Mental Strength Attributes You Can Learn From AHL Goalie of the Month And How You Can Take Those to Attributes Your Own Game
At first some stats: Lindberg posted a 1.71 goals against average and .942 save percentage through his first four AHL starts. The rookie goalie is tied for the league lead with four wins and is one of two goalies to remain unbeaten through four games this season. A great start you could say.
Coaches’ comments about him are interesting to read because they are saying the same things I noticed when I saw him the first time on the ice at the age of ten and why after the first ice practice I told other coaches that we have a future national team goalie here. Reason for that prediction was the personal characteristic he showed. Those characteristics were something you’d see on a mature goalie and key qualities if someone is ever going to make it pro.
Kain Tisi, one of the Penguins' two goaltending development coaches impressions of Lindberg:
"The thing that strikes me first and foremost is the kind of person he is. He's such a good human being No. 1, obviously being a national champion himself. With that kind of pedigree, you don't win a championship without having that mental focus and strength within him. The first thing that strikes me with him is also his competitiveness, he can be in any situation, whether it's his first NHL exhibition in Pittsburgh, his exhibition game here with us and then his first pro debut in the regular season. He's confident, he's calm, he's got swagger, and to me, he just breathes confidence throughout our whole lineup and our coaching staff for sure." (dksports 2021)
You can read full article hear: https://dkpittsburghsports.com/2021/11/01/penguins-goalie-filip-lindberg-wbs-ahl-goaltender-month-award-tlh
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I think the question we need to ask is: “Why can he play so well under pressure?” I think it is a combination of his natural ability to handle adrenaline in pressure situations so well that it even elevates his game, his view in life and hockey, how he was raised and then just pure skill acquired by hard work. So, basically a combination of mental and physical strength / skill.
What I saw way back was the competitiveness, focus, calm outside but fire inside, and he was also a nice person. Even when we play badminton he is showing the same attributes coaches say about him. Extremely competitive, gets in more focused in tight situations and very athletic. I know he gets really angry when pucks go in or he loses a game in badminton but he has learned to push the emotion to the side and focus on the next shot which is extremely critical for every goalie who wants to be good at any level. Emotions are natural but more you are tuned in within yourself better you can use them for your favour.
I have noticed that how do you see life contributes a lot how you handle pressure. My personal belief is that for a goalie hockey should not determine value of your life and you as a person. I think the life style of training, playing and giving your all should be primary goal or at least one of the main drivers. Winning is just a by product of balanced life and mind. Of course you can be miserable, win and be the best in the world (just look at some figure skaters). But it is more fun to be happy and win. It is also a lot more sustainable in the long run. I’d say enjoying most of the time what you do is one of the keys for happiness and happy athletes just perform better and develop faster.
Losing is part of life and hockey. If you let a goal in or lose a game, naturally it should feel bad because you have put so much effort into winning but after a while life continues. In practices you have 1-5 seconds to get over a goal before the next shot comes. After a losing game often there is a game on the next day so you have to get over things quickly.
One good way to handle the loss mentally is just to acknowledge that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose no matter how well you have prepared. And then sift the focus to the next thing. After games for me it really helped to go over the game tape just to see what I could have done better. Kind of like live the moment again to figure out how to stop the puck when that situation comes up next time.
Conclusion:
What I would like you to take from this article is that there are key personal characteristics that are in common with all the top athletes. For example: competitiveness, focus, and ability to execute under pressure by controlling emotions / mental stage. And great news is that all those attributes can be developed and improved.
Two practical tips how to stop more pucks by developing emotion control:
Goalie must learn to push emotions on the side during the game and practices. What could help you to do it: Have a same kind of quick routine to reset yourself. I pushed my pads certain way with my arms that gave me “let’s go, nothing goes in anymore” feeling which also helped me to try harder. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the next shot went in again but it always helped to try harder and reset at least somewhat for the next shot.
Learn to manipulate emotions. Personally early in the career I learned how to calm myself in to the zone with a certain warm up routine (worked about 90% of times) and very late in my career I really learned to use emotions to my advantage and to control the emotional stage I was in. For example, if I felt lazy at practice I knew some tricks how to get myself going or boost my confidence before the game. Trick for lazy practice was to tell guys that they would not score again or that they would win if they scored more than a one goal in the drill. Before the game in the locker room I would hold my arms up like a champion boxer winning the tittle and talk to myself how good I am, and how I will stop all the shots, etc. That has been shown to tricker your body to feel more confident. This can also get weird looks from guys at first but they know that goalies are weird anyway, and all they care about is you stopping the puck.
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