By Patrick Morrison

AS a goalkeeper it is necessary to have a solid set of reasons as to WHY you play the position.

With the levels of skill and abilities a goalkeeper needs to have ever increasing and the weight of expectation to reproduce those skills to the highest of standards on a consistent basis, having a strong set of reasons for playing the game is pivotal. And as always, it is important that these be recorded into your training diary as a continued reference point – ‘Ink It Don’t Think It!’

For me, WHY goalkeepers play can be broken down further into three words. Written as the anacronym W.H.Y. the meaning of the word can become a lot clearer for the goalkeeper. The acronym (W.H.Y.) stands for Will, Hope and Yearn.

It is these three words that surmise the reasons why we goalkeepers want to be, goalkeepers. Using this acronym effectively will help any goalkeeper perform to the best of their ability as well as assisting them through some of the toughest times both on and off the field as a goalkeeper.

Knowing WHY you play any sport is very important especially whenever you begin to have doubts or negative thoughts about continuing to play or being able to perform to your highest level. Essentially, having strong reasons for why you play gives you the purpose needed to continue playing. Breaking W.H.Y. into the three words like this allows you to fully encompass all of our potential reasons into one easily memorable word.

Here is a breakdown of the importance of each word’s meaning in our W.H.Y. acronym:

WILL is having the ability to control your thoughts and actions for a chosen purpose.

Having purpose is one of the most basic reasons that human beings, as a species, complete any task no matter how trivial. Without a purpose, tasks have no meaning and thus have no reason to be performed. When we control our thoughts and actions into a chosen purpose (All-Ireland, FA Cup, Superbowl) it creates a disciplined routine which over time manifests as a habit, ultimately becoming autonomous in nature.

HOPE is believing something that you want to happen, will happen. It is this belief that keeps us moving forward and pushes us to be the best that we can be.

Your hope should be coupled with your goals and these goals should be both realistic and attainable. By believing that something you want to happen will happen allows you the goalkeeper to focus fully on your goals and the plans you have created to make this your reality.

YEARN is to want something so much that it makes you physically ill not to have it.

When you create your realistic and attainable goals, it is with the purpose of concluding with your end target being achieved.

Setting yourself an end goal and wanting to do something is what gives you drive. This is your ambition, it’s what keeps you going whenever you feel like giving up and without this drive your goals will only remain unfulfilled.

Your end goal should be well thought out and not just one that you think anyone else would expect. My ultimate goal when playing for Armagh was to win an All-Ireland, BUT not for me. I wanted to win it for my teammates and management because they wanted to win one far more than I did.

It is our innate human nature giving us a need to have some sense of purpose. There must always be some form of reason as to why we complete the tasks that we decide to undertake.

It is for this reason it is important to create your own set of beliefs and principles in regard to WHY you became a goalkeeper. Having these, in writing, will provide you with a strong foundation to build yourself a strong mental attitude, allowing you to be mentally tough when things aren’t going the way you planned.

Humans are also naturally competitive and as such they will always feel the need to better themselves or at the very least, be better than the person next to them.

When thinking of reasons for being a goalkeeper it is this competitiveness, especially with oneself, that will drive you most when you are trying to reach the pinnacle of your goalkeeping abilities.

This is where your attainable goals come into play. By ensuring that your goals can be achieved in a timely fashion it will feed your insatiable thirst to challenge yourself to be the very best that you can be.

For all goalkeepers it is essential that they understand WHY they are goalkeepers, and it is also important that they fully understand the responsibilities that accompany the goalkeeping position.

It will be important for goalkeepers to have this deeper inner questioning to allow them to have the fullest understanding of themselves.

When things are going well rely on your WHY to keep you grounded. When things are tough rely on your WHY to give you strength. For these reasons it will be important for you to know your ’W.H.Y.’

Have you a goalkeeping query that you need answered? Do you have a goalkeeping related issue that you could use some advice on? Are you interested in reaching your peak performance or going to that next goalkeeping level? Then, waste no time in contacting me on any of the channels below.

Email:
pmgoalkeeping@hotmail.com
Facebook: @MSoG11
X: @MorSchGk