You want free to play hockey. So does every other hockey player at the Tier 3, U18 and U16 level throughout North America.
Whether its the USHL, NCDC, NAHL or any other league offering free to play hockey, you better wake up to the truth that if you do not invest in yourself first, they are not going to invest in you. If you do not understand that phrase, allow me to explain…
Investing in yourself comes in many forms. The greatest investment though is through proper training and nutrition. Success begins in the gym and at home.
While so many are skating all summer in spring and summer hockey leagues, the smart players, those that are going to the next level in their career, are in the gym. Those players are watching their diet, they are getting proper amounts of rest, and they are growing physically.
Players who are constantly competing at camps, clinics, and skating schools are burning calories. They are traveling, they are not eating properly all the time, and they are not resting properly.
It is a scientific certainty, that if you are out competing all spring and summer, you will not be able to put on the muscle and gain the power needed to make it to the next level. Burning calories all the time is not allowing you to experience the physical gains that coaches at the next level are looking for.
Everyone is looking for an edge. Too many of you think that an edge on the competition is really a shortcut to achieving success. The edge is knowledge, and knowing what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
Investing in yourself also means that you develop a strategy concerning your advancement. A strategy that includes proper training, nutrition, rest, and specific benchmarks to be met along the way.
Benchmarks such are specific weight gains, specific muscle gains, specific body fat measurements will help you prepare for the specific plan put in place to advance.
The plan to advance includes only attending specific prequalified camps, and those pre qualified camps are limited. The limit depends on the player.
Prequalifying opportunities is done by gaining the right information on your specific position group attending the camp.
If you’re a goalie, and going to a camp with one opening only to find there are fifty goalies when you get there, then you did not prequalify the opportunity. You made a decision on a sales pitch and not on real information.
This is the same for every position group. If you don’t have the information to evaluate a camp properly, you simply shouldn’t be going.
You have one opportunity to be a junior hockey player. One. And once you are twenty one its over. The time will go very quickly. I watch so many of you wasting time and opportunity to become the best player you could be because you are so caught up in chasing.
Successful people do not chase. Successful people do not panic. Successful people remain calm and they understand that patience is the greatest tool they have at their disposal. Patience allows you to plan, train, and prepare. Patience is part of the plan.
Getting a team to invest in you at the free to play level means that they are seeing you have invested in yourself to give them the product they are looking for. Teams want physically and mentally mature players who need guidance and coaching to develop into real prospects. Teams do not want project players at the free to play level.
When you are ready to become a prospect and not a project, I look forward to hearing from you to develop a plan.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
