Mindset Reframing
So I got into a great conversation with a goalie the other day about how we think about the way we move as goalies. A topic that I have never really talked about came up.
“Mindset Reframing”
Mindset reframing to me is a goalies ability to take a problem in the goal and change the way he or she thinks about that problem to find a different solution. Making saves in the goal to me is all about problem solving and finding solutions. Every goalie solves problems completely differently but the best goalies in my mind have multiple solutions to any given problem.
A common problem for instance is getting hand-cuffed on an off-hip save. There are some that say, “The only way to save a shot off hip is to go under and make a traditional inverted stick save with the top hand swiping across the top of our thighs.” Others say, “Wrong!! You have to save an off hip shot by going over with your top hand passing by your face-mask on it’s way down to the ball!”
I say to both of these people:
“Why not learn both techniques?”
“Why not try and evaluate the goalie’s ready stance to see if he or she can change their hand placement slightly to give themselves a better chance to get to the ball quicker?”
“Could it be an issue with the goalie’s outside foot not attacking the ball well enough, forcing the hands to have to travel farther away from the body which decreases hand-eye coordination?”
“Is the goalie’s bottom hand pulling back behind the body creating less mesh surface area to make a clean save?”
All of those solutions can help alleviate getting handcuffed on off hip saves.
By focusing directly on a single different solution in different reps, goalie’s can identify what specific solutions feel more comfortable in a shorter period of time. The worst thing you can do to address a goalie problem is to feed that goalie 100s of shots to re-rep the problem over and over and over with no adjustments to how they are thinking about solving that problem. Reframing the mindset about a specific situation will help a goalie identify those little nuances that can help them solve that problem quickly. It will help them improve quickly.
I taught a goalie, recently in a private lesson, 3 different solutions until he was able to find the solution that worked best for him. We were working on getting his weight forward in his stance. Putting his weight forward would help him be more efficient in stepping to the ball and not waste time or waste body/stick surface area because of lost time.
Coaching Point: When a goalie’s weight is back in their stance, it takes a few milliseconds to rock their weight forward to then be able to push off the back foot and attack the ball. That wasted time means less surface area arriving to the ball to help make a save.
These are the ways that I framed the skill solution to that goalie in the Private Lesson:
Start your nose over your toes. By doing this you’re forcing your body weight forward before the shot so it takes less time to build momentum in that direction
Lead with your hands and chase after them - Another great way to think about forcing your body weight forward…
Think about a credit card underneath your heels. By doing this you’re slightly tilting your body weight forward pre-shot.
Each of those solutions are solving the same problem: the goalie struggles with attacking the ball. By reframing the goalies mindset or his focus point on his body, you can get varying results. In reality I am not really changing anything physically, I’m just reframing the goalie’s mindset around the singular skill. The goalie above really liked focusing on his heels and felt a lot of confidence in it.
Any coach can identify a problem and provide a solution. I think a great coach sees the problem, understands multiple solutions and provides those solutions as options, all while replicating the problem over and over until the goalie feels comfortable with the solution that is right for their own game. The reason that I like mindset reframing so much is because I don’t know what feels comfortable to someone else. I know when a goalie specific movement looks fluid and efficient. By reframing a goalie’s focus about their personal movement and helping them find what way makes them feel most comfortable, I believe I am helping them play with more confidence.
Don’t look at a problem like it only has one fix. Your way to fix the problem might not always have the desired outcome. Find multiple fixes!
