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!
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