Almost all of my keeper coaches have taught us a form of thinking where we need to have a short term memory in order to play our position. A lot of people see this and have to think about it for a second because it is not something that is discussed a whole lot. It is easy for a forward to make a little mistake and either correct it or get it the next time the ball comes their way. There are times where goalkeepers don’t get a whole lot of action and if we make a mistake that one time something gets kicked at us, it can be a deciding factor in a game situation.
I always talk about how if a goalkeeper makes a decision that is not the correct one, it is more costly than a forward or midfielder making a poor decision. But like all humans, we make mistakes and we cannot dwell on it otherwise it can lead to more goals being scored on you. It can be very difficult because when a goal is scored, the goalie is the last line of defense so it can be very easy to look at the keeper with the slightest bit of contempt.
Trust me, there are times where when I let in a goal, I tend to blame myself, always thinking “why didn’t I do this instead?” or “why did I approach it like this?” This is where the keeper coach starts telling us to forget about it and move on, have a short term memory, because once you go down the rabbit hole about what you should or shouldn’t have done we start to second guess ourselves and make more mistakes than necessary.