Beyond the Crease: Pete Fry on Mental Toughness, Confidence & the Goalie Mindset

This is Sharpening your edge.

In this episode, we're speaking with Pete Fry, also known as the goalie mindset guy.

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Welcome to another episode of Sharpening youg Edge, presented by CB3 Hockey Development and brought to you by our title sponsor, Roster Hub.

I'm Chuck Bertolino.

Today's guest is a former WHL All Star drafted by the New Jersey Devils, an author and someone who has worked with goalies from the youth level and all the way up to the NHL.

He's known as the goalie mindset guy.

Pete Fry, welcome to the show.

Thanks a lot, Chuck.

Great to be on here.

Excited to be on here.

And yeah, thanks for doing what you do.

Okay, no problem.

And I'm glad we finally got our schedules together and had a chance to sit down.

Had this good conversation to help educate some players, coaches and parents as well.

For people who may not know your story, take us back to the beginning.

What drew you to the goalie position specifically?

And then ultimately, when did you realize you had a chance to play at a higher level?

That's a great question.

Well, I was born in Ontario, like just outside of Toronto.

I've lived in this small place called Kleinberg, and I think when I was about six years old, we would watch.

It was called Hockey Night in Canada, and it was a really big Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, I think they had a big series that.

That year, and I just was drawn to a goaltender in Montreal called Ken Dryden, and I would watch him play, and so I just wanted to be a goalie.

That and the fact that I probably wasn't one of the best skaters.

Not saying that this helped me as a goaltender, it was just easy To I found it easy to play goal and I just loved it.

And side note, right now nowadays with the goaltenders they have to be one of the best skaters on the ice, correct?

Yeah.

Oh exactly, exactly.

And then we moved when I was eight, when I was eight years old.

Yeah.

So I really started playing.

I was about six.

When I was eight years old we moved to, to Victoria.

And so as a nine year old I was, I think I was late in playing that year.

And then as a 10 year old this is when I kind of knew I want to play at a higher level.

I made the, the PB rep team which is for 11 and 12 year olds.

And so I made that as a 10 year old and I just, I enjoyed it, I loved it and it was just something that I really wanted to do.

And I never like, I never really thought of playing at a higher level.

I just never thought that I just played because I loved it.

I wanted to play at the highest level of where I was playing, but I never really thought of playing in the National Hockey League was maybe that.

I think that hurt me later on.

And you did eventually have an impressive WHL career including all star honors and back to back team MVP awards.

At what point did you realize that an NHL career was within reach?

Well, I think it was when I was 15.

I was brought up to the Western Hockey League.

I didn't play that year.

I just brought up and sat on the bench for a few games and there was a lot of guys on that team.

And it was in Portland that played ended up playing in the National.

Cam Neely was on that team.

Richard Crom, who ended up playing for the New York Islanders was on that team.

There was a lot of great players.

And then the next year I wasn't supposed to make the Western Hockey League.

I was supposed to play in Summerland which is a junior A team in the BC Hockey League.

That was the team I was supposed to play on as a 16 year old and I was being recognized by then.

They asked me to be part of the Junior Olympic program, the Junior national team.

But I actually turned it down to go and be in Portland in the summer to train to play there.

And so basically that year as a 16 year old I went to training camp and I can remember.

It's an interesting story.

I remember when I went to Portland that summer to train and to help teach hockey school before the season.

The one of the goaltenders on Portland drove me there.

Now this is a goaltender, his name was Ed.

He was a super nice guy.

And he was driving me there and he's telling me how this year he's going to make Portland.

He's going to be the backup goalie.

I'm going to play in Summerland.

This is Portland's plan.

And then a goalie coming back.

Ian Wood was going to be the number one goalie.

He was drafted by Edmonton.

And he says, tell me, here's how it's going to work.

And so I go to training camp expecting that in Portland.

And at the end of the day they end up keeping me.

They cut him and they keep me as a 16 year old.

And they tell me, you're probably not going to play many games this year, but we really like you, we want you to play well, you play for us this year.

And so I thought, yeah, okay, this is great.

So right then.

And that's why I kind of became a celebrity my, my hometown in Victoria with making that as a 16 year old.

And I ended up playing 39 games that year and was not expected to do that, but played 39 games as a 16 year old, was ranked in the top three or four goaltenders get drafted in the National Hockey League the next year.

So that's when I guess I start to think about it.

I think when I grew up and this is.

I always talk to goaltenders about beliefs and this is so important.

I didn't hang around with or I didn't know a lot of people that played in the National Hockey League.

And all I really listened to was all the chances of playing there are slim and none.

And that was.

It's crazy how beliefs work.

A lot of beliefs that we have are happenstance.

They happen by, not by real things, but they're made up, so to speak.

They're made up.

And so I really didn't believe that I could play in the National Hockey League at that, that level.

And I think I went back as a 17 year old and supposed to get drafted that year, totally sabotaged myself and didn't get drafted.

And then yeah, that, that's how it started off.

But that was like the first time that I guess I thought, yeah, it is a possibility to play at that level.

But I think I had these inner beliefs holding me back.

Yeah, and you just mentioned it.

Eventually you're drafted by the devils in 87 and you've been open, very open about the fact that looking back you believe that mindset.

Not just you did have a knee injury that you suffered, but that mindset played a role in why maybe you didn't reach the NHL.

What were some of the mental mistakes, looking back that you think you made as a player?

Phenomenal question.

Some mental mistakes were.

I remember after my, my 16 year old year I had a Donnie Meehan who is becoming one of the biggest player agents in the game.

I think he represented Curtis Joseph and a lot of guys he was flying out to to meet with me because he wanted me to become his client.

And I remember him saying when he sat down with me this summer, you should practice with Russ Courtnell, who is one of the guys there was a couple years older than me and, and he mentioned a couple other guys, Russ, Jeff, a few other guys that were going to the National Hockey League.

And I was like, ah, you know what, I'm happy practicing with my guys where I play on my, my side of the town.

And going back there, that was a mental mistake.

It's one of the biggest things you can do as a hockey player.

And I remember one, one of my first clients a long time ago.

This is when I did skill training, which I don't do anymore.

I just focus on the mental.

But when I did skill training I had a goaltender come and train with me.

His name was Robbie Tallis and he was undrafted.

Like I was drafted, Robbie was undrafted.

He just finished his 20 year old year, had nowhere to go next year.

But I had learned all these, these things from when I played.

And one of the things that I said was you have to really feel good about your future.

You got to create a clear picture in your mind.

Because I never did that.

And anyway, so he came and trained with me.

He went to Boston, he ended up getting a tryout.

And, and then the next summer they called, they said you can go to Boston in the summer practice of the province of Boston Bruins.

He's like, what should I do?

I go, you got to do that because who you hang around with is who you become.

Right.

So I missed that opportunity when I was 16.

I think that hurt me as a 17 year old and probably hurt me all along because what happens when you start hanging around with guys who are doing things and are motivated to go where you want to go and play?

They're going to say things, different things than the people that don't think they have a chance.

Right.

And every word that is said in your head, every word that is said forms a picture in your head.

And it's so important to hang around with the right people.

Yeah, we're going to get into the mindset stuff now.

And you've been known throughout the game as the Goalie mindset guy.

So what exactly does that mean?

And maybe what are some of the biggest misconceptions that people might have about the mental side of not only goaltending, but just as a hockey player or an athlete in general?

Yeah, well, basically I am.

You could call me a mental performance coach, a mental skills coach.

At the end of the day I use Pete Fry, the goalie mindset guy because I do specialize in goaltenders.

I do have, I've had some major league baseball players reach out and things like that.

Yet I focus most of my work on the goaltenders.

I believe that is a, the hardest position mentally to play.

It's got more controllables than any position on the planet.

People say, well no, a quarterback might have more controllables, but they're not on ice.

Right?

They are not playing on ice.

And so there is, I think there's.

A goalie has more controllables than any position on the planet.

And basically I'm not a sports psychologist.

I believe a sports psychologist is more of a doctor.

People go there when they feel like they're broken and I'm more proactive with the goaltenders and if they work with me, they'll never need to see a sports psychologist.

And just because it's proactive, it's like working out.

If you are working out and you're eating good stuff, you're probably not going to have to go see a doctor.

Compared to people that are overeating, they're in bad shape, they're putting wrong stuff in their body.

So I help them put the right stuff in their mind to look at things and frame things and do these exercises so that they are proactive and they're feeling powerful.

So you brought up the fact that there are a lot of uncontrollables in the goaltending position in general, but I would imagine there are a lot more uncontrollables with the youth hockey goaltenders and the youth hockey game.

Correct?

Great question.

It's difficult to say.

Like when I do my program with my goaltenders, I will have, I have specific, some pro zooms that I do where it's just with pros say Jakob Dosh, Arvid Soder, Blom, Carter George.

A lot of, lot of NCAA Div.

1 College goaltenders, pro goaltenders that, that are on it.

But a lot of times they can't make the session and they will show up with the younger guys.

So I'll have a, a 12 year old sometimes on with say a Montreal Canadian goaltender or Chicago Blackhawks Goaltender.

And it's amazing to see that they go through a lot of similar things.

A lot of similar things.

And there are.

I'd say it's pretty similar as far as the, as far as the uncontrollables go.

Because although when you are in youth hockey, and I always say this is that it's easier to play in the National Hockey League than it is the American Hockey League and it's easier to play in the American Hockey League than it is the East Coast Hockey League.

And then so on and so on just because you got the players in front of you who usually are doing a little bit of a better job.

And so that, that's where I would say that, yeah, with youth hockey as you do go down, there are more uncontrollables in that sense.

Yeah.

And I see it all the time because I'm around youth hockey nine days a week and, and I see it with goaltenders, right.

People look at their stats like a 12, 11, 12 year old goaltender and it's like, oh, their save Percentage is only 0.867.

They're not in the nines.

Right.

Like you would see in an NHL, a top end NHL goaltender and people don't realize.

Yeah, but they're playing with 11 and 12 year old players.

So that can't be much of an accurate stat compared to those NHL players.

Like you just said that you have better players playing in front of you, more positionally sound and more responsible in the D end.

Yeah, yeah, yep.

I would agree.

I would agree 100%.

100%.

Specifically with goaltenders, right.

You wanted to pinpoint focus on goaltenders.

Why is the mental game so important for goaltenders compared to other positions in hockey?

Because a player like a centerman can make an outright mistake on the ice and no one may even see it.

Where a goalie can do everything perfectly and still not make the save and then get blamed for it.

That's probably the biggest reason.

The biggest reason right there is that they can do everything perfectly and then they have to be set by the time the ne next puck drops at 100% confidence.

So there's so many things that can happen that can outside influence the goaltender to not feel totally confident.

And thus the reason why I do what I do.

Because when I played, I believe I was so messed up on the mental side, my confidence was up and down.

I didn't really know how to visualize, didn't know how to deal with negative comments from coaches because a lot of times coaches will say it's crazy.

I've had goalies that I work with that are 12 years old where a coach calls them out in front of the team and makes them apologize before they even get.

This is in youth hockey, before even getting back to the dressroom, they got to apologize to each and every player on the team.

Like, just crazy stuff like that, which, for the average person can bring some massive trauma to them.

Right.

So it's like, deal with them on that.

You brought up a good point where a goalie can make 30 great saves over the course of a game and give up that one maybe bad goal.

And it might not have even been their fault, but they suddenly feel like, okay, now the entire game is on my shoulders.

So what actually happens mentally to a young goalie after they give up that bad goal?

And how do you teach them?

All right, let's move past this and stay present.

Here's the thing.

I always say that as a human, we're never responding to reality.

We're responding to the movies and sounds in our head.

And so that's why you.

You can take 10 different goaltenders, you can take 10 different goaltenders, and they all do not make a save.

And maybe it's one that they should have made.

And you're going to get 10 different responses based on the movies and sounds in their head.

So some guys, after they don't make a save, they may just be replaying that in their head again and again.

They're thinking, and they'll ask themselves, well, what if it happens again?

And then there's some guys that when they don't make a save, this is what I teach them, is imagine if when you don't make a save, you just ask yourself, that's strange.

I normally stop the puck.

Isn't that weird?

That's not like me.

And frame it a different way.

And this just means.

Because a lot of guys will go, like, when something happens to us, our brain will go, what does this mean?

What does this mean?

And so a lot of goaltenders will go, this means that, oh, the chances of me stopping the next one are now less because they're going on what happened?

And now they're moving forward, like driving, looking in the rearview mirror, and they're half.

Their focus is gone.

Right.

Similar in golf.

Similar in golf, a lot of people look at their last hole that they hit as opposed to what's happening right now.

And so they really got to stay forward, focus, and be present in the moment.

Yeah.

And is that how you teach a goalie to distinguish between learning from a Mistake and actually dwelling on a mistake.

Yeah, well, when I work with them on that, number one is I say forget about it in the game.

Forget about it in a game because the time for video review is after the game.

I have one NHL client and I can't say who it is, but I'm working with him because when he doesn't make a save, I see him looking up and he's watching the video review.

Why would you want to look at it right now?

To reinforce that negative.

Right.

Wait till after the game.

So number one is.

So for bounce back, how I number one is I say you got to have tools.

You got to have tools.

And the tools that you can use is breath.

Because, for example, if you don't make a save and now you focus on your breath, you notice it actually slowing down, then you're bringing yourself in your body and out of your head.

Number two is water.

So have them.

Either.

One of my clients, Josh Ravensburg, in his first year, Michigan State, this year he's drafted first round by by San Jose Sharks.

He will spray water on his face and that's his signal that everything in the past is washed off.

Or one of my NHL clients, I know he will take a sip of water and feel the temperature change in his mouth.

And it brings him back to the moment, out of his head into his body.

So you can use water, you can squirt it, watch it drop, spray it on the back of your neck.

So they got breath, they got water, they got self talk.

That's super important because every word that is said forms a picture in your head.

So something like, I bounce back quickly or sometimes they'll say, good goal, bad goal, who cares?

Because really it doesn't matter.

They'll get mad if it's a goal they think they should have had.

And it's like, how much does that count for the other team?

One, how much does a good goal count?

Counts for one.

So they gotta reframe it, look at it a different way and.

And then the next.

And one of the most important is body language.

Because emotion, how we feel is created by motion, how we move.

And so how they move in between that save they didn't make in the next whistle is super important.

I always tell them to look up at the roof.

It's interesting you brought up the water bottle thing because I'm partial because I'm a big Islander fan and I watch a lot of Islander games and I notice one of the most elite goaltenders in the world and arguably the top three in The NHL right now.

Sorokin, I was wondering why he does this.

After each goal, he gives up.

He takes his mask off, not fully pulls it up, and he'll squirt water on his face, on the back of his neck.

And when he puts that mask back down, it looks like he's talking loudly.

And I'm wondering, is he talking to his players or is he just refocusing?

So that's interesting that you brought that up.

And he's also, I would say too, one of the most composed goaltenders in the NHL as well, because you don't see him very animated.

So it's pretty interesting that you brought that up.

And I wonder if he uses that technique to kind of refocus and get back in the game.

I'm sure he is.

I'm sure he is.

Yeah.

Because once again, you got to use at least one of those four things.

A lot of guys will use all four of them.

And then to me, you got to write it down.

It's got to become a system.

It's got to become a system where you have to write it down and then you have to practice it.

So one of my clients who's is from Sweden, he'll see.

I remember him sending me videos last summer of practicing his bounce back in the summer.

So I'd show him, boom.

He's pretending to make a save.

Another save, doesn't make a save.

Boom.

Skates to the corner, skates back.

And he's like, okay, what can I do to make this better?

I just sent him some feedback back that look up, look up.

When you do that, make sure that you have a.

Like you're saying, like you had a Superman cape on.

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Yeah.

So another thing we see, obviously, with goalies is.

And you don't really see it much in the youth level, but as you move up the ladder, the goaltender being pulled from the game, and it might not even be their fault, Maybe the coach is like, all right, let's get this guy out.

Let's get this girl out.

Because maybe we're going to ruin their confidence, even if it's not their fault.

So specifically with the younger players, how do you help a young player who might interpret this being being pulled from the game as, it's completely my fault and my coach doesn't trust me anymore.

Yeah.

And that happens at a goaltender.

A college goalie called me a couple days ago that was pulled after two saves not made in a game, four minutes into the game.

And the coach most likely did that just to shake it up.

But still, as a goaltender, now you're sitting on the bench, and a lot of times all they can go to is they start thinking about their failure, so to speak, what happened there.

And so it's not the best feeling for a goaltender.

But once again, they need a system, a strategy, just like they do for belching back from a save not made.

Right.

What am I going to do when that happens?

Right.

Because it is going to happen.

And a lot of times it's changing the state because goalies will hang on to that called.

So, for example, Jakob Dovish, the first time he got pulled in the National Hockey League, I called him after his game and I'm like, yakov, congratulations.

He's like, what are you talking about?

He's all upset.

He's mad.

I go, this got pulled for the first time in the National Hockey League.

That's pretty awesome.

A lot of goalies would love to be in your position.

And it kind of changed the way that he looked at it.

Yeah, you got it out of the way, and now you kind of know how to move on from that, right?

Yes.

So if that does happen for a goaltender, when you do get on the bench, number one is realize that it's out of your control.

It's a coach's decision, not your decision.

And number two is what can you do to get better?

No matter.

That's all that matters.

And number three is never point the blame.

Oh, well, the team didn't show up today.

That's not going to help us.

I always tell the goaltenders that number one is when you're looking.

When you do your video review after the game is take Responsibility for every save not made.

Do not blame yourself.

Do not point the finger at yourself, say it's my fault, yet take responsibility.

There's a difference.

The greatest leaders of all time, they always take.

I think I was watching this, this movie of Eisenhower with D Day where he gave his statement, and his statement was, if it was successful, read this statement.

If it was not successful, all the blame was going to go on him, right?

And that's what he said in his statement.

I take all the blame and so always take responsibility.

And the reason for that is you're going to get better.

So, for example, let's say as a goaltender, you do get pulled, you're on the bench or there's three saves you didn't make.

You could, if you want, you could do a little video review.

Right, right there.

Why not get it out of the way so you're feeling better.

How do you do that?

You go through every save that you didn't make and you reimagine it like you made it.

You, you re like you made it.

And then what you do is you say, okay, is there any action steps that I can take in practice to, to do this, to make this safe and give you an example of that at always taking responsibility is Steve McEachin is a, he's a goalie coach.

And he was coaching, he was a goalie coach of the Toronto Maple Leaf Leafs when Ed Belfor was there near the end of his career.

And Steve told me, he said one game, Eddie didn't make a save on his low blocker side or he made a save on his low blocker side and the other team buried the rebound.

And so I told him after the game, eddie, you got to get your stick over.

Just get your stick over.

That puck's going in the corner.

It's not coming out to the next player.

And I guess Eddie shot back with, what do you mean?

That was a good shot.

And he was kind of in the moment.

Yet he said what Ed did was the next day in practice, without even asking Steve, Ed lined up some players to shoot on his right pad.

Over and over.

He had a player there ready to bury the rebound.

And he said for the rest of the season, every time Ed had a shot on his right pad, he always got his stick over whether it was a game or practice.

So he, even though he was upset in the moment, he ended up taking responsibility and being proactive.

So we got to look at it as, there is no failure.

There's only feedback.

And how do I continue to get better?

Do you want to be the best 10 year old or 12 year old, or do you want to be the best goalie in the National Hockey League or ncaa?

Give one.

So you got to keep developing.

You got to keep developing.

Yeah, that's, that's a big thing that I talk to my students about as well, whether it's a goalie, goaltender or a player.

Right.

Learn from your mistakes and keep grinding.

And they're not failures, Right.

They're learning opportunities.

So, so that's good.

For anybody in that plays any athletics.

Today, the challenge is you get a lot of coaches that treat it like failure, like when they're talking to them.

And for example, we were, we were talking about bouncing back after not making a save or what happens if you're playing a game and all of a sudden you don't make a save you probably thought you should have made.

So had this one goal time working with.

He was playing with the Red Deer Rebels, and this is quite a few years ago in the Western Hockey League.

And he says, you know, I'm having a great game and there's one save I don't make that I probably should have made.

And I'm getting ready to go out there.

He called me after the game, right, because he was still rattled from me.

He goes, I was getting ready to go out there for the third period.

I was feeling good.

I bounced back.

I did my, I did what we worked on and stuff.

I sprayed water on my face.

I felt back.

I'm feeling great.

Getting ready to go out for the third pier and, and the coach comes up to me and he looks at me and gives me this real snarl on his face.

He goes, whatever you do, no goals.

And he said in a really mean way, with a mean face at the top of his lungs.

And he goes, I couldn't get that out of my head, right.

So I had to work with him on a strategy to get that out of his head when it happens next time.

So sometimes we have to filter what the coach is saying to us so that it empowers us instead of, boom, knocks us down.

I want to shift a little bit.

And you alluded to it earlier about youth hockey goaltending coaching, and you just kind of got into it a little bit.

Now, the goal of the podcast is to sit down and educate players, parents, and especially coaches from the youth level all the way up to the professional level.

And my goal here in shifting to youth hockey goalie development and the missing coaching is not to chastise coaches, but there are actually coaches out there.

And it's all around the youth hockey landscape that just.

They just.

They're just not educated enough in the goaltending position.

Right.

There's an interesting, again, contradiction in youth hockey today, where goalies, and we said it earlier, are often the first players to get blamed, even if it's not their fault when something goes wrong or the puck goes past the goal line.

So they can also be the players that receive the least amount of coaching, and they are the most important person on the ice at times.

Right.

So is that a fair assessment that you see in youth hockey today?

Yeah, that's really interesting because you see, we have this.

We are deletion creatures.

We are deletion creatures by nature.

What I mean is we got like 2 million bits of information coming to our brain at any moment, and we delete almost all of it.

So imagine a coach on a bench.

He's got all this information coming in, like with the game, what's happened, but he deletes most of it.

And a lot of times what he deletes is the goaltender because he's got all these players that he or she has to focus on.

Right.

That they have to focus on.

And so they'll just look at the goalie as stopping the puck or not stopping the puck.

They don't look at what happened a lot of time, right.

And they'll look at, oh, he gave up four on 15 shots.

And really, if you really look at it, the whole save percentage in goals against average, it is really an outdated statistic because you could get 20 shots from the blue line or you could get 22 on ones.

There's a big difference.

That back door being left wide open, especially in the youth game, or someone not picking up someone in front of the net.

Just little outside factors that you mentioned earlier.

The best thing a coach can do is have a dedicated goalie coach and leave it to the goalie coach.

Because it's not that the coach is a bad coach and it's that they need to delegate more efficiently and have a goalie coach.

Because I remember being asked to coach a team one year and I couldn't end up doing it just because of my.

My.

My time commitment, but when I was doing it, I was like, there's no time to focus on the goalies.

And I was a goalie, right?

It was like, I have to focus on the players.

So have a dedicated goalie coach that can work with them.

Yeah, that'll make a big difference.

And it's crazy.

It's the most demanding position on the ice and the first one to get blame and they get the least amount of coaching.

But again, I'm not chastising anybody.

It's just, it is what it is, especially across the youth hockey world today.

So specifically in a typical youth hockey practice, you see players constantly corrected while the goaltender is just going to face many shots without anyone specifically saying or correcting their angles.

Depth, positioning, postwork, rebound control, whatever.

I can keep listing things, but how much can that lack of specialized coaching affect a young goalie's development?

There's other goalies that are getting that specialized coaching.

They're probably not going to develop as fast as the other ones.

And at the same time there are some, I don't want to say it's a, maybe the odd benefit to that is that they're going to learn to compete because they won't have the technique that other goalies have.

So they do have to compete.

And that's one of the big things.

I was just had a good conversation with Ian Clark.

He's one of the, probably one of the best goalie coaches in the world.

He's a director goaltender for the Canucks.

But he was Bobrovsky's goalie coach in Columbus when he won his bezina and helped turn him around early when he was young.

And one of the things he's talking about is that there's a lot of goalies now that are actually getting over coached.

So almost like the opposite on the technical in that they can't just play free and stop the pucks.

But if a goalie isn't getting any instruction, what I would say is they need to take responsibility and watch YouTube.

Right.

There's so many videos on YouTube now.

It's way different than say 20 years ago, 30 years ago where there's a couple of books out there.

Now there's so much almost over instruction out there.

And so I would say yeah, watch some YouTube videos and be able to go there on the ice because if not it's gonna, they're gonna fall behind if they don't keep up.

Yeah, you talk, we talk about the technical things with the coaching.

But can a lack of goalie specific coaching actually create confidence, the mental problems as well?

I guess what I'm trying to say here, in other words, could a goalie believe that they're mentally struggling when in reality they're simply just not receiving enough technical instruction?

I know I would look at those as a little bit separate.

Yet what'll happen is because the outside forces, so there's the outside world and the inside world.

And confidence comes from the inside world, yet it's affected by the outside world.

And so if they're looking at it and they're focused on, well, I'm not good enough with my RVH or this or things like that, and they put a lot of their folks on, then yeah, it could definitely affect it that way if they let the outside world get in there.

But then again, if they're working on getting stronger on their inside world at how they interpret things, how they frame things, how they move so they move in a confident way, then yeah, they may have, quote, unquote, some failures, yet they'll look at it in a different way.

And I would say get to the level where they want to go to a lot quicker.

And we talked about the problems.

Let's discuss maybe some of the solutions.

So if an organization and most don't, that I've seen around the youth hockey landscape.

Most youth hockey organizations do not have a dedicated coach at every practice.

So if they don't, what can the team's coach do differently to make sure that the goaltender isn't being left behind in a practice?

Because again, they focus on systems work and work specifically with players.

Oh, you should have been here, you should have been there.

Maybe we shouldn't have passed that park.

But you just see the goalies just taking shots.

Right?

So what can coaches do?

Is there a specific thing that they can focus on to make sure their goalie doesn't get left behind?

That's a great question.

If they don't have the manpower to have a specific goalie coach, I would say have some dedicated time during practice that is just for the goalies.

Right.

And you can get the players involved.

But it's like, okay, goalies, even if they say goalies, the next 10 minutes is just for you.

We're going to do this, this is going to help you.

And then follow a drill that they can pull from YouTube or online on a coach's app and implement that and help them just that alone.

The goalies know that the coaches care is going to make a difference.

And for parents too, they recognize that their goalie isn't getting enough position specific instruction.

So when looking for a good supplemental goalie program or goalie coach or goalie lessons.

Right.

What should parents look for in that to make sure that they're getting the right instruction?

I would say I don't specialize in technical instruction, but I would do some research on the goalie coach.

That would be key.

Who has, they were who have they worked with before?

What results have they been getting?

I think that that would be super helpful.

So I want to shift back to the mental side, because that's what you're known for.

And so how much damage can parents unintentionally do when.

And you spoke about this, especially in the youth level, when they focus too heavily on the wins or the losses or the goals against or save percentage.

Or the mistakes, they can do a lot of damage.

We just launched about six months ago, a course for goalie parents.

Specifically.

Right.

The mental game for goalie parents.

It guides them through what to say, key things like that.

And I was.

Carrie Price, arguably be one of the best goaltenders ever to play the game, when I did a seminar with Jerry, Kerry's dad.

And one of the things I asked him is, Kerry doesn't have a very, very good game.

What do you say on the car ride home?

And Jerry's like, nothing, unless he wants to talk about it.

So number one is.

And Jerry said that Carrie feels bad enough already.

I don't need to reinforce that with him.

And so he said.

He basically said, you know, I need to be a dad.

I need to just.

I'm the taxi driver.

That's my job.

Maybe a little bit of encouragement.

And the taxi driver.

And so parents can do a lot of damage with what they say.

And so the important thing that I teach them is, number one, to understand the power of the mind and how it works.

And number one, remember this.

Every word that is said forms a picture in your head.

For example, if I say car, what.

What shows up in your head?

What image shows up in your head if I say the word car?

Tires.

Okay.

And what kind of tires?

Rubber tires?

Black tires.

Okay.

But specifically, something shows up that has to do with the car.

Right?

And so every word that is said forms a picture in your head.

And then the subconscious mind, because you're always talking to this, you think you're talking to the conscious mind, but you're really talking to the subconscious mind, the computer.

And we're always programming it, positive or negative.

So a lot of them will say things and they'll say, don't do this.

Well, if I say don't to you, if I say, whatever you do, Chuck, don't think of a pink cat.

What shows up in your hat?

That pink cat.

Don't think of it.

Think of it.

It's impossible, right?

It's boom.

So we got to talk.

And turn lots of.

Don't let in the first one.

Think of it.

Don't Let in that first goal, don't let in any bad goals.

Right.

Things like don't go down too early, they're going to, they'll say stuff like that and boom, the subconscious mind is going crazy because that's what it's picturing.

And the fourth thing is the subconscious mind does not know the difference between what's real and what you imagine.

See, once parents start to realize this and they understand what they're saying to their kids, then they can have some power to really help them.

So now it doesn't know what's real and what we imagine.

Okay, well, what does that mean?

Well, if I'm saying things like don't let in the first one.

Well, obviously the subconscious mind does not understand the word don't.

And it's picturing that they're going to let in that first one.

It's already running that movie of that.

And then the fifth key, key thing with your subconscious mind is that we walk into the picture we hold of ourself.

So if you look at it like that and knowing that the mind doesn't understand negatives, what are the best pictures we can help our goaltender create in their mind?

And a lot of times parents will talk about things that will create negative pictures in their goalies mind.

They'll all of a sudden they'll talk about, well, and they're trying to encourage their goaltender after a game, you know, you played well, your demon were terrible, they scored on your own net, the puck went off of them.

And so all of a sudden.

And now, because the way our brain works with that reticular activating system, we delete most of the information.

And what we focus on, we tend to really focus on it.

Now they're thinking, oh my demon aren't that good.

So guess what happens next game?

First time the D man gives up a puck, now they're getting mad at the D. Now they're focuses on all the wrong things as opposed to taking responsibility.

Right, I was going to say that.

Right.

And it kind of takes the mental side out of their game, right.

That maybe them thinking, oh, what can I have done better on that play?

And focus on themselves rather than the, the external factors.

That's good.

Exactly.

And flip things around.

Flip things around is key.

So you, the subconscious mind and maybe parents or the goaltender thinking, oh, don't, you know, make that first save or don't go down here.

And now let's take a quick break to hear from our partners.

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Now let's get you back to the show.

So are these some of the things maybe that coaches say or do with good intentions that could it negatively affect the young goaltender's mindset or are there other things as well?

There's a big problem out there.

The big problem in youth hockey is that they educate coaches on technical.

They don't educate them on the mental, on what to say.

That is a big problem and a lot of kids end up quitting the game.

If USA Hockey want to do one thing to really make it a lot better for the players out there, for both goaltenders and players, and that would be ensure their coaches have some type of mental training just like the basic, so they know what to say and what not to say.

There's some coaches that'll say things to the players or goaltenders that will affect them for a long time.

It's unbelievable.

I know I said I'm not a sports psychologist, but I do a lot of cleanup work with goaltenders, right?

I do a lot of cleanup work where they'll call me because the coach did this or the coach said this and they're having a hard time dealing with it.

Yeah, we see it all over today, the mental side of the game.

And it's huge.

Especially again with one of the most demanding, if not the most demanding position on the ice.

Just not those technical but mental side as well.

I'm glad you brought that up.

If we agree that goaltenders are sometimes held accountable for outcomes that haven't necessarily been coached to control.

Should we evaluate young goalies differently?

Should we focus maybe more on their reads, positioning, decision making rather than simply goals against?

And we talked about a little bit earlier, but how do we evaluate young goaltenders differently other than just their stats?

Well, and I don't know if it's really evaluating this, like how can we continue to help them develop?

Right.

So all of a sudden if we have a goaltender that now is not getting mad at every time they don't make a save and the comp.

It's good to be competitive, yet we got to understand that does it always serve us right if we're super upset at a save that we didn't make in the moment?

And what's that saying to the players on our team as well?

And so I would say as far as evaluating the goaltenders differently, it's yeah, like how are they moving, how are they reading the play, how are they reacting after a save not made?

So I would say we have to add some mental things into the mix there to evaluate them as well, because that's going to affect a lot of.

The technical and mental stuff.

So we're going to delve, we're going to get into visualization preparation and helping build that confidence.

And you've written extensively about visualization and self talk preparation for someone who's never visualized before.

Right?

Because some players, especially the younger players, they're like, ah, close my eyes and think about the game.

What is that going to do?

So what should an effective five minute visualization routine look like, especially for a goalie?

We do have a complimentary five minute one that we do give out.

Just so you know, if they ever want it, they can go to my Instagram, we'll send them one.

So basically what I do is, and I do this for NHL goaltenders, I do it for youth goaltenders as well.

I do like a customized visualization for them.

I do have1 on YouTube as well.

And there's one that, there's a shorter one that we send them through Instagram, which is more of an updated one.

I think the one on YouTube's a little bit older.

And so number one is you go by the rule, you walk in the picture you hold of yourself.

And I'm also big believer in endpoint visualization.

A lot of people have no clue what that is.

Right.

What is endpoint?

See, the, the brain thinks naturally in endpoints.

For example, if I say if you think of winning the lottery, if you think of winning the lottery, what do you picture?

What image come And I'm not.

I don't play the lottery and stuff, but it's just an easy analogy to use.

So if you win the lottery, like, what shows up in your head, what do you picture?

Just the reward, right?

The money that you get from.

Yeah, yeah.

You do not picture going up to the booth and buying the ticket, do you?

The brain doesn't go there.

Goes right to the end point.

So a lot of times I'll have goaltenders visualize seeing themselves as first star of the game or their teammates congratulating them in the dressroom.

Because, remember, we walk into the pitch, we hold of ourselves, and at the same time, after having that, you got to let that go.

Let the subconscious mind deal with that and then just go into.

If you break goaltending down, it's really simple.

And this is.

Had a conversation with Ian Clark about this and he's like, okay, number one is you.

Break it down to number one.

There's post play.

So you got to imagine yourself making great post play saves, whether it's wraparound attempts, whether it's net drives, whether it's low to hide passes, and one timers.

So that's one category.

So you got to imagine yourself close your eyes, see yourself doing that.

And what I do is when I team through the visualization.

So, Chuck, when you played, what position were you?

I played forward.

You're a forward.

Okay, So I want you to imagine you're a goalie for a sec.

They just call you and they say, you're gonna.

You're gonna get the start.

You're playing goal today.

You're like, what are you talking about?

So you come to me, I help get you prepped.

I take you through a little bit of a visualization.

So it would look like this.

It would look like this.

And so here we go.

So sit back, Chuck.

Start to focus on your breath.

And here we go.

Breathe in deeply.

Breathe out.

Breathe in a deep relaxation.

Breathe out all your worldly concerns.

Breathe in deeply.

Breathe out.

And we begin.

Shuck.

As they begin to relax you, your mind may wander from time to time.

Simply allow to do so, for that is your conscious mind letting go.

Your subconscious mind is completely, totally locked down on the truth presented to you now.

Eyelids close.

Body relaxing.

And allow your eyelids closed until I tell you to open them.

In a moment, I'm going to count from three to one.

As I count from three to one, you relax in a very safe, protected, secure environment.

Breathe in deeply.

Breathe out.

We continue.

Number three.

Deeper, deeper, relaxed.

Two down.

One.

Deeper.

Zero.

Zero.

Zero.

Chuck, you're indeed a powerful, talented, winning goaltender.

You are worthy of all the great things this game has to offer you.

You are worthy of making all the saves you're supposed to and making the other ones another goal is only dream of making.

Your mind is clear.

You are focused.

You are now more excited than you've ever been, as you can now easily and readily see your greatest dreams and desires coming to fruition.

You are a safe machine.

You are a puck stopping machine.

All these truths make a deep, lasting impression upon your subconscious mind.

Always to remain to be recalled.

The moment you say or you think the word power.

You are dominant on the ice power.

You are powerful in the crease power.

You feel like you stop every puck.

Power.

In a moment, I'm going to count from three to one.

The moment I say the number one, you will be in the movie theater of your mind, decorated exactly as you want it.

All your past trophies, awards, medals.

When you go into the movie theater of your mind, you feel powerful.

When I say the number one, it'll be as if you're in the fourth or fifth row.

Watching yourself dominate in today's game on the movie screen.

3, 2 And 1.

Go there.

Now watch yourself dominate on the movie screen, making post play saves, maybe wraparound attempt saves, sharp angle shots or net drives, maybe passes from low to high and one timers.

Watch yourself on the movie screen, dominate, making post play saves.

And as you do, feel free to reach in the movie screen and mold yourself until you look perfect.

And once you look perfect, Chuck, then step in the movie.

Now go there now from your own eyes, see what you see, hear what you hear, feel what you feel as you dominate, making post play saves.

And notice now how the play slows down for you, Chuck, and you easily get to your spots.

The black puck seems huge for you and you easily track it.

And every time, Chuck, you get set for a save.

You hear the word power in your mind and you feel like the powerful wall that you are.

And the question never is if you're going to stop the puck or not.

The only question is, are you going to cover it, smother it or redirect it?

Because you have greatness within you, because you are destined for ultimate greatness.

All these truths make a deep, lasting impression upon your subconscious mind.

Always to remain, to be recalled.

The moment you say or you think the word power.

In a moment, I'm going to count back from one to three.

The moment I say the number three, you will open your eyes, clench your right hand To a fist, stretch your arm forward, say the word power out loud, locking in your success.

And then every time you get set for a save in your game, you will hear the word power and you'll feel like the powerful wall that you are.

In a moment, I'm going to count back from one to three.

The moment I say the number three, you'll open your eyes, clench your right hand to a fist, stretch your arm forward, say the word power aloud, locking your success and complete back to awareness.

1, 2 And 3.

Power.

There we go.

Come on back.

So that was obviously.

Yeah, that was a shortened version.

I just did play I didn't do a lot of times.

I'll do rush, rush, saves, save through traffic, and then pure compete saves as well.

That's great.

Never played goalie, but pictured it.

Now you know.

Now you know.

Yes, I've done it with some play.

Even though I focus on goalies, I've done it with a few players.

And I have some couple major league baseball guys I work with as well, too.

I'll take them through it.

It's a little bit different, right?

For a pitcher.

Yeah.

Or for a hitter.

So in addition to the visualization that you do with goaltenders, you've also created confidence journals and game mastery journals.

Why did you feel journaling was such an important developmental part of the game as well?

When you write it down, it becomes real.

When you write it down, it becomes real.

So, for example.

And drawings as well, too.

Give you an example before Game 7, Montreal vs Tampa Monzoom with Jakob Dovish.

And Tampa is obviously the favorite in the series.

Vasileski, one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League.

Yakov really looks up to him.

So what I do is I had Jakob do a drawing.

And so he'd do a drawing where he would write his number 75 and then a greater signal and then Vasilevsky 88.

Then he'd have like the four words on Tampa written down.

He would cross them off and he would write things like eyes on the puck, maybe write the odd word on there and stuff.

So what happens when you write it down when you do the journaling?

It becomes real.

It becomes real and it just reinforces it.

And it's really neat because before that game when we did our visualization, I talked about endpoint visualization.

One of the things I had him visualize was Vasileski congratulating him in the handshake line at the end of the game, and boom, that's exactly what happened.

The shots in that game were 29 for Tampa, nine for Montreal, and they pulled off a 21 victory.

Like, unbelievable.

I think it was.

I think it set a record for Stanley cup playoffs, right?

The least amount of shots and still winning the game.

It's crazy.

So what's the difference between maybe simply thinking positively or actually training your mind to perform under pressure?

We obviously see it at the higher levels.

There's a lot more pressure on goaltenders, especially for a guy like Dobish who's just basically making his way onto the scene the last couple of years.

And even I see it in the youth levels, right?

Especially at the higher youth levels.

It's more competitive.

It's been professionalized.

The parents eyes are on you and the coach's eyes are on you.

So again, going back to the question, what's the difference between simply maybe thinking positively or actually training your mind to perform under that pressure?

Well, I think you got to look at the.

The my.

If you look at the whole.

The brain, the mind, and you look at confidence, you look at focus, you look at bounce back and all those key things, and if you start to treat them like skills, everything changes.

Visualization is a skill.

I covered that last week with my.

My clients.

And one of the things that I said is this is probably the most important skill you're ever going to learn.

Because if you can visualize well, you can improve everything that you have.

Every skill, like your RVH or your glove saves cannot improve visualization.

Yet visualization can improve your RVH or glove saves or crease movement.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger, he said in his documentary, he said my biggest skill was not that I could build big muscles or not that I could be a great actor or be a great communicator or governor.

He said my biggest skill was I could see things in front of me clearly.

What he was saying was he could visualize.

Right then I had a fire in my belly for more.

For much more.

So he could see it.

He believe it.

And he was really hungry.

And so there, there's positive thinking and then there's positive action.

You got to combine positive action with the positive.

Thinking is important, yet it is not enough.

You have to have.

At the end of the day, it's all action and remembering this too.

Emotion, how we move.

Emotion, how we feel.

I gotta be corrected there.

Emotion, how we feel is created by motion, by how we move.

And so we gotta understand that we gotta use our body in ways.

When someone tells me, they're like, pete, I'm just feeling super nervous, super anxious.

Before my game, and I had this.

This NHL goalie call me.

He's like, before his game, they're playing as Vegas, one of the best teams in the league, and he's.

I'm just feeling super nervous.

I got pulled last game, and now going into this game, I'm.

I can't get out of my mind.

I'm going to get pulled again.

I feel super nervous, super anxious.

And by the way, even seeing the word nervous or anxious, that ups our nervousness or anxiousness because it puts that picture in her head.

And so I said to him, I go, well, teach me.

What are you doing to feel nervous or anxious?

Like, if I was you, what would I have to do to feel that?

He said, well.

I go, so how are you moving?

He goes, I kind of looking down a little bit.

I said, okay, so I'll do the same thing.

I look down a little bit and you guys can try this.

So maybe look down at a little bit, notice what happens.

He goes, what about your facial expressions?

Go, well, my little bit.

They're getting a little bit droop here.

I said, okay, so take that smile off your face.

Let it droop a bit.

Said, okay, so now you're starting to look down.

What about your shoulders?

He goes, they're rolled forward.

I go, oh, really?

Okay, so they're rolled forward.

And I go, well, okay, so you're kind of moving in that way now.

What images or movies are in your head?

He goes, I have a movie in my head of me getting pulled.

And I go, okay, well, if I look down, if I droop my face, if I put my shoulders forward, if I run a movie in my head of me getting pulled, guess how I feel?

I start to feel nervous or anxious as well.

And so I said, what if you sit or you move with your shoulders back, your chin up, you breathe in deeply, your chest out, and then that movie that you see in front of you, how close is it to you?

And he said, well, it's like right in front of me.

I go, well, push it away 10ft.

What happens?

And he says, oh, it gets a little less.

I go, what if you push it 500ft away, shrink it down the size of postage stamp, make it black and white?

What happens?

He goes, it's literally gone.

I said, exactly.

I go, we can control how we move.

So if we're feeling nervous or anxious or depressed, we have to work at it.

We actually have to work.

It's hard work, and we can change that in a moment, in an instant.

In an instant.

It doesn't take years to work on it, to overcome that.

We can change it in a heartbeat right away by changing how we move and what we focus on.

So he calls me after the game because I didn't watch the game, and I'm like, how'd it go?

He goes, well, he goes, you know, five.

I didn't get my first shot till five minutes in the game.

He goes, it was a penalty shot by Mitch Marner, who's one of the better shooters in the league.

And he goes, that feeling came back.

And he said, but I did that exercise that we did and it went away and I shut him down and I played well.

He got first star of the game.

Yeah.

I would imagine, too.

Right.

Working with the NHL goaltenders and the college level goaltenders as well, that I would imagine that 100% of these goaltenders come in with nervousness, anxiousness, because that means they care.

Right.

They wouldn't have gotten that far if they didn't have that nervous energy or anxious energy, especially for the goaltender position.

It's just a way that you help them tailor it.

Correct.

Yeah.

100.

100.

Yeah, for sure.

Because everyone's going to have that.

That feeling.

But really, you look at nervousness or excitement.

Do you remember the Stanley cup playoffs, New York Rangers versus Vancouver Canucks in 94?

Yeah.

Yep.

Game seven.

Unfortunately, I do, because I'm an Islanders fan.

And that broke their courage.

I know.

Yeah.

Well, they interviewed both.

I do remember it clearly.

Pavel Bore, Mike Richter.

Yeah.

That whole series.

Messier, game seven.

They interviewed both goalies before the game and they said, how do you feel?

And the Vancouver goalie, Kirk McLean said, feel nervous.

Mike Richter, they interviewed him.

The New York Rangers goal, how do you feel?

He's like, I feel excited.

You think of it.

Nervousness and excitement are the same thing, Right.

Bruce Springsteen, you know, Carly Simon is Bruce Springsteen.

Yeah.

Well, they used to get the same feelings before their concerts and when they were interviewed and Carly Simon was known, she was known for canceling concerts sometimes, maybe stage fright, things like that.

And Bruce Springsteen, obviously, he killed it every time he played.

He was phenomenal, the Boss.

And they interviewed them and they said, how do you feel before you go out there and perform?

And they started off the same thing.

You know, Bruce said, well, my palms might get a little bit sweaty and my breathing picks up, my heartbeat picks up, and then I know I'm ready.

Right.

That means I'm ready.

Where's Carly Simon?

So the same thing.

Palms feel a little sweaty, my heartbeat picks up, my Breathing picks up.

And then what if I mess up out there?

What if my voice cracks?

What if they don't like me?

And so, same energy, different pictures.

So we got to take that fuel and use it as power.

When we do that, it's like everything changes.

And, and it's a recipe because basically it's the difference between baking a chocolate cake and a strawberry cake.

You have to do the same things, yet you just dip a little bit different ingredients.

So instead of looking down, I'm going to look up.

Instead of breathing weak and shallow, I'm going to bring breathe strong and powerful.

Instead of putting negative images in my head or movies of me messing up, I'm going to put movies of me getting first star, me making a glove save.

And so it's just a.

Just a different recipe.

Yeah.

And it's amazing too.

You have all the talent in the world or else you wouldn't be there.

Right.

But it comes down to the mental side of it, and that could go for again, any elite singer, songwriter, athlete.

It just, it's just amazing how all that talent, you know, you have the talent, but it just comes down to how you think about it.

Yes.

Yes.

Big time.

Yeah.

And we've mentioned it a couple times.

You've worked with everyone from young goalies to NHLers, including Jakob Doch and Arvid Sauderbloom at the professional level.

Are the mental challenges really that different?

And you mentioned too that sometimes you'd have an NHL or in a youth hockey goalie on a session.

So are they really that different or are they essentially the same challenges young goalies face?

Exactly the same.

Stuart Skinner.

Right?

Stuart Skinner calls me and he's.

Before the puck drops, I'm getting these images in my head of what if I go make a save.

So that's when I started to come up with the pre face off routine back in the day.

And this is when he was still in the Western Hockey League.

And one of the things that I said to Stuart, I said, okay, your mind is a garden and if we're not putting good stuff in it, weeds are going to grow automatically.

So before, before the puck is dropped at some point, run a movie of you making a save.

And so I created this whole, and it's in my book Concentrate.

I have have this whole pre face off routine for goalies where they get, they basically get to their hype level.

They get to their ultimate confidence level, like 10 or 10 accounts.

Then they turn their flashlight on so they're dialed in on just the puck in the Play.

But at some point, just before that, they scan the ice and they run a movie and make it a save.

Right.

So for Stuart Skinner or for the 12 year old goaltender, it's exactly the same.

Exactly the same.

So that, that's kind of the neat part about what I do.

And it was interesting because last week Arvid was on a zoom with me and other goaltenders and it was.

There was a lot of college goaltenders on there that there's one young goaltender that was literally nine years.

Nine years old because he couldn't make any times that week.

He lives in Florida.

Couldn't make any times.

He's such a great kid.

And so he came on the zooms with the college goalies and the NHL goalies.

So I asked Arvid, after I go, was that okay?

How did you like that, you having a younger person on there?

And he actually loved it.

He thought, he goes, it was refreshing.

They had similar challenges.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

And I would imagine too, at the youth level, again, the professionalization of the sport and their brains are still developing.

Do you find it harder to kind of connect with the youth hockey goalie or do you feel like you need to put more work into it?

With their brain constantly developing?

And again, now that we see it, and hockey was a lot different when we played, but now it's more professionalized.

And I feel like goaltenders have that pressure, more pressure on them now than back in the day.

So do you feel like it's harder maybe to work with them?

Not necessarily harder, but almost to get through to them, to kind of buy into the visualization and the journaling and things like that compared to professional players?

That's a great question.

I would say harder for them to buy into the journaling just because writing things down can be a chore sometimes, because.

But the drawing, when we do drawings and stuff like that, they're all over it.

Because once again, our powers with our subconscious mind, imagine a big football stadium, put a tiny golf ball on top of it.

That football stadium is the power of our subconscious mind.

The tiny golf ball, the power of our conscious mind.

Yet when I go into the visualizations, whether they're eight years old or nine years old, or whether it's an NHL goaltender, it connects right away because a lot of those younger ones are still developing on the subconscious mind.

So for them to somehow start earlier, it's huge for them because they're like, man, like.

I look back to my story when I was drafted by New Jersey Devils and my first thoughts were all they have a lot of good goaltenders.

They had six guys under contract.

And what are the chances?

And as opposed to having that already in my subconscious mind, you are powerful.

You're destined for ultimate greatness.

You're going to dominate in the leagues where the very best play.

Having those things locked in the subconscious mind when that way, when you get drafted, it's boom.

You're looking at it differently.

When it's the whole saying.

It's the old saying that.

Oh, who said that?

A great motivational speaker that since passed away.

I think it's man, I can't think of his name.

I wish I could want to give him some.

Some respect here.

But he said, change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.

And it makes complete sense.

Makes complete sense.

We've covered a lot over the course of this conversation.

Whether it was your hockey journey mindset, youth hockey coaching.

Is there anything that we missed as we're wrapping up?

Is there anything we missed that in this podcast that you were hoping to bring up or wanted to discuss?

Great question.

I think we covered a lot of really good stuff.

I would say the big thing is treat your mindset just like you treat other skills players and coaches and goalies.

They will work on the technical.

You have to work on the technical.

You got to work on it, right?

You got to work on it.

But you're not just going to work on it once.

You got to work on it daily.

You got to practice your stick handling daily.

As a goalie, you got to practice your crease movement daily.

And I think here, may.

I'll finish with this little story here.

I got a call from a parent in Carolina.

They were in Carolina and their son played in Nashville.

He's playing U18 and really struggling.

He said, can you work with my son Ethan?

He's really struggling and he's having a hard time on the mental side.

His confidence is up and down.

He gets super upset after games.

He's to the fact where he's getting these big stomach problems.

So I got on the phone and I said, let me talk to him first.

So I talked to Ethan.

I said, and I asked him this.

I said, ethan, what percentage of your success would you say is mental?

And he said, oh, it's 90%.

So he.

I'm like, okay, great.

He gets it.

He gets it.

I said, okay, well, what do you do right now?

Because he was in chaos.

What do you do right now?

What do you do right now to work on these mental skills?

And that's part of the game.

He said, do you work on?

He goes, yeah.

I go, you do?

What do you do?

He goes, well, I do a visualization before the game because he had heard me speak at a seminar before.

So he's doing one of my visualizations five minutes before every game.

But that's all he was doing.

And I said, okay, so what else do you do on the mental side?

He says, nothing.

I said, okay, but it's 90% right.

He goes, yeah.

I go, okay, how important is your skating?

He's like, oh, that's super important.

Well, what would you think of me if I told you?

I said, forget working on your crease.

Move in every day in practice.

Just work on it five minutes before you play.

That's all I want you to do.

He goes, I'd think you were crazy.

I said, exactly what would happen to your skating?

He goes, it would probably fall apart.

I said, that's all that's happened on the mental side.

You got to treat it like a skill.

So that's a big thing that I would say to everyone listening is treat the mental side like a skill.

You're only going to benefit when you work on the mental side.

It's not just going to help you in hockey.

It's going to stick with you for life.

I don't know if your crease movement is going to help you for life, but I know your visualization, your focus, your concentration, your bounce back ability, your ability to think big and set big targets, that's going to help you for life.

And I'm glad the mental side of the game is becoming popular now.

Not that it wasn't in the past, but playing in the 80s and 90s, no one talked about it, right?

But it's been one of the things that philosophers and books we read today that they've been talking about since the beginning of time and having like the Art of War and things like that where the mental side more of the physical side.

So I am so thrilled that we got to speak today about this.

And the mental side is really getting a spotlight, especially for young goaltenders.

So you've written 11 books, you've referenced it throughout the podcast.

Goalie Mindset Secrets Goalie Mindset Secrets Concentrate Hockey Mindset Secrets Superhuman Visualization.

We talked about your confidence journals and you also host the Goalie Mindset podcast.

So for players, parents and coaches listening today, what would you recommend they start with?

And I'm going to allow you also to talk about how they can find you, your books, your podcast, how they can reach out for guidance if they want those sessions.

How can they connect with you to help take their mental game to the next level?

Great question.

I would say number one, I would follow me on social media just because there's a lot of great information on there.

I do videos consistently on that helping you with the power of your mind.

And that's goalie underscore mindset.

And then also on TikTok I think it's Pete Fry mindset.

I believe on TikTok on Facebook it's Pete Fry the goalie mindset guy.

And I don't do a lot on X. I probably should but I don't.

And then there's YouTube.

I got a great YouTube channel, I guess a goalie mindset TV.

Or just look for Pete Fry the goalie mindset guy on YouTube.

You'll find that there we're starting to do a lot more YouTube videos.

So that that's some great free content for everyone.

They can also yeah order my my books are all available on Amazon if you put in Pete Fry the goalie mindset guy.

And there are there I also have hockey mindset secrets for hockey players on Amazon as well too which will be super helpful.

And then superhuman visualization which is great for parents, great for everyone as well.

And then magnetic mindset secrets.

I that that's a good book for them then to listen to.

I talk about how a piece of steel is if it's magnetized it can lift 12 times its weight.

If it's demagnetized, it won't even lift a paperclip.

And our brain works are in a very, very similar way.

So some great stuff in there for them to dive into there.

And then if they want more beyond that then my website is pete fry.net Think of a goalie, think of a hockey net, right.

Pete fry.net I think Peter.com goes to petrie.net anyways and so they can find my programs on there.

I do have coaching programs for goaltenders.

We are launching our player side but I have certified coaches that are they're going to be doing that.

So I can focus mainly on goaltenders but we do have a we do have a player side that we're launching as well.

So they can go on the pfri.net they'll go to the private coaching and see that.

And also for parents I recommend and even if you're not a goalie parent, even if you're a hockey parent, the the mindset course that I have for parents.

I've had some parents call Me and say I shouldn't have been allowed to buy hockey equipment for my hockey player until I did this course.

Right.

There's so many cool things.

In fact, I got to see if I can.

I'm going to read this to you.

This is a text from a parrot.

His son plays NCAA Div.1.

And what did he say?

What did he say?

Oh, he said, he just texted me.

He said, though, the smiling really helps.

And we were craving the children.

So I teach the parents to.

Parents want that.

They don't want the puck in their end.

They get nervous when the play comes down on their goaltenders.

I'm like, start to crave that.

Like, love it.

Start to smile and crave it.

They said, he's texting me how things like it.

It really helped.

It just.

Isn't it crazy how that works?

Emotion, how we feel is great.

Anyways, yeah, so he was all fired up.

So the parents.

Course you'll find it on my website.

You guys will find it on the website.

That's super helpful for parents.

Yeah.

A couple things that.

That I thought of while you were given the answer.

We had Topher Scott on a couple episodes back from the Hockey Think Tank and he said the biggest problem with youth hockey sports today is the lack of parent education.

So I'm glad to see that parents are also being educated on the mental side and other things as well.

And I would agree with you when you said about refocusing the parent attitude towards their goalie and net.

So finally, here's the last question that we ask everybody that we have on the podcast.

What is your definition of development?

And it could be mental, physical, or any other aspect.

Definition of development is having, number one, a clear picture of where you want to go and then taking action towards there.

95% Of people do not have a clear picture of where they want.

And it's like a plane in the air.

That is totally off track.

Right.

You think of it.

Would you ever buy a ticket for a plane that says destination who knows?

It could be pretty scary.

Most people are on destination who knows?

And so we got to get clear on what exactly do we want.

When you have that clear picture, the development just falls right in.

Perfect.

So, Pete, thank you so much again for joining us today and spending the hour or so with us just to help us educate parents, coaches and players from again, the youth level all the way up to professional.

So thank you for carving out the time and sitting and educating us.

Thanks, Chuck.

Honored to be on you do.

You're doing great.

I really appreciate you.

Keep up the great work.

Thank you.

And I must say I got a lot out of it as well, so thank you.

Awesome.

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