Complacency

As Hart's current run of form has suggested with the analogy and comparison, it's quite easy and possible for a goalkeeper to backslide and run into a patch of poor form if they aren't pushed to compete, or are given too much free rein to feel comfortable and get complacent as a result. Just as Reina worked himself into trouble by thinking that he was irreplacable at a Liverpool team that are now potential league title challengers because of Mignolet's intense approach and high energy game, you need to offer your coach a reason to be in the team you're in, especially if it's a first eleven at a high standard! You should be there on merit, not past performances! So when considering your own self evaluation of how well you're doing over the course of a (or this!) season, it's good to consider how things are going in this regard.

Although of course, if things aren't going well for your team and you're not being helped out (or given the blame pointlessly), then you need to do the opposite and focus on the positives and get a battling mentality, putting the past behind you if you've had "a bad day at the office", so that you don't get affected negatively by what's happening in front of you week in week out, to help you refind sparkling form.

Whilst some goalkeepers can't mentally work with the idea of having to fight for every game, as they want to get comfortable with being first choice and not worry about someone breathing down their neck for a game, for most of us, it's actually a great psychological tool. A trigger that sparks us and motivates us to "switch it on" with impressive goalkeeping. So in this way it's good to compete with goalkeepers of a similar standard and ability at club training sessions etc. to encourage you to work hard, which will then pay dividends come game time.

But what I really wanted to talk about was getting lazy because things are going too well! True champions don't focus on the dream of being league winners, instead they focus on winning each game, game by game; they take it game by game, even to the point of minute by minute, so that they have an intense level of concentration that doesn't allow for mistakes or slip-ups. They're not worrying about the bigger picture. On each shot or scoring opportunity, they're making sure they're communicating with their defence before an attack even takes place, they're then getting "square" and on angle to the potential shot, setting up with a suitable depth to attack said shot and then make sure they make a good save! For each and every shot they face, being aware of rebounds and being smart with where they put the redirect, to kill off said consequential scoring chance.

They don't get put off by having to face a lot of shots, but love "playing in the zone" (which I'll cover at some point in some way!), but enjoy the pressure of having to make save after save. But either way, they work hard on and off the pitch, giving it 100% and more week in week at, at training sessions as well as games, so that they perform to their best all season long, rather than getting fazed by their own success. As they say in football, "when things get easy, that's when you have to work twice as hard".

Goal setting

Seeing as the new season is pretty much well upon us, this attempt at technical advice is a little late. But better late than never as they say!

When looking to improve over a season, over the course of consecutive games, and beyond, if looking to reach your pinnacle from a young age, setting yourself targets is a simple but incredibly effective way to go about it. Like anything, breaking it down into managable chunks will allow you to focus on the immediate and deal with changing the present first; not trying to do too much and spreading yourself thin, but instead realistically going about personal improvement. Brick by brick until you reach a stage where you are further along the development scale than you were before. And just as it is important to work hard on the pitch and at the training ground, it is also important to work in training out of that sphere, by yourself, to improve; get fitter or stronger mentally or better at reading plays etc. etc.

But it sounds easy in theory, so how do you about it?

The following are ideas that you can work into your own training regime and inspire other ways of improving through targets set over the short and then long, term: 

• Lower your goals against average. Your target could be to reduce the amount of goals you have conceded so far. Say from three to one. This takes more focus on stopping each and every shot as it happens though and the intense concentration, rather than drifting off and then conceding.
• Achieve a set number of saves at training or in games (keeping tally).
• Quicken your speed of sprinting out: timing yourself doing sprints with a ladder if unable to work out a guestimate
• Improve on an aspect you find is a weakness
• Work on rebound control so that you can put the saved shot away to safety to reduce scoring chances
• Make sure you don't allow any 'soft' goals
• Improve on a statistic of stopping a percentage of saves versus goals allowed per game, which can be calculated after the game using the American goals against average system.

The aim is to build up over the season, review and then keep building. With target setting, you want to analyse key areas that need improvement ("if it's break don't fix it"). You can start out with stamina, or explosivity for fitness, and then saving with the right hand for instance for save making. Start out small and work upwards and onwards, so that you have enough to focus on over the season, rather than running out of ideas or over working and over stretching yourself.

"Logging" tips via Australia hockey

With the "long barrier" or "log" offering the goalkeeper the chance to play the percentages against a straight strike at the short corner, the process can be a little difficult to explain properly to those that have not seen it in action or been given correct instruction from a goalie coach. Australia hockey have recently been adding to their encyclopedia of goalie information on their Youtube channel (which is pretty useful!) and have done a breakdown of how to get into the log. This is particularly handy if being new to the position or technique itself, allowing you more knowledge about how to speed up the process to allow you to get down against a shot more quickly that is disguised or difficult to read.

Mark Hickman, Hockeyroos goalie coach, and former Kookaburras Olympian (gold medalist at Athens 2004) explains the process of the log with a talk through about how to get into the blocking shape and make saves with an active glove hand. You can watch and learn more through the clip below!

Tip of the day: stay in the play!

As promised, I'll try and write some tips into the blog. Quick and easy ones to start with mainly given I write more in-depth articles on other sites and don't want to simply repeat myself all the time! The title sounds pretty poetic really with the rhyming scheme, weirdly! Guess that what happens after you've studied creative writing and poetry at university, becomes robotic!!

Anyway, one important thing when dealing with consecutive shots after a save, is the need to 'stay in the play'. Whilst you will need to rush across sprinting like anything if you are now out of position after the initial save when challenging to stop, you want to be 'square' to the shot as they say. Try and get across to cover and stay in the play! Don't quit on it and keep going! Any coach wants to see their players never quit and making the effort is better than none at all!

But, there is also an extra side to this. The clip below is a great example of this! As you can see at 0:13 USA's goalkeeper Tom Sheridan doesn't give up in the play, scrambling and clawing his way across with all his will. He is also pushing across horizontally so that he is covering the open space of the goal (so reducing shooting space of the 'open goal'!). This also cuts the movement time as he rushes across versus trying to attack the shot wherein he would be moving out off the line to cut the angle. Then he manages to dive rightly to block. An amazing save! And he then gets back up to cover the next possible shot on goal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpaRygDM2mo

So, whenever dealing with secondary or more chances, make sure you are in front of the ball, behind the shot, as you move. This way you are getting behind the shot and covering more of goal for the save. Better than getting out of place or turning away, in the first place!!