You may be the best player on your local team, but as you move up into the elite level’s of women’s hockey, there is only so much room at the top. How do you deal with going from being a female hockey superstar to a fourth liner?
Every player on the teams here at the Under-18 National Championships is a superstar on her own team back home. They are the “go to” players who the coach puts out for the last 2 minutes of the game when everything is on the line. They aren’t used to sitting on the bench in critical situations, but that is the reality at the highest levels of women’s hockey.
Bringing together 20 superstars onto one team means that sometimes you going to have to play a role that you’re just not used to. Instead of being the great goal scorer, you might have to focus on being a great fore-checker or a great penalty killer.
The key is to embrace your new role and play it to the absolute best of your ability. No one ever said the road to the top was going to be easy. Your confidence and your ego are going to take some serious hits along the way.
You’ve got to earn your spot each and every time you move up to the next level. You have to be patient and wait for your shot. In the meantime, you’ve got to out-hustle, out-work and “out-want” your competition.
Remember that there are only 2 things that you have control over out on the ice - your work ethic and your attitude. If you work harder than everyone else and stay positive even when things are tough, you will get your shot at being the superstar again.
Will you be ready when that opportunity comes?
How are you going to prepare yourself mentally and physically to go from the fourth to first line?
Share your strategies below.
~ Coach Kim
I’m experiencing this right now, I moved up from Tier 3 to Tier 1. I was always the only goalie on my team and now theres another goalie who played Tier 1 last year. We’re pretty much equal except for when one of us has a really good game or a really bad game. She’s getting the play time and I’m sitting on the bench.
I get ready for every game the same way, if I’m starting in net or on the bench. I watched a speech that Sami Jo Small gave, she was the alternate goalie at the Torino olympics for Team Canada and was back up during the Salt Lake Olympics during the gold medal game. Her point was “In life you don’t get to choose what role you’re giving, but you do get to choose how you play it.” I’ve taken that on as how I’m going to act when I’m on the bench knowing that there shouldn’t be a starter and a backup on our team, that we both could be starter or backup.
Everytime I step on the ice I’m trying to work that little bit more so that I can be the starter and be better then the other goalie, I like her and everything, we’re friends, but I want to play.
My goal is do be the number one goalie by the new year. I have to make sure I don’t let in the weak goals and that I work as hard in practice as I would in the Provincial Championships.
It’s so hard sitting on the bench watching her make saves that look so good, but really it’s just because she let a rebound, that she should have had, right back into the slot. She got MVP the first game when she didn’t do anything spectacular. She didn’t have a ‘bad’ game but she didn’t have a ‘good’ game.
If I play today it’s against the weakest team in our pool and I won’t get many shots so I won’t be able to show the coaches that I have the skill to play in the semis and finals. I’ll end up on the bench again and the other goalie will be playing.
I know that I have to work harder then ever if I’m going to achieve my goal of being starter. If I don’t play the finals in this tournament I’ll just try harder every time I step on the ice, do my off ice, warm up, cool down and eating so that I can play the provincial championship game.
NOTE: I’m not trying to put down the other goalie, she played okay. It’s the views of other people who think she was superb when really she made the sprawling save because she was out of position and because she didn’t control her rebounds.
I’m not above her but I don’t deserve to be below her. I have to make the desperation save too often, I’m not saying that I’m better then her.
I’m not in the same situation as Madeline yet. I am the only goalie on my team, and the only 10 year old girl goalie in my city. I don’t want to share my position, but I know at some point it will happen.Right now I’m trying to work hard enough where it isn’t needed, and my coach knows he can rely on me. My Dad makes sure I’m at every practice and that were the first one to the locker room so coach doesn’t have to worry. I really don’t want to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet.
This weekend we won all three games. My first game was a shutout and the next two games I let one in each. I didn’t have a ton of shots on me so my save percentage wasn’t the best, but I kept it above 900. Our team won by 10-0, 14-1, 16-1. We played real hard so we can get ready for our first big tournament against those pesky Canadians in Thunder Bay!
See ya!
Amy
Congrats on your shutout and nice SP. If you keep working hard and have a good work ethic then that reputation will follow you in your hockey life and in your everyday life when you’re older. When the day comes that there’s a second goalie on your team your reputation will help you along the way.
Be prepared to play whatever role you’re given to the best of your ability and you’ll be better in the long run.
Good luck in your tourney!
im not a goalie like you other girls..
The hockey world in england is quite different but i have experienced exactly what kim is talking about, i am captain and the one that everyone looks at to score and make a difference on the ice but when i go away with the Great Britain team i was a 4th liner and found it really hard and probably bottled it up too much and put on a brave face, my confidence and motivation went completely out the window.
But this season the training has just started and i am out to prove the coaches i am strong enough to handle the different level of hockey playing on a consistant line.