From The Crease: Taking Ownership of Your Own Destiny
By Rob Liddell –
The only way to achieve excellence in goaltending – and life in general – is to expect excellence from yourself. I’m a firm believer in goal-setting, and the power of the mind-body relationship. This begins with taking ownership of your own destiny. In terms of goaltending, this starts with the ability to admit your mistakes and analyze them appropriately.
Admitting your mistakes is an integral first step in becoming a better goalie. This does not come from placing blame on anyone but yourself. When a defenseman’s failed shot-block turns into a screen or tip that results in a goal, it’s not time to raise your arms in the air and shake your head. Not only does placing the blame on your defenseman not help you become a better goalie, but it guarantees the following two things: that defenseman will think twice about blocking another shot for you in the future, and next practice (at the higher levels at least) they will undoubtedly ring your bell with clappers from the slot “accidentally.”
The appropriate response in that situation is to take ownership of the goal yourself, even if your defenseman had something to do with it. The “I was screened” and “it was tipped” excuses are two of my biggest pet peeves as a coach. Your job is to stop the puck; no excuses. That is not to say that a goal resulting from a screen or a tip is not a good goal, but citing those two situations as an excuse is inherently wrong.
Now, if you say something like, “Yeah, I read the tip incorrectly,” or, “Yeah, I could have battled harder to find the puck through traffic,” you are both taking ownership of and analyzing your mistake. This kind of attitude improves your mental game, on-ice performance, and most importantly doesn’t get you hit in the head with a 100-mph clapper next practice.
Taking ownership of your mistakes doesn’t mean beating yourself up, however. You have to find that line between placing blame on others and placing too much on yourself. If a player walks through your entire team, gets you to bite on a great move, and finishes it off by going bar-down so hard it knocks your water bottle into the corner, it’s probably appropriate to tip your cap and say, “Touché, sir.” That being said, just because the player made a good play doesn’t mean you don’t analyze what you could’ve done better.
As always, at the end of the day your job is to keep the little black thing on the other side of the goal line. Any time you don’t succeed in that endeavor there is something to be learned, and only through developing the ability to analyze your mistakes do you allow yourself the opportunity to be truly excellent between the pipes.
Steve McKichan created Future Pro Goalie School in 1992, and ever since, it has served as one of the top goaltending schools in the world. Find out more information about Future Pro by visiting their official website.
