Breaking Slumps: FEEL, Don’t Think

Alright going down a coaching rabbit hole here for a minute…

Who has ever been in a slump.  A slump so bad you couldn’t stop a beach ball bouncing at you. 

Everyone right..?  

Yeah, me too…

Who has ever felt like they are on such an awesome streak that could could stop a BB?

All of us!  That confidence plus the consistency is a hard level to maintain.  And typically when your confidence wanes you fall into a slump.  

From my experience and from working with hundreds of goalies, I think my favorite way (It’s not the best way because if someone had found the best way to do something, everyone would be doing it and you wouldn’t need coaches) to get confidence back or to bust out of a slump is to find something really small about your game and focus on trying to make that one little thing absolutely perfect.

For example: my coach in college really liked to harp on the direction that my outside foot’s toes were pointing after making a save. Toes pointed back to the shooter meant creating a solid barrier for rebound control. It meant you were getting your hips around the ball and keeping it in front of you at all times. Failure to get your toes pointed back to the shooter meant you were creating and angle of deflection.  If the ball hit you it would likely continue in a similar direction that it was originally headed in… possibly into the goal or behind the net… either way there was no rebound control

…I digress…

My point being with all of this: when I played I tried to feel the direction of my toes on every save. It was a very small thing that had nothing to do with the ball, but something I could feel and focus on. Feeling it is very important and there’s a major distinction between thinking and feeling. Thinking creates tension and causes hesitation because our minds can race out of control thinking about lots of things that don’t matter. Feeling allows you to slow your mind down. It creates body awareness like you are watching yourself from 10 feet above you.  Feeling helped me release to the ball quicker and helped me to be cognizant of really small things my body was doing.   

By feeling my toes on every shot and focusing on their direction it also gave me a different achievable goal other than just saving the ball.  The purpose of our position is to save the ball but harping only on saves or goals against is a losing battle 50% percent of the time statistically. 

If I could successfully get my toes pointed back towards the shooter even on a ball that went in, I still had some success to lean on and propel me into the next rep. 

Find something to feel in your game. Feel the tape on your stick… is it in the exact right place on your hand where it should be?  Is your top hand aligned where it needs to be in your ready stance. Knees bent at the right angle so you feel comfortable.  Are you up on the balls of your feet with your heels ever so slightly picked up off the ground.  Find something that only you can feel and tally it in the success column when you feel it done right.  

Building on top of success builds confidence.

Building confidence builds consistency.  

Building Consistency breaks slumps.

Don’t think, FEEL

#MindofaCoach