So you’re ready to fitter, faster and stronger, eat better and improve the mental side of your game. You are going to train off the ice on a regular basis, work on your flexibility and warm-up before every ice session.
It’s great that you have these goals. But, I have to warn you about something…
People will try to stop you from reaching the top of the female hockey world.
So in order to succeed, you need to be more than just physically tough. You have to be mentally tough.
The truth is that a lot of people don’t want you to reach the highest level, because if you make it (and they don’t), they’ll look bad.
While your teammates, coaches and parents should completely support you in reaching your hockey dreams, not everyone is going to understand your all-consuming desire to be the best.
To some of your “friends”, doing extra off-ice training, going to sleep early, and eating healthy is stupid. It’s not fun, it’s not cool and it’s not what they want to do with their time.
So even though they don’t want you to fail, they are necessarily going to support you along your road to success.
While they are watching TV, going to the mall and spending all their extra time on line or on the phone, you are squeezing as much as you can into all 24 hours of the day so that you can become the best.
They’ll be happy for you when you succeed, but don’t expect that everyone is going to be your #1 supporter all the way until you get there.
If you do need to have everyone’s approval and support in order to motivate yourself to push yourself each and every day, then you’ll probably never make it to the top.
The road to the top of the female hockey world can be a lonely one.
When I was back in high school, I decided that I was going to get a hockey scholarship and become the best hockey player possible. I realized that in order for this to happen, I would have to train every single day. And that meant doing more than everyone else I was playing with and against. If I wanted to stand out from the crowd, I couldn’t just do the same thing that everyone else was doing. I had to work hard to separate myself from the pack.
And if that meant staying out for hours on the outdoor rink working on my skills, that’s what I was going to do. If that meant missing a movie with my friends, so be it. I was not willing to compromise my success on the ice for a night out with the girls.
Some of my friends didn’t get it. My parents sometimes wondered if I was doing to much. My coaches loved my work ethic, and wished they could get more of their players to do the same, but even they worried if I was going about things in the right way.
What everyone else thought didn’t really matter to me. There were times when I felt all alone - but I knew that was the level of dedication I needed to be the best. I was training to achieve my goal - not to win approval of others.
On the road to success, you have to stay true to who you are.
Just doing what everyone else does won’t get you to the top.
You can’t worry that your teammates will think your weird for doing some extra off-ice training after practice. Don’t worry that your friends will think you are some kind of freak for ordering something healthy to eat when they are all eating deep-fried and sugar-filled food.
Go after what you want. Do all of the little things (that very few other people are willing to do to) to be the best player possible. Do something every day that moves you closer to your goals.
It may not make you popular - but it will make you successful.
And remember that you aren’t ever really alone on your journey to success. With the support of the other players and coaches at Total Female Hockey, you will get all the help you need to get to the next level.
But when it all comes down to it, you, and you alone, are the one who controls have far you will get along the road to girls hockey success.
What are you going to do RIGHT NOW to move yourself one step closer to girls’ hockey greatness? Don’t wait until tomorrow’s practice or even until after your game tonight.
What can you do immediately that will make you better?
Take action now - and share your plans below.
My parents support me in my dreams of playing university hockey, ice or field. They push me and, especially my dad, criticize my play because they know what level I want to make and I may not openly admit I like it, I know it’s just bringing me one step closer to my goals.
I’m going to go do my homework so that I do well in school, if I don’t do well my parents won’t support me as much. They’ll make me quit one of my sports. I’m going to my goalie training session tonight to help even more with that.
I found this out the hard way when I was talking with a friend who doesn’t understand fully what my dreams are and doesn’t fully support me. I just don’t talk about it with her anymore and our relationship has been much better.
The hardest part of being really good is the part when you decide to be really good. I try hard but sometimes I just can’t try my hardest. That’s what I’m trying to do. Try hardest more often. I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for Canada. I’ll write you on Sunday when I get home.
See ya!
Amy
I have a friend who also wants to do anything she can to make herself better, and she and I do the opposite. We try to convince our other friend to eat healthy, get extra rest etc. A lot of people don’t understand why I do these things, but they don’t have to: it’s me that has to understand. My parents are supportive and push me to help me get into better physical shape and reach my goals for hockey.
Earlier today my friend and I got into another conversation about my sports, I was at physio, our text message conversation isnt’s the nicest. I know she’ll be the first person to congratulate me if I get a scholarship, make a major midget team or even get a shutout, but it’s hard sometimes. She’s doesn’t really understand, she plays Tier 3 just for fun and doesn’t really understand where I’m going with my sports. I even have that on my Tier 1 ringette team, I always have to do a warm up before my game, but they never show up to the rink until 30 minutes before the game and do a 5 second run, stretch their still cold muscles then walk back to the dressing room. I’ve learnt you truly “can’t worry about your teammates thinking you’re weird” and you can’t worry about strangers outside the rink thinking your weird as you do ’sumo’ squats in the back of the parking lot all by yourself because your team thinks it’s too cold to run outside or they don’t do any dynamic stretching before stationary stretching.
It’s a long lonely road but if you love what your doing, have that burning passion to be the best, it’s a long lonely MEMORABLE road.
I don’t know where I heard this quote but it’s the reason girls reach the top,
“It’s not sacrifice if I love what I’m doing”
I’ve always thought of that quote when my friends say why do you sacrifice so much, getting up early, going to bed late and having no spare time. The answer is simple, because I LOVE it.