It is your responsibility to be ready to give your very best to your team. You may very well give 100% of what you have during every shift, but if all you have is not your best, you're cheating your teammates. Be the best that you can be.
Being a part of a team means placing your trust in others that, together, you will all have what it takes to come through, as a team. In order to do that, you need to take care of yourself, prepare yourself, prepare your equipment and watch over each other.
Game Day preparation varies from player to player (even more so for goalies). However, you need to have your own routine to determine what conditions allow you to play at your best. Of course, not every day is as ideal as a PA day to get ready for an away game. That said, if you can begin working out details that will help you streamline your preparation, you will have a much easier time facing a tough day; you'll have a much easier time letting go and getting yourself in game mode.
Here are a few things to include in your routine:
Night Before
- Equipment: The night before an ice time is the perfect time to inspect your equipment and do your maintenance, as required. For tips on taking care of your equipment, refer to the article "
Equipped to Succeed!" that we posted in August. Again, it's a long list and you might not need to do all of it every time if you do it regularly. The chances that your velcros would need to be inspected more than once a week are very slim. Up to you to figure out what works best for you.
- Hydration: We can't repeat it enough. DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! (Water...) Drinking plenty of water the evening before a competition will help you rest and recover. We explained already why it's important, just remember... DRINK!
- Electronics/Sugars: Both have the same problem: they are bad for your sleep. While you need to cut sugars much before then, hopefully none after dinner, electronics should be put away at least an hour before going to bed. The intense light that attacks your eye when you game, text or ... is a stimulant for your brain. The activity from your brain is therefore stimulated in a very productive manner; your body interprets the importance that you attach to a source of light to be equivalent to the one our ancestors would place on the sun which managed their days. And I don't care what generation you might think you're in, but you're in fact in the same generation as me and I'll let you in on a little secret, we haven't already figured out how to adapt our system better than 60,000+ years of evolution. Bottom line is pretty simple: if you want to rest well, turn off your electronics an hour or so before heading to bed. Find something else to relax; read a book, draw, ... If you can set yourself to listen to music without needing to continuously change the songs and stare at your screen, that works too! You must simply avoid to stay stuck to a screen.
Charge them: Talking about electronics; we both know how long is a bus trip without your phone, mp3, tablet or computer. It's a nice way to ditch them the night before! Put them on to charge and let them be! Don't forget to charge your chargers too!
- Rest: An ideal night of sleep for a teenager is of 10 hours. If you sleep less, you may not have time to fully recover (unless your body wakes up naturally; some body recover quicker). If you sleep more, you may very well feel sluggish, maybe irritable, and may also feel tired, astonishingly! Key is to know where you stand. Balance! Too much sleep is like not enough!
Day Of
- Get up!: Once you are up, you need to eventually get up! I'm not saying you need to roll out of bed and start pumping push-ups Bruce Wayne style, but you need to get moving. Light activities are the best. High intensity ones will affect your performance on the ice. Not enough movement will weigh down your limbs and numb you. Balance, here again!
- Hydration: Need to explain? All day! DRINK!
- Pack your gear: It is not a bad idea to take care of it early in your day. If you forget something, you have time to remember. If you notice something you missed when you inspected your gear, still time to remedy it! Verify your equipment one last time and pack your bag. You can also lay out your dress clothes/tracksuit and make sure that it is nice and tidy to look good for your team.
- Meals: Grab breakfast! Well balanced, healthy breakfast will still be what gets you going at night time! Keep eating regularly, not too much, and healthy. You know how it's done now, you're a pro! ;-) Avoid overloading your system with proteins the day of a competition.
- Electronics: Do blitz. It's ok to game for a bit, it's ok to text and chat and IG... Spending your whole day on your devices, however, will tire your eyes, put strain on your brain and make your body sluggish. Do blitz in your day! If you're playing Chel, for example, play a game, go prep your equipment. Another game, then go and play with the dog! Another game, ... Balance! ;-)
- Get involved: We'll keep this secret between you and me, don't tell the parents; when we're at school, we have WAY less stuff to do than mom and dad! Use that to your advantage! Nothing keeps you from helping in the preparation for your game; pack your snacks, ready your gear, pack some water, get everything in the car, ... If you are rushed to get to the rink, you're the only one that it will affect. The parent now has almost two hours to relax until the next timing. You don't... Now it's on your time! If you help in the preparation, you will also help yourself be on your schedule.
- Have fun!: After all of this, you are ready! You can show up to the rink, confident that you've done everything in your power to control to be ready for your team. Most likely, not all of these will happen every time. It's ok... But the more you control, the more you can do, the better you'll be. And now it's your time. It's your time to shine and your time to have fun. You've set the game and now you can enjoy every minute of every shift and you can give it hell every single time.
Being prepared for your team may seem like a big ordeal, but in fact, it will become easier when you figure out what works for you. Whether it's Crosby's PB&J sandwich or Price's unique playlist, all the athletes have their own routine. It doesn't mean you can't have fun doing it! Some think that a routine means being all alone at the rink all serious... Not necessarily! Whatever gets you going for a game, THAT is what you need to find out and to start doing over and over again.
Hockey is the best sport in the world and probably the best thing to be doing out there. Don't make your routine to be boring or to feel like a chore. Let it transform you in a pro by including stuff that you like with stuff you know you need to do. I promise that it can be fun from start to finish, when you figure out what works for you!
Lastly, don't underestimate the importance of a routine. On top of letting you be on top of your preparation, a routine also allows you to feel in control of your game. Even if adversity shows up, you learn to push it out as part of that routine and nothing will remain to affect your performance by the time you're ready for game time!
I can't wait for the weekend guys! Three big games for ourselves, as a team, to prove to ourselves that we are able to keep building, game after game. Let's keep developing, getting better, working hard! Let's do it for those who can't and most of all for those we care for.