Gordon Joseph Defiel
Abstract
The position of the goaltender in hockey is extremely difficult to perfect. It entails a large amount of physical skill, but the psychological aspect of being a goalie is more often the difference-maker in the length of a goaltender’s career. Goalies at the collegiate level are having an extremely difficult time making the transition to the National Hockey League (NHL), and it is believed that they are having a hard time adapting to the psychological effects that comes along with playing in the world’s best hockey league. This paper focuses on the psychological barriers that goaltenders face, as well as how goaltenders in the NHL use mental imagery and positive self-talk practices to overcome these psychological barriers and reach peak performance on a consistent basis. This paper will explain how these practices work, as well as how goaltenders can implement these tactics to improve their game. These tactics are intended for goaltenders at elite levels looking to play in the NHL, but are also applicable for all athletes looking to improve the mental side of their sport. Through extensive research, this paper concludes that mental imagery and positive self-talk practices are proven to help goaltenders reach peak performance on a more consistent basis. College goalies looking to ease the transition to the NHL, should invest time and energy into mastering the practices of mental imagery and positive self-talk.
The Mental Side of Goaltending
The game of ice hockey may be one of the most challenging sports of all. Ice hockey entails many of the talents required for other sports, but is played on an ice surface with blades one eighth of an inch thick. These components add additional layers of difficulty and make the game entertaining for both players and fans. The most challenging position in the game may be that of the goaltender. Sports psychologist Miller (2003) reported that being a goaltender in the NHL involves more stress and pressure than any other job in professional sports. A major source of this pressure is that a goalie’s performance can impact the team’s overall mindset and confidence (p. 161). A minor mistake in the forward or defensive positions is usually unnoticed to the standard hockey fan. For the goaltending position, that is not the case. Any small error made by a net-minder- results in a goal against, along with thousands of fans yelling at them. This is why the position has such a big impact on the result of the game and the reason for goaltenders being known as the “back-bone” of the team. It is nearly impossible for a team playing at a high level to find success without having the possession of a sound net-minder.
Since the 1980’s, goaltending technique has been continually evolving and improving. It is no longer composed of pure athleticism, but incorporates fundamental positioning as well, resulting in an exponential increase in goaltending efficiency. Today’s goalies largely focus on putting themselves in strategic positions relative to the opposing shooter, adding pressure on the shooter by cutting off angles and forcing them to out maneuver the goalie. Being a goaltender myself, I have always been interested in these new fundamental techniques. After seventeen years of improving on my craft, I have developed enough in my position to earn a scholarship to play hockey for Lake Superior State University. While I am proud of my achievements, I want my career in hockey to progress past the collegiate level, and I am determined to find out what it takes to find success at the professional level.
Goaltenders at the college level, including myself, are having a very hard time playing well on a consistent basis. I’ve witnessed my opposing collegiate counterparts play amazing one night, and then significantly worse the next. The problem goaltenders at any level face, is the pressure to perform. Goaltenders carry such a heavy load of pressure, that it often restricts them from reaching their level of peak performance. Psychologist Harmison (2006), states that when an athlete performs at his absolute best, he has reached his peak performance level (p. 233-243). There are many environmental threats that hinder an athlete from reaching their level of peak performance. The biggest threat to athletes, but especially hockey goalies, may be pre-competition anxiety. Pyschologist Chaube (2013) stated, “Performance anxiety is mainly characterized by an irrational situational anxiety accompanied by unwanted physical symptoms which can lead to dysfunction and/or uncontrolled behavior. It occurs especially in those situations in which a task has to be done that could subject the performer to possible criticism from others” (para. 6). Pre-competition anxiety is a major factor in hindering goal attainment. It is the butterflies in the stomach, the sweaty and clammy palms before the game, and often the negative thoughts on what might happen if things go wrong. Goaltenders often let the fear of failing, and the fear of criticism get in the way of stopping the puck.
According to psychologist Nazam (2014), research shows that athletes competing in individual sports have siginifancly lower levels of self-confidence and higher levels of somantic anxiety compared to those who play in team sports (para. 8). Although netminders belong to a team, they are the only ones on the ice at their position so they relate to individual sports in a lot of ways. Goalies often worry about things that they can’t control, which ends up interfering with what they can control. The one thing every goalie can control, but rarely does, is themselves- especially when pre-competition anxiety enters their minds. Goalies grow up spending thousands of dollars on private coaching and off-ice training, but rarely spend time, energy, and money, on improving the mental side of their game. Many people agree that sports are 90% mental, yet athletes rarely spend time with a sports psychologist. According to sports psychologists Mack and Casstevens (2002), “Sports psychology is the science of success. Studies show that within a group of athletes of equal ability, those who receive mental training outperform those who don’t almost every time. Mental skills, like physical skills, need constant practice” (p.17).
If the mental side of sports is so important, and goalies are clearly struggling with it, then why don’t people invest time, money, and energy improving their mental game? They either don’t believe in it, or are completely unaware of the benefits of improving the mental side of the game. It is very rare for a collegiate team to hire a sport psychologist because they are expensive, but also because many coaches are still old school in their training, and do not know the benefits that a mental coach can provide. On the other hand, teams in the NHL have an abundance of money to invest in their players. Goaltenders in the NHL have regular access to sports psychologists that help them practice many mental techniques that help them overcome pre-competition anxiety to consistently reach their level of peak performance. In a direct interview with Jordan Sigalet, goaltender coach of the NHL’s Calgary Flames, Sigalet shared some valuable information regarding the treatment his goaltenders have access to. Sigalet stated, “Our goaltenders get regular access to sports psychologists if they choose to”. If college goalies want to make the step to the NHL, they will have to master the techniques used by NHL goalies to overcome the barriers of pre-competition anxiety.
Mental Imagery
There are many different strategies goalies can practice to ahieve peak performance on a more consistent basis. One of which is the practice of mental imagery, or mental visualization. The terms mental imagery, visualization, and cognitive rehearsal are all interchangeable. Sport Psychologist Cohn (2013), is an advocate of the practice. He believes that mental imagery is the cognitive rehearsal or creation of a task in the absense of physical movement. Researchers claim that the central nervous system can not distinguish the differance between physical and mental movement. Imagery essentially programs the human mind to respond as programmed when in competition (para. 3-4). Goaltenders often spend time before games visualizeing themeselves performing at a high level. If the visualization is successful, when the goaltender enters the game, their mind already believes that they have been there before, and that they performed extraordinarily well. Theoretically, this then makes the goalie more likely to perform well because their mind already believes they have done it before. Goaltenders can also use imagery to revisit an old game. If a goaltender wonders why a certain puck went past him or her, they can visualize what happened and go over what they could have done to make the situation different.
The mind is a powerful thing and can often work against us. In order to have success with imagery, a goaltender must be able to control their mind and not allow negative images to affect sport performance, such as imagining letting in a bad goal or getting scored on the first shot of the game. Those fears can become a barrier to improving performance in the net. In order for a goaltender to have success in the practice of mental visualization, they need to recognize barriers that hinder them from goal attainment. Sports psychologist Cooley (2011) stated, “For the athlete to overcome barriers, he or she has to mentally convince him or herself that it was an image, not a barrier. Until the athlete can convince him or herself, the barrier will remain and could impact the athlete’s competition. The athlete has to find a way to negate the negative visualization and replace it with positive visualization. Once the athlete overcomes a barrier, then and only then will he or she be able to take the necessary steps to improve his or her performance” (p.17).
Many young athletes have a hard time dealing with the pressure of the competition. Pressure acts as a major barrier to young goaltenders because they are not as experienced as the ones of veteran status. Young goaltenders also struggle with fear. Fear of both failure, and success. Cooley (2006) continued: “Fear can be a facinating and powerful emotional response to failure or success. When an athlete recognizes fear of failure as a reason for not attaining his or her goal the fear becomes a barrier to attaining his or her goal. Identifying fear as a (possible) barrier to his or her success is the first step an athlete might take to overcome that barrier (p. 29)”.
In order to overcome these barriers like fear and pressure that hinder goaltenders from reaching their goal, they need to spend time practicing the process of mental imagery. Goalkeepers use imagery for learning new skills, overviewing skills they have already mastered, and preparing to handle both the positive and negative events that take place through a long and rigorous game. Prior to competition, net-minders that perform mental imagery often find a quiet place to mentally prepare for the competition. Noise can often distract a goalie from visualizing succesfuly, so goaltenders might use headphones if they can’t find a quit place. Although every goalie can mentally prepare differently, one might start out by visualizing themselves extremely relaxed during pre-game warm ups and heading into the locker room before the puck drops. One might visualize themselves in the third person to see them self glide across the ice smoothly with confidence. The imagery session is always positive, but not always perfect. They may imagine themselves responding to a bad call or acting calm and collected when the opposing team gets a powerplay. Detail plays a major role in imagery. A goaltender may imagine what the crowd may be like; responding cool and calm while the opposing crowd taunts and belittles them. They might change the speed of the imagery session, picturing a puck moving incredibly slow or extremely fast and they make the save regardless of the scenereo. Or they might imagine acting completely relaxed when facing the opposing team’s best player on a penalty shot. Color is also important in perfecting the detail of an imagery session. Goaltenders visualize the color of the seats in the rink or the color of the opposing team’s jerseys. The more realistic a goaltender can visualize, the more success they are likely to have. Some veteran goaltenders even use scent in their sessions. They can smell the scent of the rink, the concession stand, or maybe just the scent of their own equipment. All of these senses add detail to the images which can lead to greater success in the visualization session as well as greater success on the ice. The length of these sessions all depend on the goaltender. The majority of elite goaltenders perform their session in three to five minutes but some sessions may last a few hours depending on the goaltender’s routine- an aspect that has a major impact on a goaltenders ability to perform imagery successfully.
The building blocks of success in the world of goaltender start with routine. During the interview with Calgary Flame’s goalie coach Sigalet, I asked him, “During your career, what did you do to prepare for games?” Sigalet Responded:
“Visualization and Routine were always my biggest tools throughout my career when I was growing up and playing, especially at the pro-level. I would always start my visualization days leading up to games, which would start with pre-scout videos of our opposition team. I would visualize the teams tendencies and players tendencies in my mind so that it was no surprise to me when it came to game time and this always ended up being a huge part of my routine especially at the pro level where access to opposition video was at your fingertips. Routine is what brings consistency and the closer you can stick to your day-to-day routine and schedule the more consistency you will find in your game.”
For goaltenders to find success using mental imagery, they need to take time everyday to practice the skill. University of Windsor psychologist Gelinas (2006) stated that goaltenders should practice “event-day” imagery where the goaltender where the goaltender spends a few minutes the night before the game imagining themselves entering the rink, going through their pre-game routine, and game situations, before they fall asleep (page. 68). Imagery is an underrated technique that goaltenders use at the professional level to overcome any barriers getting in the way of goal attainment.
Self-Talk
What goalies think usually influences their actions. Positive self-talk (or positive self-reinforcement) can help goaltenders obtain peak performance on a consistent basis. Like imagery, the mind is a powerful thing, and if you can’t control it, it may work against you. Controlling thoughts is extremely important in the goaltending position, as there are a number of elements that cause goalies to be discouraged and take them off their game. Opposing fans go through a great deal of work to try and get the goaltender off his or her game, especially at the collegiate level. Choreographed chants in the student sections, and vulgar or degrading signs are just a couple tactics fans use to get the goaltender off of his or her game. It is vital for goaltenders to stay positive and confident throughout the game. The biggest enemy a goaltender faces is themselves. Goalies are often extremely hard on themselves because of the high pressure to perform. It is easy to get down emotionally, and once you are down, it is hard to get back up. An effective way to stay positive is through self-talk. Hardy, professor at the University of Western Ontario (2004), defined self-talk as, “Either overt (out loud) or covert (in your head) related statements that are used for instruction and motivation for athletes” (Cited in Gelinas, page. 68). Self-talk can have a major effect on a goaltender’s focus and motivation.
A goalie can use self-talk in a number of different ways. Goaltenders may use certain key words that help them stay focused on the task at hand. For example, say a goaltender chooses the word “focus” as his key word. When the opposing team is entering the defensive zone on the rush, he may overtly or covertly say “FOCUS!” which triggers his mind and body to be alert and ready for the opposing team’s attack. A goalie could also use a combination of key words to help them perform. A goalie may choose the words “confident, determination, pride” to help them reach maximum performance. They could repeat these words over and over throughout the game to remind themselves to play with confidence, determination, and pride. Robotically repeating key words helps goaltenders keep their emotions in check. Psychologist Gelinas (2006) stated, “Self-talk plays a pivotal role in a goaltenders reaction to situations and directly affects future actions and emotions. The underlying goal is to reduce conscious control and work toward automatic action” (page. 68). When negative thoughts enter one’s mind, it is crucial that they replace those thoughts with positive ones. Positive self-talk is proven to help athletes perform better. At the University of Thessaly, Hatzigeorgiadis and the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences (2011), performed a meta-analysis on self-talk and sport performance. A total of thirty-two studies yielding sixty-two effect sizes were included in the final analytical pool. The results of the study showed that interventions including self-talk training were more effective than those not including self-talk training. The results proved self-talk to be effective in enhancing sport performance, and provide new research directions (p. 348-356). Self-talk is proven to improve sport performance if practiced properly. It is easy for goaltenders to get down on themselves, letting self-talk have a negative impact. When 10,000 fans tell a goalie he is a sieve, it isn’t easy to disagree with them, especially after the goaltender had just failed to save the puck. Goaltenders that do not practice positive self-talk often subconsciously experience negative self-talk. It is hard for a goalie to think they are a “beast” if they don’t truly believe they are. Using a key word like “beast,” for example, helps engrave that belief into their brain and helps them overcome any negative energy flowing through the brain. Gelinas (2006) mentioned that it’s very beneficial for goalies to “practice positive self-talk”. Goaltenders should be encouraged to analyze the content of their self-talk and weed out any negative self-talk in their game. “When negative statements enter a goaltender’s mind, they should be replaced with positive ones. Athletes will be rewarded if they invest in improving their self-talk skills” (p. 69).
Conclusion
The goaltending position entails many pressures that have a major impact on a goaltenders performance. One of the biggest barriers young goaltenders struggle with is pre-competition anxiety. There are many tactics goaltenders can use to overcome negative barriers that hinder them from achieving their peak performance level. Two major tactics used by goaltenders in the NHL are mental imagery and self-talk. Self-talk and mental rehearsal techniques have proven to be extremely beneficial to goaltenders. Goaltenders in the NHL spend time before games working on visualization tactics. Psychologist Keating (1995) went into an NHL dressing room before a game to study their game day preparation techniques. Keating reported that many players spent time before the game getting their mind in the right place. Many players said that they spend time before the game visualizing themselves doing good things on the ice and the goaltenders spent time imaging the process of making big saves (para. 48).
Due to the substantial amount of pressure placed on the goaltender, it is very hard for them to stay mentally tough throughout a season. Goaltenders at the collegiate level struggle to stay mentally tough on a consistent basis. Their season is often resembles a roller coaster ride which makes it hard for teams in the NHL to pick a goaltender. Collegiate goaltenders tend have a harder time adapting to the NHL opposed to players of different positions. Goaltenders rarely make their NHL debut before the age of 24, when every year new forwards and defensemen join the league at the age of 18. The pressure of the position of a goaltender opposed to other positions is significantly different. College level goalies have not mastered the mental side of the game yet. In the interview with Flame’s coach, Sigalet continued on to state, “For me it always came down to channeling the nervous energy in positive ways, which I think is something you learn to do over time as you mature as a goalie.” Between goaltenders entering the NHL at an older age, and the inconsistent performance level of college goaltenders, it is evident that young goalies are having a hard time channeling nervous energy in positive ways.
If college goaltenders are struggling so much with mental battle of the position, then why don’t they practice it? Goaltenders at the NHL level spend regular time with sport psychologists that help them fix any mental inaccuracies in their game. Personally, I have put in countless hours in the gym and on the ice and have never met with a sports psychologist or even attempted to log legitimate time and energy into becoming more mentally tough. Colleges often don’t have the funds or knowledge on the importance of the imagery and self-talk to hire personal psychologists to help their goalies find success in these areas. If the game is said to be 90% mental and 10% physical, then goaltenders need to spend more time improving the mental side of the game. Many goaltenders in the NHL have found success by overcoming their psychological pressures through the use of mental imagery and positive self-talk practice. College goalies aspiring succeed in the NHL will need to employ these tactics in order to master the psychological side of the game.
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