Are you watching the Tour De France?

I’ve been a fan for all my life. You’ve probably heard of a guy named
Lance Armstrong by now. He won the thing seven times and then took
a four year “retirement.” Now he’s back racing again, and he’s tied
for the lead!

They call Lance “Mr. Millimeter” because of his attention to detail.
His seat post must be a certain height. His pedals a certain fit.
When he races the time trials he wears an aero helmet and booties
that cover the straps on his shoes. He leaves nothing to chance, and
most importantly, he comes to the line, every race, with all of his
equipment in perfect order.

Do you?

I’m always surprised just how many goalies don’t take care of the
little details of the game. Their stick may be fraying with laces
that may break during the game. They don’t have a butt end, or a
ball stop in their stick. Their gloves may be worn, or wet from the
previous practice where they never let them dry out. Or they
come to the field with the wrong cleats.

All of these little details can really effect your game. They put
you behind the eight ball even before you step on the field and
why would you want to make goaltending harder than it is in
the first place?

Your goal, everyday is to come to the field with everything
in place. Nothing should be artificially holding you back.
Bad fitting equipment. Unprotective equipment. Heavy
sticks with bad pockets. All of these things keep you from
focusing on the reason you are really in the cage and that is
to stop the ball.

So be like Lance. Come to the line, everyday, with everything
in order so you can work on being better.

Cool story about Lance too. When he won his first tour he really
raised the bar with the attention to detail that he took. In the time
trials, where a rider rides alone against the clock, Lance came to the
line in a custom aerodynamic helmet, booties for his shoes, and a
bike made custom for his size and shape on the bike. Some of his
main rivals came to the line in their normal helmets, non-aero
suits, and time trial bikes that didn’t have all the aero components
that Lance had.

Why? These guys were giving up time before they even started
to pedal! Crazy. Why would you do that? For everything they
gave away in equipment they hoped to make up with their body
and at that level you’re just not going to be able to do that.

So keep that in mind the next time you hop in the cage. Ask yourself,
What part of my equipment is holding me back? Now go and fix it.

Kick butt,

Let me hear your comments below!

Jonathan – The Goalie Guru

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