The Goalie’s Attitude: Body Language and a Growth Mindset
The Goalie’s Attitude: Body Language and a Growth Mindset October 12, 2025 A goalie’s attitude is a reflection of their...
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A goalie’s attitude is a reflection of their mental strength. Your performance in the cage is heavily influenced by how you carry yourself and how you respond to challenges. This blog post explores two key aspects of attitude that can elevate your game: Body Language and Perceived Failure. With that being said, let’s get straight into it!
Body Language
Your body language is a powerful tool, and your coaches and teammates are always watching. Aim to project a strong and confident appearance. Keep your shoulders back, your chest forward, and speak with confidence. This isn’t just an act, when you consciously choose to have positive body language, your mindset will actually shift with it, leading to a direct increase in your performance.
Furthermore, understand that how you respond to adversity has a significant impact on your teammates and coaches, not just yourself. As goalies, we are in the spotlight, whether we want to be or not. If you go palms up, or yell at one of your defenders after a bad goal, your entire team loses energy. When the goalie loses confidence and control, so does the rest of the team. With that being said, it is absolutely essential that you embrace and accept this role and take it just as seriously as you do saving the ball.
Perceived Failure
It is essential to shift your mindset about failure. Instead of viewing it as a negative outcome, learn to see it as an opportunity for growth. This is what sports psychology refers to as a “growth mindset.” A classic example is Michael Jordan, who was cut from his high school junior varsity team. He didn’t let this failure define him; instead, he used it as motivation to become one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Your failures don’t define you, your response does.
You get to write your own story. Are you going to be the goalie that misses one big save and let it ruin the rest of your career, or are you going to be the goalie that uses this as a cannon event to launch yourself to the next level? With the right mindset and approach, you can take these negative experiences and turn them into positive outcomes.
Also consider this: does perceiving failure negatively have any positive impact on your ability to make more saves and win more games? Of course not! It’s a self-inflicting, vicious cycle that so many lacrosse goalies get stuck into. You think that by being hard on yourself and saying things like “I suck” or “I can’t save anything”, you’re somehow improving your odds of improving, when in reality, you are doing the exact opposite. Therefore, the logical conclusion is to learn from your errors, not to sulk in them.
Have Any Questions ?
We know every goalie’s journey is different. If you have questions about training, packages, or what’s best for your game, we’d love to help.