Understanding and Controlling Focus
- Focus on the puck and the play, not the scoreboard or clock, to stay present and perform consistently.
- Checking the clock pulls focus away from what matters and creates unhelpful thoughts about time running out or moving too slowly.
- Elite goalies recognize when their focus has drifted and actively use mental tools to redirect it.
- Trigger words are one practical technique goalies can use to reset focus during a game.
- Mental skills coaching, as practiced by Pete Fry with goalies from minor hockey to the pros, treats focus as a trainable skill.
Goalie Mindset expert Pete Fry is back with more key mindset tips that will help you become a better goaltender. Pete played in the Western Hockey League for the Portland Winterhawks and the Victoria Cougars. He was drafted by the New Jersey Devils. Today he works with goaltenders of all levels, from minor hockey to professionals, helping them achieve more on the ice through developing their mental skills.
Pete will be hosting a series of in-person and online seminars this summer – full details are at the end of this article.
Picture this: You are in the middle of a high-stakes hockey game.
The arena is roaring.
The pressure is on.
Distractions are everywhere.
How much time is left on the clock?
How’s your stance feel? Are you holding your glove in the right position?
What does your coach think of that last goal you let in? Will he pull you if you let in another one?
Why are the referees allowing so much contact in your crease?
In these moments, it is important to know that you are in control of your focus — and more importantly, how to control it — because where you direct that focus determines success.
“In a game we want to focus on the puck or the play,” Pete Fry explained at the 2023 Goalie Mindset Seminar. “What happens when you look up at the clock? It takes away your focus. Now you are thinking, ‘why isn’t time going down faster or slower,’ depending on if you’re winning or losing. Is your job any different five minutes into a game than it is with five minutes left? No. The only time that matters is being in the present and focussing on the right things in that moment.”
No one can focus for every second of every hockey game they play. The best goalies in the world understand this, learn how to identify when that focus drifts and is not on the right thing at the right time, and then develop tools to bring that focus back when it matters the most.
Some goalies use a trigger word to bring their focus back. Others use a gesture or movement.
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