried to be active on social media (facebook.com/malvaktsfokus) and Instagram (@malvaktsfokus) and things have taken off more than I ever thought it would. However when my blog was moved to Innebandymagazinet (being a Swedish site) I started blogging in Swedish instead of both English and Swedish like I did before.

As I have met more and more people all over the world through freelancing it feels like a good time to start writing in English again, so that's what I'm going to try to do here. I will post about floorball goalie training, about goalies/floorball in general and sometimes I will simply write updates on what's going on at that moment.

The challenge for me will be to keep two separate blogs going at the same time so please keep that in mind if sometimes it takes a long time for me to post something. I can't say how often I will be posting, but I will try to write every now and then.

I have some ideas in mind for a series of posts about floorball goaltending and goalie training but I am very interested to hear if anyone reading has something they would like me to write about or discuss. If you have something you're wondering about or are curious of, please let me know and I will try to be of help!

This has been a very general post just to let you non-swedish speakers know that I will try to get this going again. There will be a test period for a while to see what kind of response the blog gets and if it feels like people are interested I will most likely be motivated to keep going.

We will see what happens I guess! That's all for now.
Thank you!
//Pontus

Vilken kraftsamling! Pålsson ansluter till Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp!

Vi fortsätter att förstärka vår lineup till årets andra upplaga av Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp genom att välkomna en rutinerad målvaktstränare från den svenska superligan. Vi träffades på ett målvaktstränarkonvent under SM-finalen i Stockholm och det är nu mitt nöje att presentera vår nästa ledare, Daniel Pålsson från FC Helsingborg! 

Hej "Pålle"! Det är fantastiskt kul för mig att kunna presentera en så pass erfaren ledare till lägret. Berätta lite om dig själv! 

- Jag heter Daniel Pålsson, jag är 31 år gammal och jag bor i Ängelholm i Skåne. Jag är en f.d målvakt som stod i gamla division 1 (allsvenskan idag) men slutade för sex år sedan pga knäskador. Mitt sista år som aktiv målvakt fick jag upp ögonen för "extra träning" för mig själv. Jag ville gärna ha mer skott från olika vinklar i olika situationer, så oftast när vi körde powerplay/boxplay på ena sidan så gick jag över på andra sidan och tog med mig ett par skyttar så fick jag dem avslut jag ville ha. På den vägen blev jag mer och mer inspirerad på att träna andra målvakter. Så när jag lade hjälmen på hyllan blev jag direkt målvaktstränare i den klubben jag spelade för på den tiden, Munka Ljungby.

Jag var en säsong i Munka Ljungby, sedan lockade grannen FBC Engelholm över mig som gjorde en storsatsning som dock inte lyckades, så jag gick tillbaka till Munka igen där jag började som målvaktstränare men fick även ta över huvudtränarrollen efter ett tag, så jag kombinerade att vara målvaktstränare och huvudtränare under två och en halv säsong i Munka Ljungby. Mitt sista år i Munka var jag även delaktiv i FC Helsingborg som målvaktstränare och det ledde till att inför denna säsongen som gick så fick jag ett kontrakt av FCH, då jag fick en kombinerad roll som både ass- och målvaktstränare. 

Jag har även varit målvaktsansvarig för distriktslagen här i Skåne för årgångarna 90-96 och haft förmånen att få träna många duktiga målvakter, samt att jag har frilansat och åkt rundor till olika klubbar i Skåne som velat ha målvaktsträning. Det unika med hela den här resan är att jag upptäckte Jonathan Paulsson (förstemålvakt FCH Helsingborg) redan som 15-åring i distriktslaget. Jag har följt honom som tränare under hans karriär och fortfarande med honom i FCH.

Ditt vardagliga uppdrag är ju som sagt att träna Paulsson i FC Helsingborgs herrlag i SSL. Hur känns det att bryta av sommaren med ett målvaktsläger i Norrbotten?

-Det ska bli väldigt kul och inspirerande att komma upp till Boden och se vad lägret har att bjuda på. Det är en lite annorlunda situation, i SSL har målvakterna kommit ganska långt och där jobbar vi mer med olika detaljer under säsongen. På läger har man gott om tid att nöta saker, träna grunder, ge feedback m.m så det ska bli fantastiskt kul att få drilla nya talanger. Det är bra att det äntligen finns specifika läger för målvakter. Att redan i tidig ålder kunna få så bra förutsättningar med såna här läger är grymt. Väldigt bra initiativ av dig Pontus!

Jonathan Paulsson (FCH Helsingborg)  här med det svenska landslaget. FOTO: Per Wiklund

Med ert herrlag så spelar ni matcher så högt upp i landet som Umeå. Har du varit så högt upp i landet innan? Om nej, är det något speciellt förutom innebandy du hoppas på att få vara med om?

-Nej precis, när det blev klart att jag skulle gästa er så satt jag och tänkte på detta. Umeå var en lång resa i buss under säsongen men när jag såg vart Boden låg så var första tanken att det kanske var läge för att packa ner vinterjackan. Självklart är mycket av fokuset på innebandy men läger är så mycket mer, det sociala kring att lära känna nya människor, allt från deltagare som vill bli bäst i världen till duktiga och kompetenta ledare som kanske har ett helt annat synsätt kring målvaktsträning. Det ska bli väldigt spännande och utvecklande!

Du och jag möttes under SM-finalen under ett målvaktstränarkonvent där vi diskuterade olika sätt att få målvaktstränarkulturen i att växa i landet. Vad är den största förändring du skulle vilja se i innebandysverige gällande målvakter?

- Detta är en intressant fråga och det har varit mycket diskussioner kring detta. Vi hade ett väldigt bra konvent under SM-finalen med 35 deltagare som ville veta mer om målvaktsträning vilket ledde till många bra diskussioner. Det är upp till var och en hur man vill träna sina målvakter, det viktigaste är att det finns någon som bryr sig om sina målvakter, att man är engagerad och har intresse för målvaktsrollen. Jag tror på och jobbar efter att utgå från individen, att bygga på styrkor och svagheter men även agera bollplank, se situationer och diskutera det med sina målvakter. Jag hoppas att vi kan få fram ännu fler målvaktstränare i Sverige så att vi slipper ha målvakter som är självlärda.

Slutligen, har du någon dold talang?

- Nja det vet jag inte riktigt, det enda jag kommer på just nu är att jag var med i "Bäst i 4:an" i pingis när jag gick i mellanstadiet. Så finns det ett pingisbord i anläggningen och någon som är villig att utmana mig så gör jag gärna det! :) 

Tack så mycket för dina svar Daniel! Jag ser fram emot att hämta dig på Luleå flygplats i Augusti och att få arbeta med dig under lägret! Välkommen till Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp!
Vill du komma och träna med mig och Daniel? Anmäl dig här!

//Pontus
www.malvaktsfokus.se
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Jag har flyttat till innebandymagazinet! (I have moved to a new blog adress!)

Hej! Då min nya blogg startades glömde jag att officiellt meddela att denna blogg kommer att ligga vilandes tills vidare och upptäckte att det fortfarande kommer besökare hit. Tusen tack för att ni fortsätter klicka in på min blogg om målvakter!
Numera hittar ni min blogg på blogg.innebandymagazinet.se/malvaktsfokus om ni vill fortsätta läsa!
Det kan hända att jag framöver lägger ut inlägg på engelska på denna blogg, för de följare som inte kommer ifrån Sverige.

Tack igen! Ses på Magget!

//Pontus

Hi! In the middle of moving to my new blog I forgot to let you all know that this blog will most likely become inactive and now I noticed that people are still visiting this blog. Thank you all so much for continuing to visit!
From now on you will find my blog at blogg.innebandymagazinet.se/malvaktsfokus if you want to keep on reading. On this new adress I will mostly be posting in Swedish as it is a Swedish domain, however if someone out there wants me to post in English every now and then just let me know and I might use this blog (malvaktsfokus.blogspot.com) to write in English!

Thank you all so much again! See you at "Magget"! (Or possibly here for English posts... up to you!)

//Pontus

Träffa våra ledare del 2 - Tobias "Maskinen" Jernsand!

Nästa ledare på Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp som det är mitt nöje att presentera gör även han sin comeback på lägret! Direkt från Svenska Superligan, Warberg IC och Warberg Goalie Camp - Tobias Jernsand! 

1 - Berätta lite för oss om din innebandybakgrund!

Jag började spela innebandy i Tvååkers IBK när jag va runt 9-10 år. Började som målvakt vid 13 års ålder och sedan har det fortsatt. Gick till Warberg 2010 till ett juniorlag. Klättrat hela vägen i Warberg till SSL spel idag. Har ett par U19 landskamper, ett SDF-silver, men mycket mer har det inte blivit ännu.

2 - Du har nyligt framträtt i väldigt positiv bemärkelse, särskilt när Warberg bröt sin förlustsvit genom att ta en poäng mot Storvreta på bortaplan! Hur gick dina tankar inför och efter matchen? 

Inför matchen var det såklart nervöst, största matchen i mitt liv enligt mig, och att få gå in och spela på det sättet som jag trots allt gjorde var såklart superkul! Efter matchen va det en lättnad av att få med sig en poäng borta mot Storvreta.

3 - Förutom att spela matcher så är du med som instruktör på mer eller mindre varenda Warberg Goalie Camp. Vad är det bästa med den typen av läger för dig?

Roligt att kunna inspirera och nöta detaljer med ambitiösa målvakter. Sen lär man sig även mycket själv som instruktör, framförallt genom diskussionerna, utanför och på planen.

4 - Även du har valt att vara med på vårat läger i Boden en andra gång vilket är fantastiskt kul! Vad var det bästa med förra årets läger? Kanske hinderbanan? ;)

Hinderbanan va ju rolig, men framförallt att träffa lite lugna norrlänningar och instruera och diskutera olika situationer. Hoppas så många som möjligt från förra campet kommer så vi kan fortsätta där vi avslutade senast.

5 - Från julens läger nere i Warberg så blev du internt känd som en kylig backhand-skytt! Något som du siktar på att upprätthålla denna gång, eller har du något annat ess i rockärmen? 

Ren flyt skulle jag säga, det där med backhanden..... Men har några kort kvar att spela ut, men det avslöjar jag såklart inte här!

Tack för frågestunden Tobbe! Ses på lägret! 

Anmälningar och information om lägret här! 

www.malvaktsfokus.se/goalie-camp

//Pontus