Ice Hockey Systems Question

What advice would you give to a goalie that gets frustrated when they let up a goal?

Justin Goldman Answer

There is a lot of really good positive feedback, first of all, you are going to get scored on, it happens to every goalie at every level, every day of their lives. Giving up bad goals is part of being a goaltender.

Always look forward, you know, never worry about what happened in the past, you can’t control what's already happened. Just focus on the next shot. Everyone is very forgiving out there, you may be really hard on your self, but what matters most to your teammates and your coach is that you put forth 100% effort.

If you are too worried about how you look or because you gave up a bad goal, your focus isn’t where it should be, which should be on the present and on making that next save. Just be willing to understand that you are going to give up bad goals.

Hockey is a crazy sport, crazy things happen, pucks do really weird things out there and if you can’t cope with the fact that you might have an unfortunate bounce, or you may have just missed tracking that puck or you know that you could have made that save and you didn’t, it’s not the end of the world, everyone makes mistakes.

You gotta be able to cope with that.It is a grind being a goaltender and you are going to face way more pressure in your future than you are right now. Always focus on the present, always focus on the next shot, because that is the one that really matters.