Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the DIY goalie podcast where hosts and goalie coaches Nathan Park and Connor Monday share their insights on how to become a better goalie.
Speaker: Goalies, how are we doing today? Welcome back to another episode of the DIY goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending. It is just a ah solo Nathan episode today.
Speaker: We are... Getting right near the start of the season. So some of you guys might already be underway. Some of you guys might just be wrapping up evaluations. Either way, hopefully you guys landed where you wanted to. and if not, at least got some good experiences and got some feedback and stuff like that to be able to take into your season and and have some idea of where you want to develop um i know it's kind of an exciting time a lot of things on the go um you know the the tryout season can be a bit of a grind i know a lot of families kind of feel that stress and and anxiety and all that stuff so um we're almost through it we're almost ready to start playing some games and get to the fun stuff um
Speaker: So hopefully hopefully that went well for you guys. I know we're pretty excited to get going. We got lots on the go this season. So that's something that we're looking forward to.
Speaker: um For today's episode, I am going to kind of cover a little bit of a topic that we've touched on kind of throughout the the life of the podcast, we've hit the edges of it, but we're going to dive kind of a little bit more into it. um As you guys know, especially with the name like the DIY Goalie podcast, like we try and and give you guys actionable items that you guys can take to your own game to try and get better. And so this topic is kind of a two-parter, but it's going to be
Speaker: giving you guys a lot to think about in terms of your own development and is going to kind of really help with that self-diagnosis and that introspection and all that stuff.
Speaker: ah So the thing that I wanted to talk about is touching on when or I guess how to identify what is actually a problem or a recurring pattern that we need to fix. and what is something that's maybe more so a mistake. So kind of like, you know, a one time or an every now and then kind of issue um and and how to kind of diagnose that, how to think of that. And then we're going to kind of move into how and when to make that change. I know we've touched on that a little bit, but this kind of ties really well into what we're going to be talking about. So we're going to kind of take this
Speaker: with a two-pronged approach and kind of make it so that those those two things run running in conjunction with each other. So um the big thing is is we've talked lots about identifying patterns. We've talked lots about trying to you know make sure you're your own goalie coach, make sure that you can you know self-diagnose things and and try and figure out what's going on. but um At what point do we actually figure out if there's something that we need to change?
Speaker: And that's kind of a big thing if you are in a position that you need to take control of your development most of the time. If you don't have access to a goalie coach or whatever the case is for your situation, maybe you do, but they're only out once a month or something like that. This is a great way to kind of take that ownership on yourself. um So.
Speaker: The big thing that we're looking for when it comes to if we need to make any drastic changes will entirely be on trying to find the root of the problem and not just taking what's happening with our for face value.
Speaker: um It's very easy to say Oh, the last four games, I've let in seven goals to the glove side. My glove must not be great. I should just sit at practice and get 20 50 shots to the glove until I feel good about it.
Speaker: That may be the case and it is possible that you need to work on your glove and maybe where it's positioned or maybe how far in front it needs to be or something like that. But there also is other factors at play.
Speaker: You could very well not be tracking the puck to that side. You could very well be a little bit off your angle consistently on that side. It could very well be that you know before the goals are going in what's actually causing them to go in is the fact that the player is carrying the puck laterally and you're not following it properly and you're opening up net. Right. So there's a lot more that goes into a goal against than just the shot itself. And to be honest, a lot of times when a goal goes in or a mistake happens, that breakdown happens, you know, five seconds before or two seconds before or whatever the case is, and doesn't actually happen with the with the shot or the save itself.
Speaker: Can it happen with the shot or the save itself? 100% it can. But there's also things leading up to that that kind of can cause issues. Like I remember when Mikko Koskinen was a member of the Edmonton Oilers and there was a lot of people saying that his glove hand sucked and his glove hand couldn't stop anything and he needs to work on his glove hand and stuff like that. And I remember when I would watch him What I found with him is a lot of times when those pucks were beating him was because his feet weren't set. Like he's still moving. He was a big guy, so he was still moving. He's kind of trying to just take away net and get as big as possible. And to me with his size, I feel like he would have been a little bit more successful had he stayed just a tad bit deeper, had he got his feet set, been a little quieter in his net. and that gives him a better opportunity to track the puck and to you know make his saves a little bit easier. now
Speaker: It's really easy in hindsight to go back and break that down. um It's a lot harder if you don't have access to video, if you don't have access to being able to, you know, watch yourself play. So that's why we have always been big proponents of if you can get video of yourself playing, whether it's a GoPro behind the net, whether somebody in the stands like, you know, a girlfriend or mom dad, or you know, wife, whatever the case is for your specific situation, getting that video can help a ton. And it really gives you that hindsight to be able to go back and say, oh, yeah, I've been getting beat on the glove side a lot lately, but I'm noticing that when they're coming down the wing on the short side, they have half the net open because I'm off my ankle.
Speaker: And now you have that root problem, that root cause of the issue. And now you can go in and start working on rectifying the situation.
Speaker: So try to identify patterns, try to give yourself information to be able to go in and see what it is that is actually going on. um The best way to kind of identify those patterns if you can is try and take, you know, a snapshot of like the 10 seconds before a game as or before a goal as best you can. um Like I said, they there are usually breakdowns that happen before the goal goes in.
Speaker: And being able to recognize that and to identify that and and to kind of get a bit more data, I guess, on the situation. So what you might notice is if you zoom out those 10 seconds or those 20 seconds before the goal happens, and if you try and run it through your head or if you have the video to go back and look, ah that can kind of give you some patterns to move forward on. Right. So if you're noticing, hey, wait a minute.
Speaker: The last four goals I let in, I noticed that ah and actually they came from shots from the point through traffic and I'm not picking those up. like They've gone in in different spots in the net, like one went blocker side, one went five hole, one went glove, whatever the case is.
Speaker: But I've actually noticed that the pattern is the shot from the point through traffic. And now you can say, okay, well, now I need to work on how I pick up pucks through bodies and how I can fight for sight of the puck through traffic and how I can kind of, you know, try and improve that area of my game.
Speaker: you It's very hard to do that. And it's very hard to self-diagnose if you don't have that data. and this This will depend entirely on your specific situation, but ideally we don't want to mentally bog ourselves down with that during a game.
Speaker: um So that's where the video comes into play. Now, some of us don't have the luxury of practice. Like if you are league goalie or anything like that, most of the time your practice time your like three minute warm up at the start where you're trying not to get hit in the head all the time.
Speaker: ah So with that with those instances, we might have to be thinking a little bit more during the game, which isn't ideal. Like we've talked about this before that goalies were usually at our best when we're just kind of letting things happen naturally and we're not thinking.
Speaker: But if you don't have the luxury of practice time, if you don't have the luxury of any sort of development time, ah we might have to go that route, unfortunately, at least temporarily while we kind of try and figure out what it is that's going on. And like we talked about a couple weeks ago, that might lead to a bit of a dip in performance before we actually see the increase in in results.
Speaker: So do what you can take that with kind of, you know, a grain of salt and and and understand that there might be a little bit of a downturn before there's an upswing.
Speaker: But if you have the practice time. And if you have more development time, you kind of are able to stay a little bit more like brain off kind of thing in your game, right? Like you can let things happen naturally and stuff like that. Just make a bit of a mental note and then try and kind of, I guess, forget about it as much as you can until after the game. I know that's a lot easier said than done. And that's why the video is a big, big, um, help, I guess, when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Speaker: Um, but when it comes to the game, don't focus too much on it. Even if you just kind of keep in the back of your mind, like screenshot through point or, you know,
Speaker: lateral play backdoor or whatever the case is, right? just to Just to kind of start to identify those patterns a little bit more and and to give you something to maybe after your game, you can go write it down right away and just say, go one, go two, go three, a little blurb about each one, right? And then you kind of have those data points to go back and to reference and to compare. This is also where journaling is very helpful as well.
Speaker: um i actually we are going to be announcing a in-season goalie journal once i get the time to put it up as a product we have it made we have it done we gave it out to our camp participants this summer and it's something that i'm pretty uh proud of like it it turned out really well and i'm excited to put it out there to share to the world i just haven't had the time to put it up as a as a product yet but that is something that whether it's our journal whether it's something you guys have even if it's just a note in your phone whether it are a little notebook that you have writing that stuff down and kind of giving that data set that you can go back and look through and compare, that's something that can be very beneficial for you guys, especially when it comes to trying to identify the root cause of the problem that's going on and not just kind of be like, oh, my glove sucks because I'm letting in glove goals. Right.
Speaker: So with that being said, once we've kind of identified the the actual root cause, Once we've kind of figured out that there's patterns that are consistently happening, that's when we need to figure out, OK, how can I make the changes and when is the proper time to make changes, which we kind of touched on a couple weeks ago.
Speaker: I guess right before I dive into that, another kind of side note or caveat to that is there are going to be times where you are beat and it's because either there's defensive breakdown there's the other team makes a really good play.
Speaker: And on those instances, yes, they're good to kind of identify like what happened and all that. But sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other team or sometimes you just have to recognize that your defenseman made a mistake or your forwards made a mistake or whatever the case is that happens. We all make mistakes.
Speaker: ah So those we don't want to confuse with you know, failures necessarily on our part, for lack of a better term.
Speaker: ah But it's still good to get those data points, even if even if we did get beat clean or or on a good hockey play or whatever the case is, that is going to happen.
Speaker: Those ones I wouldn't put as much weight into. i would just I would still acknowledge it and say, okay, is this something that I could still improve on? But sometimes you get beat with a good shot. Sometimes you get beat because your team had a defensive lapse, whatever the case is, right? So don't put as much stock into those. Those are still good to collect as data points, but not not to kind of revolutionize your game around. So just keep that in mind.
Speaker: Um, we kind of talked about lately, you know, implementing some of these changes, like it can be hard sometimes because, you know, trying to change your game can lead to a little bit of a dip in performance. Like we talked about on an episode a few weeks ago.
Speaker: Um, that being said though, we need to make sure that we're going about it strategically. and, and and actually kind of identify that there is an issue, right? So the first portion that we talked about when it comes to getting to the root cause of the problem, we don't want to be implementing changes in our game if we don't have that root cause figured out yet.
Speaker: Because we could be doing the complete wrong things or trying to improve the complete wrong things and it could actually end up putting us in a tougher spot because we're changing something of ours that maybe wasn't a problem and is working for us.
Speaker: And now we haven't identified the actual problem and now we're changing something else as well. So now there's something else that's causing us issues because we're we're uncomfortable with it. We've made the change and now it's something that we're struggling in two different areas of our game, right? So that's something to keep in mind too. We also talked about like timing and stuff like that. like Playoffs obviously is not the time to be trying to reinvent our game, anything like that. um
Speaker: the less in-season impact that it has the better so earlier in the season that's when we can start really making changes and and experimenting the off season is the perfect time but we're kind of past that now but the big thing is is not having those knee-jerk reactions we don't want to say OK, I've been scored on four times last game to the blocker side and I need to make drastic changes to my game.
Speaker: Recognize too sometimes bad games are bad games and that doesn't mean necessarily that there is a problem. It just might mean that that night you were off and You know, we've heard like it's kind of a hockey cliche about, you know, oh throw out the tape on that one. Right. Like sometimes a stinker is a stinker and it's an anomaly. We let it go and we don't even really acknowledge it its existence. Yes, we can obviously dissect it and whatever, but usually we can just chalk that up as to I wasn't at my best tonight. I'm
Speaker: moving on and we're focusing on the next thing. So that's another situation where we don't want to be doing anything drastic and making any knee jerk reactions and trying to reinvent our game after one bad night.
Speaker: Now, if that bad night turns into five or six or seven straight kind of bad games in a row, that's something we need to revisit. And that's again with the self diagnosing.
Speaker: is that something that is an actual technical issue or is it more of a mental issue right is it something that we're not confident is it something that you know i'm extra nervous or anxious or whatever the case is right there are things that we can diagnose that aren't just physical and part of our actual game There might be some of the mental side of things too going on. And that's something that, again, we need to try and identify. Is that the root cause? Are we struggling mentally right now? Yes.
Speaker: OK. How can we fix that? Right. Because you might have skills wise, you might be perfectly fine. You might be in a perfectly fine situation and you haven't forgotten how to stop a puck, you're just not confident in your ability, which we've touched on lots too. but But that's another trap that sometimes we get into is trying to fix all these technical things, but the issue is actually mentally.
Speaker: And so again, that comes down to identifying that root cause. so The big thing is, is, is when you start identifying what the actual issue is, then you need to start recognizing, is this something that I can implement right now? And how can I implement it right now to make it, you know, the most efficient or the most effective way, I guess, to be able to improve my game? Because the more that we dwell on
Speaker: things that I guess aren't necessarily the issue, the more that we can actually cause extra problems or at the at the very best case scenario, I guess we just stay where we are. We stay flat and we stay plateaued. so That's kind of all I have for today on the topic.
Speaker: I wanted to just get it out there that I don't want you guys taking any big knee jerk reactions when it comes to trying to change your game. And I also don't want you guys honing in on the wrong thing. So identify what the actual issue is.
Speaker: ah recognize if there's an actual pattern happening or if it's just kind of a temporary slump or or just kind of ah a bad night or whatever the case is. And then also make sure that you are recognizing the best way to actually make that change or or or to change your game into what you need to to develop properly. So again, don't focus on the physical aspect if it's something that's mental.
Speaker: or don't focus on your glove hand positioning if the problem is your angles, right? So that that's kind of the overarching theme. um Hopefully you guys kind of took something away from that. I think it's something that we've kind of skirted around a little bit before, but haven't really dove into. So I think it's a good thing to be thinking of. um We've talked lots, especially lately about that self-reflection and then kind of that,
Speaker: becoming our own goalie coach. And the more you guys can do that, the easier your development becomes and and the higher levels you can get to. um So thank you guys for tuning in.
Speaker: As always, if you like the show, leave us a review, a rating, a like, a subscribe, depending on the platform you're on. Share the show with a friend. You know, the more goalies we can get out to, the better we try and do what we can to put stuff out there to help you guys get better. So the more goalies that can take in that information, the better. We obviously don't get much support as as ah as a position. So the more that we can help out, the better.
Speaker: If you guys want to check us out, you can head to truenorthgoaltending.com. You can book a session. You can check out a few drills. You can look at what we have for merch and all that stuff. You can follow us on socials at truenorthgoaltending, except Instagram. We're at Y-E-G Goalie Coach. The other ones we're on is TikTok, YouTube, Facebook. So you can check those out at truenorthgoaltending.com.
Speaker: As always, guys, thank you for tuning in and we'll talk to you guys next week.
