Month: March 2013

The idea of self confidence is important for goalkeepers when thinking about how to play at their best, game in game out. And one way of thinking about it, is to consider a goalkeeper as cocky or evaluate their cockiness. As I’ve tried to write about recently, it is important to play confidently, ensuring that you are confident to come out and make tackles or interceptions and to get to lose balls that attackers may latch on. If you don’t/didn’t feel happy doing this, then you’re going to struggle to decrease the amount of scoring opportunities you will face in a game. And if you did not feel confident enough going up against the top of the table team or playing in an important and decisive game that could affect your playing ‘career’ (I say, I’m not sure !), then you’ve got to be confident.

Being ‘cocky’

Some people struggle with confidence with the way they play and even though they are good, their self esteem and way their self belief comes across, presenting itself through nervous tension and the like, holds them back from truly dominating. Ironically a lot of extremely talented people throughout history have struggled with low self esteem and yet they are unquestionably some of the world’s greatest minds, ever. Weird, huh! Quiet confidence, quietly confident, is good enough for me! But, there is also sense to the conceptualisation of cockiness. As discussed previously, body language and a goalkeeper that looks happy to be there is going to come across as a goalkeeper that is harder to beat. Make the opposition believe it!

A defence has to be confident in their goalkeeper and a goalkeeper in their defence. If the defence start to lose confidence in their goalkeeper (and fear every time an attacker gets close because they’ll probably score ‘off the bat’ or start shot blocking and getting in front of thing, unnecessarily and causing unneeded redirects etc. own goal anyone?!), then the goalkeeper loses confidence in themselves. And if the goalkeeper starts to lose confidence in their defence, then everything goes bad and will falter. And you don’t want that! So, in some ways, the goalkeeper has to show their confidence (even when they’re not, fake it!) and thus play confidently.

But cockiness is something that goes beyond just a bit of self confidence; it sets the bar for it! Goalkeepers that no matter the ‘weather’ or score line, they still looked assured and in control. Even when things aren’t going right and falling apart around them! They dominate with their presence, absolutely ‘rocking the place’ using band analogies (?!). I think this kind of thing is what can terrify a shooter, other than denying them about four times in a row or something (at which point they concede that you’re going to make it tough for them to score and force them to earn a goal!).

There are some characters in the ‘Goalies Union’ that come across obviously exuberant and commanding (Schmeichel lambasting his defenders for letting a shot through, anyone?!), and it is what we should aspire to be like. Brimming with the love of being under the microscope, loving the stresses of being in a pressure zone, oozing buckets of self esteem. This level of extreme confidence that can spread out and inspire team mates. But pride which comes before a fall, as the saying goes (maybe there’s something in that?!), so it is a fine balancing act of propping ourselves up psychological and putting in performances that match this self professed state of mind.

How

Being cocky is obviously having bags of self confidence and believing you’re the best around. Of course, to some it comes naturally, but in a sense it’s just a case of self assurance and ‘bigging yourself up’. Be sure of yourself. Tell and remind yourself how good you really are. That you ARE going to play amazingly. I AM going to get to this loose ball, I AM unstoppable, I AM going to make this save. That sort of thing, if you get the obvious drift! I’m here because I can do the job and am a better option than the other goalkeepers in the team or club (especially if you’re first choice!).

This is the article that inspired this post and puts up some useful pointers:

http://blog.goalkeepertalk.com/coaching-tips/cocky-goalkeeper-great-keeper/

If not, then what?

It’s easy to think of what will happen if not. Think what would happen if you weren’t cocky or self confident. You wouldn’t be prepared to get into the ‘thick of things’, shut down scoring chances or make an important influence and impact on the game. You wouldn’t make those cracking, unbelievable saves either. So what’s worse, being confident and playing well as a result, or be a nervous, quivering shell of the goalkeeper you once were? I think it’s self explanatory at least.

When it goes pear shaped

Another non-hockey related analogy (as usual!), but the case study of Joe Hart shows the interaction between cockiness, self confidence, and the potential for things to go wrong. All this came after attempting what would have been an audacious header outside his area in true ‘sweeper keeper’ style (Ter Stegen has achieved this at some distance, and Casillas sometimes does this), in the belief that he would have got rid of a scoring chance. Obviously it didn’t go right and Ibrahimovic scored a wonder goal that will go down in the history books almost unsighted of where the goal was for placing the shot.

The situation was a trifle complex from a goalkeeper’s point of view. He decided to go forward, potentially wrongly. The bounce meant he would have had to back track to hit it on the volley and get caught out of place. And so on. As a goalkeeper, you either want to come out and attack the player (like he did, but more extremely!), complicated by the two defenders shadowing Zlatan as he goes forward, or stay back. But having committed (a lot like analysis for the decision making article!), he has to stick with the decision he made. And yet, this decision caused a huge uproar (well, not that much, but still enough!) among the press as they clamoured to have a go at Hart (as the British has a great history of building stars up and then trying to knock them down to the bottom again!).

This video brings up some of the topics for and against cockiness in discussion about Hart’s current form. Roy Keane pointing out that it can be negative, whilst Gary Neville defends the other side of the argument.

http://www.itv.com/sport/football/article/2012-10-16/keane-hart-guilty-of-cockiness/

And for another angle, from a coach’s point of view, this is Mancini’s take on things:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/oct/19/joe-hart-cocky-manchester-city

As you can see (well, read!), a coach can often want their goalkeeper to imbue their own self confidence, so that they take charge of their defence and command the play. To be a goalkeeper that dominates, you will often need to be tremendously confident. If you have confidence issues, then this mindset is going to make the difference in the way you play and interact with your defenders, and having your defence believe in you, is crucial as mentioned early on. Although maybe the elite goalkeepers already have this elite attitude!

But aside from all this trivia waffle, it offers a chance to reflect on things. There are times when you need to be confident to over ride a slump in form, to help you get back on track. A goalkeeper has one bad game and it can literally ruin a goalkeeper’s career. All the fans care about is that one mistake; it doesn’t matter in their eyes, they go on past performances (even more so if it was during a game of more importance) and you have to really work your socks off as a pro goalkeeper I guess to get out of the consequential dog house. And maybe coaches are like that too. Whereas a player can make a slip-up that results in us conceding (!), if we slip up, our head ‘can be on the block’ so to metaphorically speak. We can get dropped from the 1stXI and begin a demise if we don’t get things back under control and grow back our damaged confidence and ego, perhaps. And they say goalkeepers have a hard life!

Cockiness and self confidence

So, as you can tell and may already be aware of, the story of Joe Hart’s woes (which are coming in to his club form as well arguably), reflect the fine balance between confidence and reality. But as Keane actually points out well, it is when you relax and think every match is easy and you’re going to dominate without making any effort or having to because of the opposition team not pushing you to show your true colours of quality. When you get comfortable things start to peter out and your form will drop, as you get complacent. When you think you deserve praise without earning it, when you feel like you don’t have to try that is when it gets imbalanced. That is the crux. A goalkeeper needs to be pushed and if there is little competition to match, the only person who can push you is yourself. To stay on form, without getting overly confident to the point of thinking you don’t have to bother, you have to give it 100% (or maybe 110?!) in training and games, week in week out.

Cocky but not arrogant

For me, it’s great to be cocky and confident and ‘boss’ your defence and team, but if it is not grounded and rooted, it makes no sense! Arrogance is not cool; you just disassociate people with your big headedness that is not grounded in a professional attitude towards things. You don’t want to alienate your team mates and a backlash can be a humbling experience! Imagine the dressing room experience with Kevin Pietersen recently or similar. Egos in the dressing and a self centric approach where you are the worst case, is not exactly akin to a selfless game where you carry your team and do your best for them because you’re letting your self image get in the way! To be cocky, you also have to show it in the quality of your goalkeeping performances, otherwise being too cocky and not playing to match won’t look so great!

Be ‘cocky’!

So, cockiness is a great tool of the ‘mental game’, but it has its obvious pitfalls and is a fine balancing act. Ultimately, there is a difference between arrogance and ‘cockiness’, but a goalkeeper that retains the qualities of imbuing confidence and commanding their team is important as it is in making match winning saves. There’s a lot to think about. I, for one, would endorse the concept of cockiness, especially if it helps with your confidence and ability to play aggressively and dominant in a way that you may not otherwise do, but if goalkeepers cannot play with a display that matches this idea, then they cannot stay cocky!

One thing that isn’t always considered when delving into the complexities of the psychological impact of our ‘mental game’ on the way we play, is how we balance the emotions that we feel; the ups and downs, especially within a game where the ability to do so is pretty important and essential to our chances of a comeback say and ‘keeping our team in it’. But these things can and will impact our game if we let them, and it’s important to recognise this when playing in between the posts. Whereas our team mates might feel the highs of a goal scored or the lows and disgruntlement of a goal being allowed, our position and the way we deal with the stresses and pressure of the role is a hard task, with ‘our backs up against the wall’ and ‘up against it’ as they say. Our temperament needs to be more lucid and calm, able to withstand the hardships of a goalkeeper and the things that ‘do our head in’, enough to play to our best. In order to perform to our optimum best, we goalies need to focus on keeping our emotions in check, sufficiently capable of managing things internally to get through the game with our sanity intact!

Emotions

Emotions. Emotions, they are something tricky and befuddling to deal with. Apparently according to some people, we are spiritual beings living out human lives, or is it the other way round?! Yes, those things labelled emotions, that we experience every second, hour and day of our lives! And as goalkeepers we are going to experience them just as much! They are varied and confusing and yet can have a derisive impact on our game if we fail to interact with them properly and get over them.

Forms of emotions are myriad, but the ones that affect us most as goalkeepers that I can think of are below:

• Frustration
• Anger
• Nerves
• Lack of confidence
• Too much confidence
• Self doubt
• I think you can really only feel elated after a tough, fought out win!

Adrenaline rushes

Although not particularly impactful towards our game, adrenaline does present something interesting; if we get a rush, then however small, it can bring in a boost of confidence or get us feeling a little hyper or overactive when it isn’t needed. An adrenaline rush can often boost our confidence a little, as we face the dangers of those outfielders and their powerful shots. Where we slide out to block after a rebound, or go in for a tackle and there’s a danger of being hit (especially if you’re ‘padding down’, however reduced!) or make an acrobatic save, which you realise is top drawer and a highlight reel one, then you may end up a little ‘geed up’ as a result! Our blood gets pumping and we feel invincible, or at least start to. Obviously you want to not get too caught up in the rush, especially if you give up a goal and it significantly dampens your spirits! Really, it’s a case of riding things and not getting too caught up in the moment, although it does seem to be useful to motivate us to charge down rebounds, attack a clearance, intercept a crucial pass etc.!

Anger

Competitiveness can blur into frustration occasionally, if we are competing in an especially important game for table positioning or playing against a top of the league team or maybe even one that is regarded as playing aggressively and chirpy themselves or perhaps a little cheating! It’s easy to get frustrated as a goalkeeper, especially if you’re arguably playing a blinder and being the man of the match for your team and yet they’re not doing their part by not scoring or helping you out! Or you have a potential reason to be getting annoyed and having emotions build up negatively, like somebody purposefully trying to injure you maybe, or standing in front of you to block your vision and saying things to ‘get under your skin’ etc.

You need to ignore it, I guess and just focus on playing your game in between the posts. No, it’s in no way easy, but if you let them get to you and beat you, then they’ve won. Like the school bullies in some weird analogy. And we have to be ‘the bigger man’ (or woman) and bigger goalkeeper. Otherwise this sort of thing can happen! We can lash out on goal, ourselves (maybe, I’ve heard of outfield players that don’t wear shin pads and smack their stick on them after an error, ouch!) or maybe others.

http://www.eastleighnews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/goalie.jpg

And for a hockey related outburst, you can always take the example of ‘post bangers’. Here’s Chris Bristow (with Surbiton) obviously a little annoyed at having conceded against Southgate. There are a few goalkeepers around the leagues that will bang their post in frustration to vent (poor goal!)! It’s not a significantly big deal and shows our passion for winning, although I do worry for paint chipping/stick damage, I’m just trying to make light of things and sound engaging! I for one would drop kick my gloves after a bad game where my shot stopping made no difference to the score line, so I’m no different, there you have it!

“Boing!”

Not sure who this photo belongs to (for accreditation) so apologies for copyright etc.

But, there is also the potentiality for things ‘getting out of hand’. You hear it in other sports like football, or the goalies in ice hockey where they’ll chop at people’s legs, shoulder check a guy coming through (yes, even goalies can ‘hit’ in ice hockey, need to find a video example!) or take a shot with their stick in between the legs of whoever got too close. Billy Smith and Ed Belfour were true examples of guys that didn’t like you in the crease! In all seriousness, there is the danger of becoming a danger. I always worry about the moral implications of slide tackles, especially when you see or hear of forwards getting flipped over. A friend broke his collar bone being upended in a football match, so there is seriousness behind things. I’m not saying tackling is an ugly business, but it’s how you do it and why you do it, especially if there may not be a reason to.

But keeping aggression and angst in check as a goalkeeper is kind of important. You may feel the need to make things right and even want to take vengeance on a player or members of the team you are playing against for some slight or something. Say if someone injured one of your team mates or you were being pushed around or wacked at. I’ve been physically knocked over and bundled over running out for a ball and play carried on = confidence ruined! You may be more prepared to let your feelings take over your actions, making rash challenges and being overly aggressively than need be, thus ending up conceding more than we should have: out of silly costly errors that came from our feelings about things. This sounds a lot like a little random drivel, but I honestly do hope it makes a some amount of sense!

Nerves

We all get nervous, to some degree. Nerves are good when mixed with confidence; a lethal cocktail because the nerves keep us in check, whilst mixing with the confidence when we realise we are good enough to play at a certain level, or similar. In exams if I knew I was going to do well, I normally would (they were the parts of my degree I got most of my firsts!). And when I played with apprehension or mistrust of myself or worry, I played well and showed my talent. But it’s not always like that and everyone interacts with it differently. Set routines or kitting up a certain way, and similar may help, along with a good warm-up and things like that. But really, ultimately, you can’t really let them get to your. Hold your head up, believe in yourself and go out there and enjoy yourself; it’s a game, we play it because we enjoy it!

Over confidence

On the flip side, you can be a little too pleased with yourself and a bit borderline cocky, which can hinder you because you forget the ‘bread and better’ saves of goalkeeping or expect to get a clean sheet without having to earn it! Perhaps!! This is important when it comes to matches, especially if playing against a lower placed team perhaps and expect a walkover, except it turns out differently and they give you a run for your money (even though it’s an ‘amateur’ sport, you get the idea!). If we honestly feel like a demigod or totally unbeatable and we play like we aren’t and ‘don’t show up at the races’, then it’s not going to make us look too good and will probably knock our self impression and ego down a peg or two! Imagine the upset of an underdog upset when you’re not the underdog! Confidence is essential, but being realistic about it and not ‘letting things get to your head’ after comments, commendations and team appreciation etc. is just as important. Confident yes, egotistical no!

Doubt

Again, doubt is another negative impact that can have a big and potentially catastrophic impact on our performances as goalkeepers. If we doubt ourselves, then we’ll struggle to make saves and our decision making will be poor as we second guess or over analyse and over think and never commit to a decision that may have been the right one! Playing a stronger team or moving up a level in hockey, we may begin to doubt how good we are. But, beating ourselves up about things isn’t going to help either really. So, remind yourself how good you really are, remember that you are good otherwise your team wouldn’t have chosen you and play like you are!

Calm, cool and collected

So, as I’ve tried to suggest, there is a lot to the emotions that we run the gauntlet of, as goalkeepers. But to really succeed in ‘whatever weather’ good or bad (well, match wise, as a metaphorical analogy), we need to keep things in check and maintain a level headed approach. Keeping things balanced. We should be more like Jedi monks or something! ‘Emotional stability’ is what this is: the ability to be unfazed throughout the whole 70 minutes every weekend for the whole season. A hard task, but worth it, because if we don’t, we won’t play well!

Keep a level head!

Ultimately, you want to be able to manage your emotions so that things don’t affect the way you play in goal. Don’t let things get to you, don’t let them niggle away at you or cause you problems that can affect your game, instead focus on the positives, don’t get carried away and don’t think you’re not good enough! It’s in no way easy, but rise to the challenge and display your mental strength! Rise above the difficulties, and make sure your goalkeeping is reflected in your ability to cope with adversity.

A game is essentially down to how the goalkeeper performs, at each end of the pitch. The more goals one of them allows, the more likely their team is to lose, obviously! Ultimately, it’s a battle between the goalkeepers. Yes, but really any game (as I’d like to think!), it boils down to how well the goalkeeper at each end performs. If one has a bad day the office then they’re probably going to lose and lose out in points, and if the other does well, with the backing of their team, they can win and take home the three points with and for their team! But really, if you are struggling to find motivation in a game to play well, then perhaps you may want to think about mirroring yourself and your goalkeeping performance in response to the other team’s goalkeeper that you are facing up to?! And a simple yet potentially effective way of rethinking psychological inspiration and the ‘mental game’, is to consider the chance to prove yourself as a goalkeeper and pitting yourself against your opposite number, to encourage yourself to outperform them.

Goalie legends Vogels v.s. England’s Fair in a friendly match at Bisham Abbey. Don’t think I could have a career in promotional ads!

Pitting yourself against your opposite

In the blue corner, we have… and in the red corner, we have…! Ok, so hockey and goalkeeping particularly, isn’t exactly boxing or its promotional aides. But you may want to consider things like they’re the clash of the titans! Or a widely touted heavyweight bout! At least, when two of the world class best and arguable best in the world, greats like Vogels, Stephen Mowlam or Simon Mason, ever face up against each other, in goalkeeping terms, that is pretty much it! If you have turned up to a game and just aren’t ‘feeling it’ or are not too geed up on the idea of playing well, one way to trigger some amount of self motivation and encourage yourself to ‘up’ your play and play to your best, is the concept of outplaying your opposite number (goalkeeper!) at the other end of the pitch. If you want to prove who is best out of the two of you and want to inspire yourself if confidence is lacking or you’re just not ‘showing up at the races’, then imagining things like this and pushing yourself on to showing how good you can really play, you can starting showing your ability (perhaps just to show off to said opposite number!) and come out on top! Think about it; if you want to really show yourself up, now is the chance to, and thinking of it like that every game should inspire you enough to put in regular man of the match worthy performances!

Outdoing your opponent

When you’re pitting yourself against another goalkeeper, you want to be able to match them, like in tennis, point for point; save for save. It’s no good just thinking about it, you’ve got to do it! Challenge yourself to stop every shot as it happens and stop or limit every scoring opportunity that develops. Don’t just ‘sit pretty’ and be a ‘ball watcher’; an observer more than a goalkeeper! Matching them save for save and stopping everything that comes your way, you are looking to come out on top. Of course, facing fewer shots affects this, but still, quality over quantity! You may often see this in a very close game where the score is a 0-0 game or low scoring tie and every scoring chance and opportunity are as a result more important to the outcome of the game, which are being kept to a minimum, is decisive and therefore incredibly essential for the goalkeeper to stop. This year, I’ve been able to get along to a few games where this has happened in the national league, and it really has been a battle between the two goalkeepers to keep their team in it.

The following clip is a great demonstration of Reading’s Nick Brothers (at the time, he has since left the sport as far as I’m aware, sadly), going up against RC Barcelona’s Oriol Fabregas in the Euro Hockey League. The score line was incredibly close and both did the utmost to try and outdo one another and show their worth, making some quality stops and cracking saves:

Competitive but constructive rivalry

Of course, being a member of the ‘Goalies Union’, it’s not like you need to hate the goalkeeper you’re going up against! I guess if you’re battling it out with another goalkeeper in your club or classification group for international selection say, you may be a lot more emotionally engaged with the battle of fighting for a place or proving your talent, but ultimately, we’re all goalkeepers and we’re the only ones that fully understand each other! I don’t think outfield players really care that much about the intricacies of kit modifications, or how our positioning etc. resulted in the save that won the game and so on! They just want us to make sure win the game, or at least, we don’t slip up! It’s a good idea to pit yourself against the goalie at the other end, just so you have something to focus on regards to mentality, and at the end of the game, remember to shake their hand and say something encouraging (you’d want the same!); well played and all! So, really, it’s just a game at the end of the day (sure I won’t get away with saying that!); it’s what you put into life and sport that makes the difference. So, simply put, put everything you’ve got into a game and enjoy the efforts afterwards!

Tom Skinner and Simon Mason are all smiles at the hand shake after a national league game between Bath and Guildford!

Out duel your opposite!

Ultimately, if you’re struggling for motivation and finding it hard to settle into the game or have conceded and are getting despondent, which is effecting your performance and therefore your team’s chances for a result, a quick trick for your psychology and ‘mental game’ is just to focus on how well the goalkeeper you’re facing up against is doing and outdoing them. It’s a simple but thoughtful idea! If you’re a little nervous, self doubting or lacking confidence to start the game, then reminding yourself that you are the better goalkeeper and pushing yourself on to prove it in your goalkeeping performance during the game, may just be handy for doing so!

I don’t particularly think it is (although it can be very frustrating behind a team with a poor record), but at times you’ve got to be a little controversial to make a point, especially in writing. Those saves that make you look flash or superman aren’t going to be in every game and as your playing life develops, you’ll probably start to reconsider how you think about the position! In training you will often have a lot to do, but during games, you may not, commanding your defence and stopping chances developing before they come to fruition. But really, the boredom affects your game in terms of your ability to concentrate, pay attention and be able to make the important, decisive save as it happens, whenever it occurs time wise during the game (say early on to help keep your team in with a chance of taking the lead, or near the end of the match, to ensure you win!).

Tom Millington looking a little bored as his team takes a short corner down the other end of the pitch!

Goalkeeping is boring

Well, to be honest, it can be. You may get games where you get to test your mettle and face a lot of shots, but otherwise, you won’t face that many shots. And it’s not about how many saves you make ultimately; it’s about being able to make the timely, crucial save at the right time! Playing behind a strong defence means you’re going to have little work to do but important work when you do; when something does get through, it’s potentially more dangerous to the score line and thus more pressure on you to ‘step up to the plate’!

At the highest level, the defence is so strong and team efforts so much and team work close knit, that you may only face few amount of shots or scoring opportunities to intercept. If you think about it, expecting to face lots of shots and being man of the match and showing your talent, is a quite a lot different to the expectations of having a single shot to save at the end of the game which could be the decision maker and yet we are expected to, have to, make the stop regardless! In ice hockey this is a lot different, with goalies expected to face up to 30 shots a game on a regular basis; in a match in the KHL (Russian pro league) this month, a goalie faced 60 shots, faced pretty much all of them and still lost! Heart breaking!

Hockey is a lot different in the way we face shots and are expected to deal with them. A lot like a premier league game in football where facing more than 10 shots is unheard of (Jaaskelainen faced about 12 for this seasons’ record recently against Tottenham!). Sorry to keep using football analogies! Yes, you still have to be ready for action as the speed of the game is such that you have to be keyed in to respond immediately, but maybe you can argue that you will have less shots to face, making it even more crucial (and demanding as a result!) that you make the stops despite how many you face. One shot and one conceded goal is all the difference it takes to change the game. And should be taken seriously!

Ex-Old Louts goalie Stuart Hendy gets so bored he turns around to check his goal is still there!!

Reduced amount of saves to make

If you have started out on a team where you regularly face a lot of shots and find it helps you get into the game as you ‘build up a rhythm’, you may find it difficult to playing on a strong team where the defensive structuring and play is so great that you will only be called upon a few teams in every game. If, like me, you prefer to see more shots to get comfortable in a game, then it’s going to be difficult (to say the least!) to be able to mentally prepare and ‘come up trumps’ when you do eventually see some action. A heavy workload is different to facing only a few but decisive shots and scoring chances. The less shots you face, the more the opposition have to be careful in well executing and taking them to ensure they score, whilst having an impact on the way you play; with your confidence and trust in yourself to make the few but decisive saves when necessary.

Having little to do

With few shots, it is even more critical that you can concentrate and be alert to make the save when a scoring chance does happen; making it more stressful and pressurised! You have to be ‘awake’ all game for when you do eventually see a shot! When you are called upon you have to make that save. Goalkeeping is more than just stopping shots; it is being able to make the important ones when they most matter! Your one totally decisive save is going to be the game changer and needs to be made for your team to take home the three points.

So even if you can use stats and records to work out a goalkeeper’s performance and who is better at shot stopping, arguably to some degree, it doesn’t matter how many saves you make: if you can’t make the crucial one that keeps the score in your team’s favour, then you’ve let your team down, essentially. Harsh but realistic! Not for the weak is goalkeeping! But I think as you get older, begin to peak and grow into the position, you can overcome the nerves and tense mentality to be confident in knowing when you will be called upon and strong mentally to make that save.

Boredom and concentration

Elite goalkeepers have an amazing attention span. Imagine having nothing to do all game and then having to make an all-decisive save to keep the score as a win or prevent it from being a loss. To be honest, I can admit to (even though I probably shouldn’t!) having difficulties with staying alert if there is not much action down my end of the pitch and can get a little bored, only to be caught out by something happening unexpectedly for me to react to! Elite goalkeepers have elite concentration. If they slip up mentally, they’re pretty much bound to make a mistake because you expect opposition at that level to have attackers that will exploit these mistakes; if they didn’t you’d be thinking they’re overhyped! So as a result they’re obviously going to be paying full attention the whole game, no matter what.

The concentration levels are intense. Goalkeeping is intense. Sport is intense, so is competitiveness and playing at the elite level, it’s going to be as intense as it gets! And if you want a clean sheet, should be too (whatever level you play!). You really have to concentrate. And concentrate hard, with all of your being and mind. Just like Tim Howard, who actually has Tourettes (well documented in fact http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/06/16/goalkeeper-tim-howard-shuts-tourettes/), and is quoted often as mentioning that he has found that the level of concentration required to play in goal at the highest levels helps him overcome the negative side effects of this condition. At least, that’s what I’ve read and heard. This is in and of itself an amazing feat and not something to merely overlook or smirk at.

It also goes to show that if you want to achieve something badly enough, you’ll let nothing stand in your way! And self discipline (obviously very important if you’re a student athlete amongst other things and not letting anger boil over in a physical match say), much like concentrating, is especially part of this process. I thought I’d include that bit of lesser known goalie fact because it just goes to show how much you have to overcome to put aside the nervousness, pressures of goalkeeping and do all you can to focus on the game.

Ignoring the boredom and staying alert

The easiest, simplest and yet ridiculously difficult way is obvious: don’t think (removing any thoughts; positive or negative and eliminating worry), just read and follow the game and react to it. Don’t think, just do! I’ve been learning about Zen Buddhism (I’ve done a little of Buddhist meditation for personal reasons and also find it helpful for calming before a match, but nothing to this extent!) and how it can apply to goalkeeping. A lot like the way goalies across sports are looking at the mentality of golfers (who have an incredibly strong ‘mental game’ as expected!). When applied to hockey, the ability to think of nothing and just react and respond to the game as it unfolds is very handy. It’s refreshing and helps with focus, indescribably useful! So going from irritable or nervous or bored, I have taught myself to just totally focus on the game and nothing else. Pure focus. I recommend you research it! And it’s something I’ll hopefully write about in appropriate depth soon.

The idea is the ‘no thoughts thoughts’ way of thinking (yes Word that’s repetition, leave me alone!), where you abandon all thoughts to purely focus on what is happening in front of you, a lot like meditation in Yoga. By not thinking, you’re not over complicating things, you’re not over thinking (see de Gea’s struggles last season as a football analogy, can’t think of any goalkeepers in hockey struggling like that at the moment!), you just react and are able to make the right choices as a result. You take away the burdens and problems of nervous tension. Concentrating intensely without the chance to get bored; for the fully 70 minutes just focusing intensely on the game. Once you’ve finished, you can go back to random thinking and the generic stuff of whatever else goes on in your head! But in the game, you give it your all. It removes ALL distractions and thus will help you concentrate to play at your best!

Pay attention! Don’t get bored!

Not getting bored might be easier said than done, but if you teach yourself to eliminate thoughts or boredom and just concentrate totally, with all of your mind and focus, you should be able to do it every game. Concentration levels is something I tried to write about before when I started writing for the Keepers Resources site (it’s in another article somewhere!), but it depends on you as a goalkeeper. Some goalkeepers find it easy to concentrate with nothing happening, otherwise don’t and want to be stopping a lot of shots! Games don’t go that way all the time, so it’s a good idea on working out how to concentrate so when that scoring opportunity does present itself, you are ready to react accordingly.

“The suck” as the Americans call it (I think I’m right there, please correct me if I’m wrong any would-be American readers!), is to do with things sucking and just learning to live with it, in the modern sense, I *think*! It’s something I read about somewhere recently in some discussion online between ice hockey goalies and thought it could be applied for understanding the ‘mental game’ and how we as goalkeepers need to be able to deal with the pressures and pains of playing the position we love, but more than; to manage the sensitivity of not letting things get to us. Without the ability to overcome the ‘suck’ in a goalkeeper’s season, it can have terrible affects on your team’s season. Just like the attempt to use ‘swagger’ as a way in to looking at self confidence, this is the chance to use a conceptualisation of dealing with adversity and a chance to do the flipside and look at how you keep it together when things are getting difficult. Especially so within a game (where you want to turn things around to tie it up or make a comeback) and also in a season (if it has derailed).

‘The suck’

According to Urban Dictionary (which is like trying to reference an academic paper with Wikipedia!), it apparently originally comes from the Vietnam War era, used by the US Marine Corps, defining undesirable conditions. But it also testifies to the enduring qualities of mental strength, the ability to continue on regardless in the worst of conditions to get the job done. Ok, so being a soldier and a goalkeeper are two different things and nothing alike really, but putting things aside from a moment, metaphorically, the analogy can be applied to those off days where the score line ends up particularly disheartening and embarrassing; the bad days at the office and the times our team mates are having a go at us or trying to tell us how to do things when they’ve never played in goal, or are causing goals through deflections!

Sometimes things suck

Let’s face it; goalkeeping is a pretty thankless task. Sometimes, when things aren’t going our way, obviously! We can win games only if they do their part and defend and score! It’s like life sometimes. Sometimes things don’t go your way and you’re really up against it. Pinned to the wall, backed into a corner, so maybe you just have to learn to fight back (with your goalkeeping performances and psychological stamina, no punching please, it’s not ice hockey where you actually get goalie fights!)! “Tough times come and go but only tough people stay.” That one is a toughie; but if you have to face bigger struggles, you’re practically the bigger person despite what people will say. “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you’ve stronger.” It does, but it leaves scars and can make you bitter. Alas! You’ve heard the clichéd phrases time and time again, but what of it? There’s a lot of truth about them, with the adages of perseverance and qualities of endurance. But can they apply to goalkeeping? I think so, at least when faced with the mental battles of confidence and performance.

You play really well to keep your team in it and they don’t acknowledge our efforts. The important but necessary things get overlooked and ignored, but you know that you had a game and kept them in it! That’s the irony of the goalkeeping insight and knowing how goals are scored on us and whether we were actually doing a good job of things or not. But without us, our teams would not be able to win (and there wouldn’t be much point playing as we are the person they need to score past!). And you can’t play a game without us (unless you’ve got a kicking back!)! So, really, it’s case of getting used to the mental frustration of ‘doing your part’ and the team sometimes not.

Not letting things get to you

Rather than actually let ‘the suck’ overcome you and beat you mentally, you can step away from negative thinking and reset the balance. Even if you’re starting to lose your grip on things regards confidence and confidence in your team mates, you’re doing your best; you play and lose as a team, so what else can you do but continue on regardless to ensure you put in the best performance they can ask of you? Positively affirmation and reminding yourself how good you actually are is going to be better than thinking your rubbish and then playing like you are! The tricky thing of psychology, self perception and confidence!

“Water off a duck’s back” as the saying goes. Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t turn up to a game not even bothering to try (like purposefully failing an exam or something?!), but, similarly, you shouldn’t let things get to you so much that you can’t play to your best. Ok, so you hold your hand up to it (you’d be surprised how that helps your team as you are admitting responsibility, which they seem to prefer as the onus is no longer on them!) and admit your fault. But then you move on from it. You can’t live in the past, like in life; it’s all about the present! Don’t think about how the game is in the other team’s favour; focus on how you can make sure you win! It’s important to be competitive and great to care about the game and your performance in goal, enough to get a little angry or miffed, but don’t overdo it! Doubt or overly critical self criticism can be a little corrosive psychologically and have the wrong impact on how you play for the rest of the game.

I used to get into a right sulk if I conceded, especially in a close game, where I felt I’d let my team down and could have and should have stopped it! And games where I did all I could but the defence wasn’t great (young time, inexperienced, that kind of excuse!) and the score line favoured the other side more greatly, it would lead to me chucking my gloves off at the end of the game in disgust and annoyance (I saw Ian Scanlon do it when he lost by a goal to East Grinstead a few weekends ago; the frustration shows we care and he wasn’t to blame, with a pretty much perfect performance!). I just didn’t want to let goals in! And sometimes, it would have a bad knock-on effect on how I played. So, the advice is: play like it didn’t happen and carry on regardless, so you can keep your confidence and thus performance up! That way, you give your team the best chance to win (via a comeback) or tie things up. If you don’t carry on saving shots well, it’s not going to happen!

Play like you just don’t care

Ok, this sounds a little contentious and bad advice, but that’s how hyperbole works! Whilst you want to be competitive and you do need to care about the score line (how else are you going to win?!), you should not get to the point where you don’t believe in yourself anymore or get annoyed at your team mates (that won’t help you either!). Don’t let it get to you. Don’t let the score line lead to a bad defeat because it has derailed your confidence in your true abilities as a goalkeeper. There are going to be times when things don’t go your way and you feel like you’re a ‘polo’ (as the outfielders may call you: shots go through you or something!).

So what? If you get niggled and irritated by things, your performance may disintegrate, but if you carry on like it didn’t happen, and continue to play on confidently and strongly, that’s better than the other option? Right! Goals are a fact of life for a goalkeeper: it’s how you move on from things (build a bridge and get over it as they say!) and ensure you still perform to your best and don’t make mistakes again after that goal has been allowed.

Keep calm and carry on!

As the popular saying that you can find on mugs, posters, pretty much everything these days (which seems to have reached its peak to be honest!) goes, “Keep calm and carry on”. Do it! Carry on regardless and stay confident like you were before! It’s no good getting put off by conceding if you can’t concentrate or believe in your abilities as a goalkeeper to change the game and make decisive saves, if it is really going to affect your play and in a negative way. Instead, concentrate on maintaining a strong level of play. Don’t get downhearted and lose interest. Double up your efforts and make sure you don’t allow another one in!

A lot of goalkeepers that play professionally can be quoted as saying that they put a ‘bad day at the office’ out of their mind and just focus on the next game, rather than getting caught up in the feelings of despondency and regret (over bad mistakes etc. that cost the team the game and such). Getting flustered isn’t going to help anyone and getting downbeat about things isn’t going to get you to ‘get into the game’ if you’re losing confidence and interest concentration can drift, your performance can end up sub-par when you were doing so well etc. These things happen and you need to readjust and reapply yourself from stopping anything else getting past you! The elite goalkeepers also have an elite mindset; they let their confidence deal with things and overcome it mentally to carry on playing to their best, doing all they can to keep their time in it. They’re elite for many reasons and in every expecting of goalkeeping they are among the world’s elite (otherwise they wouldn’t be there, in that position!).

Admittedly, I have been using this clip a lot (I guess that’s to do with how much I like it!) for representative of points and of different things but on the second corner that Vismaan (black jersey, black gloves and orange Brabo pads) concedes, he seems to ‘pull himself together’, you can sort of see the change in body language where he accepts the goal has been scored against him and shrugs it off:

Here, in the following photo, Stuart Hendy appears pretty non-plussed and relaxed about things after just allowing a goal! He won the game, making (so maybe that proves the point?!).

“Meh… so what!” What I’d like to think Hendy was thinking at least!

Don’t let it suck!

If you give your all and don’t get dismayed by negative thinking, then that’s all your team can ask of you! Play your best, overcome the odds, do all you can and you can’t have any complaints from your team mates (even if they do, you still know they’re wrong, that’s most important!!). Off days and grumblings from your team mates, they’re just other things to learn to deal with. You can’t aggregate the importance of mental strength but it is so crucial; 90% psychology and 10% skill as the saying goes in sport. Mental strength is about the deep, entrenched strength of personality and mind and self belief to overcome significant challenges, whether in life or goalkeeping and so not taking things too seriously can help a little.