Hello Everyone, 

This week I want to discuss an email I got from one of our readers, Ashlee, from Texas. Ashlee is a 16 year high school goalkeeper, and describes herself as a total ‘goalkeeping-addict’. She made First Team in all district last year and she made every All Tournament Team in every tournament she has participated in. Ashlee had a serious concern which I know lots of you will recognize. She sent me the following email:

Last year my high school soccer season was horrible. Myself and a few others were the only ones who even seemed to put any effort out! I would go home after every game mentally drained thinking what could I do better? I knew it wasn't my fault considering my team scored maybe 10 district goals. Then when they would announce scores in the morning everyone would say who's y’alls goalie? She must suck! Even though our forwards scored ZERO goals! I felt individually I had an amazing season. But in the end, it didn’t matter. I mean forwards get all the glory. They're EXPECTED to score goals, and when they do, everyone celebrates. I am EXPECTED to stop goals, and when I do, I am just doing my job. And when someone on the field makes a mistake, its ok. They can make a hundred mistakes. But i make ONE mistake, and it could change the entire game. Heck, it could change the entire season! It’s almost as if my coach says: "If you win, it’s cause the forwards scored goals. If you lose, it’s cause you didn’t block enough shots."

Dealing with the mental aspect of goalkeeping is the hard part. This is what I wrote back to Ashlee: 

Once a goalkeeper becomes technically sound at what he or she does, playing the position becomes more of a mental game. Especially when it comes to dealing with adversity. Once we chose to become goalkeepers, we know that our mistakes will be magnified simply because when we make a mistake the consequences are far greater; it's usually a goal for the opponent. As you mentioned; when a striker makes a mistake it's usually no big deal. We subject ourselves to criticism simply by playing the position and because of it's uniqueness.

We all will face criticism, and we will all make mistakes, and we will all get scored upon. It is how we handle these situations that will set the good keepers aside from the average keepers. Mental toughness is an extremely underrated part of goalkeeping and should be trained as well as all physical aspects. Prepare yourself for every practice and every game mentally and try to prepare for any event that can occur. Shake off mistakes and focus on the task at hand; the next ball to block or catch.

Also remember that only a very small percentage of the spectators know anything about soccer, and only a miniscule percentage of them will have knowledge about the goalkeeping position, so the criticism we face is almost always from a non-educated source.

Focus on your strengths and weaknesses and keep working hard; these are things you CAN control. Try not to worry about what other people think or do or say; these are things you CANNOT control and will only distract you from doing what you are good at:) 

So as I wrote to Ashlee, not only do we always put ourselves in the spotlight simply by playing the position of goalkeeper; we also put ourselves under a magnifying glass. I always tell every goalie that I train: “You will concede goals. You will even make mistakes that cost your team goals. How you deal with these goals and mistakes will determine whether you set yourself aside from the average goalkeeper”. Every game the goalkeeper needs to prepare him/herself mentally in a very thorough manner, which should be part of the warm-up routine.

Seeing every goalkeeper will come with their own unique personality, it is impossible to prescribe a certain pre-game mental warm-up. We have actually just added an article on that subject in out Tips and Drills section from renowned writer Joe Luxbacher. In short, through trial and error the keeper will have to learn how to prepare for a game and how to handle adversity during the game. But it is evident that goalkeepers DO need to train their mental toughness continuously. What always worked for me was visualization. Usually starting the night before a game, I pictured myself playing the game, and pictured myself making certain saves and organizing the defense etc. But I also envisioned mistakes, and went over and over the mistake until I could immediately shake it off and put if behind me for the rest of the game. Visualizing your performance is still an underrated part of sports if you ask me, and the athletes that use it swear by it and it works well for them. Also check out our Training Tips and Drills section and then specifically the Pshycology-Mental Category (http://goalkeepersetc.com/remository/Download/Psychology_-_Mental/). I hope Ahslee’s email, my reply and the tips on our website will contribute to greater awareness of the mental/psychological aspect of goalkeeping. Thank you Ashlee, for your email. Readers and members please keep emailing me your questions at ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )! 

Erik.