Wednesday, February 1, 2012

How Can Our Minds Be So Powerful?

How Can Our Minds Be So Powerful?

Written By: Shaun Smith- Absolute Mental Training

Have you ever been sitting before a game and got that feeling that this is not going to be a good game? How often did these feelings come true? For most goalies and athletes for that matter these thoughts of failing or having a bad game become true. One example that I can think of when I played was in I was younger. Before a game against a particular team I told my teammates that this was the team that had hurt me at the starting of the season. Thoughts began to run through my head of getting hurt again and sure enough late in the first period a guy was tripped and fell into me and I hurt my knee.

So why does this happen? Why does a simple thought lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy? How can our minds be so powerful that we can determine the outcome of a game through our minds?

Many of us would like to be able to believe that training on the ice through repetition is what makes great goalies great and it can’t hurt. The ability to complete any given skill without thinking because of the muscle memory which is formed when we work on new skills is amazing. Yet, no matter how many repetitions of any given skill you complete in practice there is one thing that can break that cycle of movements. Your mind. Your mind is able to delay that reaction or all together make you forget that skill which you have been working on.

The mind is powerful beyond measures. The truth is that every movement, every reaction and every save that we need to make within a game must first be interpreted within our mind before the resulting action is completed. Think about the save process for a moment. You see that a player has just released the shot. By using your eyes you are able to tell where exactly that puck is headed (say glove hand). It is then up to your brain to tell the muscles in your glove hand and arm that it is time to move and in what direction to make the save possible. But if your mind has to be interrupted from the negative thoughts which you are having or if your mind believes that you should be a second slow because you are fighting the puck then the resulting action will not occur in time because we only have a fraction of a second to make the appropriate reaction to what we see.

This is why negative thoughts before and during the game often always come true and why many goaltenders although great in practice fail to perform in games. As goaltenders then we need to work on improving our game through working on the mental side of the game so that we can be powerful beyond measures and there is no better time than today. Mental training is then not for the sick but for those who want to be the best.

The mind is the master of the body. Like it or not this is true. No matter what physically you think you can do because of brute strength we are limited by our minds. If we train and discipline our minds though, the body will follow. Once the body and mind become focused and in tune, you will see that your game will seem to flow; like you are in the zone. In other words, you will not be fighting with yourself and good things will just seem to happen for you.

Shaun Smith is the founder of Absolute Mental Training. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email him at ssmith@absolutementaltraining.com!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ten Tips For Parents

Ten Tips For Parents

Written By: Shaun Smith- Absolute Mental Training

Parents often openly talk about what they “hope” their child can get out of their sport. This can range from playing at a very competitive level or my favourite “at least get a college scholarship.” I get that parents want what’s best for their children (I have two beautiful daughters who I would do anything for to see them succeed) but what sports parents do not realize is that talking about such high expectations may put undue pressure on a child to live up to their parental expectations

Statistically, the chances of your child being offered a college scholarship are slim to none. To state that you hope your child will get at least a college scholarship out of their sport puts a lot of pressure on your child to perform. Your child will not love and enjoy their sport but instead believe that they must be at their best to live up to your dreams. To make matters worse think about what will happen when your child doesn't get the recognition that you believe they deserve? Maybe they are one of the best athletes in their sport in your area and somehow they get missed by the scouts. Your child may develop feelings of inadequacy and may even want to drop out of their sport.

As we approach a new year I wanted to give each and every sport parent out there ten tips which we as parents should live by this coming year if want to allow sports to enrich our child’s lives. In my mind the following tips will help sports parents and coaches ensure that children experience positive feelings from engaging in sport and to help to create a physically active lifestyle that continues through adulthood.

Ten Tips For Sports Parents

Focus on your children's efforts and performances rather than the outcome of a competition: Teach your children that success means achieving their personal goals and performing at their best rather than winning a contest.
Help your children to set realistic goals that are measurable and attainable. Goals that are too vague or too difficult to achieve lead to a high dissatisfaction rate with their sport.
Make sure your children know that whether they win or lose, whether they play a lot or a little, you love them unconditionally. Give just as much praise for a loss as you do for a win.
Show respect for your children's coaching staff. If you're not happy with the coaching style or how they are handling things, discuss your concerns with the coach when you are alone with the coach. Don't coach your children from the sidelines.
Show support for your children's teams by attending games and cheering for all team members. Don't express criticism towards opponents or referees during competition.
Accept any limitations in your children's physical abilities. Not every child will be born with the uncanny ability of Michael Jordan to dunk a basketball or Wayne Gretzky to score 50 goals. Allow them to play within their skill level as they will have much more fun playing against a similar skill level.
Make sure your children are having fun. Ask your children if they are enjoying their participation in sports and want to continue or try something else? If they are not having fun try to find out why. If the problem cannot be solved try another sport.
Place your children in sports best suited to them rather than forcing your children into sports you prefer or that are most popular. If your child really enjoys playing badminton then let them play their sport. Nothing is worse than seeing children who hate their sport playing because their parents want them to.
Be careful not to relive your sport experiences exclusively through your children. Let them play for themselves, not for you.
Keep sport in perspective. Remember the purpose of sport for children is to create an opportunity for fun and growth. All the triumphs and heartaches that are inherent in sport for children can provide learning experiences and lessons that help pave the road to adulthood.

I would like to take this time to take a moment and thank all of you for taking the time to read my articles and wish everyone the best in 2012! To do this I have also provided you with some great offers which I will continue until the new year for all the Absolute Mental Training blog readers. To see what offers are in store please take a look at www.absolutementaltraining.com

Shaun Smith is the founder of Absolute Mental Training and provides The Goalie Guild with a weekly column that is posted every Tuesday. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email him at ssmith@absolutementaltraining.com!

Monday, October 18, 2010

So You've Been Cut- Now What?

SO YOU’VE BEEN CUT – NOW WHAT?

With the start of every hockey season, many goaltenders are quickly reminded about the harsh reality of the sport which they love to play; you can be cut. Getting cut or not making the team can happen because of multiple factors, often more than one factor at one time. These factors can include a poor performance, a lack of skills, tough competition, age, and of course politics.

The truth is that no goaltender has had the perfect career where they never found themselves being cut. Yet many goaltenders hang on to the fact that maybe the coach made a bad decision or that they were judged inappropriately. Getting cut sucks, but the key for a goaltender to make sure that he doesn’t get cut again is to turn a negative result into a positive motivator and a chance to get better. Here are a few key thoughts if you have recently experienced being cut and are looking for a way to turn getting cut into a positive experience:

1. We will never achieve our best if we never experience failure - The biggest factor behind all great athlete’s stories is their experience of failure. You can never become a great athlete without failing. The key to experiencing success is to spend time and determine what it is that you can learn from the experience. Failure should lead you to a very valuable piece of information. Embrace loss as a necessary component of your improving game.

2. Athletes often build their character and reputation when the going gets tough - Getting cut is not a great feeling. Often athletes feel like they have experienced rock bottom and some even experience the feeling of wanting to leave their sport. These thoughts are part of the grieving process as you learn that you are losing the connection with a goal that you held very close to you (making the team). Great athletes are not afraid to fail or experience the feelings that come with failure like disappointment. These athletes know that although they have failed if they keep on battling and improving they will experience success which is often greater than what they would have normally experienced.

3. Take responsibility for your training - Although maybe your being cut is the result of something that you cannot control the truth is that if you are going to experience success the means rests firmly on your shoulders. Blaming coaches, the staff members or any other factor is creating an excuse. Winners don’t make excuses; they take responsibility and use their current failures as the opportunity to grow as an athlete. After getting cut the best thing that you can do is to take an HONEST look at your game and come up with 3 to 4 key areas of your game that you need to focus your energy on. Then you must set goals for these areas and create a training plan that will allow you to improve in these areas.

The key to getting back at it after being cut is to challenge yourself to get back up and continue to improve your game on a week to week or day to day basis. Re-evaluate your goals and set new goals that will help you improve the key areas of your game that you may currently be weaker.

Getting cut sucks! Trust me. I’ve personally experienced it and have relived the feelings that come with getting cut through the athletes that I work with. I don’t wish getting cut on any of you but if you do I hope that my advice will help you to improve your game. If though you are struggling to get back at it or are having feelings of leaving your sport or feelings of being upset feel free to contact me.

There's No Such Thing As Losing

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS LOSING, ONLY LEARNING

With the regular season just underway, players from all levels, from the NHL right down to children who are six years old, are starting their regular seasons. Coaches, parents and media will all be evaluating the performance of these respective teams. Teams will be put under the microscope and many goaltenders will be shouldering the blame for their teams’ early losses. Today’s game is so much about losing and winning that even young kids will be judging their performance on any given day on if their team loses or wins. I would like to take this moment to ask all of you to consider the following: There’s No Such Thing as Losing, Only Learning.

I could only imagine what it would have been like to have been around when the great game of hockey was born as I have a hard time believing that hockey was designed around the concept of winning or losing. In fact I can almost guarantee that the game of hockey was designed to provide the people with a leisure activity where they could get together with friends and complete an activity that challenged their physical fitness.

Yet today’s game has been separated from these ideals and now we are in a state where I believe that too much pressure is put on winning and losing at every level. Don’t believe me? Look at Carey Price’s first preseason game. He was being ridiculed for performing poorly and Price’s response was along the lines of relax it’s not like the Stanley Cup is going to be won off of one preseason game. Media and dollar signs have transformed the game of hockey into a sport which the value of winning is being in proportionately valued at ALL levels.

I have had numerous conversations with six year old goaltenders who have told me that they have had a bad game because as a team they lost. Yet when we dive deeper into how they themselves played this is not always the case. Our youth feel that if they are not winning they are losers and this breaks my heart. I can only imagine the impact that I would have had on my daughter if after the first time she attempted to crawl I ridiculed her and painted her as a loser. She may have given up and never learnt how to crawl. Yet in sport we as a society believe that it is alright to drive this message into our youth. This adds increased pressure and takes the fun out of the game yet that this is not the worst product of a win or you’re a loser approach to the game of hockey. When our youth feel like losers they fail to understand that even when they are losing there is something that they can learn from a loss that will help them to become a better player. Instead they focus solely on the fact that they lost the game and only feel the pressure that they must perform better in their next game.

I would like to challenge everyone from coaches, parents and goaltenders themselves to begin their season with a different approach. Instead of looking at the game as a win or loss look at what your goaltender can learn from the game. What did the goaltender do well? What should the goaltender work on to get better? Write down three items for both questions. Maybe the goaltender had really strong angles yet failed to keep visually attached to the puck in traffic. This is a great lesson for the goaltender to work on; staying attached to the puck right to the end of the drill in their next practice. If after every game we can take a lesson out of the game of what we need to do next time to be better we will be setting ourselves up for success and we will be removing the pressure of winning. The truth is that for every goaltender the first game of the year is not life or death just as Price noted. Instead, goaltenders need to continue on the process of continually getting stronger every day if they want to experience success in their game. The moment we stop working on our game is the minute that another goaltender is getting stronger!

Shaun Smith is the founder of Absolute Mental Training. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email him atssmith@absolutementaltraining.com!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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As always any questions, comments or concerns feel free to contact me at ssmith@absolutementaltraining.com

Bolton Pouliot Has Turned Heads And Is Challenging For A Spot

Bolton is a great kid who works extremely hard. Bolton came to me at the start of this summer. Pleasure working with him

Ahead of his time

Bolton Pouliot

by Photo contributed

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By Greg Meachem

Published: September 10, 2010 6:45 AM
Updated: September 10, 2010 9:55 AM

Bolton Pouliot wasn’t shooting for the stars when he checked into the Red Deer Rebels training camp as a raw rookie.
Flash forward two weeks and the Rebels coaching staff is hoping that they have a future Western Hockey League star in the Calgary product.
The 16-year-old goaltender basically secured the full-time back-up berth with his play through camp and the Black and White intrasquad game and looked stellar while blocking pucks through the second half of Wednesday’s preseason-opening 3-0 win over the Calgary Hitmen at Airdrie.
Pouliot, one of three goalies — 20-year-olds Darcy Kuemper and Kraymer Barnstable being the others — remaining on the Rebels roster, admitted Thursday that he didn’t expect to be at this point so soon.
“My goal this fall was just to make the Black and White game. I didn’t plan on signing or playing exhibition games,” he said. “My goal was to get as far as the Black and White game and anything else would be just extra.
“I have a lot of work to do from here and as long as I keep pushing I think I have a chance to stay. I have to keep developing and learning from the other guys.”
Pouliot stopped all 18 shots he faced Wednesday and appeared calm, cool and collected in the process.
“It was very nerve-wracking just getting in there, but eventually I kind of calmed down. I made that first save and everything kind of played out from there,” he said.
The fact that Pouliot was able to maintain his composure in his first-ever WHL contest was a testament to the training he received at the Goalie Development Institute in Calgary during the summer.
“I worked with a mental trainer, Shaun Smith, at GDI,” said the six-foot-one netminder.
“We worked on making sure I don’t get too up or down. Shaun really stressed the importance of staying level-headed and he probably helped me get this far.”
Pouliot, selected in the seventh round of the 2009 WHL bantam draft, enjoyed a strong season with the minor midget AAA Calgary Royals last winter and didn’t disappoint the Rebels scouts who caught him in action.
“Our scouts told us that he’d push for a spot here this year,” said Rebels head coach/vice-president of hockey operations Jesse Wallin.
“Until you see him yourself, it’s really hard to tell, but he certainly had a very good training camp and last night the screws tightened up a bit. He moved up to the next step, the preseason, and I thought he handled that really well. We’ll see he continues to progress.”
Wallin is confident that Pouliot has all the tools to progress into a capable and perhaps superior WHL goaltender.
“He’s got a lot of qualities that we like,” said Wallin. “(Rebels goalie coach) Brent Belecki has been very impressed with him in training camp and Bolton is a very mature young man, he carries himself very well. I think you can see that in his play. He plays with a lot of poise, a lot of confidence. He’s big and strong and moves well for a young guy.
“The biggest thing is he’s a leader and he competes. Through the rookie camp and into main camp you could hear him taking charge on the ice, you could hear him talking to his defencemen. He’s a take-charge kid and a real competitor. Every day he’s been on the ice he’s worked hard to get better. He’s eager, he’s keen, and when you have those qualities you know there’s going to be growth that comes with it.”
• The Rebels and Hitmen meet again Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Innisfail Arena.
The Rebels conclude preseason play next week, meeting the Hurricanes Tuesday at Lethbridge, facing the Edmonton Oil Kings Friday at Lacombe and taking on the Medicine Hat Tigers 24 hours later at Stettler.
• Red Deer is ranked 10th in the CHL BMO Mastercard Top 10 preseason rankings released Thursday. The Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors are the top-ranked team, with three WHL clubs — the Portland Winterhawks, Tri-City Americans and Saskatoon Blades — ranked third, sixth and eighth.
gmeachem@reddeeradvocate.com

Mason Raymond's Goal: Put The Puck In The Net

Raymond is one of the nicest guys that I have ever got the chance to meet. He was a great competitor and had to battle the odds but I think it was his goal setting that helped him to reach this level. Found this article, good read about Raymond:

Raymond's straightforward goal: Score more goals

BY BEN KUZMA, THE PROVINCE

Mason Raymond has the confidence to predict that the 30-plus goal plateau is attainable in his fourth pro season.

Photograph by: Jeff Vinnick, Getty Images

Mason Raymond has always dreamed big. There's no limit to large aspirations, even though being slight in stature as a midget hockey star in Alberta had many doubting that the speedy Vancouver Canucks winger would ever collect an NHL cheque. That group included Raymond.

He now has the money after avoiding arbitration and signing a two-year, $5.1 million US contract extension following a career-high 25 goals and 53 points. And he now has the confidence to predict that the 30-plus goal plateau is attainable in his fourth pro season.

Pretty good bravado from a guy who had to be convinced to give the AJHL a try in Camrose where the Kodiaks retired his No. 9 jersey on Sept. 10.

"I credit a lot of it to experience," said Raymond. "Each year, I learn more and believe in myself and who I can be out on the ice. And I just keep pushing forward to hopefully improve on the numbers. They're close to my chest, but I like to set goals. And I'll strive to reach them."

As main camp progresses and the preseason nears, one of the many questions is who will join Ryan Kesler and Raymond on the second line? Raymond has earned the right to be pencilled in, but lost in his solid season were bouts of inconsistency. He scored 17 goals in his first 39 games -- including his first career hat trick on Dec. 27 in Calgary -- and had goal droughts of 10 and 11 games. Two of his three postseason goals came in the Chicago playoff series and he had the winner in Game 1.

Raymond has to prove he's a legitimate top-six forward and not a one-year scoring wonder. Yet he was brave enough at times to barge into tough scoring areas, brave enough to try some trickery in the slot and not simply stick to a restrictive perimeter game.

And if it's true that to know where you're going that you have to know where you've been, then a trip in time for Raymond earlier this month to revisit his hockey roots was timely.

NHL expectation is enough of an animal to wrestle, but Raymond wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for midget hockey buddy Daniel Bertram convincing him to give the Kodiaks a try.

"That was arguably my most fun years in hockey," said Raymond, who had 144 points in two AJHL seasons before playing two years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. "It was a big transition in my life and a place where I believed in myself again."

The memories came flooding back at his jersey retirement.

"It was a full day," said Raymond. "I visited a bunch of schools, signed autographs and then the jersey. Obviously, it's a huge honour."

It will mean more if Raymond and the Canucks can meet heightened Stanley Cup expectations. They became unglued during their second-round playoff series because they lost their composure and by they time they regained it, the damage had been done.

"We've got to sort that out," said Raymond. "This is a great window for us to do some great things and we have a great group of core guys. But we've got to go out and do the work."