This blog is about what you can do to improve your relationships with your defense, the girls you want and NEED to work as hard as they can to make your life easier. 

If you want to know general things to say in the games to direct them, you can check out this blog. 

For now, I’m talking how to build that relationship. 

First of all, you know when you make a big save and your teammates get super hyped after and it makes you feel hyped and confident? You need to do this for your defenders.

I remember when my teammates would get charges or other turnovers I would be jumping up and down. When they held good positioning and were forcing the attacker in the right direction I would encourage them to keep it up, and use other phrases to let them know they were doing a good job. 

Another important thing, something I was guilty of when I was playing, was to continually blame the defense when things went wrong. Maybe not necessarily blame them, but when we’d go in huddles after games, it was always something the defenders did. This was the wrong approach, because it wasn’t always true. 

While goalies tend to be hard on themselves, many times in the post-goal huddle with the defense it’s going over the breakdown during the previous play. When in reality, when it comes down to it, there are just some shots that we should’ve had. The defense did what they were supposed to by making the attacker make a difficult shot, and we have to make the play and own it. Sometimes, we have to go in the huddle and have the humility to know when to say “my bad”. 

I didn’t even realize I was doing this, my coaches actually pointed it out. Honestly, it took me awhile to really know when I could’ve made the save and when the defense should’ve stepped up because of how hard I was on myself, and how much I equally expected out of my defense. Watching film helps with this a ton!

Generally speaking, spending time off the field with your defense helps a lot too, just like it helps with building connections with your other teammates as well. The better you know each other off the field, the better you’ll know each other on it! 

Good luck thanks for reading! :)