Thousands of girls hockey players say that they want to get a scholarship and play in the Olympics. But there is only so much room at the top of the female hockey world. So how are you going to separate yourself from the rest of the pack and be a true girls hockey success story?
The first step to becoming a girls hockey success story is to set your hockey goals. Start by writing your personal mission statement for this season. Figure out exactly what it is that you want to achieve over the next few days, weeks and months. The key is to be as detailed and specific as possible - just saying, “I want to play my best”, isn’t going to cut it. You’ve got to know EXACTLY what you want if you are going to take your game to a whole new level.
But the “goal setting” is the easy part.
It’s the “goal getting” that’s the real challenge.
Anyone can write out a great mission statement. But not every girls hockey player can make their dreams a reality.
The truth is that “goal setting” is all talk, while “goal getting” is all about TAKING ACTION. You have to take action each and every day if you want to be the best.
So are you just talking about being the best or are you actually making it happen?
Are you warming-up before every ice session? Are you taking the time to work on your mental game? Are you eating the right kinds of food to fuel your best performance? Are you putting in the time to work on your game away from the rink?
Some girls hockey players want it to happen and some wish it would happen. It’s the great ones that MAKE it happen by doing all of these “little” things on a consistent basis.
The more action you take towards your goals, the better player you will be. There’s no time like the present - so what are you waiting for?
What did you do today to take a step in the direction of your dreams?
~ Coach Kim
I attended an extra ice skills session put on by my association, I’m the only goalie and I get very few shots. We skate for 45 minutes of the hour and fifteen long session and that involves puck handling. I’ve never been taught how to puck handle and I always need to work on my skating to be the best on the team so I go out and do my best no matter how much I hate doing skating and puck handling drills. I did a warm up before and a cool down after my session and I iced both of my hamstrings because I pulled them both sometime during the week and I’ve been stretching my hamstrings and quads.
Yesterday I did 40 minutes of sprints on a bike and then lifted weights. I also spent 45 minutes working on my wrist shot. For some reason I still can’t get the puck off the ground and I get extremely frustrated when I’m practicing. But yesterday I tried to focus and be calm. The mental part of my practicing was good but I still can’t lift the puck, so today I’ll be out there again for as long as I can so I can improve my shot which will help me be a much bettter player.
I’ve recently been taught the proper way to play the puck, I’m goalie, so every day I put on my gloves and shoot a ball against the wall. I also practice the proper technique, rotating my wrist, etc., for making a blocker save which is what my goalie coach told me to do so that the save movement became muscle memory.
Recently I’ve been finding it hard to do my fitness program, I’ve been really inconsistent about it. I’ve got the drive and the passion to play at the next level and I want to go to college on a scholarship, I really want to go to Michigan State for field hockey or Northeastern for either ice or field hockey, but the only way I could afford to go is with a scholarship and I have very little chance of getting one.
I don’t know what it is, I just always find a reason not to do it and I’m trying by I really hate our fitness program. I know I have to do it to make the regional and provincial team to have a chance of playing college hockey. When I was doing it with somebody during the summer I knew I had to do it because they would know I didn’t do it.