Tip #15 Mental Game Preparation

Hello Goalies! 

We are now a few weeks from the holidays and ready for the second half of season play to begin! I wanted to focus this article on mental preparation before games. How many of you mentally prepare for a game? What is the reason for mentally preparing? How do I mentally prepare? What scenarios do you envision? What helps you build confidence? What do you tell yourself when in net? How do you react to negative comments and dis-believers? How nervous do you get before a big game and how do you control those emotions? What does your mental preparation consist of and how long before a game do you begin it? Many coaches and players state that goaltending is 90% mental and 10% skill. It is because of our position and the demands it requires, we have to continuously put ourselves in positive game situations in order to help build mental strength like controlling our emotions so they do not negatively affect our self image. Has a teammate said something that makes you feel like you don't want to play goalie anymore? These are the situations that we have to learn to control in order to get our heads in the right state of mind so we can compete and give our best performance day in and day out. Mental preparation will help you overcome negative thoughts about yourself or negative comments heard by teammates or coaches regarding your play. 

The best goalies in the world hear negative comments on a daily basis from social media and sport show analysis that go over the one bad goal you let in or the one game that you almost let in double digits. The entire focus of mental preparation is to build up your mental strength so that you cannot be affected by negative comments or tough losses. What is the picture that you create of yourself in your own mind and do you let game situations or negative comments affect that picture that you portray of yourself? I myself began focusing on it at a young age. My father was my biggest critic who always had something to say whether it was right or wrong. It was tough and made me feel negative about my play even if we won 4-1. "How come you let that one in?" he would ask. My mother, the angel she is, would always say "Remember the things you did right and fix the wrong tomorrow." I took that all the way with me in my career and implemented that into my preparation before games and practices. I learned to shake off the negative vibes and realize that those are learning moments. It would help build my intensity in practice and strengthen my attention to detail. I wouldn't look at my mistakes as negatives but instead positive learning points to help me grow as a goaltender and was an individual. Mental preparation helps teach you to control what you say about yourself and not let other thoughts or negative comments affect the vision you believe in becoming. 

In a world like today with everyone being able to give an opinion of every little thing you do, mental strength is a huge part of becoming successful and being confident in yourself. For example, I was always worried about making mistakes during my game and couldn't find away to get past that emotion during important games when the team needed me the most. I had to be a warrior but a warrior is not afraid of making mistakes and that's how he takes chances that lead to success. I sat down with my coach and told him about my one mental block I was having. He was a sports psychology/history major who was well connected in the hockey world. He asked me, "What do you tell yourself during the game while it is play?" I would tell myself "So far so good," and think of each period as 20 minute stretches. He thought it was too much distraction from the game itself and that I would get caught in my own head. He gave me some advice that would change my game for the best. Instead of looking at each period as 20 minutes, break it down into five minute segments. Just take it five minutes at a time and do not get ahead of yourself to help stay in the moment. It helped dramatically and the final part was to change what I was telling myself during the game. He gave me 3 words to choose from and told me to come back to goalie practice Monday and tell him which word I chose, "Fearless."

Coaches Corner - Coaching Exchange Program with Finland

Recently, USA Hockey participated with the Finnish Ice Hockey Association , which is the governing body over hockey in Finland, in a coaching exchange program. This is an established program between the two governing bodies dedicated to the development of youth hockey at an international level. Last month a handful of Finnish coaches came across the pond to spend a week with USA Hockey as they worked with clubs from around the Chicagoland area at every level and age group. They observed and was on the ice with everyone from beginners in learn-to-skate programs to the Chicago Blackhawks.

During this week USA Hockey and two of the Finnish coaches, Jari Saastomoinen and Pekka Peltola spent a day with our Sabres organization at Rocket Ice Arena. They work with several of our U12 teams throughout the night as they finished with our CSDHL '07 team coached by our Travel Director, Tony Lindeman. I was able to observe this training as it was a great opportunity to see two of Finland's premier coaches working side by side with our Sabre coaches on the ice with our skaters.

After the practice sessions, Tony Lindeman organized a coaching seminar involving a number of our Sabre coaches, several USA Hockey representatives, and the two Finnish coaches to openly discuss best practices of coaching, hockey development, and youth development. From USA Hockey we had several representatives including:

Kevin McLaughlin , Senior Director of Hockey Development

Dan Jablonic , Illinois Regional Manager of Youth Hockey in Illinois and ADM Development

Emily West , ADM Manager for Female Hockey

This was a great learning opportunity for everyone involved as we had great discussions on everything from various perspectives to shared experiences in youth hockey. The discussions were very engaging and reflected everyone's passion in the room for coaching and working with kids! These are the reasons why we coach, to make the environment the best we can for our youth skaters. This was a great opportunity for us to step back, pause and reflect on our practices as coaches from a team level, club level, and national level. It is always great when coaches come together to talk shop on development and training. Pekka and Jari greatly enjoyed their time with the Sabres and as a club, I would like to thank both USA Hockey and the Finnish Ice Hockey Association for this great collaborative experience. Walking away from this meeting, I'm really proud of our Sabre organization in our commitment as a club and collectively from all our coaches to make this a great place for our skaters as we are always looking for ways to continually improve and embrace youth hockey. 

Thank you Sabre family!