“A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free them.” So you are thinking you are not a slave, or why the hell am I doing using this quotation?
It’s simple really. Ninety five percent of you are slaves to what you believe the “advancement system” is. You voluntarily subjugate yourselves to the “tryout camp system”, and later wonder why you are not having success in your ideas of what advancement is supposed to look like or be for you.
The “advancement system” you are told exists, or is the norm in most peoples thinking, is really the “matrix of hockey advancement”. All the talk about going to camps and making a name for yourself, get the experience, show your skills and every other bullshit phrase used to sell camp spots, simply makes little to no difference in your personal advancement situation.
You attended multiple “pre draft” camps, and on Wednesday 99.9% of you will not be drafted. You thought the handful of magic beans in the camp invitation was going to deliver the beanstalk. And now, on Wednesday evening, and Thursday, thousands of you will be saying; “what now?”.
News flash……Magic beans do not work, and neither does attending multiple pre draft camps with zero contact with scouts during the preceding season.
Stop being a slave to the system. The system being sold to you does not work, and almost does not exist. It is the most expensive lottery ticket system in the world with the worst odds in the world. So why the hell do you keep buying tickets?
Oh yes…you do not want to upset the coach because he could blackball your kid. Or, they really just need to see more, or it would not be polite to not go when invited, or any other host of stupid reasons.
So, here is the truth. If the player is good enough, he doesn’t need to attend a pre draft camp, and he never has to worry about being blackballed or black listed. There is no coach on this planet that is not going to sign, draft, or tender the player he wants or believes in. Why? Because his job depends on winning!
Mitchell Miller played for the Tri City Storm in the USHL after pooping the bed in his personal life. A D man who was drafted by Arizona, kicked to the curb, and then risen from the dead after sitting out a year. One of the USHL’s best D men if not the best one, and a player who will eventually find his way to the NHL. Bottom line; Tri City wanted to win and they wanted Miller, so they went out and got him.
Miller earned his opportunity to play in the seasons before. He trained, he worked in the gym, and he dominated in his age appropriate level when he played. This is the formula.
If a team wants you they will come and get you.
Right now thousands of you are waiting for the NAHL draft. Slaves waiting for someone to set them free. When the draft is over nearly all of you will still be slaves. Slaves to the system because you are not using the tools and resources the smart players are using. You are “living the dream” of freedom.
What happens Thursday morning and you wake up having wasted all the time money and hope on something that didn’t happen? What are you going to learn from it? After learning what will you do differently?
Because after the draft, the second wave of bullshit comes. “Sorry, we ran out of picks.” “You were on our board, but it didn’t work out.” “We had you penciled in for main camp, so we took a flyer on someone younger for a futures pick.” Or any other excuse you will hear when the emails for main camps and phone calls for main camps start to com in.
Will you continue to be a slave? Or will you finally decide to take control of your future, stop investing in “camps” and start investing in actual information that can move you beyond the current slavery position?
Stop with the excuses, self doubt and fear. Stop thinking for a second that showing up to some camp is going to impact a coaches opinion of you when he doesn’t even know who you are because you weren’t on his draft list before the camp even happened.
Do you know how many players taken in the first five rounds will attend a “pre draft” camp? In a good year, two.
Don’t get mad at the teams for setting this system up. They have to do this to survive financially. They have to create the illusion of opportunity. If not, there is no free to play hockey, its that simple.
Camps are also branding tools. They get the team and league name out to the rest of the hockey world when you take that camp jersey home and wear it all summer. Other players see it and it reinforces the brands value and thinking process of dreamers.
Now after reading this article, what are you going to do? Continue to wait for someone to set you free from the system, or take control of your advancement opportunities by making the decision to not follow what the majority are doing? While the world needs followers, followers almost never achieve their full potential.
When you are ready to take control of your advancement, I look forward to hearing from you.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
