5 Things I Wish I Knew (or actually listened to during my playing days)
Spring season has begun at the college level and many high schools are gearing up in the coming weeks. During the spring season you WILL face hurdles, especially the goalies. I still see and hear goalies experiencing similar hurdles I went through during my high school and college days. I hope these lessons can help some players out there take their game to the next level and thrive off the field along the way. As I mentioned in the title, these might not be novel ideas, but rather things I wish I actually did to maximize my potential.
Strive for progress, not perfection in all areas. I always held myself to this unattainable goal for my performance everyday, and instead wished I made goals more about my progress in specific areas of my game versus the outcome of making saves. Most goalies have the benchmark to reach for 50% save percentage and for me if I didn’t hit that everyday, it was failure. Nothing else mattered. In some ways, it made me push myself, and in others it kept me from staying level and hindered my ability to see the opportunity of the next play ahead. When you do see progress, always recognize it. Making change in your stance, movement, is incredibly difficult and when it happens it should be recognized.
You are more than your save percentage, the amount of saves, or any other stat related to performance. Not only did I feel like I failed at my job or the task but I felt like I was a failure because of it. What was at play to a larger extent here was my identification and self-worth being defined by my abilities in the cage. This is the struggle for many athletes after graduation. Reflection and checking in are so vital in this, asking yourself each day who is the person you want to be and at the end of the day reflecting on what happened, what was learned, and how to improve moving forward. Generally writing thoughts and feelings more has helped me see the progress over time and explore areas of interest along the way that made me realize I brought much more to the world outside of my playing abilities.
Plan the day, win the day. There’s so much to juggle in season, that you have to plan your days. On Sunday’s you usually have an idea of your assignments and instead of waiting until the last minute (like I did), write out your days by the hour and physically put in when you’re going to accomplish your tasks. You can actually put in downtime too, to hang out with friends/family, watch a favorite show, or whatever you want to do to make sure it’s not too overwhelming.
Prioritize Sleep. The reason why planning is so vital is to get you to bed on time. Sleep is the best recovery tool at your disposal when you’re putting intense volume on your body playing the game you love. Yes, running as fast as you can for long periods of time puts immense strain on your joints and muscles and you have to give the body the time it needs to recover so you can go out there and crush it on the field for the next one. Not only is the recovery component important, but when you’re fatigued you lose reaction time, decision-making, and movement efficiency that can increase risk for injury. Also sleep helps consolidate memories so better test scores too!
Consistent mental practice is key to winning the mental game. The time is now to start practicing visualization, breathing, mantra’s, every day to find out what helps you to best achieve focus and calm to perform. I would try things out on game day and expect them to work. You have mental patterns and thoughts that have been ingrained for a long time. Just like you can’t expect to be a great lacrosse player overnight, you’re not going to change your mental patterns overnight either. You don’t need to make the negative go away, instead enough mental energy to focus solely on the play in front of you. Again, writing can help here to notice patterns, how you feel on certain days, how you got there, and your reactions throughout a practice/game using different practices. Consistency is the name of the game.
As always, if you have questions, reach out!! Hope this helps!