By / Steve McKichan
It has been said that goaltending is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical. Do you agree with this?
I agree that goaltending has a crucial mental side to it but today the physical requirements of goaltending are so important, I would peg it more around the 50 per cent range.
Why is the mental game so important to the goaltender?
Everyone who has seen or played hockey knows about the roller coaster a goaltender goes through within a game or within a period; for that matter even a season. There are extremely negative things happening, extremely positive things happening and extremely difficult tasks being performed at amazingly high speeds.
Without strong mental skills like concentration, a goaltender can’t perform consistently or handle the ups and the downs.
What types of areas are you referring to when you talk about the mental side of the game?
When discussing the mental side, I like to focus on the following areas: concentration, consistency, overcoming nerves, peak performance, positive self-talk, skill rehearsal, visualization, and goal-setting.
How can a goaltender improve their concentration skills?
I have often watched bad goals ruin good performances and ruin a team’s chance for victory.
Bad goals can never be eliminated but they can be significantly reduced with better concentration.
Another way to describe concentration is to call it, ‘staying in the moment.’
You only focus on what is happening right now – not the bad goal that just happened or the overtime that is about to start.
Thinking about the past or the future can cause these problems with concentration.
Concentration skills take years to master but the best tip I had was to bring my focus back to the present as soon as I recognized I was thinking about the future or the past.
I would describe current things like the colour of the center’s stick tape or how tight my left skate felt. Anything I could bring up in my mind about the present helped channel my thoughts back and it improved my concentration skills.
I have even tried running a little play by play in my head as the game went on which really helped me stay focused and concentrating.
How can a goaltender improve their consistency? Many goalies play great one game and shaky the next game.
Consistent performance results from consistent preparation. Although sometimes confused as superstition, many pros are intensely tied to pre-game routines.
As they were developing, they made mental notes on what they did to prepare for games where they had great success. As well, they would make the same mental notes after poor performances.
Like a doctor determining a small item that is causing an allergic reaction, the athlete systematically tinkers with things like sleep and diet to find the elements that factor in to great or mediocre performances.
For example, if the athlete had seven hours of sleep, ate chicken, stretched for 30 minutes before a game and then proceeded to stand on his head that game – he would surely remember those keys.
On the opposite side, if he slept for four hours, ate a pizza, was late getting to the rink and played poorly – you know he wouldn’t try that way again.
Start by documenting everything about your preparation and charting your performances.
Make notes on what sleep patterns, meals or any other seemingly trivial thing you did to prepare.
Quite quickly, trends to consistency will emerge.
Steve McKichan BS.Ed, former NHL Goaltender
Goaltending Coach, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2003 to 2009
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