Part One: Every journey has a process, an accumulation of events that eventually leads a hockey player to a destination. Whether that destination is the intended target or a completely new situation, it eventually becomes a story. Now every story is a unique tale with crazy twists and turns that challenges every hockey player mentally and physically. My story, like yours, has been quite the unique one and unconventional in the hockey world. I’ve gone through the ringer and am still battling my way up that hockey ladder today.
Why do I do this? Well like every great story started, it all began with a dream. That dream is to play in the NHL one day. That dream has grown and evolved over time but at it’s core, is still the same. Think back to when you were a young hockey player? You were filled with passion, love and excitement to the eye balls just to get on that ice. I remember going to practices an hour earlier in the mornings hoping I’d be able to get on that ice before everyone to work on my game. The funny thing is, I still do that today as a 29 year old playing my fourth year of pro hockey. I’m still filled with that same passion, love and excitement for the game that I had when I was 8 years old. That’s why I still do what I do. It drives me to push my self to my limits and hopefully one day get an opportunity at that next level.
I have more to share about my story but I want to hear from you. What’s your story? I’m interested in hearing your unique story and hopefully help be a part of that story. BapsHockey is here to help you build your unique story. Jump on the website and click the my journey tab to share your story and see how we can help you get to that next level. We don’t just build top level players with cerebral Hockey IQ. We are building the next generation of hockey players with a unique story to that next level.
Part Two: Remember to Smile, it won’t last forever
Too many times growing up playing hockey I’d find myself upset or frustrated about the smallest things. It’s easy to get caught up in all the garbage and start spiraling out of control. Hockey is filled with many highs and lows, it’s literally a rollercoaster! I’ve experienced some great highs like winning that huge tournament with my minor league team the Willowdale Blackhawks all the way to winning national championships with my college team St. Norbert College. With every high comes it’s lows which I’ve had plenty, like losing to the eventually natty champs in the quarters 2-1 my sophomore year to game 7 ot in the conference finals last season with the Fort Wayne Komets.
The highs are amazing but the lows are where you learn about yourself and your character. Learn and grow from your mistake but remember at the end of the day it’s just a game. Don’t forget to smile, your fortunate enough to play this beautiful game everyday. One thing that makes it special is that it doesn’t last forever, so embrace the moment and play it with the same passion that drove you to the game when you were a kid.
Hope you enjoyed that little piece of my story. Want to share one of your experiences? Click on the link below to share your story and see how BapsHockey can help you build your unique story. We also offer your first free shift analyzed by me and programs personalized to fit your needs. Nothing like this on the market so what you waiting for?
Part Three: I’ve always been a detailed person who asks a ton of questions because I want to understand what I’m doing. I’ve never been good at just blindly following orders because I’ve found when you understand the details, you can get the most out of whatever your doing. Whether it’s a drill in practice, a system your executing or a skill your performing when you understand the details, you can figure out how to get the most out of yourself for any given situation.
Just look at the playoffs this year. It’s been one of the craziest years in terms of wild card teams upsetting heavy favorites and a conference finals seeing many new faces at the forefront. Now the narrative may say it’s a bizarre year but once you look a little deeper, you’ll find the every team stacked up fairly equally except for 1-2 match ups. With teams being so balanced across the board it inevitably meant if teams wanted to move on they would have the execute the details more consistently than their opponent. This means details in the dzone, ozone and executed by all forwards and Dman, top to bottom.
To do this requires laser focus and relentless execution!When you dive into the details of whatever your doing you’ll eventually find truth and be able to move one step closer to your destination. For example when your shooting it’s easy to get distracted with everything else around you. The name of the game is to blur irrelevant information, lock in on your target and execute!
How can you do this? By going on the link below youll be able to drop one shift in there that ill breakdown and analyze forFREE.I’ll give you a sample of the detail we go into here at BapsHockey to breaking down shifts. With our beginners membership you can get a real time snap shot of your game and how you can start building the foundational skills and hockey IQ with only 6 shifts!!! If your done just messing around and are serious about taking your game to the next level, then check out my website and drop that first shift in.
Part Four: I’ve been able to get to where I’m at today because of my dedication to mastering my skills during practice. If you grew up in a big city like me, you’d understand how valuable ice time was growing up. Ice was expensive and opportunity to work on your game was small so you had to make the most with what you had. I know in small cities it can have a similar effect because with so many people wanting to skate at the only local rink it bumps up ice costs for sure. The point is I never took ice time for granted and always was working on some part of my game.
Was this a perfect method? Absolutely not!! I over trained many times and spent too much time on the wrong things. That’s part of the growing process as a player. You have to figure out what works and what doesn’t work for you. Every player has a unique way to get themselves feeling comfortable with a skill. I call this way of training “The spaghetti on the wall method”. This is when you just throw a bunch of everything at a player and see what sticks! Don’t get me wrong there is a time for this but sadly I did this for most my career until I discovered a new way to train. It’s called intentional practice and it dives deeper than any training system when it comes to optimizing your game.
I may have been able to get to the pro level doing what I did but if I used the BapsHockey system then during my prime development years, who knows where my game would have been. It’s all about a intentional, targeted, more personalized development program that builds the foundational skills of an individual, develops critical skill blends that happen frequently, and creates a competitive advantage skillset that sets you apart from the competition and takes your game to new heights.Does your training do this?