I am frequently asked about tryouts. How to prepare for them, and which ones are legitimate or not. Similar to tournaments and playoff games, tryouts can be a stressful and nerve-wracking experience. It's VERY important for us, to frame these events as OPPORTUNITIES to showcase our greatness, instead of worrying about whether we'll make the team.
Our job as a goalie doesn't change, because it's a tryout, playoff game, or tournament. Our mindset is always to stop the puck. It's easy to create false narratives around "who's going to make the team, which coach is watching today, and how did the other goalie look?"
These false narratives are extremely detrimental, as we start to focus on things out of our control. We can't control how the other goalie plays, which coach attends the tryout, and who is friends/family with the coach." All we can control is our attitude, effort, and preparation. Once we start to entertain these thoughts, our focus largely drifts away from the things we need to do to be successful. Confidence in ourselves is one of the biggest attributes coaches look for in a goalie.
It's important to believe that we are going into these tryouts to MAKE the team, not simply to try out. We never want to be arrogant, but as goalies, we want to develop a healthy confidence and swagger in ourselves.
Here are a couple tips to appear more confident:
With only two goalies per team and one net to share, it's important to ask a couple questions before we attend just any tryout. If we can't ask the coach, manager, or someone in the organization, we might have to do a little research ourselves
Here are a couple:
If you're invited to a camp here are a couple more:
If you’re interested in personalized and more detailed advice, you can book a Zoom call with me using this link
Thank you,
Connor
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