1. Finish my checks—stay low and stay safe.
2. Block a shot in every game.
3. Work on positioning my shot 12 inches above the ice; it will go right over the goalie’s pad.
4. Skate hard the entire game—not just when I have the puck. This will change my game.
5. Recite in my head, “Move a Mountain,” to build mental toughness.
6. Don’t let anyone break my spirit and hang tough when I’m not playing as much as I want to; I’ll get my chance.
7. Make safe plays to gain more playing time; know that my coach wants reliability first and foremost.
8. Improve my practice habits—because you play in games the way you play at practice.
9. Fake a shot before letting a bomb go in the other direction. It works every time.
10. Work on your backwards skating, defensemen. This is the key to D—make it your mission to beat everyone going backwards.

Bonus Resolution: Have fun playing the greatest game on earth!

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Jeff Serowik, a former NHL player and founder/president of Pro Ambitions Hockey, for this story.

Like ignorance, for example.

I was sent a link to an article that was published last week, in which it was inferred that putting the emphasis on development in youth soccer, as opposed to winning, is a bad thing.

The question was raised, “Isn’t the whole idea in becoming better that you win more than you lose?”

Long-term player development will grow the game

My answer to this is yes, the purpose of becoming better is to win more than you lose. But in youth soccer in Canada, skill development does not happen as a natural extension of the current win-at-all-costs system that is in place.

The question arose because of a decision not to award medals to the winners of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association (EODSA) leagues. The justification for this decision was due in part to financial limitations, but also because, as the article quoted, “the presentation of medals is considered to emphasize winning versus player development, which is the new focus of OSA programs.”

The author then made the assumption that winning is no longer considered to be a part of player development, and that winning is a now considered a “bad thing.” The author then questioned the legitimacy of this policy—which is where I took exception. The policy in question is the CSA’s long-term player development plan, or LTPD. It is based on Sport Canada’s long-term athlete development plan, or LTAD.

It wasn’t something created on a whim, nor was it scribbled on the back of a napkin. It is backed by volumes of research on the growth and development of children, the stages of development that they all go through, and the optimal environments in which they flourish. Virtually every sport in the country has a long-term development plan based on LTAD.

Single-minded strategy a ‘mirage’

For years, the competitive structure of youth soccer in Ontario has been based on the “Pyramid for Play,” where teams are rewarded for winning by being promoted to a higher level of competition. The highest level of the pyramid is Level One, represented by the Ontario Youth Soccer League, which comes into play when children are 14 years of age.

The problem with this system of promotion and relegation is that, by its very nature, it forces coaches to “play to win” with children as young as 9 years old. There is no need for them to try to develop players who are technically skilled, because there is a shortcut available to them.

The easiest way to win in youth soccer is to choose the biggest, strongest, fastest kids, and rely on their physical superiority to outmuscle their opponents. In doing this, very little emphasis is placed on teaching kids the fundamental skills of the game—because there is no need to. Generally, the big, strong, fast kid who can “boot it” the hardest can be successful in youth soccer up until about the age of 14.

Unfortunately, this success is all a mirage.

Eventually, the physical advantage of these players levels off, and when it does, the kid who was a star player when he or she was younger—simply because of the physical advantage—is no longer able to compete at a high level.

Why does it even matter, you ask? What difference does it make if that kid can no longer compete? Why don’t we just play to win at all ages, survival of the fittest, so to speak? Because not only are we driving away players who have the potential to be top players simply because they are physically immature for their age, we are also doing a disservice to those kids who are athletically gifted at a young age by not teaching them the skills they need to be successful in the game over the longer term.

We have all seen a kid playing a game and dominating the opposition because they are athletically superior. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t trap a bag of cement, or that their first touch was about as soft as a brick wall—they could run like the wind and kick the ball harder than any of their peers.

Physically dominant kids need skills, too

Now imagine what those kids could do in the game if there were put in an environment where they were taught to control the ball, to have a velvety first touch, to spray passes all over the park. Imagine if they were free to develop those abilities in an environment where they were allowed to make mistakes, without the fear of losing a game and missing out on promotion.

How much better do you think that athletically gifted kid would become?

LTPD puts the emphasis on development because these are children we are dealing with. They all need to be given time to learn the game—not just the ones who finish first because they are physically mature for their age. Ultimately, we play soccer to win the game. That is the goal of all sporting contests. The issue here isn’t about whether or not to give out medals to kids—most would agree that there are life lessons to be learned through winning and losing, and I’m one of them.

The issue is the assumption that because kids are winning, they are developing effectively. I would argue that our lack of depth at the international level suggests otherwise. Our system is broken and needs to be fixed—and no amount of medals is going to do that.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Mike Mullally, President of the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois, for this story.

Mites

Eight and under players love little stuff like Ringettes for training, sports bracelets/necklaces, colored laces and tape, and water bottles. Heck, you might even be able to pass off neck guards and mouthguards as gifts on this set! Also check out the Brady Brady hockey-themed books that offer universal messages of friendship, family, loyalty and sportsmanship.

Squirts

In most cases, these kids are traveling to tournaments for the first time—and we all know what that means: mini hockey! From the voice of experience: You’ll save in the long run by investing in a composite stick and steel net. Throw in a few glow-in-the-dark balls for good measure!

PeeWees

Only hockey parents know that something called a “peewee” is bigger than a “squirt.” As mature 11- and 12-year-olds, PeeWees have likely outgrown their wheeled hockey bags and are ready for the backpack style.

Bantams

Protecting your kid’s head is a no-brainer, especially with checking coming into play at this level. The Messier Project’s Cascade M11 helmet looks super cool and is designed to “address the epidemic of concussion in hockey.” Watch the video here.

Midgets

The game is rougher and sticks are breaking at this age. A Midget player is likely to be happy with any new stick, but one in particular is drawing rave reviews: Easton RS composite. Its looks and performance are stunning, making it a top-of-the-line gift.

All Youth Players

Is anyone too old for mini hockey (aka, knee hockey and shinny)? Well, no. And the popularity of sports bracelets and necklaces is not waning. And you can’t go wrong with necessities such as sticks and tape.

Adults

When do you replace your hockey equipment when you stop growing? When it’s trashed, right? This makes it easy to buy hockey gifts for adults. Just take a peek in the bag (or at the bag) and choose the most worn-out looking pieces to replace. Or, nobody appreciates an old-school tabletop hockey game like an adult. Check out the Stiga NHL Rod Hockey Game for hours of fun; there’s a stand for it, too, but what fun is it if it’s not scratching the table?

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kelly Anton, Managing Editor of Grow the Game, for this story.

To back up this opinion, USA Hockey commissioned a comprehensive study to calculate how much time the best players in the world had the puck on their sticks at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. While most people were glued to the Olympic hockey for pure viewing pleasure, members of USA Hockey’s Coaching Education Program were keeping a closer eye on the action. Perched high above center ice at the E Center in Salt Lake and the Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, coaches paired up to observe and record the action of players competing in 31 men’s and 24 women’s games.

Prior to each game, three players who were expected to be key performers for their teams were selected for the study. The coaches calculated the length of each player’s shift, how long the player had the puck on his or her stick, how many passes were received and made and how many shots on goal he or she attempted. They also counted the number of un-timed touches—those when the puck hit their stick if only for a brief moment.

Top Players Touch the Puck for 1+ Minute in Games

Canada’s Joe Sakic, who dominated play in the gold-medal game, touched the puck for only 1 minute, 19 seconds. In that time, he did tally two goals and two assists along with four shots in Canada’s 5-2 victory.

The purpose of the study was to determine the best way to develop puck possession skills with youth players. It also provided information when it comes to puck possession in checking and non-checking situations. On the women’s side, Cammi Granato slightly outdid her Canadian counterpart Hayley Wickenheiser, touching the puck for a little more than one minute (1:02.2 to 1:00.9) during their gold-medal outing. But when even the best player only touches the puck for one minute, what are other players doing?

When you factor in that we chose the players who handle the puck more than others on the ice, you could argue that the numbers we came up with were inflated compared to the average Olympic level player, said Mark Tabrum, director of USA Hockey’s Coaching Education Program. To follow up the Olympic study, USA Hockey volunteers brought their clipboards and stopwatches to the Youth Hockey Tier I National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Puck Skills Developed in Practice

While the skill levels varied, the results were pretty much the same. Even the best players, the statistics showed, don’t handle the puck as much as you might think. These studies validate what a lot of people have been advocating for a long time, said Kevin McLaughlin, USA Hockey’s Senior Director of Hockey Development.

The numbers showed that stick and puck skills can’t be developed in a game. It proves you can accomplish a lot more in practice with the puck than in a game. It also showed that you get so few opportunities with the puck in the game that you have to be proficient when it does hit your stick. USA Hockey hopes the results of the Observation Project will serve as a reference for coaches, parents and players as they set up their future practice and game schedules. I think we can safely say that games are not the environment to develop puck skills in our youth players, McLaughlin said.

Obviously, in practice, players will get a lot more ice time, will carry a puck a lot longer than one minute, can give and receive a lot more passes and will take a lot more shots.

Not everyone may agree with the statistical conclusions provided by the study. As Mark Twain once wrote, there are three kinds of fallacies: lies, damned lies and statistics. There will always be those who believe that letting a PeeWee play the equivalent of an 82-game NHL schedule is the best way to develop a hockey player.

The dilemma that virtually every coach of developmental-age hockey players is faced with is: How much ice time does he devote to practice and how much to games? Observation Project Chairman Rob Bruendl addressed this in his final report: Ice time is getting more expensive every year. Parents enjoy watching their children play and urge the coach to schedule more games. So coaches and parents try to convince themselves that their players are learning skills during the games.

Repetition Turns Skill into Instinct

USA Hockey’s National Coach-in-Chief Bob O’Connor disagrees with the idea of using games as a learning tool, and he says the numbers prove it. Having demographics of the Olympics with the best players in the world and then following it up by studying our National Championships just goes to show that you only have limited time to handle the puck and when you have it you better learn to handle it right, said O’Connor.

We’ve been saying this over and over. The more quality repetitions you get with any given skill, the easier it will be to turn that skill into instinct. If you only have the puck two minutes, you’re not going to get that practice of receiving it and controlling it.

George Kingston, a member of the physical education department at the University of Calgary, conducted a similar study back in the 1970s. Kingston looked at skill development in Sweden, Finland, the former Czechoslovakia and the former Soviet Union and compared their techniques to how players were developed in Canada. According to Kingston, Europeans typically had two to five practices for each game they played, compared to North American players, who played two or three games for each practice. Kingston said that in order to get one hour of quality work in practicing the basic skills of puck control, it would take approximately 180 games.

Our emphasis on a great number of games, in part, reflects the problem faced by minor hockey associations—namely, that they only get a restricted amount of ice that is primarily given to scheduling of games, wrote Kingston, who went on to become an assistant coach with the Florida Panthers. O’Connor has been leading the charge to reverse that trend in this country for an equally long time. We’ve been telling coaches and parents for a long time that the repetition of skills is the foundation of hockey, O’Connor said.

Ice time could be the best coach there is. The more often your son or daughter handles the puck, the more skill and confidence they will have. So what effect will these numbers have on the hockey community in the United States? Armed with this statistical ammunition, USA Hockey will continue advocating a 3-to-1 practice to game ratio in future coaching clinics in hopes of persuading coaches to use their ice time more wisely when it comes to skill development.

We’ll use these figures to preach the importance of skill development and practice-to-game ratios, Tabrum said. I think it’ll grab the attention of some people who have never stopped to think about it. Games are a measuring stick where you evaluate skill development, but its not where you teach it.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Harry Thompson, Editor-in-Chief of USA Hockey Magazine, for this story.

1. Set a good example of an active person.

What kids see has greater impact on them than what they hear. In other words, kids are tuned into observational learning. They will do many things their parents do, and physical activity is no exception. Active parents produce active children. If children see their mom and dad participating in and enjoying sports, then it’s going to be more natural for them to want to pursue those activities. On the other hand, if parents are couch potatoes….

2. Let kids participate in determining when they are ready for sports.

Children who are forced into sports before they are ready usually have bad experiences. When kids say they are interested, parents should start looking seriously at it. By involving children in the decision-making process, they feel a sense of ownership in the outcome. This creates a greater sense of commitment: “I’m doing it because I want to do it, not because I’m made to do it.”

3. Give priority to your child’s own interests.

Most kids develop a sense of their personal interests at an early age. And although parents might prefer that their child be active in sports, maybe the child would rather play the violin. Because of this, parents should let their children have a say in determining what tune they march to. Remember that youth sports are about what participation can do for kids, and not what parents get out of it.

4. Don’t use sports as a baby-sitter.

Some parents erroneously believe their involvement merely consists of getting their child signed up and driving them to and from games. But that’s just part of it. Parents not only have a right but a responsibility to oversee their child’s sport participation.

5. Emphasize the process of enjoyment rather than the product of winning.

Research on young athletes’ motives for playing sports has consistently shown that their primary objective is to have fun. Studies also indicate that the main reason why youngsters drop out of sports is, “It isn’t fun any more.” Simply stated, children want to play sports to have fun—and when the fun disappears, so do they.

6. Emphasize striving to improve skills rather than comparing oneself with others.

Physical development occurs at different rates in youngsters, and this should be made clear to them. It is particularly important that children whose skill is lagging not view this as a permanent condition. Parents who praise self-improvement efforts can help their kids derive pleasure from their progress over time. This creates many worthwhile experiences in sports—even for athletes who never will be stars.

7. Give kids an opportunity for early success.

Properly structured learning situations are designed to ensure some degree of initial success. And when children perform sport skills correctly, they should be given ample amounts of verbal praise and/or nonverbal forms of reinforcement—a smile, a pat on the back, a high-five. In other words, catch the athlete doing something right. In addition, liberally reinforce effort and achievement. Remember, whether kids show it or not, the positive things you say and do stick with them.

8. Establish and maintain open lines of communication.

Tell your children what you expect—things like giving maximum effort, listening to the coach, having fun—and ask what they are thinking. Make it very clear you want to know how they feel about what’s happening in practices and games. This type of two-way communication is essential.

9. Evaluate your child’s coach.

Parents should talk to the coach, regularly go to games and occasionally attend practices. Additionally, they should ask themselves the following questions:

• Are the young athletes treated with respect?
• Are they being taught?
• Are they given a chance to perform?
• Are they made to feel what they’re doing is a fun activity?

If not, it may be necessary to find another team for your child. Unfortunately, some coaches don’t understand what youth sports should be about, and the negative experience they provide can turn a kid off to sports forever.

10. Think safety first.

What can be done to prevent sport injuries? The American College of Sports Medicine offers the following guidelines:

• Have a preseason medical checkup, which can detect medical problems early and prevent new ones.
• Always warm up before playing and cool down afterward.
• Be in the proper physical condition before playing a sport.
• Have all the necessary protective equipment, and make sure it fits correctly.
• Inspect playing surfaces and facilities prior to the game or practice to make sure they are safe.
• Wear the appropriate clothing for the activity.
• Teach children the rules and the importance of following them.

11. Be alert for signs of pain or injury.

Kids might not say they are hurt because they believe it will disappoint parents and/or coaches. Because of this, adults must look for the symptoms of injuries common to the sport. Early detection is important. At the first sign of pain, get the young athlete out of the game or practice and get pain checked out. Additionally, an injured athlete should not return to play until the symptoms of injury have completely disappeared. Continued participation may make the injury worse and may place the athlete at a high risk for another injury.

12. Don’t live your dreams through your children.

All parents identify with their children to some extent and thus want them to do well. This is natural and healthy. But sometimes parents over-identify, and the child becomes an extension of themselves. Parents who are “winners” or “losers” through their children are experiencing the frustrated-jock syndrome, which places extreme pressure on the children. The young athlete must succeed, or the parent’s self-image is threatened. To avoid this, don’t define your own self-worth in terms of how good your children are.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Frank L. Smoll, Ph.D., for this article. Dr. Smoll is a sport psychologist at the University of Washington and co-director of Youth Enrichment in Sports. To see previews of his Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports and Mastery Approach to Coaching DVDs, visit www.y-e-sports.com.

Like ignorance, for example.

I was sent a link to an article that was published last week, in which it was inferred that putting the emphasis on development in youth soccer, as opposed to winning, is a bad thing.

The question was raised, “Isn’t the whole idea in becoming better that you win more than you lose?”

Long-term player development will grow the game

My answer to this is yes, the purpose of becoming better is to win more than you lose. But in youth soccer in Canada, skill development does not happen as a natural extension of the current win-at-all-costs system that is in place.

The question arose because of a decision not to award medals to the winners of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association (EODSA) leagues. The justification for this decision was due in part to financial limitations, but also because, as the article quoted, “the presentation of medals is considered to emphasize winning versus player development, which is the new focus of OSA programs.”

The author then made the assumption that winning is no longer considered to be a part of player development, and that winning is a now considered a “bad thing.” The author then questioned the legitimacy of this policy—which is where I took exception. The policy in question is the CSA’s long-term player development plan, or LTPD. It is based on Sport Canada’s long-term athlete development plan, or LTAD.

It wasn’t something created on a whim, nor was it scribbled on the back of a napkin. It is backed by volumes of research on the growth and development of children, the stages of development that they all go through, and the optimal environments in which they flourish. Virtually every sport in the country has a long-term development plan based on LTAD.

Single-minded strategy a ‘mirage’

For years, the competitive structure of youth soccer in Ontario has been based on the “Pyramid for Play,” where teams are rewarded for winning by being promoted to a higher level of competition. The highest level of the pyramid is Level One, represented by the Ontario Youth Soccer League, which comes into play when children are 14 years of age.

The problem with this system of promotion and relegation is that, by its very nature, it forces coaches to “play to win” with children as young as 9 years old. There is no need for them to try to develop players who are technically skilled, because there is a shortcut available to them.

The easiest way to win in youth soccer is to choose the biggest, strongest, fastest kids, and rely on their physical superiority to outmuscle their opponents. In doing this, very little emphasis is placed on teaching kids the fundamental skills of the game—because there is no need to. Generally, the big, strong, fast kid who can “boot it” the hardest can be successful in youth soccer up until about the age of 14.

Unfortunately, this success is all a mirage.

Eventually, the physical advantage of these players levels off, and when it does, the kid who was a star player when he or she was younger—simply because of the physical advantage—is no longer able to compete at a high level.

Why does it even matter, you ask? What difference does it make if that kid can no longer compete? Why don’t we just play to win at all ages, survival of the fittest, so to speak? Because not only are we driving away players who have the potential to be top players simply because they are physically immature for their age, we are also doing a disservice to those kids who are athletically gifted at a young age by not teaching them the skills they need to be successful in the game over the longer term.

We have all seen a kid playing a game and dominating the opposition because they are athletically superior. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t trap a bag of cement, or that their first touch was about as soft as a brick wall—they could run like the wind and kick the ball harder than any of their peers.

Physically dominant kids need skills, too

Now imagine what those kids could do in the game if there were put in an environment where they were taught to control the ball, to have a velvety first touch, to spray passes all over the park. Imagine if they were free to develop those abilities in an environment where they were allowed to make mistakes, without the fear of losing a game and missing out on promotion.

How much better do you think that athletically gifted kid would become?

LTPD puts the emphasis on development because these are children we are dealing with. They all need to be given time to learn the game—not just the ones who finish first because they are physically mature for their age. Ultimately, we play soccer to win the game. That is the goal of all sporting contests. The issue here isn’t about whether or not to give out medals to kids—most would agree that there are life lessons to be learned through winning and losing, and I’m one of them.

The issue is the assumption that because kids are winning, they are developing effectively. I would argue that our lack of depth at the international level suggests otherwise. Our system is broken and needs to be fixed—and no amount of medals is going to do that.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Mike Mullally, President of the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois, for this story.

What can parents do to help combat performance anxiety? Parents are in an ideal position to help their young athletes develop healthy attitudes about achievement and an ability to tolerate setbacks when they occur. Research published in the Journal of Youth Development indicates that by educating parents, they can effectively reduce athletes’ competitive anxiety. Sport psychologists Frank Smoll and Ronald Smith are co-authors of the study.

“Over the last 20 years, there’s been a trend to teach coaches how to create a healthy psychological environment for young athletes. There’s also an important need to educate parents, so they can support and supplement what trained coaches are trying to do. Parents and coaches working together are a powerful combination.”

The University of Washington researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of coach and parent education in their study of 151 boys and girls playing in two different basketball leagues. The average age of the athletes was 11.6 years. Coaches in one league participated in a Mastery Approach to Coaching workshop developed by Smoll and Smith.

The workshop content emphasizes skill development, achieving personal and team success, giving maximum effort, and having fun. Parents participated in a companion Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports workshop that taught them how to apply mastery principles and how to reduce performance anxiety in their children. Coaches and parents in the second league (a control group) were not offered the workshops.

Preseason questionnaires showed little difference in the levels of performance anxiety among the boys and girls in the two leagues. However, by the end of the season, athletes playing for trained coaches and whose parents attended the workshop reported that their levels of stress, worry, and concentration disruption on the court had decreased. Players in the other league reported that their anxiety had increased over the course of the season.

“This combined approach helps both coaches and parents to create a mastery-oriented climate,” said Smoll. “We never ignore the importance of winning, because it’s an important objective in all sports. But we place winning in a healthy perspective. As a result, young athletes exposed to the mastery climate had less worries about their performance, and they were better able to concentrate while playing.”

“Fear of failure is an athlete’s worst enemy, and the sport situation can easily create this type of anxiety,” said Smith. “The encouraging thing is that educational programs for coaches and parents can give them the tools for decreasing pressure and increasing enjoyment. And an added bonus is that athletes who are not afraid of failure typically perform better. When coaches and parents are taught stress-reduction principles, they can be a winning combination for kids.”

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Frank L. Smoll, Ph.D., and Ronald E. Smith, Ph.D., for this article. Drs. Smoll and Smith are sport psychologists at the University of Washington and co-directors of the Youth Enrichment in Sports program. To see previews of their Mastery Approach to Coaching and Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports DVDs, visit www.y-e-sports.com.

Don’t celebrate every goal in a blowout of 0-11 proportions as if your team just won the Stanley Cup. Of course players can celebrate and congratulate other team members on goals. They just need to be sure their celebrations aren’t rising to the level of gloating and goading the other team. (And sorry to the third-line wingers who never score and finally get a goal. You have to show a little class, too.)

Parents and fans (by which we mean grandparents) need to show a little restraint, too. Clapping and yelling “great goal”? Fine. Jumping up and down and screaming “woo hoo” while clanging your cowbell for the 10^th goal? Too much.

Think about how you feel when you’re on the other end of a blowout. (And if you haven’t been there, rest assured you will be at some point!) Then celebrate accordingly.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to the parents who’ve endured this situation and suggested the topic.

Of course you learn from your mistakes—and you need to be held accountable for the team to win—but there’s a difference between what good players and great players replay in their mind. In my opinion, 95 percent of players (myself included) think about the open net they missed, a failed defensive assignment resulting in a goal, a buddy pass that got their teammate rocked, a poor decision on a 2-on-1 and on and on. The list of mistakes and failures I experienced in my playing days is literally endless. It covers the entire spectrum from “why am I beating myself up over something so small” to “the entire team hates me for that game changer.”

The problem is that thinking about these mistakes makes you hide and shrink your game. The mistakes I’ve talked about here are specific situations. No matter how headstrong or confident you are, this pattern of thought can only lead to your brain continually replaying and magnifying the negative action. Trust me, you can’t control it.

Think Differently: Missed Opportunities, Not Mistakes

Great players replay the game in their mind a bit differently. They essentially see missed opportunities. They ask themselves self-reflective questions such as:

• Why didn’t I drive the net hard for that rebound in the first period?
• Why didn’t I gain the zone on the power play instead of dumping it in?
• Why didn’t I play more physical and take away my man’s stick down low?
• Why didn’t I get rid of the puck quicker because of forechecking pressure?
• Why didn’t I have a more aggressive gap against their top line?

It’s way bigger thinking in a fluid situation. Your brain—consciously and subconsciously—can then try to find ways to improve when faced with a similar play.

Push Your Game, Don’t Shrink It

It’s way more productive to push your game then to shrink it. We respond to what we keep track of and think about. You all have the skill to be playing at the level you’re playing at or the coach wouldn’t put you on the ice. Why not make this subtle change in your thinking to expand your game rather than mental beat-down sessions that constrict it. As the saying goes, a boat is safe in the harbor but was made for the open ocean. You can play a safe “off the boards and out” game, but puck possession and skill are key. This is how you were made to play and it separates you from the pack and helps your team win games.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Brett Henning of Score100Goals.com for this story. Henning is the author of 7 Pre-Game Habits of Pro Hockey Players, and was a member of the Inaugural National Team Development Program and 2000 World Junior Team with USA Hockey. He played Junior Hockey in Canada and at the collegiate level for the University of Notre Dame. He was drafted by the New York Islanders before a back injury ended his on-ice career.