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085 - Dealing with Early Season Struggles
148 Plays4 months ago
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Connor and Nathan sit down this week to talk about some early season issues that have come up with some goalies they have been working with. We tackle things such as tweaks to pre-game routines, internal pressures, resetting our training approach, and more!
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Transcript
Introduction to the DIY Goalie Podcast
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 a better goalie.
00:00:18
Speaker
Goalies, how are we doing? Welcome back to the DIY Goalie Podcast, presented by True North Goaltending.
Guest Emerson Joins, Adding Humor
00:00:27
Speaker
As you guys could probably hear, we have a guest on today that we are doing an interview with. No, I'm just kidding. But... Connor has brought Emerson on and She's hanging out in his lap today. So, you know, we got three hosts. Two of us will probably make most of the contributions. The other one will just yell a little bit, but that's okay. ah
00:00:50
Speaker
How are we doing over there today, Connor? ah we're a little We're a little grumpy over here today, but i mean so far we seem ah pretty content for the for the most part. So Emerson will chime in with with her thoughts on things as we continue throughout the throughout the pod today. Other than that...
PWHL Season and Marlene Boisson Shoutout
00:01:09
Speaker
um You and I were talking a little bit ago, just kind of load management and then keeping all our ducks in a row. And i totally understand where you're coming from today between, you know, our on ice sessions, the nine to five and all the family stuff. I don't even know what day of the week it is today. So.
00:01:30
Speaker
I don't even know a month we're in. so But beyond that, um no, everything's all everything's all good over here.
Balancing Training, Work, and Family
00:01:37
Speaker
PWHL season started yesterday, so got to give a shout-out to former guest of ours and PWHL Frost goaltender Marlene Boisson. No, she didn't play, but the Frost, they they fought hard, unfortunately fell um down by a goal in the in the in the final minutes here of the of the period against the New York Sirens.
00:01:59
Speaker
We're a little sad over here because of that, but, you know, all's well that ends well. plus So, yeah, big shout-out to Marlan for jumping on the pod. We've been keeping a touch here and there. But, yeah, good luck to her and the rest of the Minnesota Frost and all of the PWHL teams throughout the rest of their season.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to make a note of it to try and watch more games this year. We'll see. As you said, with load management, we'll see where we can slide that in. But we just talked about good load management on the ice. We're both out to lunch when it comes to that off the ice. But hey, you know, we somehow still find a way to slide in some content for for the pod. So that's all well good. um But yeah, no, it's We actually just put out a call for a couple more goalie coaches to try and take the load off a little bit. But as it seems, we do that and then we just get more and more work. So, you know, good problem to have. But yeah, makes for some ah long days for sure. But that's all good. So.
Pregame Routines: Mental and Physical Preparation
00:03:02
Speaker
Speaking of that, we are going to tie in a little bit today on kind of some ways to deal with some specific struggles. So Connor is going through some stuff with one of his teams that he's working with. I'm going through some stuff with some of the or with one of the teams I'm working with that kind of translated good to to the podcast to touch on a little bit. um
00:03:30
Speaker
The first thing I kind of wanted to talk about, um because I've actually been bringing this up to a couple goalies recently, um just ones that have kind of found issues that they're struggling with.
00:03:47
Speaker
And just like Emerson, Emerson's struggling a little bit today, so maybe she can open her ears a little bit and listen. I think we're just getting a little tired over here.
00:03:59
Speaker
Yeah, me too. I think it's my nap time for sure. ah um wherere ah We're going to talk about a couple like I know we've we've touched on pregame routines before, but what I wanted to touch on is the fact that we can maybe have a couple different routines based off of kind of how we're feeling.
00:04:24
Speaker
you just go have to You're just to have to cut out like your side of the audio for like 80%. Yeah, that's that's basically one ah that is basically what I'm going to do. alright ah So, yeah, so we've touched on pregame routines a little bit.
00:04:40
Speaker
ah Well, a couple times actually throughout the podcast and we kind of had half an episode or a full episode on one um on the topic before. But kind of what I wanted to touch on because this has come up a few times with some of the goalies that I'm working with lately, is um the fact that it's OK have a couple different pregame routines. um So I never really thought about this until i started talking this through with one of the goalies I was working with and we were kind of talking about pregame routine and talking about, you know, the nervous excitement going into games and stuff like that. And um it actually made me kind of think back and reflect to when I played in terms of the pregame routine is I actually had a couple variations of my routine. Most of the routine was exactly the same. But for me, what I did physically and what I listen to in terms of music change based off of how I was feeling. So one thing that I think we don't talk enough
Managing Nervous Energy with Music and Routines
00:05:46
Speaker
about in the goalie world in general
00:05:49
Speaker
we always preach pregame routine and we always preach, you know, repeatability with your routine. But to be honest, it's, in my opinion, good to have a couple of variations of that depending on how you're feeling. So for me for example, if I was kind of lethargic, kind of tired, just kind of a feeling um on the day of a game, I'd actually throw on some of the more like hard music, like hard rock and kind of you know, that pump up style of music to try and get me going a little bit more. But then on the flip side, there is a few games um where I'd have that nervous energy where you're just kind of
00:06:34
Speaker
you know, shaking a little bit or vibrating a little bit. You're just ready to go. You're anxious, like, you know, you're kind of fidgety, you know, bouncing your your leg while you're sitting kind of thing.
00:06:47
Speaker
and For games like that, I would kind of have a more chill playlist to listen to where I could try and kind of calm myself down a little bit, kind of just mellow out, have, you know, some deep breathing and just chill.
00:07:03
Speaker
um So I also know that like on those days that I wasn't feeling it as much, I wouldn't really go and you know, do as much dynamically in my warm up, like in terms of stretching, in terms of, you know, that kind of dynamic warm up, I would kind of tone that down a little bit. And then vice versa, too, when I was feeling a little bit more anxious, a little bit more energetic, I would try and kind of
00:07:34
Speaker
you know, get myself a little bit of that energy kill. I try and do a little bit more to get rid of that, that nervous energy a bit, kind of try and mellow out a little bit more. So um I just kind of wanted to touch on that and talk about that point that, you know, based off of how you guys are feeling, you can have a couple uh routines kind in your back pocket ready to go based off of how you're feeling and how you want to kind of approach that game i think uh i mean you you guys won't hear it on my side because the audio will have been muted but emerson's just chatting up a storm over here so i think she has uh something to say before ah before nathan uh before nathan does hey
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, she's telling me to go pound sand and that I'm wrong and she already knows, right? She is, what, three, four months old and she already knows everything, right? Yeah, exactly, right? Hey, do you know everything already?
00:08:37
Speaker
oh we're getting tired. That's okay. Yeah, that's some good advice. yeah no for sure um yeah and you know you know it's funny like it's you know we're talking about uh uh shouting out marlene like she was talking about um you know dealing with nerve i mean it's not necessarily like pre-game stuff but like she was talking about like dealing with nerves already you know especially in like a like a tight game or like um you know when your team goes on the penalty kill or whatever like you know your nerves or being nervous or getting anxious out in the ice in particular is more, isn't more so, is more so a thing of like your body saying like, like you're ready to go basically. Right. it's It's all that, it's all the jitters and and such. Like it's your body just really ready to release that energy and, you know, get going. So it's not necessarily like,
00:09:23
Speaker
oh my god, like you know I don't know if I can do this or anything. It's more like, yeah, I'm ready, let's go, type of deal, right? And it's even with the off-ice stuff,
00:09:35
Speaker
As well, it's just it's all it's all mental preparation right and in the same breath too. And that's where you know a lot of that comes into play as well with the excuse me the um with the you know preparing for a game, you know making sure that we have the right meals, you know the right type of music that we're listening to, anything that we can do to get ourselves ready. And even even then, you may feel nervous, but it's not necessarily...
00:10:02
Speaker
the nerves of even like you know for like a big game playoff game tournament game whatever um it's not necessarily a thing of like um you know i don't know if i can do this it's more so just your body saying i'm pumped up i'm ready you know let's go type of thing right so yeah And that's um so I guess to go back on some of the stuff we've talked about before, like we've talked about wanting to make a repeatable pregame routine.
00:10:32
Speaker
um And that's still true, but you can have a couple variations. And again, this is where like we talk about the game day journaling like that comes into play, being able to say, This is how I felt today. This is what I did before the game.
00:10:46
Speaker
And that helped how I played or that didn't help how I played. And then you can kind of refine it a little bit. Right. and And i do think it's good to. change pace a little bit based off of how you're feeling. Um, cause as we all know, each, each game we play, we feel a little bit different. Sometimes, you know, we're more relaxed, more focused, ready to go. Sometimes life's chaotic and we're kind of all over the place and have to try and calm down a little bit. So, um, figure out what works for you guys. Um,
00:11:20
Speaker
And then just building off of that, too. um One of the other things that I've kind of been dealing with with one of the goalies I work with is.
Handling Self-imposed Pressure and Performance Dips
00:11:31
Speaker
is Consistent, soft goals. So in our goalie sessions, he's pretty dialed in um making great strides in his development um and you know pretty much close to unbeatable in a lot of like the routine drills and saves and stuff that we do. And then I get video from their games after weekends And there's at least a couple goals over the weekend that it's like, ooh, I shouldn't say at least a couple goals. There's frequently, not all the time, but there's frequently where it's like, ooh, like that just beat him. Like just a straight shot from somewhere, no traffic, just beat him clean. And that doesn't happen in our goalie sessions.
00:12:19
Speaker
And yeah. So I kind of talked to him a little bit about it. And, you know, he said that this kind of the first year he's been dealing with being more so the guy as opposed to kind of more of that 50 50 split.
00:12:33
Speaker
um He's also kind of mentioned the internal pressure that he puts on himself, too. So he finds that there's a little bit more.
00:12:44
Speaker
of that pressure that he puts on himself. And that's kind of what's leading him to do a little bit extra, I guess, in terms of trying too hard. Like we've talked about it before as goalies, we can't really go out and make things happen. The game comes to us. We also can't really, you know, try harder because a lot of times that does not translate well for us. Like the more we try and do,
00:13:14
Speaker
usually the worse it goes for us. And so we were kind of talking about that because, um his team does not score very much and they're a new program.
00:13:27
Speaker
They don't have a lot of, uh, you know, they're, they don't really have it yet. They're kind of losing more so than they're winning to put it nicely. Um, so they're struggling a bit as a team and,
00:13:43
Speaker
we think that might be part of that internal pressure is he's he's almost maybe thinking that he has to do more than he can right like he can't score the goals he can't do anything like that but i think that pressure is there that you know if i let in you know two to three goals we're basically gonna lose right so i think there's some of that pressure to want to try and you know, make more happen, try and make it so that, you know, he's working harder to not let in those goals, which ends up putting him in bad spots and getting him beat on shots that he normally wouldn't be beat on. And I think that's, um, something we can all relate to at some point. Like if we don't have confidence or don't have trust in our defensemen, um, they, uh,
00:14:42
Speaker
like we tend to try and compensate for that. So if there's like a backdoor threat, we might start cheating the pass a little bit as opposed to the shot.
00:14:52
Speaker
Or if, you know, our defensemen have a tendency to turn the puck over or to, you know, make bad plays on the breakouts, we might, when we stop the puck, try and, know,
00:15:05
Speaker
rim it off high and hard off the glass every time or try and go for the crazy long stretch pass or or anything like that so if you do find yourself in a situation where you are on a team that's struggling especially offensively um and if you're on a team that maybe your d zone structure isn't there just worry about your job everything else you can't control Just worry about getting to your spots early, tracking pucks, making saves in front of your body, all those core basic foundational skills that we talk about.
00:15:44
Speaker
And don't try and, you know, put the weight of the world on your shoulders, right? Other, like your team, you can't control what they do.
00:15:57
Speaker
If they can't score goals and you're losing one nothing, it is what it is, right? You can only stop the next puck. So that means that you don't want to try and put that pressure on yourself to do more. And you don't want to try and overextend yourself or overcomplicate things by trying to do more.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. um like That's that's it the biggest thing is that you know, again, we talked about before as well, you know, controlling the controllables and such. Right. And, um, you know, it's funny, like you mentioned that cause remember on one of the teams that I was coaching a very long time ago, um we gave up a goal where it was such a, it's like such an easy save for them to make, but yet they ended up making it more difficult than they needed to. And so I, i asked them, I said like, like what happened on that play?
00:16:56
Speaker
And the goalie said, so, well, I'm taking, I'm, I'm dealing with the, like, I'm, I'm, I'm taking on the guy. That's the, that's the backdoor threat. And I go, why?
00:17:07
Speaker
And he goes, because my defenseman was dealing with the guy with the puck. And I go, yeah, that's your job too. Don't worry about that backdoor guy. You know that he's there. You know that he's a threat. But realistically, that's your defenseman's job to be doing that. So that's not something that you need to be concerning yourself with. You need to be concerning yourself with the guy who has the little black rubber thing on his stick.
00:17:29
Speaker
So just it was mind-boggling for me to see that, and it was an attestment to kind of how bad our defense was in our own zone. but some But just stuff like that. you know just yeah like We talked about it before, you know like controlling the controllables.
00:17:45
Speaker
Is one thing. And really, like, it sounds so stupidly simple, but it's true. It's like the goaltender's job at the end of the day is to stop the puck by any means necessary. Right? And so i i don't understand why we as goalies need to make things more complicated than we need to in some instances.
00:18:08
Speaker
But with that being said, um like i had totally understood the thought process behind it, but I'm also thinking, like you you what's your job as a goalie?
00:18:18
Speaker
It's to stop the puck. You're dealing with the guy that has... that has the puck, you know, you are aware of that backdoor threat, but you know, why are you taking, why are you trying to play a man to man coverage when and you're essentially exposing yourself to get scored on? Basically that was, that was one thing I just, I couldn't understand there. And no matter how hard he tried to explain it, I still just, just like, no, like you can't, you can't, you can't do that. And so just, yeah. Yeah.
00:18:46
Speaker
That kind of goes back to, um, I don't know if Schwartzy ever talked to you about it, but like the A grade goals, the B grade goals, the C grade goals, like as goalies, if we're only giving up A and the odd B grade goal,
00:19:03
Speaker
we're in a good spot. It's when you start letting in the C and the D grade goals, that's, uh, that's when you get into trouble. And usually defensive breakdowns are the A and the B grade goals.
00:19:15
Speaker
And those are kind of the ones that if they go in their lower percentage plays, they don't always connect anyways. Um, yes, we want to
Understanding Goals: Inevitable vs. Avoidable
00:19:24
Speaker
be aware of them and try and stop them, but sometimes it's not realistic. Right.
00:19:29
Speaker
Yeah. And there was, um, There was a quote by... i was listening to Goalie Science. Was it Goalie Science? No, it wasn't Goalie Science. so I think it was one of Jamie's videos. And ah he was talking about a quote that Derek had said to him a very long time ago.
00:19:44
Speaker
ah You know, the purpose of hockey is to score goals. That is the essential point of the whole game. is your One team is trying to outscore the other one in a 60-minute period. In a 60-minute game, basically.
00:19:58
Speaker
If it weren't for the goals... We'd end up having bunch of soccer matches where it's 1-0 by the time that it's the, i don't know, two-hour mark of the game or whatever. And I'm just talking game clock. um but that's But that's essentially, the and like understand his goalies realistically over anything is that goals are going to go in.
00:20:22
Speaker
Now, the type of goals that we give up, that's a whole other ball game in itself, which we all know far too well. I'm going to try and refrain from mentioning number 74 on the Edmonton Oilers, but um that's, again, a prime example of that.
00:20:42
Speaker
There are going to be good goals that are going in. There are going to be bad goals that go in. And people will try and hang it on the goalie as much as they can, but Again, goalies know goaltending.
00:20:56
Speaker
Their goalies know what goalies go through, essentially. you know we and We know that, yeah, okay, was it a quality shot or was it a um was it a garbage goal, basically? And so what what was if the outcome were to change, I guess, either either a a how would we have done it differently, or B, is if we took away any other factors, would ah would the result have been the same?
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of funny that a lot of times when the team's struggling, but it's close, it tends to be the goalie's fault.
00:21:31
Speaker
Yeah. Like, if a team's struggling, but they're kind of with it there, if they're losing, like, you know, 5-3 or or something like that, it tends to always fall on the goalie, but.
00:21:44
Speaker
A lot of people, it's the easy scapegoat. And I don't know. The big thing is, is just worry about doing your job. Everything else will take care of itself um as as it will. You can't control if your defenseman suck. You can't control if your forwards can't score a goal to save their life.
00:22:04
Speaker
All you can control, like Connor said, is stopping the puck. And i yeah I love those quotes. Sorry to cut you off. I'm just I love those quotes from goalies, you know, especially in the pro level, you know, they'll blatantly come out and say, I can't score goals.
00:22:22
Speaker
basically. I, I, I love when goalies say that because it's such a such an out of pocket thing to say, but it's true. And I love when there's a little bit of a little bit of pushback from the goalie to the team and being like, Hey, like I'm the guy that's supposed to stop the puck. You're the guy that's supposed to score the goal. So who's not doing their job here, you know, or who's not doing their job more essentially. Yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker
Um, Should we carry that through into your point? Cause they kind of tie in pretty good together. Yeah, they do. Um, yeah. So I'm kind of going through a weird thing right now where we, so my, my team, ah started off pretty, pretty hot, you know, at the start of the year, one of our goalies started off really, really hot.
00:23:10
Speaker
Um, And now after we've been in a month into the season and we've had a tournament and a half under our belt now, we are starting to see some, not regression, but we're starting to see a lot more um holes starting to open up for lack a better term over, over anything. So I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to deal with that yet.
00:23:35
Speaker
um I do keep in touch with my guys on a semi-regular basis. actually texted them this morning. um And so from kind of what I'm hearing on both sides is that it sounds like this tournament that we're in is kind of like a bit of a weird one um right now and just like nobody's playing how they normally would. And so we're just, we're like, essentially we're kind of going through a little bit of a downfall. We're kind of going through a little bit of a slump right now. And I think it's a mixture of things. Number number one is, you know, we're playing so many games in a row on a, on a day. We're playing teams that, you know, we don't normally play throughout our regular season. um We're only seeing them in, in, in tournament based games. um And so we're, we're, we're,
00:24:21
Speaker
How we thought we were playing obviously isn't how we're actually playing in this tournament. So yeah it's a matter of, you know, what are we going to do about
Returning to Basics to Overcome Slumps
00:24:30
Speaker
it? How are we going to make sure that this doesn't affect us long term?
00:24:35
Speaker
And so the first thing I said to to both the to both of my guys is that we're going to have a maintenance day the next time I see them. I only i only get to see them once a week. um But this this upcoming Thursday, when i do ah when I do head out with them, is, ah yeah, we're goingnna we're just going to have a maintenance day. Go back to basics, simple skating, simple tracking. um you know we' We're not going to introduce anything new, not like we have been anyways, but we're not going to replicate game like scenarios. We're just going to go right back to the, uh, right back to the basics, right back to the foundation of, okay, we're working on tracking today. So which means that there may be, there's not a lot of skating or even the skating that we do have to start off. It's going to be a couple of skating patterns, you know, and we're going to be, there's going couple of, uh,
00:25:21
Speaker
technique things that we're uh that we're going to be looking out for um the biggest thing that we want to make sure that we don't do especially when we are kind of going through a slump is that we're not doing anything that's going to be excuse me detrimental to um our development nor we don't want to be doing anything that's going to over correct um what we're doing either because even if we're struggling on the glove side we know how to make glove saves but if we try and tear down everything that we knew about making a glove save and trying to rebuild it back up, that's going to cause more harm than it is good. So when I say like a maintenance, sorry, new new glove break, new hand position, you know, yeah, exactly. All, all this sort of, all, all that sort of stuff. So it's just, so that's what, and I use maintenance days quite a bit. Um, when I was coaching my junior A, junior B team as well, um,
00:26:19
Speaker
Excuse me, as I'm coming out of like a tail end of a cold here. So this is not fun. um Yeah, so just like maintenance days are nice. You know, it's just it's go back to basics day, you know, have a little bit of fun, kind of re-fall in love with the position, re-fall in love with the game and, you know, just tackle it from there and then hopefully we're able to get back to where we want to be or even if we might already be where we are we're just in kind of this mental state right now of i'm not good enough i'm not playing good enough right now so what ah what like defcon five like you know what's what's gonna happen yeah um the in-season slumps an interesting one to tackle
00:27:04
Speaker
um There's a variety of reasons that it could creep in um Part of it could be, you know, the talent on the other teams is like they're doing development to maybe, you know, that's increasing the skill level we're facing is increasing. um The other thing to a lot of it usually tends to be mental in whatever situation or environment you're in. Like in my last year of junior, for an example, i think in my first six starts, I had like three shutouts and our team was really good. So it wasn't just me. Like I think I had one shutout that was like 12 saves or something like that. But
00:27:52
Speaker
i we started to get to a point because we had a very aggressive coach slash GM who is known for making changes and like, you know, 30 to 50% of the team you start the year with is completely different and go play or come playoffs. so move started to happen and then you're kind of a little, you know, looking over your shoulder a little bit after that. Right. And, you know, you have one game that maybe doesn't go that well and then you're, you're sweating a little bit and then that starts to snowball. And that was my situation a little bit um where,
00:28:33
Speaker
Probably October went really well, November and little bit of December, not so much. And it's tough to try and get it like out of that, especially if you're in a situation when you're playing something like junior or whatever the case is, where at the drop of a hat, you could be traded or cut or whatever the case is. um So that can really weigh mentally on you, which then kind of translates to a big snowball. Right.
00:29:03
Speaker
But Again, if we can just take a step back and simplify and boil it down to the basics like Connor's talking about in those maintenance days, um it's not like you've forgotten how to play goal overnight or over the course of two or three weeks, whatever, like It's not like your skill set has regressed unless you're like injured or something like that. But you still have the ability to do what you were doing when you good.
00:29:37
Speaker
a lot of times it just comes to our perception in our head, right? Like and it goes back to kind of that stuff we talked about way back in the Pete Fry episode where it it's confidence. if you are sitting there thinking that you're not going to do well more often than not, that manifests itself into your actual performance. And that kind of goes back to kind of what we were talking about at the start there, too, is how am I feeling going into the games and what can I do to help change that feeling or change that mindset or or whatever? How do I gain more confidence? Because it's not a skill issue.
00:30:18
Speaker
you were doing just fine a couple weeks ago, it's it's a mindset issue. And a lot of times it is just hitting that reset button, just saying, okay, you know what?
00:30:32
Speaker
Let's go back to just working on nailing down the tracking, nailing down the save execution, nailing down the skating, hitting our spots early, and then we can start building from there again. So like in my last year at junior, coming back from the Christmas break,
00:30:47
Speaker
and this was our whole team, but I did play the majority of the games. um We had one loss after Christmas and it was a shootout loss and that was it.
00:31:01
Speaker
ah And then we also went, we won our first 11 straight in playoffs and then we finally lost game four of the finals before we won game five. if So we were 12 and one in playoffs, but it happens like, you know, you start getting nervous about whatever situation you're in or you start to overthink things or start overanalyzing and you don't just let it happen.
00:31:26
Speaker
And like Connor said, sometimes it's good to just hit the reset button, have a couple of maintenance days, just work on the absolute basics, the foundation and kind of get back to work. But the big thing I want you to take away from it is you're still the same goalie where a couple of weeks ago if you're in a slump.
00:31:46
Speaker
It's just a matter of something, you know mentally has changed. The skill is the same. You have the same ability that you did a handful of weeks prior.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah. Um, yeah it's all just a matter of how do we, how do we handle it at
Strategies for Letting the Game Come to You
00:32:07
Speaker
the end the day? Right. What are, what are we going to do to make sure that this doesn't snowball any more than it has, you know, or before it does really, um, we've all gone through them one way or another,
00:32:25
Speaker
You know, um baseball players go through them, especially you really notice it with a baseball player, especially in a pitcher where, you know, the pitcher's not hitting there hitting their zone or, you know, the the release of the ball's not coming off the same as maybe it as maybe it once did.
00:32:42
Speaker
um You know, so it's it's just essentially going back to basics over over and over again. And you see you you see that so much in in the pro levels as well.
00:32:54
Speaker
um you know again shouting out in gold magazine and their and their pro reads like they're not in in those pro reads like they are touching on some of the more intricate side of things but really just like they're just most of these pro drills that you're seeing is just like yeah there's nothing too too crazy it's not like it's a one two three shot drill or anything it's a it's it's a it's a one shot one one puck and um you know they're they're working on the most basic of things you know um
00:33:27
Speaker
yeah So it's, it's, yeah, we talk about utilizing ice time and utilizing ice time effectively. That is one of them, you know, and I've said to, said to you guys on previous episodes, and I've said it to my goalies as well, pick one thing that you want to work on, pick one thing that you want to achieve in a game, pick one thing that you want to work on in practice and hammer that home.
00:33:53
Speaker
Essentially, right? Is it making sure that you get good rotations on your T pushes? Is it, You know, making good glove saves out in front of you, whatever. You don't need to be. As goalies, we like to worry about plan A, B, C, D, e F, G. But you do that, it's going to it's going to affect you a lot more, and you're going to make costly mistakes, both in a practice and in a game setting.
00:34:21
Speaker
And it's again, it's just it's going to snowball because we're focusing on, because weve we we got distracted with that, and now we got distracted with this other thing, so on and so forth. And so it just, it all snowballed. So just pick a thing that you want to work on, pick a thing that you want to achieve in practice. And so especially even if we are going through some kind of ah some kind of slump, it's like, hey, back to basics. Is it just want to make sure that I catch the puck in the pocket of my glove? Is it, you know, want to make sure that my feet don't do any extra type of movement um after i after I stop and get set in my position? You know, stuff stuff like that.
00:34:58
Speaker
You know, it's really just how it boils down to at the end of the day. But it's again, it's just it's how do we come back? How do we how do we mentally... prepare how do we how just just how do we handle it yeah and you see it lots of the pro levels too like how many times have we seen a goalie going into the season that's supposed to be the starter and then maybe at some point you know month or two in the season or halfway through the season or whatever they kind of lose the net for a little bit but
00:35:33
Speaker
you know, a lot of times because those guys are at the top of the top levels, they find a way that, you know, once it comes time for playoffs, there it's their net again. They've kind of commanded it. Now, there are situations where sometimes guys can't get out of it and they do lose their net for good. And that's kind of what you want to try and avoid.
00:35:54
Speaker
But it really just comes down to understanding that our job is simple. it's It's hard, but it's simple. You have to stop the puck and you can't go out.
00:36:08
Speaker
Like we have one of the few positions in sports that you can't go make things happen. You can't work harder to get results. Yes, you need to obviously be putting in effort. You need to be battling and stuff like that. But, you know, you can't make a harder blocker save or like you just you just can't work harder to get better results. A lot of times it's just almost the opposite where you almost have to try and do a little bit less. And that's we've talked about that on previous podcasts, too, where it's like we have to simplify
00:36:47
Speaker
And we have to be efficient. We have to try and do the least amount possible to get the job done. So we're not making all this extra complicated stuff that's going to overwhelm us. It's going to put us in a bad position that is unsustainable. Right. If you're trying to block the pass across while trying to stay set in, you know, for the shot while trying to, you know, cover for the trailer on a three on two whatever the case is, if you're thinking about all that stuff, you might as well just give them the goal right then and there. Right. So. At the end of the day, let the puck come to you. Let the play come to you. Get your spots quick. Track that puck.
00:37:26
Speaker
Keep it simple. And just believe in yourselves, like have that confidence that you you are where you should be. Have that confidence that your ability has not changed. The only thing that's changed is kind of your mental state and you can do things to get out of it. You can work. And I'm pretty sure we did touch on ah an episode kind of trying to get out of a slump.
00:37:52
Speaker
We can maybe link that in the show notes if I remember to put that in. Um, but, uh, yeah, at the end of the day, it's one of those positions that we just really can't go out and make things happen, unfortunately. So do what you need to do to stop the puck. And that's really all it boils down to.
00:38:13
Speaker
It seems so stupidly simple. but yeah it is as well it is but you know as goalies even or even just to us as people we just we make it so much more difficult on ourselves than we ever really need it to be and it just it can it can snowball cannon will snowball really quickly if left unchecked so yeah and that's why everybody out there is like just always rags on the goalies. It's just like, come on guys, stop the puck. It's easy. Yeah.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah. And that's exactly what we're saying on that. noise No, we are not all those Oilers fans that I've been ripping for the last year and a bit. You are right. No, God, please. No. Yeah. um Yeah. you You get the point. So obviously we know there's a lot more that goes into it, but at the end of the day, we don't have to overcomplicate things.
00:39:06
Speaker
um Don't get in your head about it. believe in yourselves have the confidence that you should be there and i think you'll be okay yeah um is that all we got that's a pretty quick two-person episode today well you know i think it's what we like what kind of helps when you know both of our both of our points kind of tie hand in hand today you know yeah we come prepared we're able to hit our we're able to hit our spots and You know, we're able to get a quick, quick up and over a sink a pot and call it a day. So maybe we're just not in too ranty moods today. but
00:39:43
Speaker
That being said, come back next week and then we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. There'll be a lot of, I hate you flying around next week. Yeah. Not that I even know what we're talking about next week yet, but Hey, um,
00:39:54
Speaker
Before i let you do the outro, though, I do want to shout out to all of you out there because it is really cool to see the listenership growing globally. Like we've had quite the uptick in South America lately, which is pretty cool to see. Oh,
00:40:12
Speaker
um And actually what I found out too is shout out to one of my goalies out there who is going for a tryout for the Peru national team oh in a little bit, which is pretty cool to see. I did not know Peru had a national hockey team, but Hey, So, you know, we're making waves in South America, I guess, from up here. But even to all of you over in Europe or in Australia, on North America too, we appreciate you tuning in. And it's kind of cool to see where all of you are from. And just a big thank you from myself and I'm sure Connor too.
00:40:55
Speaker
And hopefully, hopefully you guys keep enjoying what we put out there, but I just wanted to shout you all out. So that's slander. I'm not thankful whatsoever. What do you mean?
00:41:09
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. um You know, you know, it's funny because i was actually at the rink for one of our Tuesday evening skates and And ah goalie mom stops it because I'm wearing my true north track suit. And she goes, she stops me. She goes, she goes, you're a Connor, right? They go, yeah. And she goes like, oh, I recognize you from the podcast. I'm like, okay, cool. You know, like, so getting that, you know, recognition and knowing that we are making a difference out there in the goaltending world, both
00:41:43
Speaker
in our community of Edmonton and Alberta and, you know, expanding internationally is, is, is really cool and surreal to see. And it sounds so cliche, but, you know, we, we are thankful for, you know, the, the listenership and the viewership and the, the, the, the saves, the likes, the subscribes, the follows.
00:42:05
Speaker
Um, All that, all that stuff. And, you know, it just, it just shows that, you know, what Nathan and I are doing here is working and it has some impact and, uh, you know, it just can't be seriously though. Can't be, uh, can't be more, uh, more thankful for that. And so, uh, yeah, so I think we have to rebrand ourselves from true North goaltending to true South goaltending. That's where a lot of everywhere. Yeah.
00:42:35
Speaker
Well, I'll let you take us out. And yeah, that's it for today. Sounds good. Well, this has been another edition of the DIY Goalie Podcast presented by True North Goaltending. Make sure you guys follow us on our social media channels. That is all True North Goaltending, except on Instagram because we like to be different. That one is Y-E-G Goalie Coach. ah You can follow myself over on Instagram at Monday GC. Go check us out. True North gold tending.com. If you are in the Edmonton area and would like to book a facility session with us, we've been pretty, pretty active on those lately. Hey,
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, definitely a lot busier than last year. So.
00:43:24
Speaker
And that's, that's, that's exactly what we love to see. So shout out to all the people that have come through that, come through that door and have ah brave the Alberta winters in the industrial area where we are located. um Yeah. But go check us out. True north goaltending.com. If you are interested in booking a session with us, you can buy multi packages. You can buy single, single sessions. So.
00:43:47
Speaker
go go check all that out there. Also over on our website, we do have our drill catalog. So go you can go check that out if you are looking for drill ideas or inspirations for your next practice. We also do have all of our articles that were previously on the DIY Goalie that has now been brought over to True North Goaltending. been like that for a while. We also do have concentration grids. So if you are wanting to put your mind to the test,
00:44:15
Speaker
go ah Go generate a concentration grid off of our website. 1 through 99 it is, right? 1 through 10? Yeah. Well, it depends. You can make you can actually make your own sizes. I can't remember what the lowest size you can make. I think it's 4 by 4 grid, so 16 or 0 to 15. And I think you can go up to 20 20 grid.
00:44:39
Speaker
So that'd be zero to three 99, but I, I implore you if you want to tackle that beast, uh, good on you.
00:44:49
Speaker
Fair enough. Uh, and then lastly on our website as well, you can guys can go to go get some of our, some of our goaltending merch there, such as my little goalie makes big saves. And I don't talk to myself. My posts are listening. Just a couple of, ah graphic, uh, teas out there that we do have available at true north goaltending.com.
00:45:06
Speaker
calm Uh, if you are watching over on the YouTube side of things, make sure you hit that subscribe button. If you are a new viewer to our little channel, if you are a returning viewer or even just a viewer in general, make sure you guys hit that like button and that share button. And it helps push the algorithm. It helps us bring more goalies together. If you are over on any sort of podcast platform, whether that be Apple, iHeart, or Spotify, or word or wherever it is that you get your platforms, if you are a new listener, welcome, and make sure you hit that follow button for every new episode that comes out every Tuesday.
00:45:39
Speaker
And if you are a returning listener, make sure you hit whatever button that correlates to a like button, if there is such a thing, and hit the share button as well, because the more goalies that we are able to bring together together. the better.
00:45:51
Speaker
On behalf of myself and Nathan Park, this is, and I guess Emerson Monday. This has been the DIY goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending Mix of Saints goalies. We'll see you guys next time. Take care.