I recently posted on the TSO Facebook page an article written about the Toronto Maple Leaf rookie goaltender, James Reimer. I felt the article would be inspirational to our students and it would provide a wonderful insight into the character and mental programming of this promising young goaltender.

What intrigued me most about this article was his quote “Obstacles are just things you see when you lose sight of your goals.”

You can be sure there are many questions surrounding Reimer’s anticipated performance for this season and I can assure you that no one has the definitive answer to any of those questions. But one fact is for certain, the character and mental programming that Reimer has exhibited, will provide him the tools to focus on the process and provide the greatest opportunity to reach highest performance potential.

Effective mental programming of an athlete requires that they keep their thoughts, words and their mental pictures synchronized with the direction they want to go. With goals and a plan of action in place, this will provide direction and allow the athlete to focus on the training process and not the perceived obstacles along the way.

You can only control the things that are within your control. With goals in place the only thing left is the price that you are prepared to pay to achieve them.

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it & staying with that plan.” -Tom Landry

Maurice (MOE) Tanel is the Program Director of TEAM Shutout Goalie School. For further information on this or any other questions you may have please feel free to contact him by email at maurice@teamshutout.com