Pass the Puck

How committed are you to a certain task?  Remember, we can have relationships with inaninate objects.  So, how committed are you with the relationship that you have with your ice hockey?   Yeah, right now you are saying...goooood!

But how committed are you really?  How far do you really want this to go?  The level of commitment is directly proportional to how far you want to go.  Remember, the difference between a Pro player and an Amateur is only 6 inches between their ears.

The other thing that make Amateur's into Pro's, is the level of commitment.  

You see, professional, whether they are hockey pro's or professional in their careers, Pro's do things that most people don't want to do or won't do. 

Oh, don't get me wrong, most people can do it.  It's just that they have made a conscious decision not to do it. One of the things that keep people from getting ahead in life are those nasty little mental walls the they run into. Then you hear them justify the reasons why they didn't make it. 

So here's a question. Is it ok to fail? Yes! We can't all be pro's. But what if that's what you want to be? Did you know that there are over 250,000 USA Hockey registered teams and probably just a little more in Canada. That means there are about 3.75 Million hockey players playing in the USA at one level or another. 

The odds of making it to the Pro hockey level is like you getting struck by lighting. However, can it be done? No, I didn't say that you go stand outside in the rain to prove me wrong. 

It's just that to make it to the NHL, you will have to stand out from all the rest.  In order to do this, you will have to do things that the average hockey skater will not do. You will have to put in long hockey practice hours. 

To improve your hockey skills, you will have to increase your hockey training. Anyone can have basic hockey skills. But pro's have exceptional hockey skills because they put in the extra effort...they did things other hockey players didn't want to do. 

Example: 80% of hockey is skating and 80% of skating is balance. But most players only want to play with the puck. Most players only want to scrimmage or play games. Most players don't want to work on hockey skill development. In fact most players hate hockey practice. Getting kids to do hockey drills, is like pulling teeth. 

So how committed are you really? What is it going to have to take for you to get to the next level? How much heart and drive do you have? Are you willing to do things other hockey players won't do? When other players are just going through the motions, are you going to follow them or are you going to put in the extra effort to do it right? 

Are you willing to stand out from the rest or are you afraid that the "others" will make fun of you because you're not marching to the beat of their drum? 

How much heart do you really have?

Ok, so what's a wall?  A wall can be physical or mental.  Anything that keep us from moving forward in life is considered a wall.  Let's talk about this for a few seconds.

Lets talk about physical walls first.  Generally they are made out of bricks and mortar and when you run into one, depending on your skill level, it might hurt.  Are hockey boards walls?  Yep, when you run into one....it hurts.  However, time after time, we find ourselves running into mental walls that actually feel physical in nature and they sometimes hurt just as bad.

So what's a mental wall? 

A mental wall is just at the point when you start making excuses to yourself, so you can convince yourself, to give up and stop moving forward to get what you want out of life.

So how do you over come these mental walls?  One way is to take a deep breath and just do it.  This is the easy way...you just do it!

However, sometimes we just can't get up enough energy to...just do it!  Now what?

This is where you need a support staff or buddy that will help you over this mental wall.  Now, this support person needs to be the kind of person that will tell you to keep going and don't give up!

You do not need a person in this roll that will agree with you and your pain.  You need a person that will tell you to shut up, stop crying and move your...

We all reach these type of mental walls everyday of our lives.  How we deal with these walls or choices, will determine our success in life.

Can you have a relationship with a friend? Yes, that pretty easy to understand. But can you have a relationship with you car? Yeah, you see guys rubbing wax all over it all the time.  So, If this is the case, they you can have a relationship with just about anything, is this correct? 

Oh, what about women? Can a women have a relationship with their shoes? Hell yes you say. I know a young lady that has hundreds of pairs of shoes and each pair is placed in a plastic box with a lid and a picture on the front so she can't tell what's in the box...get it! 

So you see, we can have relationships with inanimated objects. Now here's the brain teaser.  Because of our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, we actually treat each relationship the same. Why? Because we don't have any choice, we are programmed to respond each and every time because of our beliefs...get it. 

Example: How you treat you car is the same way you treat all of the other relationship you have. Ouch, that's pretty tough isn't it. If you have a bad relationship with your car, you better check to see what kind of a relationship you have with: Your Boss, your Mom, Your Dad, your room, your school work and yes...your hockey equipment. 

Ah, no this is not a psychoanalysis on your hockey equipment bag. It is to show you the relationships we have with things that come into our lives. Kind of like the Greener Pasture Theory, why was the guys new back yard, now turning bad? Why, because the things that he learned in the past (attitude, beliefs and behaviors) allows him to treat things that way. 

Have you asked yourself when someone is being rude to you..."Man this guy's a real tool!" 

Why? If someone is being rude too you, you automatically put up sometype of guard or defense. But in reality, that person is just a reflection or a sounding board of our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. One of the ways you over come these relationships is to ask yourself..."Is this true, and am I really like this?" If you are...change! If you're not, then understand that this is a life lesson and move on. 

When is it time to leave a relationship? That's right...when it is working! Yeah, but if it working, why leave? If you leave a relationship when it not working, you take all of those new attitude bagage with you into the next relationship. 

So how does all of this apply to hockey? 

What kind of relationships do you have with your teammates? Your coach, your skates, your equipment? 

Ok, what kind of relationship do you have with yourself? Do you do or make the extra effort during practice? When the coach has you doing starting and stopping drills all the time, what kind of a relationship do you have with your coach or with yourself, then? 

This is when the things start getting tough. These tough moments are know as "Walls". Even though they are mental in nature, they are still as real as the physical wall. 

Next blog...Climbing Walls!

I would be a better hockey players if I played with this guy and not with that guy! Or, my son doesn't like these players you have placed him on the line with and I was wondering if you can play him with these two players. 

So, I like to explain this GPS to my players in this way... 

So you have this house that you and your family's been living in for the past 10 years. When your family moved in, the house was immaculate. Beautiful paint job and a backyard to kill for, everyone in the neighborhood wanted to own your house. 

Then one day, as you are lounging out by the pool with the flowing waterfall and you noticed that the water in the pool is turning green and you have a couple of bald spots in the green grass that is now turning yellow. The bushes that were new when you got there are now dead and brittle. 

However, last year you looked over the fence at your neighbors yards and it was far from being a "Resort" yard like yours. So this time you peek over the fence and noticed that the guy put in a better pool and a nicer waterfall and he even put in a putting green. Plus, the putting green has lights so you can play at night. Wow, now this is the yard you've always wanted. 

Then you look back at your yard and can only dream or wish that someday, you would have the yard that all the neighbors wanted. 

Then one day, the house next door went up for sale. Now your life long dream of having the best yard has finally come true. 

So you buy the house and move in. After four or five month of sitting in the lounge chair, you decide to check out the guy who bought your house and laugh at the yard you once had...the green pool, the dead bushes, and the burnt grass. 

So you peek your head over the fence and noticed that the guy fixed all of that stuff, put in Palm trees and added the putting green and an above ground fire pit and a hot tub with a built in flat screen TV. 

So you stand there with you mouth wide open and your eyes about to pop out of your head that the're starting to hurt. So, you turn back to look at your yard and you noticed that the pool is green, a couple of bushes are turning brown and the dog has chewed up areas of the putting green. 

So you start to go into a panic to try and understand why you are back in the same old boat as before. "Why"...you ask! But you just can't figure it out. 

Life will throw these things up in your face like this as you go on from day to day. This is why they call it a Syndrome! 

Why are things the same? Why do these things always happen to me like this? Why does this always happen to me? 

Well, one of the things that we didn't think about is the first lesson you learned in this blog and that was, our view of life is made up from our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. 

We carry these things (attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors) around with us through life, like baggage. Then we go from relationships to relationships, we take this baggage with us into each relationship, not understanding why things always turn out the same. 

Ok, so lets look at relationships!

All the time we can see out, thinking that they can't see the real us, while in fact they can. We do the same routine in life, day after day and it all looks the same, year after year. 

Why? Because we look at life through this doily image that we hold up in front of us and It has the same old pattern year after year. 

You can see those type of people in life. They complain about the weather, their job, their dog...their life. It even sounds sometimes like an old Country Song..."their dog got run over because their brakes went bad on their pick-up truck!" You know...("if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.") type people. 

So where do you start? How does one get over all of this stuff in life and get back on the smooth road? Well, if you take this doily image that we are holding up in front of ourselves and turn it a half of degree to the right or left, the image that we see now through this doily has changed. 

This is called an attitude shift! Is it really this simple? Yes, it's just that simple. Once you have an attitude shift, you will see life differently then you have before.  It's just a matter of making the shift. 

When someone tells you that you are stupid, or dumb, or you don't know the difference between a hole in the ground or a hole in your head, don't get mad, just do a shift. 

So ok, if having an attitude shift is so easy, why do I feel like pulling the Larynx out of that guy's throat? Ah, the answer...Karma! 

Remember, there are more rules and skills we will be helping you with for life. By the way, for some, hockey is life!

Let peer pressure work for you!  When I first started coaching hockey, I had all the players stand in a circle.  Big mistake! 

One time, a player that was behind me was mocking me and doing a little dance.  You should have seen the expression on the faces of the kids in front, they were holding back like deer's caught in head lights.

However, I could see past the kids in front of me and see the guy behind me dancing in the reflection on the glass.  The only problem was...the kid that was dancing, was the captain of the team. 

I pointed over my shoulder while looking ahead and told him that I had eyes in the back of my head. So, I had all the player get down and give me 50 push up's except for the captain. 

The captain stood up and kept cadence by counting off.  When we were done, they all hit the showers in the dressing room.  I never had a problem with them again.

I learned to place the players on the goal line and have them count off 1,2,3 from left to right...right down the line.  When running your drills, have the one's go first, then the two's and the three's go last with the goalies.

Bench Management: If you start the game with your team in the right side bench, the attacking zone will be on the left.  Place your wingers in the bench on the left hand side. 

This will give them a quick start to the attacking zone.  Have an assistant coach or team official work that door.  Have the defenseman exit into the defensive zone and have the extra goalie or assistant coach work that door as well. 

Have both lines enter the bench over the boards at center of bench. This will help keep the team from taxiing for position. Remember, a maximum of four team officials shall be permitted on the bench.

In the second period, you will find yourself with the attacking zone close to your bench. (like the one to the left)  In this case, you want your defenseman as close to the defensive zone as possible. 

Have them enter over the boards and exit to the defensive zone.  Because your wingers are positioned on the bench deep in the attacking zone, have then exit over the boards closer to the blue so they can quickly get on side. 

Taxiing is a coach's worst nightmare!  Why, you ask?  Because, if you have a player on the ice, waiting next to the open door while someone is coming out.  A player on the other team can put you into a short handed situation by passing the puck to the player that is waiting. (taxiing for position) 

This will cause a "too many men on the ice" situation and you will play short handed for the next two minutes.  However, if the "too many men on the ice," occurs with less then two minutes left to play, the other team will and can be awarded a penalty shot on your team. See "Official Rules of Ice Hockey: Rule 205 Changing of Players.

Teach your players to watch the player they need to change with and NOT always the puck. During a substitution of the goalie, he doesn't have a leeway within ten feet of the bench.  The "Official Rule" for players changing on the bench goes like this:

Players may be changed at any time from the players' bench, (here's the good part) Provided that the players or players leaving the ice "shall always be at the players bench" and out of the play before any change is made.