This is one of the articles that I wanted to explore for quite a while. I’m going to be writing this from the perspective of the goalkeeper and what I feel parents sometimes miss. This is not necessarily going to be an article that explores clinical psychological episodes, because of course, that’s not the field that I happen to play on. Parents and coaches alike that have never played a game in their life in goal can have a tough time figuring out goalkeeper psychology. Particularly when it comes to, what to tell goalkeepers after a game. Especially, after a tough loss or a mistake. The “it’s not your fault” line might not work all that well when your player knows that it actually was.
One of the hardest things that I could recall wasn’t actually making the mistakes that lead to goals. Of course, there are some of those that tend to haunt you. Particularly, if those mistakes directly impacted the way that your career panned out. Most goalkeepers though are thankfully not going to have a Loris Karius type of dilemma that they need to deal with. For most goalkeepers, one of the biggest challenges is coping with a loss or a goal that you couldn’t do anything about. That’s exactly where I think the “healing” has to begin.
What Are The Things That Goalkeepers Need To Deal With On A Psychological Level?
What are you really going to be worrying about as a goalkeeper? Obviously, there are going to be mistakes that lead to goals. Those things are going to happen. This comes with the territory, and as a goalkeeper, you’re going to need to learn to cope with them. In many ways, it can be easier to cope with a clear mistake because you know what you need to work on. Rather than coming up with subpar results and really having no idea what to do about it.
Not getting a chance to play is also one of the most important situations that a goalkeeper could sooner or later have to deal with. A lot of times what happens is that the lack of playing time comes very late in your career and you have no idea how to deal with it. This is something that you should not be afraid to talk about. It could be one of those things though that you don’t talk to just anyone about. Some coaches are not going to take it well if you talk to them directly about playing time. Particularly, in pro and semi-pro situations. If this is something that bothers you, it’s a good idea to seek help.
Are You Ready To Talk?
For me, the game is still something that we talk about at home way too much. The amount of games that we watch in my household every single week is borderline insane. Back when I was playing on a more competitive level talking about the game right after the fact was a common occurrence. Some people are not ready though to want to talk about situations that just happened to them. Particularly when you as a goalkeeper know that you’ve made a mistake. The last thing that you want is for someone to come in and remind you of what you just did. As a coach, you have to point out the mistakes to your players, but when it’s something so obvious encouragement could help much more than coming down hard on a player who is already down on himself.
This could sound totally counter-intuitive as I just mentioned that sometimes trying to pour salt on the wound is not a good idea. At some point though between the game that just happened and your next outing you should go over what happened. At least from memory if you don’t have the tape to look over. If you’re taping yourself that could tremendously help out. The idea is to look through the action and pinpoint where you went wrong and where you didn’t. This brings me to my next point.
What You Need To Correct & What You Need To Stick With
When you are on a bad team as a goalkeeper and you concede 5 or 6 goals per outing it’s going to mess with your head a lot. Especially if you are someone who is very competitive. A lot of times though if you look through the goals that you gave up and you notice that you were beaten in multiple 1v1 situations or shots right in front of the goal there is just not much that you’re going to be able to do. In these cases, you can double-check how far out you’re coming out for certain plays, how much you wait for your defenders to give you a hand. If you are not the problem it’s very important to recognize that. As a coach and a parent that’s something that you have to objectively be able to point out.
A lot of times good goalkeepers get into bad habits because they are trying to do too much to help their team. What I see often are goalkeepers that will come out way too early because they don’t trust their defense. Also, I see goalkeepers that will force coming out to cut crosses because they know that their defenders don’t play corners well. It’s not a bad thing to try and improve your game and even your range in the box. Trying to do too much to frankly cover for other people’s mistakes is going to catch up to you eventually. That’s usually not the best thing for your long-term development.
Goalkeeper Psychology Is Personal
Yes, it’s a team game, but playing goalkeeper is very much a personal affair as well. I’m not saying don’t ever listen to the coach. At times though I do feel that coaches will make their assessments on what a goalkeeper could have done or should have done without really knowing much about what they are talking about. I’m not saying, never listen to your coaches or no coaches know what they’re talking about. At the end of the day, the coach has to have the confidence to put you on the field. Understanding your own limits and maybe not pointing out your own mistakes to others, but knowing yourself what you did wrong is key.
Again, going over what happened on the field even if you just do it mentally is super important. This will allow you to really get a sense of what you need to work on. Even if you remember a play that did not necessarily end up in a goal. At times you can feel that you were completely out of place in a play. That can feel really uncomfortable when that happens. File that away and then go back and try to recreate the situation in training.
Talk To Your Goalkeeper Coach
If your team has a goalkeeper coach or you’re taking personal goalkeeping lessons make sure that what you file away you are then communicating to the coach. For goalkeeper coaches, it can be easy to get into a training routine where you feel that you’ve worked on every single aspect of the game. That’s great, but it’s like being a math teacher who keeps to a lesson plan and has students that are 5 topics behind. Don’t be afraid to tell your coach that you’re having trouble with something that should be “easy”. We see this in the pro game a bunch. Some of the top goalkeepers in the world are scared to death to come out for a cross or deal with a high ball.
I’ve talked about this in other parts of the site. Fielding a high ball is something that seems overly easy, yet we only have a handful of goalkeepers in the whole world that are actually effective at the art. That’s usually because it’s not trained properly. Don’t just do crosses as a cool down on Fridays before the game and as a warm-up after the game. If you’re afraid of dealing with high balls, that’s something that you should be working on daily. If your hands are not safe enough, then work on that. Bad hands are also a common occurrence in some of the top goalkeepers that we see in the pros. Tell your goalkeeper coach what you feel that you need to work on so that they can incorporate it into their lesson plan.
Can It Be A Good Idea To Leave A Team To Improve Your Goalkeeper Psychology?
If you concede 5 or 6 goals as I mentioned before on a weekly basis it can be hard to want to continue on. This is something that actually happened to me when I was around 12 and I was away from the goal for 2 years after two seasons of giving up 5 or 6 goals every weekend. The reality is that when you have more shots taken on you there’s a bigger chance that mistakes are going to occur. That’s not a bad thing. In many cases, being able to go through a mistake-prone area could be of great benefit for a goalkeeper later on. The problem is surviving through the mistake-prone area with enough confidence. If you feel that you’re not getting enough help from your teammates by all means look for a better team.
This is where parents really have to step in. It’s hard to really be objective at times. You feel that your son or daughter is giving it their all, and it’s just not enough. Some hard times as I mentioned can really benefit your development. The thing is, if there’s no good news for years it can get really hard to find the game fun. I do feel parents have to step in when they see that losing is taking a toll. This brings me to my next point.
Do Goalkeepers Have To See A Psychologist?
You have to play the game for fun right? At the same time though, it can be a tough game to handle. As I mentioned before if you’re giving up a lot of goals every single weekend no matter how hard your training it can take a toll on you. Certainly, if we are talking about professional goalkeepers I have no doubt in my mind that seeing a professional can be a good idea. Especially if you’re riding the bench. This is another aspect of goalkeeping that is not talked about much. If you’re not in the starting role even if you do great in training you may not be able to move up the ranks as you would like.
For parents that are dealing with young goalkeepers, it can be hard to make the decision to get their kids to see a sports psychologist. In many ways, it just makes more sense to quit the sport or try something else. If you have a son or daughter that is very keen on continuing to step in goal despite all of the real stress that goes into the ordeal it could be a good idea to get them some extra help. The thing is, you can train, you can go see pros from different walks of life, but not even that is going to guarantee that you’ll be starting for a pro team at some point. That kind of disappointment can bring other types of issues that you have to deal with.
Goalkeeper Psychology Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, it’s really important to know what you can control. That’s why spotting your mistakes and being 100% honest about them is so important. You can directly work on those mistakes and if you do you’re going to see the progress. There is no way around that. The sad part is, a lot of times there are things that are out of your control. Like being in a bad team that always puts you in a spot that you can’t succeed. That can take a major toll on you. As a parent and as a coach it’s really important, to be honest about this situation as well. Just because the team doesn’t win every week doesn’t mean everything is terrible. There are points where you have to draw the line though.
Many people are going to point to the fact that they play the game for fun. As you move up in the ranks the stakes get more and more serious. It can be a good idea to get out of the game early if you don’t want to have to deal with the psychological issues moving forward. I know I’ve been all over the place with the advice in this article. Goalkeeping for me and many people has been a lifelong passion. At the same time, I recognize that it hasn’t been easy and that a little extra help at certain points in my career could have really helped. As a parent or a coach don’t ever dismiss the psychological impact that playing in goal can have on a person particularly young kids and particularly when things are not going well.
