Let’s talk hockey or, more specifically hockey players/athletes and their habits.
As the hockey school season winds down and training camps begin in a month, most athletes look to build upon their summer skates and create a consistency of performance as they head into the season.
Consistency of performance is a hard attribute to attain; I am not an advocate that an athlete has to be 100% efficient every day. When an athlete is at 100%, he is what we call “in the zone”. So why do we chase or expect this 100% efficiency when it is only on rare occasions that we achieve it? What if we were to create a logical model that allows our athletes to be 80-90% efficient on a consistent basis, this creates a better opportunity to reach “the zone” more often. In other words, the individual athlete’s bad days still contribute to their development, instead of a full write-off.
As I watched games and skating over the last month, I realized that most amateur athletes struggle with this notion. I saw athletes who had the skill to take control at evaluation games but failed to do so. But why? The answer I always come back to is that to take control of games and to be a consistent 80-90% efficient athlete, the individual must be a creative self-managed athlete.
Being a sufficiently self-managed athlete means that you have developed a strategic conscious effort (the act of being a disciplined thinker) in perceiving situations and your typical responses. Being a disciplined self-managed athlete means you have a plan, and I believe most of our athletes lack plans when dealing with setbacks and how they approach the game and their development.
As we head into the new hockey season and hopefully as most athletes start to view their goals, we need to develop their agendas and intentions to increase consistency of performance. Therefore, in moving forward, the following chart r aspects that athletes can ask themselves as they try to become d thinkers in their approach to the game:
Daily, what is my work ethic like?
Am I running effective development/training sessions?
Am I aware of what sparks me and what holds me back?
How do I deal with adversity?
Self-Awareness requires assessment. What are my strengths and weaknesses?
By asking these simple questions on a weekly basis, athletes begin to spin a web of focus points for development and will start to pick out common themes in how efficient they are as an athlete. High performers are very self-aware, which leads to a consistent performance; even on their bad days, they are still contributing. So, as we embark on the 2023-2024 season, instead of just going through the motions, step outside your comfort zone and logically analyze your development path and efficiency in all facets of the game. The pressure of high performance is an opportunity, not a threat.
Until next time,
Coach Nye
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