As the off-season draws to a close and fall approaches, many goaltenders’ thoughts turn toward their training camp or tryouts. For many, all of the long hours training in the heat were buoyed by the motivation of making a better team or taking your career to the next level.

For the past five years, I’ve worked with goaltenders on how to capitalize on all of their hard work by developing a special mindset required to manage the type of circumstances tryouts present. It is not uncommon for goaltenders, especially inexperienced and or highly motivated, to actually self-sabotage their performances based on how they mentally approach their tryouts.

Below are a couple of thoughts on how to avoid some of the pitfalls goaltenders set up for themselves.  
 

Make no mistake your ultimate goal is to play at or near your peak.

This may seem like a no-brainer but goaltenders often lose sight of this goal by focusing on irrelevant information which can prove to be very distracting and quite harmful. Examples of such irrelevant circumstances are the political games that surround the team or judges, favoritism, or even poor evaluation criteria or drills.

Each of these scenarios has stolen the attention of many quality goaltenders during tryouts. This means if they are focusing on those obstacles they aren’t focusing on playing at their peak.  

In order to play at or near your peak it is imperative that you focus on what you have complete control over.

Remember you do not have complete control over what team you make, because it is a coaches/judges decision. You can certainly influence what team you make by playing well or playing poorly, but you ultimately do not have control.

So again your goal is to play at peak, not to impress the coaches. If you focus on what it takes for you to play at peak; impressing the coaches or judges may result.

In addition to focusing on what helps you play at or near peak. Below are three important ingredients to a winning try-out mentality. 

First, Have Realistic Expectations.

Goaltenders can hurt their own performance when they think that they should or must stop every shot, or they shouldn’t have to deal with things that go the other team’s way. I have found that the more unrealistic the expectations the more intense the frustration.

Having unrealistic expectations sets us up to be unprepared for what is most likely to occur therefore, putting us at a disadvantage when events unfold that are out of alignment with what we thought would happen. So have high expectations of playing well, but don’t set yourself up for frustration by demanding shut-outs every time you step on the ice.

Second, Focus on Actions Rather than Results.

Actions are items like movement, angles, save selection, depth, and playing or clearing pucks. In tryout situations goalies often focus on results (something you don’t have complete control over), thinking that the fewer goals allowed the better team you will make. What is more likely is that the goaltender with the most refined actions (something you have complete control over), stops the majority of pucks. Thus accurately displaying the skills they worked hard on in the off-season to refine.

Third, Exhibit Emotional Flexibility.

Prolonged tryouts or training camps can come with ups and downs. There can be moments of excitement as well as despair or frustration. Because of these paradoxical moments goalies are forced to deal with these ups and downs with poise and with grace.

Doing this requires the capacity to be flexible and not allowing one’s emotions to get too high or too low. A great day doesn’t mean you’ve made the team just as much as a poor day doesn’t leave you out of the running.

During the tryout season set yourself up for success by developing a winning tryout mentality. Focus on the actions that will get you the results you seek. Set realistic expectations, be emotionally flexible, and most importantly if it doesn’t have to do with you playing at or near peak, then it doesn’t deserve your attention.

For more information, contact Justin at jjohnson@minnesotahockey.org.