Nurturing mental toughness

Viking kicker Blair Walsh, after his missed kick last year.

Hi gang,

Forgive me as I and the rest of New England continue to recuperate from our Super Bowl celebrations. Whether you're a Patriots fan or not (and no, Mark Wahlberg, you're not), you've got to admit that was one hell of a comeback.

The numbers alone say it was the greatest comeback ever in Super Bowl history. Regardless of the numbers, the game revealed this team's intestinal fortitude. Courage. Toughness. It reminded me of the following column, which I wrote about a year ago.

Minnesota Viking Blair Walsh had a similar opportunity to win a playoff game for his squad. But he missed a 27-yard field goal attempt, and the Seattle Seahawks won the game. The column was inspired not by the missed kicked, but by how Walsh rebounded, and how we can all learned to be mentally tougher. (As a nice side note, Walsh was just signed by, of all teams, the Seahawks). I hope Matty Ryan and the Falcons can bounce back as well.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

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Nurturing mental toughness

Mental toughness is something we all like to think we have. But the reality is we often don't know if we've got "it" or not until we're put on the spot, when the outcome of a game falls squarely on our shoulders. Ask Minnesota Viking place kicker Blair Walsh about pressure.

It was Walsh who missed a 27-yard chip-shot field goal attempt that would have knocked the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks out of this year's NFL playoffs. It didn't matter that Walsh is a very good kicker, hitting 87 percent of his field goal attempts in 2015, including six of eight from beyond 50 yards (for his career, he is 121 of 142, or slightly more than 85 percent). When the big pressure moment came, Walsh's kick went horribly awry, spinning wide left.

To his credit, Walsh didn't hide, and didn't make any excuses (some analysts thought Walsh was done in because the holder left the football's laces facing Walsh's boot). "I'm the one who didn't do my job," he told the collective media.

Of course, Walsh was excoriated on the Internet by cowards with keyboards. That's life in pro sports these days. As Ryan Hiles, a columnist for the Louisville Cardinal (the independent weekly student newspaper of the University of Louisville) wrote, "There's no denying that Internet shaming is now a part of sports."

"It's worth noting when we as a society become comfortable with a certain level of emotional sadism mixed into our daily lives," wrote Hiles. "Sadly enough, we can all be deemed guilty of this sadism to a certain extent. It's become almost a sport of its own to revel in the pain of someone far off with whom we share no relationship or connection."

That's unfortunate, but not surprising, given the general decline is basic human decency over the past two decades (just take a glimpse at any political debate for a refresher course). While maybe not ubiquitous, this rush to judge certainly seems more prevalent.

There is hope, however. A group of Minnesota first-graders, recognizing how devastating Walsh's missed field goal attempt must have been, wrote consoling notes to the place kicker, who returned the favor by visiting their classroom. Hiles, the college columnist, got it too.

"This isn't a plea to stop hurting the feelings of millionaires," he wrote. "They're grown-ups, and they can handle their own. They don't need the kind of crusader-like defense that some sports often inspire. Perhaps it's still worth it to think about how eager we are to exploit human misery for a laugh. More importantly, to those of you that take the time out of your day to take to social media and add to the madness, chew on this: what's the point?"

Which brings me to hockey, at almost every level. Like Hiles pointed out, millionaires chasing pucks at the NHL level don't need our pity (though it wouldn't hurt to keep in mind that, yes, they do have feelings). I'm more interested in the kids playing at the youth, middle school, high school, and even college levels. This ridiculous need to point fingers and assign blame has filtered down to the sport's youngest participants, and it's helping to squeeze the life, and the fun, out of our game.

My coaching colleagues and I see this all the time. Given the fact that we work with goaltenders, the most pressure-packed position in sports, that's almost expected. You have to be tough-skinned to play goal. The worst is the email sent from a parent, saying a son or daughter has left the sport because it's no longer fun. How crazy is that?

Yet I'm as guilty as the next "hockey dad." I constantly have to remind myself that my 16-year-old plays the game because she loves it, not because she thinks she's the next Angela Ruggiero. While I try to justify my critiques with the rationalization that "the better you are, the more you'll enjoy the game," even I have trouble believing that logic sometimes. The look in my daughter's eyes says it all. I need to learn when to back off.

Similarly, Dr. Robyn Odegaard, founder of the Stop the Drama campaign (stopthedramanow.com), wants to make sure that coaches and parents (and players) aren't confusing maniacal training with mental toughness.

"I've been very disappointing in what I've seen athletes and even coaches talking about when they talk about mental toughness, things like being forced to run until they throw up," said Odegaard. "Anything that you do physically, whether it's working out to exhaustion in the gym, or anything else, isn't going to increase your mental toughness. It may let you know if you have mental toughness or not, or it may break you if you don't have mental toughness, but it won't change your mental toughness.

"In order to actually increase your mental toughness, you need to understand what you're doing to decrease it," she said. "One of the skills I teach is how to tell the difference between evaluation and performance, and make sure you're doing them one at a time."

Evaluation, said Odegaard, is looking back on a play, and determining whether you did it correctly and what you can change to improve. Performance, meanwhile, is the act of actually doing something.

"Your brain can actually only do one at a time, not both," said Odegaard. "But how often, during a competition, have you thought, 'That was dumb. I wonder what coach is going to think? Will he pull me out of the game?'

"That means you're evaluating. You're looking backwards," she said. "Performance means, 'What do I have to do in the next 10 seconds to be successful?' Being able to take control of your thought process increases mental toughness, not running until you make yourself sick."

To take control of their "thought process," young players need to be given the freedom to make mistakes without feeling like the results of the game is their sole responsibility. I tell my daughter, and the freshmen goalies on her squad, "You win as a team, and you lose as a team." That's not coach-speak; it's the truth. There are plays throughout the game that determine the final score. And even if they do lose, it's not the end of the world.

In other words, ease up. It is just a game. If a group of first-graders in Minnesota, and a college columnist from Louisville, Kentucky, can understand that, so can we.

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Bouncing back - developing mental toughness is key

Tuukka Rask, your 2014 Vezina Trophy winner.

Hi gang,

I can't help but think that the timing of this post is somewhat serendipitous. In the spring of 2013, I wrote the following column for the New England Hockey Journal, before the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs. At the risk of bringing up bad memories for Boston Bruins fans, those playoffs ended badly for the Black and Gold, and their star goaltender, Tuukka Rask. The Chicago Blackhawks score two goals in the last two minutes to stun the Bruins in Game 6, and taking home Lord Stanley's Cup in the process.

It was a devastating loss for Rask and the Bruins, but the young Finnish netminder bounced back this past season, recently winning the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender. It was more proof that Rask has got the mental toughness to not only play at the highest levels, but to be a champ. I'm glad he's in Boston. Let me know what you think of the column.

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Bouncing back - developing mental toughness is key

By the time you read this, the 2013 Stanley Cup will have been hoisted, and whether it was Chicago's Corey Crawford or Boston's Tuukka Rask celebrating, both goalies played huge roles in getting their teams to the final. Crawford not only rebounded from a disastrous 2012 playoffs, but also a less-than-stellar second round series against the Detroit Red Wings to backbone the Blackhawks when they knocked off the defending champion L.A. Kings.

Rask, though, was even better through the early rounds. After the Bruins miraculous comeback win over Toronto in Game 7 of the opening round, Rask settled down and was the major reason Boston jumped out to a 3-games-to-none lead over the New York Rangers. Then, in Game 4, with the Bruins holding a 2-0 lead, Tuukka had his fall-down-go-boom moment. Just 54 seconds after the Bruins went up 2-0, Rask appeared to catch an edge when moving right to left, stumbled and fell just as New York's Carl Hagelin threw a soft backhander on net. Rask, sitting on his backside, took a swipe at the puck but missed as it trickled over the line.

It was the kind of goal that gives goalies nightmares. Worse, Rask's gaffe opened the door for the Rangers, and the Blueshirts ultimately tied the game on a strike from Brian Boyle and won it on a deft redirection in overtime from Chris Kreider. And then the Boston media went bonkers (which, I understand, is a bit of a redundancy).

Fans, haunted by playoff disasters of the past, were besides themselves. Doubt crept into the collective mindset of Bruins Nation. After all, it was Rask who was in the Boston nets in 2010, when the Bruins pulled off an epic collapse against Philadelphia, blowing a 3-games-to-none lead (and a 3-0 lead in Game 7 at home) to lose the Eastern Conference finals. The nervous laughter was everywhere – "That couldn't happen again, could it?"

Adding fuel to the fire was that Rask has a history of histrionics. His talent is undeniable (the trade of Andrew Raycroft to Toronto for the young Finnish prospect in 2006 was one of the best by the Boston brass), but he hasn't always exhibited the requisite maturity to deal with bad goals, or losses. Don't believe me? Just Google "Tuukka Rask" and "temper tantrum" for a sampling.

But this is not Tuukka Rask circa 2010. He has grown up considerably in the past three years, harnessing all that fire and talent with a steely resiliency. Rask quieted the naysayers, providing air-tight goaltending in the Bruins series-clinching Game 5 win over New York. He then was absolutely lights out in the Eastern finals against the vaunted Penguins, stifling Pittsburgh's high-powered offense and allowing only two goals in four games. Which leads me to this month's topic; the importance of bouncing back from a bad goal.

Mental toughness has always been a hallmark of great goaltenders. Of course, for many, many years, they had to be tough, period, due to the ridiculously inadequate "protective" equipment goalies once wore. With the recent revolution in gear, goalies today don't face the same prospect of physical harm (though it still takes guts to stand in front of a 90 mile an hour slap shot). Which makes the mental game one of the key factors in determining just how good you're going to be.

Dealing with the pressure – the mental anguish – of goaltending is nothing new. In his 1973 classic, "Goaltending," the late, great Jacques Plante quoted another excellent netminder, Roger Crozier: "There is no way people will understand our particular kind of pressure. Anyone who isn't a goaltender probably won't experience once what we experience hundreds of times; even players don't know what the goalies go through in a game." Hall of Famer Tony Esposito was more succinct, calling it "plain torture."

It's not enough to simply develop a thick skin, and deflect any criticism that comes your way (justified or not). You have to be able to bounce back. "Oh, you'll goof once in a while – who doesn't – but try not to make a habit of it," said Plante in 1973. "You must firmly believe that you can stop every shot, or you'll never be an A-1 goalie."

Joe Bertagna, who is celebrating his 40th year of goalie coaching, wrote in 1976: "Russian Coach Anatoli Tarasov once said: 'The concept of courage must be identical to the word hockey player. There is simply no place in the game for cowards, squeamish or weak-willed people – there is simply no reason for such people to come out on the ice.'"

"If this is true for hockey players in general, it is even more so for goaltenders," wrote Bertagna.

That's because no goalie is perfect. Brian Daccord of Stop It Goaltending says the No. 1 rule of goaltending is that "you're going to give up goals." Of course, you try to make sure that your opponents "earn" their goals. But what about those howlers, the goals you should have had? What what enables a goaltender to bounce back from a bad goal? Start by forgiving yourself. Be secure in the knowledge that it's happened to every goaltender who has ever strapped on the pads.

"The first thing to realize is that simply because you have been scored upon doesn't mean the world has come to an end," wrote Fred Quistgard in 1996, in his book "Controlling the Crease: A Survival Guide for Modern Goaltenders" (you have to love that title). "If you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders each time your opponents score, you are taking the game too seriously. Put a goal in proper perspective. One goal doesn't signify a bad game unless you allow it to."

I really like Quistgard's advice. Hockey is still a game, and sometimes we forget that (OK, it's a job for Rask, but I'm talking about the other 98 percent of us). Lighten up. Coaches and parents should take note of that point as well. Don't forget that your response can either relieve or ratchet up the pressure on a goalie.

Meanwhile, goalies have to remember that what's done is done. Once a puck gets past you, it's in the past, and there's nothing you can do to change that. In game, I try to encourage my goalies not to let one bad goal lead to a second bad goal. Shake it off, and stay positive.

After the game, take stock. Bertagna recommends quiet, unemotional analysis of each goal, so you can evaluate what you might have done differently and make adjustments. Over time, you may begin to see a pattern, and then you can get to work to address those flaws. Work breeds confidence, which is really the key in handling the occasional bad goal. It's similar to a student who goes into finals well-prepared, compared to one who was up late the night before cramming, just "hoping" to do well. Self-assured goalies are less likely to get rattled.

"Confidence, that's the key to goaltending," said Daccord. "You got to feel like you're going to stop the puck. You can't be worried about letting in a goal, you have to be thinking about stopping the puck."

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