magnets

Chin up Badger. I know the games I don't feel mentally prepared for are the ones I struggle with too. The other guys on my team always laugh when they think they're early and I'm already half dressed in the room, but if I don't have time before a game to shut the distractions out, I just struggle to get into the moment. A comment a coach gave me after a particularly bad game early in my career. "Don't sweat the score-line. For you to even have a chance to get beaten, five other guys on your team had to get beaten first."

Just read this thread from start to finish, and it's like going back 2 years to when I started. Learned to skate at 35 (Australia doesn't give you much ice to work with), first competitive game at 36. I'm two seasons down. First ended with a 0.770SV% 4.31GAA, finished the second season with a championship, a 0.928SV% 1.07GAA. I went through all the same issues you guys have talked about, going into my first year with no experience, and no goal coaching other than players shooting as hard as they could on me. During the off season joined a group that were significantly better than me for 3 on 3 sessions on a small sheet of ice, and did some coaching clinics with the local national league goalie (Australian Ice Hockey League - had an import goalie from the UK). The combination of somebody finally telling me "this is what went wrong, and here's what you need to change to fix it", as well as playing guys above my level made the world of difference. Watch as much video as you can of not only the best in the world, but any footage you can see of yourself. The GoPro footage posted earlier is awesome, and if I had more of me early, it would've made the world of difference. Work on the flexibility (I love Maria Mountain's program!), and watch your game improve. Only dwell on the goals against long enough to remember how it beat you, and how to possibly get it next time, then move on. Keeping it in mind the rest of the session won't get the goal out of the net, but it might distract you long enough for the next shot on goal to be the next one in the net.