As a coach you kind of want to take full credit for when your player succeeds in his/her sport and while it is true that a good coach can make a difference, you are still the one behind the wheel. Your coach sits in the passenger seat and tells you how to drive and hits the break when you're heading in the wrong direction only to steer you in the right direction again. The day your coach can't make it to practice you are still expected to drive in the right direction and stay away from the bus lane, and to find the motivation within yourself to do so.
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| Picture from Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp -15. Photographer: Jonatan Stålhös. |
"Fight as you train, train as you fight." To me, this translates to behavioral training and it is absolutely essential for you as an athlete!
When you practice you teach your body how to act in a certain situation and when faced with that situation outside of practice, you are automatically going to do exactly what you practiced. This is why it is so important to practice everything correctly. If you as a goalie don't follow the ball when it is being passed around in an drill, you are most likely not going to do that during game time either, since you have been practicing not to do that
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Let us say that your team gets a visiting coach, someone who has been playing your position for a very long time and has loads of experience. This coach tells you how to play during the game and you agree with him/her completely, you even understand why and how to perform what he/she taught you, but when the game starts you for some reason do something completely different from what you just discussed. This is going to happen 9/10 times if you have practiced a specific behavior for a long time - you will get overthrown by adrenaline and endorphin's and act on instinct.
A good example of this could be rolling the ball to your defenders every time you have the ball, without even looking for a different alternative (a far throw). The one time your opponents make a bad change durign a game and leaves one of your winger's open on the other side of the court, you will still most likely roll the ball to your defender instead of trying to take the far throw which could lead to a scoring opportunity.
I myself did the exact opposite of this when I was a young goalie - I threw the ball far out every time I had the ball, with no exception and if my opponents cut my pass I would just try again, and again and again. It is insane how many counter attacks I have created against myself like that since I was raised by my wingers' to always throw to them. I remember one game that we were about to loose in our home arena and that I kept giving the ball away to their forwards' time after time by throwing the ball down the court which allowed them to intercept, until one of my much older defenders scared me by yelling in the middle of a throw, that he wanted the ball. It was a booming shout and it seemed like he was telling me off instead of just asking me to pass, so I rolled it to him instead of throwing which in hindsight was the right call. After that game, I tried looking to both my defenders' and my wingers' instead of blindly hurling the ball down the court.
"What do I need to practice to become a good goalie?"
This is a question that I get every now and then which is a very difficult question with no straight answer, but I would probably say that the behavioral exercises during practice are key. Always warm up properly, don't just shuffle off the drills, drink a lot of water, and so on. If you do everything properly at practice you will be helping yourself tremendously on your way to individual improvement. This will give you a good base to fall back on the day your secondary driver isn't with you in the passenger seat.
The most important piece in your behavioral exercises as a goalie is probably how to handle being scored on. Some goalies curse, some goalies punch the floor, some goalies get depressed and some goalies do absolutely nothing except drinking water and breathing. This brings us to the most important advice from the coach for this post:
Next time you are at practice and you get scored on, just stand up and take three deep breaths and re-focus on the game. Forget the ball ever went past you, simply focus on stopping the next shot.
Create your own routine on how to handle being scored on, a way that lets you move on without it weighing you down. Sing a song in your head, dance, smack your cheeks, spin three laps jumping on your left foot or whatever it might be that could help you in thinking "0-0" and focusing on the next attack. When you have done your routine enough times at practice, you will notice how you are able to maintain your mental strength during a game in a completely different way and you will play just as good throughout the entire game, regardless of what the scoreboard says.
I'm sure I've missed some important point that I want to make, but if so I will save that for another post!
Keep on fighting, brave goalies!
#proudtobeagoalie
A good example of this could be rolling the ball to your defenders every time you have the ball, without even looking for a different alternative (a far throw). The one time your opponents make a bad change durign a game and leaves one of your winger's open on the other side of the court, you will still most likely roll the ball to your defender instead of trying to take the far throw which could lead to a scoring opportunity.
I myself did the exact opposite of this when I was a young goalie - I threw the ball far out every time I had the ball, with no exception and if my opponents cut my pass I would just try again, and again and again. It is insane how many counter attacks I have created against myself like that since I was raised by my wingers' to always throw to them. I remember one game that we were about to loose in our home arena and that I kept giving the ball away to their forwards' time after time by throwing the ball down the court which allowed them to intercept, until one of my much older defenders scared me by yelling in the middle of a throw, that he wanted the ball. It was a booming shout and it seemed like he was telling me off instead of just asking me to pass, so I rolled it to him instead of throwing which in hindsight was the right call. After that game, I tried looking to both my defenders' and my wingers' instead of blindly hurling the ball down the court.
 |
| Picture from Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp -15. Photographer: Jonatan Stålhös. |
"What do I need to practice to become a good goalie?"
This is a question that I get every now and then which is a very difficult question with no straight answer, but I would probably say that the behavioral exercises during practice are key. Always warm up properly, don't just shuffle off the drills, drink a lot of water, and so on. If you do everything properly at practice you will be helping yourself tremendously on your way to individual improvement. This will give you a good base to fall back on the day your secondary driver isn't with you in the passenger seat.
The most important piece in your behavioral exercises as a goalie is probably how to handle being scored on. Some goalies curse, some goalies punch the floor, some goalies get depressed and some goalies do absolutely nothing except drinking water and breathing. This brings us to the most important advice from the coach for this post:
Next time you are at practice and you get scored on, just stand up and take three deep breaths and re-focus on the game. Forget the ball ever went past you, simply focus on stopping the next shot.
Create your own routine on how to handle being scored on, a way that lets you move on without it weighing you down. Sing a song in your head, dance, smack your cheeks, spin three laps jumping on your left foot or whatever it might be that could help you in thinking "0-0" and focusing on the next attack. When you have done your routine enough times at practice, you will notice how you are able to maintain your mental strength during a game in a completely different way and you will play just as good throughout the entire game, regardless of what the scoreboard says.
 |
| Picture from Målvaktsfokus Goalie Camp -15. Photographer: Jonatan Stålhös. |
I'm sure I've missed some important point that I want to make, but if so I will save that for another post!
Keep on fighting, brave goalies!
#proudtobeagoalie
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