Bad last couple practices

[Jonathon v]

Last 3 practices for me have been a nightmare. I am not in a bad mood, I am in a positive mindset before I get on the ice and while I’m on the ice... at first. I don’t know why, but it seems like everyone has been scoring on me, and I’m also thinking instead of reacting, especially at my high school skates against the lower level slow shooters. Also, I feel like I can’t track fast releases as well as I usually do, and I am off angle. I also don’t even know why, but I seem like nervous to get hit, don’t even know why. Not flinching, but tensing  up when I never usually do except an occasional slapshot the the face/balls . Anyways, any help?

[seagoal]

Sorry to hear you've been struggling.

Is there anything going on in your life outside of hockey?  Any stress or anxiety or sadness or depression or sickness....anything like that that might be affecting you mentally, physically, or emotionally?

[Jonathon v]

2 hours ago, seagoal said:

Sorry to hear you've been struggling.

Is there anything going on in your life outside of hockey?  Any stress or anxiety or sadness or depression or sickness....anything like that that might be affecting you mentally, physically, or emotionally?

Maybe that schools starting up and sophomore year is gonna he really hard like hardest year of high school and I had semi decent grades freshman year.

[seagoal]

2 hours ago, Jonathon v said:

Maybe that schools starting up and sophomore year is gonna he really hard like hardest year of high school and I had semi decent grades freshman year.

Ah, ok.  Yeah, that's a tough transition, for sure.  

Well, I can't really say anything about your specific situation, but in general, slumps are normal.  We will never perform to the best of our abilities all the time.  We will ebb and flow in our performance and our ability to handle our performance mentally and emotionally.  It's just part of playing goalie.  

I remember being far more prone to bouts of anger and frustration and negative thoughts in my late teen 20s years than I am now in my late 30s. 

There is so much stress and personal responsibility to being a goalie.  It's going to really suck and be very difficult sometimes and you just have to find ways to endure and stay focused and improve in little ways.

You could start by setting small goals for yourself, like: tonight I will make active stick saves on my glove side.  So then you deliberately cross over and make stick saves on the ice on your glove side by crossing over the middle of your body.  Even if one hits your stick and goes in, you still did it right, technically.  So that's a victory for your goal that night. 

Just one example of a small goal to stay focused and keep your mind honed in on something narrow and tangible so you don't get distracted by the big picture stuff that might lead to some negative thoughts or feelings.  The more narrow your focus is the easier you can find success and success feels good. 

It's normal to have periods of feeling bad, man.  The most important thing is how you respond.  That's what makes you stronger and more durable as a goalie.  

Outside of technical goalie mechanics, if the issue is our own emotions and thoughts about our goaltending you have to just find ways to problem solve, set small goals, stay positive, and just keep fighting. 

[Jonathon v]

1 hour ago, seagoal said:

Ah, ok.  Yeah, that's a tough transition, for sure.  

Well, I can't really say anything about your specific situation, but in general, slumps are normal.  We will never perform to the best of our abilities all the time.  We will ebb and flow in our performance and our ability to handle our performance mentally and emotionally.  It's just part of playing goalie.  

I remember being far more prone to bouts of anger and frustration and negative thoughts in my late teen 20s years than I am now in my late 30s. 

There is so much stress and personal responsibility to being a goalie.  It's going to really suck and be very difficult sometimes and you just have to find ways to endure and stay focused and improve in little ways.

You could start by setting small goals for yourself, like: tonight I will make active stick saves on my glove side.  So then you deliberately cross over and make stick saves on the ice on your glove side by crossing over the middle of your body.  Even if one hits your stick and goes in, you still did it right, technically.  So that's a victory for your goal that night. 

Just one example of a small goal to stay focused and keep your mind honed in on something narrow and tangible so you don't get distracted by the big picture stuff that might lead to some negative thoughts or feelings.  The more narrow your focus is the easier you can find success and success feels good. 

It's normal to have periods of feeling bad, man.  The most important thing is how you respond.  That's what makes you stronger and more durable as a goalie.  

Outside of technical goalie mechanics, if the issue is our own emotions and thoughts about our goaltending you have to just find ways to problem solve, set small goals, stay positive, and just keep fighting. 

Wow, thank you very much! This lifted my mood a bit, I never thought of doing small things as you said with setting small goals like stick saves glove side. Thank you so much. Do you think this slump could also be why my knee drive to the ice in my butterfly is a bit slower 

[seagoal]

6 hours ago, Jonathon v said:

Wow, thank you very much! This lifted my mood a bit, I never thought of doing small things as you said with setting small goals like stick saves glove side. Thank you so much. Do you think this slump could also be why my knee drive to the ice in my butterfly is a bit slower 

No problem.  I'm happy to try to help.

It very well could be affecting you, especially if you're having motivation issues.