So I went to my older son's hockey game in the Detroit area yesterday. As I have probably mentioned in previous posts, my son's team is quite good and currently enjoys a rank of 7 in the nation for tier 1 hockey, which is the highest level.
Over the years they have experienced and been instructed about the importance of coming to play for every game. At 16 years of age, these boys have seen everything and have been through it. There was really no excuse for what transpired yesterday.
We faced a Compuware team ranked 22nd and one we have beaten before but certainly not a weak team and not one that should have been taken lightly. We went into the game and literally got beaten in every way that you could be beaten in a hockey game that I can think of. Out hustled and out worked, out skilled, out fought and out played. I believe it is the first game this year where someone has had a running clock on us, but with about 6 or 7 minutes left, that is exactly what happened. The final score was 7-0 and it was a complete embarrassment for anyone involved. Such a loss is the result of not being ready to play or not caring enough to be ready and is 100% unacceptable. The boys will likely (hopefully) pay the price for their collective decision this week at practice.
It is a good lesson that even young men this age who are so very battle tested don't always do what's necessary. There are a lot of games to be played during a season. We were without one of our best players, blah blah blah. All of it is an excuse. You must come ready to play each game. It isn't easy to do. It takes focus and work to make sure when you put the helmet on, it is time for business.
You aren't always going to play a great game. In hockey, even the best teams have games where nothing goes right for you and every bounce goes the way of the other team. But great teams always come and bring the effort. If plan A isn't working they move to plan B. Even if they lose, they play as hard as they can and go down swinging. That is what great teams do.
To me, it is very hard as a coach to get to that "upper" level. The level is your top performance. if you can bring that to each game, then everything else doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who or where you play. you are going to be at that level and that is the only thing that is important. It takes massive discipline to do it, but some teams do.
Geno Auriemma is someone I don't particularly like, but this guy can flat out coach. He is the head coach of the women's basketball team at U of Connecticut. Their program is second to none and their results are also. Yes, they get the top girls in the country on their team, but he gets the girls to play at that top level almost all of the time. It's why he, in the past, has gotten flustered when teams get on them for running up the score. He doesn't want the team to play at any other level than top level, so it's hard for them to pull their foot off the gas and get used to playing at anything less. For him to achieve this kind of level, you aren't always going to make friends with everyone. In some cases, you are despised. My next post will be on what makes a good coach.
Yes, not every game is going to go your way. How do you react from it though? Probably the most proud I was of the 5th/6th grade football team that I coached last fall (I am an assistant), was the last game when we played a talented Rockford team. The first drive Rockford had, they marched down the field and scored a touchdown on our defense, which is something no one had done all year. Instead of folding, our boys adjusted, came back hard and fought and battled to a victory that day to finished 6-0 on the season. They didn't get shaken mentally and didn't give up or panic. They just adjusted and went about their business. This shows a certain amount of mental strength and maturity that my older son's team seems not to possess, at least not all the time. I suppose some of this comes from a coach, but some of it is the collective decision of the players (and the player leaders) also.
Being a winner isn't always about winning games, it is about your attitude and your preparation and approach to competing. These lessons also translate perfectly to real-life also. Are you working hard or just think you are? Are you making excuses as to why something isn't getting done?
I hope not. I see and hear some losing attitude stuff around my community sometimes. I hate the "We can't be expected to win anything because we play in the OK Red conference" stuff more than you can imagine. This is the attitude of people that lose. I wrote about this already, but are you doing everything you can to compete in the "Red"? Are you working as hard as you can to prepare for your opponent? Winners find ways to win within the rules, even if they may be non-conventional. The attitude should be "We play in a tough conference, but we love the competition. We are going to do everything we can to compete and use the other teams levels of play to learn and elevate our own".
Sorry, a bit off topic but it's what's in my head today.
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