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073 - Failure is an Option
113 Plays8 days ago
Show notes are available at https://thediygoalie.com/pod073
On this week's episode, we talk about changing the narrative around mistakes. We talk about how the current development system makes goalies (and other players) afraid to make mistakes, which leads to hindering their development. We also talk about the line between being constructive and being critical when it comes to analyzing our own game and for coaches working with their goalies.
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Transcript
Introduction and Future Plans
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to the DIY Goalie Podcast, where hosts and goalie coaches Nathan Park and Connor Munday share their insights on how to become ah better goalie.
00:00:18
Speaker
How are we doing today goalies? ah Welcome back to another episode of the DIY goalie podcast presented by a True North Goaltending as always with your hosts Nathan Park and Connor Monday and yes you guys are stuck with me again this week you only got a one week break from me so Ended up having to cover a last minute facility session ah last week. So Connor was so gracious to solo the episode. So um we we're going to try and do a better job of banking some episodes. I know we've said that a few times, although we have banked episodes a few times before.
00:00:56
Speaker
And then we kind of catch up again. And then we're back to week to week. So, um, but yeah, we are basically in the full swing of things, uh, the 2025, 2026 season now with evaluations starting and kind of the very last minute pre-evaluation skates and all that good stuff. So, uh,
00:01:19
Speaker
We are in the thick of things. If you guys are in the Edmonton area and want to prepare for the upcoming season, you can visit us at truenorthgoaltending.com and come check out our facility. We would love to have you, love to work with
Personal Updates and Birthday Celebrations
00:01:34
Speaker
you. um Connor, how's it going today?
00:01:38
Speaker
um Not bad. Not bad, actually. um My calendar... in terms of hockey is starting to fill up pretty quickly, actually. Yeah.
00:01:49
Speaker
Very quickly between facility sessions on ice sessions. Uh, I'm going to be heading to the Northern part of Edmonton here for some evaluations. Um,
00:02:01
Speaker
So that'll be fun. And then my my Beer League team's schedule got released today as well. So my or me and my goalie partner are going to be ah swapping games every every other week here. So I think our our first game's on the 9th of September, next game's on the 19th. So i will be i will be in that game before i jet off to Calgary the next day. So that'll be fun.
00:02:24
Speaker
um beyond that yeah it's been uh it's been pretty uh pretty interesting pretty quiet um otherwise it was my birthday last week so um that's fun uh beyond that i mean hey uh thanks to everybody for the love and support on the solo episode pod that i did uh last week and uh happy to have nathan back here i can only talk for so much without feeling a little lonely so Oh, you missed me. How cute.
00:02:53
Speaker
Don't get used to it. Yeah, I know. In the next five minutes, I'll probably be hear and I hate you at some point. So that is all good.
Drill of the Month: Crease Movement
00:03:02
Speaker
um Somehow we are in September as of this podcast airing. So that's ridiculous. um I did not get my to do list done ah for the offseason, but it also flew by.
00:03:18
Speaker
Um, so because of that, Connor is kicking us off this month with a new drill of the month. So what do you got for us? And we're actually hitting drill of the month at the actual start of the month this time, rather than a two weeks into the month.
00:03:35
Speaker
Um, today we are talking, sorry, still counts. Yeah, fair enough. ah we Today we are talking um about kind of crease movement along with um some small adjustments as well. And so as we enter into the um starting part of the regular season here, and tryouts, evaluations,
00:03:59
Speaker
ah Just kind of shaking off just a little bit more of the rust ah before we start getting back into the swing of things here. i I think that this is a pretty good drill because it incorporates a lot of different things. Talks about angles, positioning, staying to the puck, and as well as obviously tracking head trajectory as well.
00:04:18
Speaker
The drill that I'm talking about today is the cross crease push with a small adjustment back to the center, excuse me, of your crease. So the drill is as follows. The goaltender will start on the far side post in the diagram that we have here. I believe it is the glove side post for the regular people who play goal.
00:04:36
Speaker
um The goaltender will shuffle step off their off their post to the top ah top corner of their crease. Turn rotate T push to the other corner of the crease where the coach or the shooter will have a pile of pucks.
00:04:47
Speaker
just um inside the faceoff circle, just above the faceoff dot. That player will then um make their way back to center ice with that goaltender making small adjustments, small shuffles ah back to the center of their crease.
00:05:01
Speaker
And then they will go up for a shot, play out the rebound. A shot can go anywhere. Obviously, shot is meant to shoot the score as well. um Key points for this drill is making sure that we maintain our angle, that we're not pushing too far, that we're opening up the short side net, making sure that our square is staying Um, facing towards the, uh, the stick blade of the shooter.
00:05:24
Speaker
Uh, remember that the puck has to move farther than the goaltender to maintain angle. And so that's a, that's a huge one. Um, if I push this drill back a little bit and we go to, the blue line for that player to walk, um,
00:05:36
Speaker
ah ah lot I don't think a lot of goaltenders understand that it's a long distance to go from the sideboards to the middle of the ice along the blue line. For us, it's generally about, the for my so for somebody my size, maybe about couple pushes.
00:05:51
Speaker
um For somebody that's about 8, 9, 10, 11-ish years of gold, it's maybe about 4 to 5, give or take, depending on the on the on the skating level
Common Issues for Young Goalies
00:06:02
Speaker
there.
00:06:02
Speaker
We want to make sure that We're staying square to the puck that we're not over pushing that we're opening up that short side angle. The best way i can describe that is that as soon as that player starts to go outside your frame your, your, your body frame,
00:06:14
Speaker
then that's what we want to make that, to and that and make that, get that next adjustment over. Holy stuff. going to go over my words today. um Make sure that we got proper pushes while also getting set at the same time. We want to make sure that we have nice quiet feet and we get a good hard push across each time.
00:06:29
Speaker
And then lastly, making sure that we're tracking down on that puck head to head to a head to nose to puck. And now we're making proper save execution, watching that puck in and out. And then obviously ah making sure that we're playing out the rebound appropriately.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah. So ah to kind of recap off the post, step out, push over to the far side, coach starts walking towards the middle. You make small pushes with the coach to follow the puck. Shot comes and we play out the rebound. um I like this drill a lot and I like drills that incorporate small adjustments a lot because we see that a lot, especially in the younger goalies, the that kind of panic sets in. like there There isn't as much of that understanding that we don't have to move as much as we think we do.
00:07:16
Speaker
And then that kind of panic to have to either... Go, go, go. And then you're way off your angle. Or the other thing that we kind of see is goalies wait and they try and time it. So they let the player carry the puck across. They stay.
00:07:30
Speaker
They don't move with them. And then as soon as the shot comes, then they try and make a slide into their save. and I'm pretty sure I've said this a few times on the podcast before, but I'm not a big fan of timing things because that can lead to mistiming. And, you know, if you're not perfect on your timing, then we end up in some trouble. So this is a good one for goalies of all ages, um all skill levels.
00:07:59
Speaker
being able to kind of work on those shuffles those small adjustments maintaining that angle maintaining that squareness which is incredibly important as a goalie so uh this is a good one i highly encourage you guys to add this one to your repertoire kudos to you connor good choice for this month yeah wow gold star we need a sound effect for that Yeah, we spent a ah week apart and now we're just like mushy gushy all on the pod.
00:08:29
Speaker
All rainbows and unicorns today. dear All right. You got anything else to finish off? No, I was just going to comment on the the kind of the younger goalie side of things. as like I find that for younger goalies, especially newer goalies to the position, they kind of break their crease down into five segments. It's post, corner crease, middle middle crease, corner crease, and then other side post. So it's like they feel like they have to hit...
00:08:57
Speaker
one of those spots and that's where they think that they're going maintain position. The understanding of angles um and squareness and positioning aren't exactly there yet. And that's understandable, you know, at a kid with that's brand new to position or still figuring out the position. But I think for a drill like this, it really, really focuses on being square staying on angle um to the shooter and just kind of knowing that we don't have to push as hard or move as fast and our crease than they think that we do uh especially at
00:09:33
Speaker
know that level where it's u9 um it's like the game isn't as fast as it is but when i'll be playing beer league or you know at the at the pro level or the semi-pro level right so um it's it's it's it's a good drill to get an understanding of kind of where you need to be in your net now and then you continue to work on that, you know, add it as a, as a, as a warmup drill or something, um, into, into your drill bank and then you'll, uh, you'll, you'll, you'll really get your angles and your positioning down pat.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah. Just to reiterate that important point, the puck has a lot further to move than we do. So keep it simple. Absolutely. um Anyways, that's all I got on
Embracing Failure as a Learning Tool
00:10:20
Speaker
that. So what do you have for us today, Nathan?
00:10:23
Speaker
Well, that's going to take me into my segment, and this segment is going to make me a massive hypocrite. So when we go through this and when we go through this today, this is entirely do as I say, not as I did when I played.
00:10:39
Speaker
um But we are going to talk about failure and failure. how we've been conditioned to be afraid of failure or we're conditioned to, you know, strive for perfection, which is yes, technically that's what we want to do, what we want to accomplish. But, um, the reason that I wanted to touch on this,
00:11:06
Speaker
segment is I see a lot of goalies when we work with them when we're training them you go through a drill they make a mistake and they're so hard on themselves for it you know they kind of slump down a little bit they kind of throw their hands up a little bit maybe a little stick slam whatever the case is you um we we kind of get into this negative mindset and I know I've talked about that before like it's something that I've tried to do a better job of as I've gone in my coaching career like as a player i was very analytical about my game and it was anytime there's a goal what went wrong what went wrong what can we do right
00:11:54
Speaker
and I think what we need to do is take a little bit of a step back. Now, it's it's awesome to care. Like, it's awesome to not want to, you know, quote unquote, fail or make a mistake or whatever. Like, I totally get it. That's the point of being competitive. That's the point of of pushing yourself is to try and get to be the best that you can be and minimize your mistakes.
00:12:19
Speaker
But Taking a step back, like the whole point of hockey is for goals to go in. The whole point of heart, like the NHL has been changing rules and pushing things to try and increase scoring.
00:12:35
Speaker
Right. And players are now doing all this ridiculous skill work to try and increase scoring. Right. We're no longer in the 2008 dead puck era where, you know, 940 save percentages were like kind of normal.
00:12:52
Speaker
That's a bit of a stretch, but you guys know what I mean? um But think. i i think there needs to be a bit of a collective shift in the goalie community as to how we see, how we train, um and how we see our mistakes and how we see our failures and all that stuff.
00:13:14
Speaker
Because what ends up happening is kind of two main things. There's either a turns into kind of that negative mindset that is incredibly important as a goalie. Like if you beat yourself up too much, if you try and analyze what went wrong too much, that's when we start to lack confidence. That's when we start to get into that negative mindset.
00:13:40
Speaker
Because we're basically giving our brain negative feedback loops, right? Something goes wrong, we get frustrated, we kind of shrug our shoulders, throw our hands up. And I see this a lot too, where goalies, instead of taking a breath and trying to reset, they try to go even faster. So they just get up and zoom to the start of the next rep, and then they zoom through the rep, and then they're doing even more things wrong, and then they get even more frustrated, and then it's like a constant snowball.
00:14:10
Speaker
The other thing that I see is when we become afraid to make mistakes, We don't really push our comfort zone. We don't push our boundaries as much because we're afraid that that's going to lead to, you know, a goal going in or whatever. Like, I don't want to try this new thing because I'm comfortable with what I have been doing.
00:14:34
Speaker
And ah that transition period will make me a worse goalie. And there is some merit to that. Like my first year, a junior, when I had Schwartzy as our goalie coach,
00:14:48
Speaker
um I was not very good, but I also like, unfortunately, at 17 years old, that was the first time I had heard about tracking a puck. First time I had heard of head trajectory.
00:15:00
Speaker
First time I had heard of depth management and all that stuff. And so and trying to incorporate all this stuff. it it doesn't happen overnight. Like it, it was a full season transition period, but following that I had three very successful seasons as a junior a goalie.
00:15:20
Speaker
And i think a lot of goalies like are kind of held back a little bit by their, their fear of making a mistake. Right.
00:15:33
Speaker
And it's kind of, of partly the way we've coached and kind of the way, you know, the mentality around the sport in general has kind of been, especially around goaltending, because when a goalie makes a mistake,
00:15:48
Speaker
Everybody knows, like we've talked about this before, but everybody knows when a goalie makes a mistake, it's easy to point out. It's, you know, glaringly obvious for everybody in the stands and on the ice. And so we end up taking that a little too personally. Sometimes we beat ourselves up sometimes and we get scared to make those mistakes.
00:16:10
Speaker
And then what ends up happening uh, We maybe don't get as good as we can get because we're not pushing ourselves to that brink. Right.
00:16:21
Speaker
um I think it was Ian Clark that said something. And this is me paraphrasing. I don't remember the exact quote, but he said something about. we want our push We want to push ourselves to the point of being out of control because that means that we are getting better, right? Like we're basically getting out of our comfort zone. We're pushing our limits and we're trying to set that new bar.
00:16:45
Speaker
And too many goalies, when we do goalie training, when we practice anything like that, a lot of times goal goes in. goalie gets upset about it, right? Or a goalie tries to analyze what happened or whatever the case is.
00:17:02
Speaker
And I think just collectively as a goalie community, both on the coaching side and the goaltending side, it would do us a lot of good to be okay with making a mistake, being okay with failing.
00:17:19
Speaker
And it's even okay if you set yourself a goal, like say you set yourself a goal of wanting to play college and you don't get there. That's fine too. It happens. But what that might do if we dwell on that, we might not realize the opportunities that could come up. Maybe you could get an opportunity as a coach or something, but because we're still dwelling on our playing career or whatever the case is, maybe we miss that opportunity.
00:17:49
Speaker
So my general message with this segment, and I'll let you hop in and we can kind of go back and forth on this after this point, but I want the general message to come out to you guys that goals are going to happen.
00:18:06
Speaker
That's the point of the game. You're going to lose games. You're going to let in bad goals. You're going to let in atrocious goals. I've let in goals from the far blue line. It happens, right? yeah I'm sure we could all raise our hand for something like that, but don't let it stop you from trying to push your limits. If you are in a goalie session,
00:18:28
Speaker
That's the time to make mistakes. That's the time to try something new, to get out of your comfort zone, to try something that maybe doesn't feel the greatest. But if you can put in the work and get it to feel more natural, it might actually change your game. Right.
00:18:44
Speaker
That's when you should want to make mistakes. Right. practice and goalie training, you should embrace the mistakes, embrace the potential of failure, because that's how you're going to get better. That's how you're going to push yourself and stop beating yourself up. Stop being too over analytical.
00:19:00
Speaker
Just go out there and make mistakes. That's how you're going to get better. That's the best way to learn is to learn how not to do something. So I'll let you hop in and we can kind of go back and forth, but that's just my general message.
The Role of Mindset in Practice
00:19:17
Speaker
I've never once made a mistake in my life. I don't know what you're talking about. I can't relate.
00:19:27
Speaker
um Yeah, I mean,
00:19:31
Speaker
i I've seen it too many times where I'll be in a goalie session with an athlete and they get scored on and they they they beat themselves up over it.
00:19:46
Speaker
we We had a goalie that does like that did like a little rabbit stomp at one point, ah even though we've we've had goalies as well that will just break out into tears when they get scored on.
00:20:00
Speaker
And so it started to become part of kind of my spiel when I'm when i'm explaining a drill is that – I don't care if you get scored on.
00:20:12
Speaker
that's It's practice. It's not a game. it's it's whatever It's whatever. It is what it is. um You get scored on and you do the movement correctly or sorry you do the movement incorrectly or the save execution incorrectly.
00:20:27
Speaker
Yeah, we're going to talk about it. But you get scored on and you do the save execution or the movement correctly. It just happened to beat you. okay, I'm not going to really harp on it a whole lot. We'll maybe tweak a couple things and then we get back at it again. Simple as that.
00:20:45
Speaker
um It's... I don't know. It's it's it's such a such a finicky finicky thing. like Every goalie is different in just in terms of how they react to adversity, to failure, to frustration.
00:21:01
Speaker
um ah Again, being hypocritical here, like i've I've been in instances where I have slammed my stick and beaten up my stick more times than I can count.
00:21:14
Speaker
um I was recently in ah in ah in a charity game and um this was a while ago actually when i was in ah i was in a charity game and just i got scored on every which way and just i couldn't stop beating myself up over it couldn't stop beating my stick up over it just because i knew it was things that i should know and things and saves that i should be making i just couldn't for whatever reason i'm gonna partially why i'm scared for this beer league season coming up this year um But in the grand like like again in the grand scheme of things, just like it's it's easy for me and easy for us to say it's going to be like it's going to be okay. It's okay to make mistakes. um Just... to...
00:21:56
Speaker
i like i don't know it um
00:22:02
Speaker
we like there with there had there has to be a way to
00:22:07
Speaker
collectively agree and understand ellie that like the stuff's going to happen. And that's the whole reason why we do practices. That's the whole reason why we do goalie sessions. so And so that's like Nathan said, that's, that's where you're going to want to make the mistakes.
00:22:21
Speaker
I was watching um face off that Amazon prime NHL series. um then the The new season hasn't come out yet, but I was watching the, ah the, the season from last year.
00:22:33
Speaker
And they were doing a bit on Jeremy Swayman and Matthew Kachuk. And I didn't really care for Matthew Kachuk segment, but it was more of the Jeremy Swayman one that I was more interested in. And just talking about how... um Talking about how...
00:22:48
Speaker
ah you know, it's Jeremy Swayman's, you know, first time, you know, in a game seven. And, you know, he he obviously wants to be he wants to be perfect. He wants to, um you know, win the game and this, this and that. And Florida ends up beating game seven or Florida ends up beating Boston and knocking knocking the Bruins out of the playoffs.
00:23:11
Speaker
I mean, how do you think about it for a guy like Jeremy Swayman, who's And that year in particular was coming off of contract talks and the arbitration on top of fighting for that number one spot or just kind of switching it out with Lena Solmark and all that. And then you get put on the biggest stage in the game and you end up losing in seven.
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah. so like things like that are going to happen but i mean as for for pro athletes is that you know you can't really dwell on it a whole lot much like in any game and they have to get back at it the next fall in the next year obviously it's something that stings but it's you know it's it's part of the game
00:23:52
Speaker
yeah and the other thing too like I've had goalies tell me before, and this is both related to the mental side as well as the technical side.
00:24:06
Speaker
I've had goalies tell me before that, oh, because it's practice, I know Z is happening. So that's why I'm acting like this or doing this or whatever the case is.
00:24:18
Speaker
But i I wouldn't do that in a game. But funny enough, eventually they start doing that in a game. So if you have sort of attitude towards failure during practice, imagine what that's going to do to your mindset when it happens in a game.
00:24:38
Speaker
Because like we've talked about, you're going to let in a bad goal in a game. It might even be an overtime or at the worst possible time. it It's going to happen.
00:24:50
Speaker
But the thing that sets the elite level goalies apart is their ability to compartmentalize that and move on the ability to, you know, forget about it, not dwell on it.
00:25:04
Speaker
And if you're doing that in practice or in a goalie session or whatever the case is, what do you think is going to happen in a game? Even if it's not now, eventually,
00:25:15
Speaker
That's going to become a habit and that's going to become how you react. And we see it probably a bit more often because our facility is synthetic ice.
00:25:27
Speaker
it's uncomfortable for the goalies, right? Like we, we have sliders to loan them for their pads that help them to slide. So that's not the issue, but the issue is, is the skating's different.
00:25:40
Speaker
You don't get as much glide like you do on ice on a T push. You really can't see cut very well. And there's lot of limitations that,
00:25:54
Speaker
You know, you can get away with more on ice. Ice is more forgiving. The synthetic isn't. But what the synthetic does do is it forces the goalies to have to have proper technique. They have to bend their knees.
00:26:10
Speaker
They have to get an explosive push. They have to load their back leg and stay low and forward through their push or they're not going to go anywhere or they're going to fall over.
00:26:21
Speaker
and We have both seen a handful of goalies come through that they hit the synthetic. It's different. They don't like it.
00:26:31
Speaker
And the sessions basically a write off, like to be completely honest. Right. And so this is kind of the thing, right? Like if you're so worried about,
00:26:47
Speaker
things not going your way, if you're so worried about making mistakes, if you're so worried about your environment not being optimal, when it comes to the actual game and stuff like this happens, you're not going to deal with it very well.
00:27:00
Speaker
And so that's why having that kind of embrace the failure mentality or like push yourself to make a mistake if you can deal with that in practice in your goalie session or wherever it is In a game when it does happen, because it's eventually going to happen, you will be able to deal with it so much better.
00:27:25
Speaker
Not only that, but you're also going to be a better goalie because you've pushed your limits a little bit. So like our goal, we've kind of touched on it before, but is that 1% better each day type mentality?
00:27:39
Speaker
And if you can go through a session and you make 10 mistakes and next time you only make nine of those mistakes, you're There you go. You've made improvement.
00:27:51
Speaker
But if you go through the entire session doing what you're comfortable with and not making any mistakes, well, guess what? The next session, when you do the exact same thing, you're still not making any mistakes.
00:28:02
Speaker
You've gotten no better. You've gotten no development out of it. You haven't learned anything. You're just giving yourself comfort. by staying in your comfort zone and doing the things you're good at.
00:28:16
Speaker
Now, there's a time and a place for that, like pregame skates or middle of playoffs or whatever the case is. There is a time to go in and just work on the basics and feel really good about your session.
00:28:30
Speaker
But when we're talking about development, you got to push those boundaries and you got to be willing to make mistakes and you got to be willing to deal with it.
00:28:41
Speaker
Be comfortable being uncomfortable is the quote that I will use to summarize that up. There it is. End podcast. We're done right there. This was the DIY goalie brought to you by a true goal.
00:28:55
Speaker
That's the clickbait title. Yeah, there you go. that's there there's There's the title of the pod. um Yeah, it's and I don't think, mean, like like a lot of goalies,
00:29:09
Speaker
and even athletes in general, don't fully understand that. Well, mean, I'm sure, i'm no, I should say this. Like, I'm sure they understand, you know, what it takes to get better, but,
00:29:23
Speaker
they say they understand versus actually what they're doing to get better are two completely different ends of the spectrum. Right. So I think that's, that's really what separates the good from the great to the elite essentially. And so if, if you want to be at that,
00:29:46
Speaker
elite stage at elite level, then you got you, you will need to, you have to, there's no negotiation about it. um By putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation, be comfortable putting yourself in an uncomfortable uncomfortable situation and be ready to work for whatever it is that you are trying to achieve, whether that be in sport, in school, in life, whatever that whatever that may look like, be comfortable being on uncomfortable.
00:30:19
Speaker
no And I've heard that that's part of the reason why Sweden's so good at producing high caliber defensemen is because they push their D to, you know, actually make passes up the middle or, you know, skate with the puck or do things that maybe have a higher risk.
00:30:40
Speaker
but they encourage them to try those things because they want them to develop right and and usually sweden has really good puck moving defensemen that see the game really well and um from what i've heard that's a big reason why and kind of we want that same mentality right like push yourself to have to make that push on your feet instead of on your knees in a goalie session. If it's an in tight pass, just to see if you can do it in a game. Yeah. You'd probably make that push on your knees, but in practice, why not try it? Why not see if you can get there on your feet, right?
00:31:20
Speaker
Why not see if, you know, you can, i don't know, try and make a play under pressure in a four check drill or whatever the case is, right? If, if you're working on stick handling, right.
00:31:32
Speaker
Just putting putting yourself in those situations well will help kind of in the long run um make you just a better goalie. Yeah, exactly.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah. And I think and think that kind of ties in pretty well to what you wanted to touch on today. Yeah. So again, I'm going to prep. I'm going to preface this now that Stuart Skinner is going talked a lot about in this segment.
00:31:59
Speaker
um I want to I want to talk. Surprise. I wanted to talk today, and I think this is one of these ones that maybe we talk about kind of internally and ah and we know about it in the hockey community as a general sense.
Constructive Criticism vs. Negativity
00:32:19
Speaker
Where or what is the line between constructive criticism and just plain criticism?
00:32:33
Speaker
the There is difference. um there is a difference And for hockey parents, I really, really encourage you to listen to this, at least to this portion of the segment.
00:32:46
Speaker
Or if you are an athlete, send this portion of the segment to your to your family or whoever. um That the the difference between constructive criticism and just plain criticism is how you deliver your criticism or your, your, your, your your thought and opinion and
00:33:13
Speaker
doing what you can to um for lack of a better term, just help make your athlete better or help make yourself better.
00:33:27
Speaker
You know, uh, I work in a job where, where I deal with a lot of people that complain and they will complain and whine and it yeah, complain, complain and whine for the sake of complaining or whining, or just because they don't like something they did. They didn't like how we do our job and this, this and that. And there's no, um,
00:33:55
Speaker
either alternative solution that they're willing to provide or they're not understanding kind of what it is that we do. um As goalies,
00:34:09
Speaker
we take the criticism. Very not personally, but there's criticism for a goaltender is a lot different versus criticism for a player.
00:34:23
Speaker
Here's my number one Stuart Skinner comparison that I'll be putting in here. Take a shot. the later the The lateral movement bi lateral movement, which I will concede to, um is not is not his strong suit right now. He is molasses when it comes to moving left to right um in his crease.
00:34:44
Speaker
in in his crease
00:34:48
Speaker
But people who specifically don't know anything about goaltending will just say, oh, he sucks at he sucks at his lateral movement. he's he's He's a terrible goaltender. You can't play in a show if you can't move.
00:35:02
Speaker
Okay, fair point. But for us as coaches, for us as goaltenders, we can say, okay, yeah, he's not moving properly. Is he not getting a good rotation? Is he not loading his legs?
00:35:16
Speaker
Is he um doing more or less than he should be doing um in in his crease? um Just to name as an example, you know, we're in that aspect, we're analyzing kind of what we can do to be better and how...
00:35:35
Speaker
If I was to be Stewart Skinner's coach and Dustin Schwartz's position, who's no longer there, unfortunately, um you know, what can what can I do to be better? um So really, it's it's in the delivery. And so there just there is a fine line. And for goalie parents, hockey parents, goalie parents in particular,
00:35:59
Speaker
Your kid, if they had a bad game, they know they had a bad game. Tell you that right now. day And over anything, a lot of kids will, and probably do, will hate the car ride home, especially after a bad game.
00:36:15
Speaker
Because it's not so much they know that they had a bad game, it's because they know that mom or dad or whoever is going to come down on them after having a bad game, knowing that their coaches probably already have done so in the locker room.
00:36:29
Speaker
The for us or for for for goalie parents is the best way I can describe is compliment sandwich, right? Hey, you did really well at this.
00:36:41
Speaker
You struggled in this area. But hey, maybe next practice you can work on. You can work on that. That is to me, in my opinion, would be constructive criticism saying like, hey, you made a mistake or you you weren't strong in this area.
00:36:56
Speaker
So in next practice, let's work on that rather than Timmy, you sucked at doing this. It was all your fault that the team lost. You know, you should just quit bleeding and being a goaltender now, essentially.
00:37:08
Speaker
that is just straight whining and complaining and you are not being helpful in any way, shape or form. Again, I quoted, i I talked about these guys last pod and I'll talk about them again here. I mean, and I'm not a huge fan of hockey vendors by any stretch of the imagination, but their skits when it comes to player tryouts and even then, um you know, parents after the game,
00:37:38
Speaker
is a little too spot on, um just in kind of how they portray their skit because there are some parents that are kind of crazy and will, and will basically verbally attack their own child, especially after a game that their child knows already wasn't a good game.
00:38:01
Speaker
Um, Nathan, um, Yeah, i
00:38:12
Speaker
I don't know exactly what it is or why.
Supportive Communication for Goalies
00:38:16
Speaker
um It's related to the uniqueness of the goaltending position and how we, i don't know, are basically on an island in a team sport.
00:38:31
Speaker
um But a lot of stuff gets internalized. Like, I don't know, me personally, anyways, I found because I was basically by myself in my own head for 60 minutes of a game. um You're kind of like in your head for a lot, right? Like you, you're just there. It's you and your thoughts, basically.
00:39:00
Speaker
And so we tend to be very analytical because we have that time to just think and process.
00:39:12
Speaker
And a lot of this stuff ends up getting internalized, like the trying to dissect that last goal against or, you know, the pressure of trying to perform in an evaluation or in playoffs or whatever the case is.
00:39:29
Speaker
We tend to take that and just kind of like push it inside and like just bury it. And when it comes to the point about the post game car ride talk.
00:39:47
Speaker
The same thing applies what you are pushing towards your kid, whatever you're saying towards your goalie, they are going to take that and they are going to internalize it And the next time they're out in a game and they let in a goal that they know probably wasn't the greatest, what's playing through their head is exactly the things they think you're going to be saying to them in the car ride home.
00:40:14
Speaker
They're not worried about the next save. They are worried about what mom and dad or coach or whatever teammates, whoever is going to say because they know that it was bad.
00:40:28
Speaker
And they know what people are thinking because that's the norm. That's what people are thinking. Right. People make comments about forwards and defensemen when they make mistakes. But for some reason, it's like five times when it's a goalie making that mistake.
00:40:45
Speaker
And. The other thing too is this also applies to not just their performance. Bit of a shout out again to Mr. Gammon on YouTube over there. I know he's made a couple of comments about talking about other kids on the car rides home as well because...
00:41:08
Speaker
then you're your goalie is going to be internalizing that too, or your child will be internalizing that too. And that can lead to some other issues in the dressing room as well. um But I think if we look at the broad goalie community as a whole, so we're talking goalie coaches, goalie parents, head coaches, goalies, assistant coaches, whatever, everybody that kind of has a touch point when it comes to goaltending,
00:41:36
Speaker
We need to find a better way to be a little bit more supportive of goalies and to be less critical. Like, yes, we want to be, you know, trying to teach and build from mistakes, learn from mistakes, try and develop, try and get better.
00:41:54
Speaker
But at what point is that detrimental? And so the way we deliver that message is big. Like you can do it constructively, kind of like what Connor said, like what I used to do with my dad on the car ride home was I would ask him, what's one thing that I did well that game? What's one thing that I can improve on from that game?
00:42:15
Speaker
That's what we did. And that was kind of most of what we talked about, depending. Sometimes i was a little bit more chatty and wanted to chat more about the game. Sometimes not so much. But the way Connor said it too works fine as well.
00:42:29
Speaker
It's okay to have a little bit of constructive criticism. It's okay to... you know, want to get better and want to dissect your game. Like we talk about doing that all the time as being beneficial, but you also need to have a time where you're not doing that.
00:42:44
Speaker
You also need to have a time where you're actually also going through the things that you're doing well. Like, reflect on the accomplishments you've had, reflect on how good you are as a skater or how good you are at tracking the puck or whatever the case may be, and not just focusing so much on what can I get better at.
00:43:07
Speaker
Right. And that's kind of that fine line when we were talking about that line between, you know, constructive versus, you know, negative criticism.
00:43:18
Speaker
um I think comes a lot from how we deliver that message. So, you know, the yelling, the condescension, all that stuff does not work. If you can do it in a supportive way and, you know, say,
00:43:33
Speaker
okay, you know what? I saw the effort was there. Real good job. The only thing was that, you know, we missed our angle or we didn't track that puck or whatever. So next time I want the focus to be track that puck. I want your eyes glued to that puck for this next rep or whatever the case is, right? Like there's a way to deliver that in a constructive way.
00:43:54
Speaker
And then the other thing is, is not to dwell on it. Kind of like what we talked about earlier. The more you drill at home, the more you hammer at home, the less constructive it gets and the more negative that it gets or destructive.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah, it's we've we've talked about it in other episodes, the job or the role of the parent on the team.
00:44:23
Speaker
Aside from the volunteer roles. is to be your athletes number one fan you are you are parent you are fan you are not the coach you are not the trainer or whoever even if you may be a volunteer coach on the team you need to have that separation um because like nathan had said so if if If you dwell on it as a parent and you tear down your own kid in the car ride home, your kid will have that on the mind thinking that mom and dad hate me, even though you probably don't, even though it probably comes from a loving place.
00:45:13
Speaker
Um, but they think mom and dad hate me. They don't think I'm a good athlete, you know, and it all just kind of starts to spiral down afterwards. And then that's how, uh, that's how, uh, kids end up falling out of the game.
00:45:25
Speaker
I re I go back again to Jamie Phillips, uh, when we had him on the pod and how he was talking about how his dad was pushing him a little too far. And he basically told his dad to back off or I'm not, or I'm going to quit playing hockey entirely.
00:45:38
Speaker
Um,
00:45:41
Speaker
So, I mean, like, again, it's only, ah we we talked about it before, it's like only a goalie, maybe by extension a goalie parent, only can ah can understand what a goalie is going through.
00:45:54
Speaker
And so again, I go back to Stuart Skinner and it's where I really have to tune out Oilers fans sometime, or even just kind of hockey commentators in general.
00:46:06
Speaker
Um, just because the, the, the quote unquote criticism or the, um, opinions that they have of Skinner, although he did have a rough year last year, I'm not going to deny that by any stretch of the imagination.
00:46:19
Speaker
Um, the fact that Skinner is an NHL goalie and majority of us aren't. So where, so where, where is this? We can, we can all have our opinions and that's, and that's perfectly fine, but we're not the ones in that locker room. And some of us, majority of hockey fans aren't goaltenders and even select few that are ripping on Stuart Skinner.
00:46:45
Speaker
I will shut my mouth on that. But anyways, um the put the the point the the point being is that there is that line and it's a matter of how you deliver the message and what it is that you you or you as an athlete or that you as a parent, fan, coach, who whoever, are going to do um Whether be so in a supportive role or in a a training role or what have you to make your athlete or yourself better.
00:47:21
Speaker
I think that's that's the biggest thing there because people who... whine and complain. They're just doing it to whine and complain and not be and not and and not doing any not do anything about it. We see that a lot in the real world nowadays in general. People will whine and complain about whatever they feel like online and and not and not do ah not do anything about it. Essentially, they're just they're just yapping for the sake of yapping, basically.
Balancing Self-Critique and Appreciation
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, so Before we wrap up, we've talked about this as an angle from goalie parents, but I, I think we should also touch on that fine line of constructive and destructive criticism, like internally, like, like goalies themselves.
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah. And so I'm curious what your take is on that. Um,
00:48:26
Speaker
I think a lot of it, i mean, like we've talked about it enough already um about overanalyzing. And I think that's where a lot of that mentality in general can come and can come into play.
00:48:40
Speaker
um You know, because if we start overanalyzing the position and we start replaying goals in our head or bad plays in our head and we start thinking about what can what can we do better, you are going to drive yourself mental. You are going to drive yourself mad.
00:48:55
Speaker
So in terms of constructive versus destructive criticism, again, like I go back to compliment sandwich. That's not really where I want to be at, but it's like, Hey, I did. Hey, I did well at my skating today. Again, like, Oh, well, well, seriously, like I talked about it in the last episode a little bit as well. it's like,
00:49:17
Speaker
what do What do you want to work on throughout the game or practice? on what did And did you accomplish whatever it is that you set out to to to accomplish in the game? Was it, hey, you wanted to um really make sure that you did well on your blocker saves today? Did you do well on your blocker saves? Did you not do well on your blocker saves? Why not?
00:49:35
Speaker
And what are you going to do to to to be better at it? um You know, the... um
00:49:45
Speaker
as As goalies, we have to have the mind of a goldfish, especially while in a while in a game situation. We cannot, cannot, cannot dwell on the the goal prior and think about all these different things that we could have done better, whether it was something that we could have done better or whether it was something that our team could have done better, is that we have to focus on the next play. We have to focus on the next shot.
00:50:10
Speaker
um again and going into into in the destructive criticism i think really it's if we start blaming our team or our coaches or our parents or just start making up more excuses um it's again you're complaining is what you're doing you're whining you're complaining and you're not you're not doing anything really about it to to to make yourself better you're just saying like oh i played bad because my team played bad and And, you know, what i i I can't play under this with this type of team and whatever that whatever that may be.
00:50:44
Speaker
um so i think i So I think for as an athlete, that's kind of where you kind of need to draw that line. as be like if if If you know that you are not doing well at something, what are you going to do to get better at it?
00:50:59
Speaker
Or are you just going to say, yeah, I sucked at my blocker side and I guess that's just the way my game is now.
00:51:09
Speaker
Yeah, I am. I'm curious if you think the reason why goalies are over analytical is because we've had a tendency over coach a little bit.
00:51:28
Speaker
Do you think that some of that translates into that mindset? I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, if that is the case. I think us as goalie coaches, or even as and I'll extend this to goalie parents as well,
00:51:42
Speaker
is that we we we see the game from a different vantage point compared to what the goalies on the IC, even the players on the IC. you know As a general sense, you know we as fans, when we're watching the game either in person or on the TV, and we see somebody like Connor McDavid try to skate through five New York Rangers players at once, and we're like, well, why didn't you just go to the outside?
00:52:06
Speaker
Yeah. Or even it's like, hey, yeah there was there were three shot ah three shot options that Cale McCarr could have had, and he opted to pass it off to to to Nathan McKinnon, and they ended up turning the puck over to go the other way.
00:52:21
Speaker
You know, we as coaches, we as parents, and as fans of the game, we so we see a completely different game versus what the athletes on the ice see.
00:52:32
Speaker
And so... i would I would agree with you that in a coach's setting or even as ah even as a goalie parent setting is that we we don't think about that a whole lot. It's, hey, we noticed that you had holes here, here, here, and there. You didn't get all the way across on your feet.
00:52:53
Speaker
you know you you you You thought that you were in this position, but you actually weren't. And the list goes on essentially. And so that can and does and will translate into the goalies mind thing. Okay, I got to hit all these different points or otherwise.
00:53:09
Speaker
my coach or otherwise my mom or my dad or whoever um is, is, is going to, is going to get, get upset at me about it. They're going to, they're going to, they're going talk to me about and I don't really want to hear it from them. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be surprised if that really was the case in, in terms of how that is.
00:53:32
Speaker
Yeah, I full on admit that and I'd still do it, I know, but I've gotten better that I have had the tendency to over coach.
00:53:45
Speaker
um And I can say for sure that it comes from a point of, well, I don't get much time to work with these goalies, so we got to cram as much in as possible. And that's not always the best approach either.
00:53:59
Speaker
i think in general, like, we almost as a goalie community they need to like take a half step back and just maybe let things be a little bit more than we have and not try and dissect as much. Like it's still important understand the game. It's still important to watch your video and to pick things up, but we don't want it to be an obsession.
00:54:24
Speaker
Like, you know, dwell on it for like a little bit and figure out what you can do better next time. And then we're moving on and that's it. um The other thing too, personally, that helped or that would have helped me back in the day, I think, um because I was always one that was never really satisfied. Like it was like, okay, I got to whatever level. Now I got to get to the next level. Okay. I got there. Now I got to get to the next level.
00:54:55
Speaker
And that I think might've been a bit of a detriment as well. Um, because it was always that, that pursuit of pretty much perfection, right? Like and trying to always find something wrong, trying always to find something to correct and to work on and whatever the case is.
00:55:18
Speaker
And I've mentioned it before, but that led to not really appreciating what I did accomplish and what I did get to do. And, And all of that stuff. And I think taking those both with stride as, as you go through your career, yes, you can have a little, a level of unsatisfaction as to wanting to keep getting to that next level.
00:55:42
Speaker
But at the same time, taking ah ah step or ah breath or whatever to look back, see what you've done so far and appreciate the development that you've had. Because I don't think a lot of us realize how far we actually got from the very first time that we strapped on pads.
00:56:02
Speaker
Like if you think about it if you really think about the very first time you played goal and then you think about the very last time you played goal, whether you're still playing or not regardless of where you got to, you were significantly better.
00:56:19
Speaker
And yes, of course, we're going to get better as we age and practice and all that stuff. But I don't think we really appreciate what we do, like how far we've come, how we've developed.
00:56:33
Speaker
So my challenge to you goalies out there is to stop being as critical on yourself. Yes, you still want to find ways to get better and to develop yourself and find things that you need to work on.
00:56:50
Speaker
But I also encourage you to take little mini check ins with yourself and give yourself that proverbial pat on the back. Appreciate what you've done, what you what you've accomplished, where you've gotten to and how much development you've actually made throughout your career.
00:57:08
Speaker
And I think that would go a long way too with some of that performance anxiety, some of that, you know, kind of non-confidence or nerves or anything like that that comes with the mental side of the position because we put so much pressure on ourselves.
00:57:26
Speaker
If you just appreciate where you've gotten to and appreciate the game for what it is. It's a game. We're here to play and have fun, let off a little bit of steam, you know, be competitive. Like,
00:57:41
Speaker
Make that your goal when you're going to a game or whatever the case is. Don't make it your goal to pick apart your own game and find absolutely every nook and cranny that's wrong.
00:57:54
Speaker
Right. You're you're not going to be perfect. The guys in the NHL. I mean, Connor Hellebuck. He's won three Vezna trophies, still has a lot of criticism around him, right? Like you're never, you're never going to chase that pinnacle.
00:58:10
Speaker
You're never going to hit that pinnacle. So just enjoy the ride while you go and, you know, stop being quite so critical on yourselves. I'll leave off with a couple of kind of my last thoughts.
00:58:25
Speaker
Um, the first one is again, just going back to what I talked about in last pod with, you know, what's pick a thing in a game that you want to accomplish in that game.
00:58:40
Speaker
Is it your tracking? Is it your save execution? Is it your skating? it, You want to make sure that all your pucks end up in corners today when they hit your stick.
00:58:51
Speaker
Is it that you want to make sure that, you know, you're you're you're every every shot is to your chest or whatever? um Whatever that may be, is just pick something that you want to accomplish in that game.
00:59:08
Speaker
And then after the game, say, did you accomplish what it is that you set out to do? How many, did how many chess saves did you make? You know, how well did you do on your blocker side? How well did you do on your glove side? Did all the pucks that hit off your stick end up in the corner today? Why or why not?
00:59:25
Speaker
um You know, things, things like that. It's just like set up kind of mini challenges for yourself, but, and kind of really just hammer home that that's the one thing that you want to accomplish throughout the game. Everything else can kind of go by the wayside.
00:59:42
Speaker
Um, I did want to leave off as well and it's blanking on me now at this point. So that's annoying. um
00:59:53
Speaker
yeah, remember it when we get off two minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to, we're going to end pod and I'm going to, and I'm going to remember what it was. Oh, no, I know. i know Um, again, memory of a goldfish, right?
01:00:06
Speaker
You know, umve I've mentioned it in other episodes as well, is that nobody in a week from now, in two weeks from now, in a year, two years, three years, whatever, is going to remember what happened in a particular season.
01:00:25
Speaker
They will remember either the really good they will remember either the really bad. There is nowhere in between. They're not going to, you know, remember. I mean, and when I say they're really bad, I mean, like, they're not going to say like, oh yeah, remember that time when we lost 21, nothing, you know, like,
01:00:43
Speaker
they're not going to say like, Oh yeah. Remember that time that Nathan couldn't stop, you know, a beach ball or that, that he couldn't, you know, make a block or save to save his life or anything. You know what I mean? There was lots.
01:00:56
Speaker
and See, that's, see, that's what I'm saying. And i think in that one, I think I remember in like one episode, we had said, or maybe this will be the first time I mentioned it. It's like, I don't really remember much of my playing career when I, when I did play it, I remember, i remember some of it, but I don't remember every game. I don't remember every specific detail. I, you couldn't even ask me what the score was on February 21 of 2007. You know, like nobody's nobody in the grand scheme of things at the end of day is going to remember that. So mind of a goldfish.
01:01:30
Speaker
is important. So I will leave it off. Connor's really, Connor's really embracing that mind of a goldfish, forgetting about what it was that he wanted to say.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah. See, there you go. Right. And again, this may be unpopular point, but I will always drive it home is that at the end of the game, hockey is a game and games are meant to be fun.
01:01:57
Speaker
despite what you see in like the NHL biopics or, you know, what some people may say, know, it's like hockey is a game. Hockey is meant to be fun. So all roads lead to beer league at the end of the day. So that's, that's, that's the one thing to consider as well.
01:02:17
Speaker
And that there's literally nothing more fun than stopping a puck. Exactly. I will die on that hill because i don't care about and scoring goals, whatever argument you're going to make, making that big save.
01:02:36
Speaker
i don't know. Only goalies get it. You guys get it. ah Exactly. Exactly. um Yeah. I got nothing else on that.
01:02:47
Speaker
Take us home. I will take us home. Indeed. Another edition of the DIY goalie podcast presented by true north. Goaltending is in the books. Thank you everybody so much for watching. If you are on the YouTube side of things, make sure you hit that subscribe button and that like button.
01:03:05
Speaker
as well as ah you hit the share button as well to your favorite social media platforms. The more goaltenders that we can bring in together, the more goaltenders that we can bring in, the better. The ah podcast side of things, if you are listening on your favorite podcasting platform, whether that be Apple, iHeart or Spotify or wherever it wherever it is that you get your podcasts.
01:03:24
Speaker
If you are a returning listener, thank you very much. Make sure you hit that share button again. ah If you are a new listener, hit the follow button. Check us out. We do have a whole bunch of other episodes in our catalog. Now this is episode 72 that we're on, which is absolutely incredible. 73. 73. Sorry. See, I can't count.
01:03:43
Speaker
um Nathan doesn't pay me to do that. So, you know, ah yeah, but check us out. Check out the catalog. We have a whole bunch of podcasts. whole bunch of other exciting episodes here and a bunch of exciting guests here as well, which we do ah plan to have more lined up throughout the 2025, 2026 season on the social media side of things. You can follow us all at true north goaltending.com except on Instagram because we like to be different. That one is Y E G goalie coach.
01:04:11
Speaker
You can follow myself on Instagram at Monday GC. Go check us out. True north goaltending.com. We do have a bunch of different ops or services. For your um entertainment, I guess, that's not the word I want to use, but we do have a bunch of different services available to you. If you are in the Edmonton area and would like to train with us, head over to truenorthgoaltending.com and check out our facility sessions that we do have available all year round.
01:04:37
Speaker
Um, it's a lot of fun get to work on one-on-one stuff and just kind of a more intimate setting. So and do appreciate that. lot of great instructors that we have at our disposal as well.
01:04:49
Speaker
That'll be it on that front. So again, on behalf of myself and Nathan Park, this has been the true nose goaltending podcast. Nope. that It's been the DIY goalie podcast presented by true nose goaltending. Make some sales goalies. We'll see you guys next time. Take care.