May 2013 – OBO

Taping arm pads

A simple but effective tip for those arm pad wearers out there, who use the removable Obo pads (which also give you more set-up options, if you think about it versus attached ones sewn into the body armour!), more specifically, is to tape them! With the design of the elbow pad that goes around the bone, rather than a hard shell fixed in place, you will see a lot of Obo arm pad users taping their pads to ensure the pad stays fixed in place and gives more flexibility when bending at the joint for those glove saves nearer the body. The tape helps hold the inner bicep protection in place for the newer range of Obo pads, whilst at the same time also helping keeping that bend at the joint for all important flexibility for those instantaneous reflex saves. Some electrical tape taped around the arm pad in this way, will help to keep the pad together and give important movement as stated. With taping, it essentially forces the foam into the bend that you need for that bending motion for save making whilst wearing the arm pads.

Otherwise eventually the padding can come loose or just become a nuisance! Like Filip Neusser’s (Czech international and great at indoor!) whose arm pads demonstrate. It’s not the greatest example, but you will be able to notice the effect and get the idea! So with taping, it’s simple but useful when keeping the arm pad together, also helping the pad bend at the joint, for when you turn and bend your arm for glove saves.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12608538@N03/8431574403/

One I did earlier like the Blue Peter saying is a poor attempt by myself to illustrate using some old Obo arm pads I have knocking around, to illustrate how it’s done. A quick bodge job but you get the idea and basics of it! Notice the taping centrally to keep that bend and movement, whilst also helping to keep the padding at the elbow in place and central, over the elbow, to provide all important coverage:

Here you can see Germany’s international second choice Reuss who uses Obo body armour and arm protection, with taping to hold the circular pad at the elbow in place and also to help keep the padding above the elbow (on the forearm) firmly in place:

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/reserve-keeper-felix-reuss-of-germany-takes-a-break-during-news-photo/157837162

And here is retired international Ali McGregor in his playing days with Loughborough Students with taped arm pads:

Goalkeeper or shot stopper?

As you look to move on from the basics of shot stopping and evolving your game as a goalkeeper, you need to think (perhaps thinking hard and conscientiously about it, if you want to!) about how you play as a goalkeeper, and your roles and responsibilities within the team. About how you need to work to intercept and interrupt passes by the opposition to stop them from gaining a chance to score. When you consider it, a goalkeeper should be able to shut down attacks and passing opportunities, providing a presence behind their defence that is able to do their job when the defensive line is ‘caught short’. You will see goalkeepers at the elite levels who play a more proactive style, rushing out to tackle or clear away the ball, especially in the indoor game, where being active and aggressive in challenging and intercepting a pass is really important for a goalkeeper to succeed in the fast paced indoor arena.

And you need to work on being confident stepping off your post or your “line”, if you are to challenge the opposition and restrict their opportunities in your D to score. Bringing in the ability to disrupt chances by coming out to tackle and so forth, you will be able to limit the opposition’s chances. Good shot stoppers are worth their weight in gold, but they also need to be able to have an important impact on their game in order to achieve success.

Pure shot stopper

All goalkeepers are shot stoppers, but some are more inclined to hope on their ability to make the save, perhaps expecting the defence to do the job of intercepting passes and for them to stay where they are. Rather than go out to challenge if needs call upon them to, unable to see past the lens of a goalkeeping simply being there to make the saves (that might have drawn them to the position in the first place) and the need to step out of goal at times to shut down a scoring chance by kicking away a loose ball or going in for a decisive tackle, for example. As a position in our sport, this is an important aspect of the way we play within the game, like football goalkeepers who need to come out and catch crosses on corners, or rush out to tackle, versus ice hockey goalies who are not going to come flying out of their zone to slide tackle a player (unless they’re Dominic Hasek!), or floorball, where it is more a case of shot stopping. And it needs recognising! For some, not others, probably though!!

In a negative way, you could consider a case example of a goalkeeper rooted to their line and fearful of coming out to tackle or intercept. But rather than coming out to challenge, in a positive light, they do themselves an injustice by staying back against the play and expecting a shot to be stoppable. Passively hoping to just have to stop shots instead of be involved in the play, even if a case of a difficult redirect is a potential possibility, say for example. Not confident in their ability to tackle, or just unable to see the point in doing so. A goalkeeper that stays where they are, on the spot, hoping that they will do ok facing a shot that might come in from the top of the D say, that doesn’t come out to tackle or chase lose rebounds, instead expecting to be able to stop all shots.

A ‘goal’ ‘keeper’

Goalkeeping is more than just being there to get behind shots and save them, unfortunately! And the way you approach goalkeeping will have a significant impact on the way you play. You can either be a goalkeeper where you expect to just be there to stop shots and end up not doing a good job of ‘owning your D’, or make sure this isn’t the case! If you take the structure of the word goalkeeper, you can literally get “goal” and “keep”; in this way of thinking, can you consider yourself a goalkeeper who ‘keeps’ their goal? Do you look after your D, or do you stay on your line and get beaten by chances that you could have stopped through coming out to challenge? Do you stop chances turning into goals by eliminating them before they happen, or do you get beaten by them?

Your job as a goalkeeper is more than just simply the saving aspect, there is also passes and potential breakaways to contend with! It’s about more than standing there and being on angle and in the right spot at the right time, all of the time. Wherein a goalkeeper needs to be able to come out and tackle or intercept and will be able to when these situations present themselves. Think about breakaways where you stand a better chance of rushing out to challenge, if you go in for that glorious slide tackle, where you will take the ball off the play and stop the shot happening in the first place. Or interceptions, where making the interception will eliminate the passing option and prevent a high risk scoring opportunity.

Goalkeeper versus shot stopper

When you think about, goalkeeping is more than just a case of shot stopping. You can’t expect to save every shot if you play like that, so making sure you actively play a part in shutting down scoring opportunities means that you can work things into your favour. As you develop and play more games and get more (as a beginner anyway!), you will soon realise and notice that it is more than just the save making that may have brought you to playing the position in the first place.

Sometimes you need to do more than just stop shots. The “sweeper keeper” idea and conceptualisation epitomises the way a goalkeeper can (attack being the best form of the defence!), with the goalkeeper making use of their aggressive abilities to shut down chances instead of having to make the potential save, acting like an extra defender in the way they are involving themselves in the game. Elite goalkeepers are more than just shot stoppers and capable of tackling and challenging appropriately, bringing an extra dimension to their game.

Take this video montage of world class Guus Vogels (who has obviously retired recently, leaving way for Stockmann to take over in his place, for Holland). Notice how amazing his shot stopping abilities are, but also how he is involving himself in the game, making important diving interceptions and challenges; diving off the post and reaching out with his stick say or sliding out to intercept a breakaway forward:

If you think about it, you need to be able to do this as well as make saves when it is right to. Eliminating scoring chances before they happen is an important part of goalkeeping as save making is and you need to know this! It may look good if you have stats where you face a lot of shots or end up saving a lot of shots, but that could also be down to poor rebound control or allowing scoring opportunities to happen by not being proactive like this, so it is important to reflect on the way you play and how you go about the concept of ‘keeping’ goal.

Be a goalkeeper!

Ultimately, you need to be more than just a shot stopper. And a goalkeeper at that! There is more of a responsibility to your team to help them out by challenging and doing the defensive work by coming out to intercept a breakaway among other roles. Therefore there are effectively two sides or parts to a goalkeeper: a shot stopper and an active ‘keeper’ of goal. And if you want to go far up the hockey ladder (or at least improve!), you need to be both! Any goalkeeper worth their weight in gold (or goalie legendary status, take the phrase as inspiration!), as already mentioned (oops with déjà vu!) is a great shot stopper but more importantly also a dominant force within the D. So, make sure you are able to do this, and be a goalkeeper and not just a save maker!

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Own-goal rule: opinions wanted!

Hi again guys! For my column for Push hockey magazine this month, I’m taking a look at the “mandatory experiment” that is the own-goal rule. Personally, I’m with Jamie Dwyer: I think it stinks. But what do you guys think of it?

I’d love to hear lots of keepers’ opinions on this, so, whether you love it or hate it, let me know by dropping me a line at richardsmyth100@hotmail.com, or by tweeting me (I’m @1stAmongEquals1). Thanks!

The art of visualisation

Visualisation is a useful technique for any goalkeeper, to help them with their confidence and save making. Visualising making saves at specific times within the game (say, at short corners) and specific saves, the goalkeeper can visualise the process of the save to help them concrete technique and build on their confidence, whilst helping make those glorious, spectacular saves, because of the self belief developed from these thoughts running through your mind pretty much all the time! Popular in a variety of sports, it can be applied to our own favourite sport, our beloved hockey, and been made use of when we approach our goalkeeping.

How visualising would sort of look, at least in essence!

What is it?

Visualisation is a psychological aid, a way of approaching the game and the art of goalkeeping itself, through the lens of self image, imagining yourself making particular saves or decisions made. Thinking outside of yourself (as you visualise the shooting space the opposing attacker has when facing you) so you can see what the shooter’s options are. Or from an internal perspective, wherein you can effectively see yourself making saves, which in turn will help out making the actual saves when you are called upon to do so.

It’s basically way of seeing yourself make a save, a way of imagining you pulling off some cracking stops or saves that you struggle with, technically, and working through the save process in thinking, so that you can pull off specific saves during an actual game. A skill that allows you to work with your muscle memory to pull off the save as the shot comes and the memory recall causes the save to happen, during the game. Essentially it’s pre-thinking, or thinking about saves in order to make them when it counts. You visualise yourself making a save by diving out in extension say. The visualisation itself is a driving force for helping you do that in reality when you go to make the dive, the visualisation helping you through enacting the proper technique. As well as providing you with reinforcing your confidence and self belief in trusting in your technique, it also helps for playing games where you have little to do and can lose focus or be forced into making an unexpected save that could have a huge impact on the game and score line.

And it’s not something new to something, just something that needs more promotion of! I’ve seen national league goalkeepers go through visualisation, combined with the physical motion and attacking push out with the appropriate limbs, with Greg Lewis at Guildford HC being a specific example as he pushed out with the glove (and mental thought processing), practising a specific save making format on some short corners. Visualisation is something a lot of elite goalkeepers, in a variety of sports, who use it to help them (you can read Gordon Banks, the famous England football goalkeeper, affirming this, in this article

How?

Visualisation is pretty simple if you think about it: it’s just a case of ‘seeing’ yourself making saves. Imagining a diving save, for example. When visualising, you are going through the technique and action of the specific save, working through it in your mind’s eye, and imagining pull off wonder saves, so that you correspondingly play well in the match.

You can work on visualising set saves made. So high or low diving stops at short corners, making glove stops with whichever hand to the appropriate saving side. You can also work in rebound control; visualising where you would put the ball, to a safe place where a second scoring chance is difficult or could lead to a scoring chance if not properly dealt with. And so on.

Apparently, there are two main forms of visualisation that goalkeepers (http://voices.yahoo.com/visualization-techniques-ncaa-college-soccer-goalkeepers-2992419.html) can and should make use of. In first person visualisation, you are imagining pushing out to make the save as the ball comes at you, so seeing an imaginary shot coming at you for you to save. In third person, you can see yourself from an outside perspective, seeing you diving out say for a strong save.

But although it is slightly self explanatory, here are some ideas to help you practise in some quiet place (no distractions for this, like goalie meditation or something!):

See yourself making certain saves
See yourself making those spectacular, awesome saves we as goalkeepers love to make and it should help with your confidence enough to make them in a game, having seen yourself play that well in your mind
See yourself being confident, in the sense that you can stop every shot, and it should have a knock-on effect on the way you play
See yourself from the shooter’s point of view: are you giving away too much shooting space? Are you off-angle or poorly positioned? How much room do they have to shoot into or at? What looks like the easiest scoring chance for them?

Essentially, visualise to the extent that you can improve your game. To the level where seeing yourself make saves in fact makes those saves happen. The list sort of emphasises the types of options but you can work off this to think things through that you have difficulty with.

Why?

Visualisation is a really useful technique for self believe and actual shot stopping. It’s cost effective (it doesn’t cost you anything to work on it by yourself!) and for its seemingly basic level of technique, it is incredibly useful for what it does, as you will see when you give it a go. It is a very productive psychological technique as you look to be an unstoppable goalkeeping force. The benefits and uses of visualisation are twofold. Imagining making a certain save will help you make it in an actual game, whilst also aiding your confidence, giving you a boost in the way you see yourself in terms of ability, so that you can make those important saves. When you do visualise, be confident, so seeing yourself making those saves rather than any negative thinking creeping in! Visualising in your mind’s eye how you are going to make saves should impact you actually making them!

Visualisation is useful for the actual process of shot stopping. According to studies and research, it helps your muscles and brain work in unison. The sport science of it being that the neurones in your brain fire of as you simply imagine the save being made, meaning that your brain is more “switched on” and the neurones will fire quickly as you make the connection between thought of save and save itself, whilst also helping you make the specific save as your muscle memory kicks in and you can call upon the memorised technique to make the appropriate save.

Think about what it is like to make a reflex save. There are times when this will happen, but visualisation can be more useful if it is so possible. Trying to do so in a game is tougher, as you can’t rely on anticipation all the time (if the shooter is good at dummying their intentions, especially in the elite tiers of hockey), so obviously it’s a case of balancing things. But if your head (and thoughts!) are in the right place as the saying goes, then you should be in a better (metaphorical!) position to make every save for every shot that comes at you.

During a game, this is very useful. If you have not had a save to make for quite some time, then it helps with concentration and “awakening” for the save as it happens, perhaps late on in the game, where you have not had the chance to build in to a game with more saves as assistance. It allows you to imagine the next save, so that when you are called into action, you are mentally ready and prepared for the save. This will aid concentration as you focus on the game (or at least what is happening in front of you!) and be ready for a save to be made, versus losing interest in the game and zoning out to the point of being use when you are eventually called upon.

Visualising saves

You can visualise on the build up to a game, so the night or so before you could see yourself making particular saves. Then just before the game in the journey there and during the warm-up. It is also very useful to visualise making saves during the game. If you have time to, when the play is outside your half, you can do this to keep concentrating and keep ready for making saves. Obviously you need to be reading the game and commanding your defence when the ball is out of your area, but you can also visualise, if you can multi task (who said goalkeepers aren’t special?!)!

Visualise!

Ultimately, it’s a good idea to look at visualising as a psychological and developmental technique to help you through games and improve your shot stopping and confidence and concentration levels. Believing that, you should be able to make any save possible is going to have a positive impact on the way you play. A means to see and then make, an exact save. It’s something you can add into your game and training as well, as you can do this in training sessions when practising corners or facing shots. This way, when you go to make a save, you will be more prepared for save making, especially certain types of save as you have mentally ‘practised’ it, and are more confident in yourself as the repetition of visualisation sees you making astonishing saves and stopping anything that comes your way, pumping you up for the big game, say!

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