The Ride to The Rink - 5 Things a Day: Bobby Robins’ Formula for Hockey and Life Success

Lee MJ Elias [0:00 - 0:28]:hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Lee here and I've got former NHL or Bobby Robbins with us today. And Bobby wants to talk to you on your ride to the rink about the journey of hockey and how it expands beyond just you getting on the ice today or wherever you're going. So, so Bobby, I'm going to throw it to you. Talk to the kids about the hockey journey. 

bobby robins [0:29 - 8:38]: Oh, man, the hockey journey is one of the coolest things you can ever hop on. You know, I. My hockey journey started at 5 years old. Just like a lot of us, I went out on the rink with a, with a stick in a puck and skates and I said, this is the coolest feeling in the world. Like, what, what is this? You know, and, and I fell in love. And just like so many of us, I just started getting better and better because I was out in the driveway, stick handling, I was stick handling a golf ball in my living room, toe dragging under the coffee table, you know, just shooting pucks until my mom called me in for dinner. And that's how I got better and better at hockey and started climbing the ranks. And then when I became a teenager, I realized that, man, I really want to go for it, you know, like, like really go for it. And I know there's a lot of, there's a lot of hockey players out there who have that same mentality and they want to go for it and they want to chase the hockey dream. And I would just encourage everybody, if that's, if that is in your heart and that is in your, a dream in your mind, that you should go for it with everything you have. And if it's not in there, then that's okay, too. It doesn't have to be in there. You can, you can play hockey and have a great time and meet great friends and, and play the sport for the love of the game. You know, throughout my career, I've seen a lot of people get almost pushed into or pressured into chasing the hockey dream when it wasn't there for you. So I would encourage any listeners out there to find out what your dream is. If it's not the hockey dream, that's okay. What then, then what is your dream? The worst thing you could ever do is to get stuck in a dream chase. If you're chasing the wrong dream, right? So I just encourage you to, to find out what you really want. Look yourself in the mirror. You know, you might be playing hockey because your brother played hockey, or your parents put you in hockey, what do you really want to do? Find out what that is and live your. Your. Your destiny. That's a life well lived. But. But if you're chasing the hockey dream, man, you are. You're on to something here because the hockey dream is amazing because there's. There's levels that are literally put out for you. It's like you're on this quest, and here, you know, you're in bantam hockey. You got to make that jump to high school hockey. That's just the next part in your quest. That's the next level, and then you're there. And then, you know what I. What I tell hockey players is whatever level you're at, look around you and analyze where you're at. Who am I here? Am I the best player on the team? Am I the worst player on the team? Am I somewhere in the middle? Who cares where you're at? But. But mark, in your mind where you're at, because where. But where you're at that day, that's not where you're going to end up. But mark where you're at and say, okay, I'm gonna get a little tiny bit better every single day. What are five things I can do every single day that are gonna get me to the place where I want to be? And the place where you want to be is to make that jump to the next level. So if you're in high school hockey, you want to make the jump to junior hockey. That. Because hockey, the hockey journey is cool because there's little literal levels that, that you need to get to. And if you look at those, like, stepping stones or, or steps up a ladder, I call it the hockey ladder. Climbing the hockey ladder, you know, like, I'm in. I'm in high school now. I need to make it to junior hockey. How am I going to do that? Yeah, I can wish and. And this and that. But here's. Here's a methodology. I'm going to get a little bit better every single day. Today. I'm going to get a little bit better. So what are five things I can do? So for me, it was like, I'm going to drink a gallon of water every day. I'm going to do a bag skate every day after practice, some sort of conditioning. I'm going to go a little extra mile every single day. Because it shows people around me that I'm hungry. Because it shows myself that I'm hungry. My coaches see it, My teammates see it. And even if no One sees it, I see it. You know, so that's the mentality that I had find out what are those five things you can do every single day? And then, you know, it might be after practice when you get to pro hockey, people are stick handling before and after practice, you know, maybe you can use a puck around, you know, in the concourse. These would be great for the concourse. Man on the, on the concrete. In the minor leagues, you know, people are, you know, before games, everybody's just preparing for their game. Stick handling. Some people are stretching. I wish I had a product like that, Leo. That would have helped me out with my hands a little bit. But yeah, so have, have that mentality of, all right, I'm gonna get a little bit better every, every single day. And then what are five things that I'm not going to allow myself to do? What are my five non negotiables? I'm not going to allow myself, you know, negative thoughts. I'm not going to allow myself, you know, people around me who are going to bring me down, I'm not going to allow, you know, you know, myself to not. I'm never going to go onto the ice without stretching in the proper warm up. Little things like that every day. If you implement those, you get better and better and better. I went from, I, I got to Division 1 college hockey with UMA Riverhawks and I was one of the worst guys on the team. I was a healthy scratch. That means I didn't play the first six games. I was on a 40% scholarship, you know, which was great, but I wasn't one of these full, full boat guys. I was on a 40% scholarship and they said, hey, that can go up every year depending on how well you do. And I implemented these things every single day. And over the course of four years, I saw them add up to then becoming know, one of the best players on the team. Captain, leading scorer, mvp. Left school early to go play in the American League. And then that summer signed an NHL deal. Then looking back, I'm like, wow, how did I go from that to that? Yeah, there was a lot of bounces, lucky bounces, a lot of blessings, but there was a lot of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. And there was a lot of implementations of that formula. So hopefully that'll help some of the, the people out there on their hockey journey. But on my hockey journey, I finally made it, you know, then I was in the NHL and I kept implementing. I got more and more dialed in. These are the things I got to implement as you're on your journey, you'll find out what. What things are going to help you personally. And for me, I found out what it was, and I got there. I got. Then I got to the NHL, and then I ended up, you know, had a. An injury that ended my career. And so at the end of my hockey journey was a really rough time. It was a rough time of having my identity stripped away. It was my. The end of my hockey journey of falling into depression and. And a really dark place and not even really wanting to live, if I can be honest with you, because hockey was taken away, that's. That's a failure in the hockey journey, in my opinion. Yeah, I made it to the NHL. But to end your hockey journey in that pit, that's a failure. You missed the point of the journey. The point of the journey isn't just hockey. The point of the journey is to grow as a human being and to figure out, okay, the journey is going to end someday, now what's next after the hockey journey? And so, in my opinion, and something that I like to teach is a successful hockey journey. No matter if you end in the NHL or if you end at a junior sea tryout, wherever your hockey journey ends, a successful hockey journey makes a transition from the hockey dream chase into whatever is next in a seamless. A seamless transition, you know, whether it's, all right, hockey journey is over, and I'm going to go into business. And then you take all those attributes, all those lessons that you learned, the victories and the losses, especially the losses, the failures. You turn them into learning opportunities and growth opportunities, so that when your hockey journey ends, then you just carry on into your life journey into what's next. So for me, that's what a successful hockey journey looks like. But it's a. It's an amazing thing to chase down, to chase down the dream, because there are literal steps, and if you can find out how to make those steps, it could end with you being in the NHL. That's what I saw happen to me. So chase that hockey journey. But if. If the hockey dream and the hockey journey isn't for you, find out what it is. Keep playing hockey, because hockey's awesome, but it doesn't have to be your destiny, chase if it's not your destiny. 

Lee MJ Elias [8:39 - 10:18]: You know, first off, Bobby, that was a tremendous amount of advice, and I love every aspect of that, and I love it when you get real, because I think that's sometimes the conversations that don't happen, but what's cool about what you just did Was you gave some really valuable questions for kids to ask themselves along the way. And I. We say this on the show a lot. Great questions demand great answers. And. And there's. There's. One of the things you'll find in the hockey journey, especially at youth hockey, is there's plenty of judgment. There's just plenty of judgment. I mean, and some of it's. Some of it's. You know, you're at a tryout, right? You're going to be judged, literally, but there's judgment everywhere. And I don't think there's enough curiosity. And I think something you just tapped on was through your journey, which was an incredible journey. You brought a piece of curiosity along the way. I'm not even sure if you realize that. Right. You were curious with great questions. What can I do? What are the five things I can do? I wrote some of them down. Where am I at? What are five things I can do? Who am I do? I love this, right? Kids listening. You gotta ask yourself great questions like this, all right? And the question shouldn't always be, what's my mom or dad gonna think? What's this other person gonna think? That's judgment, not curiosity. Curiosity is about where. Where can you go? Where can you grow? So, Bobby, I love that you introduced that. That along your journey. Again, I don't even know if you realize that you were curious, right, about different questions to ask yourself, because you had to. You had to find an edge. You had to find a way. Right? So I just think that's a really valuable lesson for the kids. You can comment on that if you want. 

bobby robins [10:18 - 10:24]: Yeah. And I was just always asking questions. I was like, I was always curious about how the way the world worked. How does this work? 

Lee MJ Elias [10:24 - 10:24]: Yeah. 

bobby robins [10:24 - 11:09]: How does the hockey thing work? You know, okay, you got to have. How do you get to that level? You know, you go, okay, you go to a tryout. You got to get scouted. And I just, you know, yeah, there was that curiosity of. Of how does this work if I want to make it all the way? Like, what's a realistic pathway of how to do that? And sometimes that can be insane to think about, because if you're playing junior hockey and you want to make it to the NHL or high school hockey, you don't really even see a pathway there. Like, how. How is that even possible? But the cool thing about hockey is that there. There are literal steps, you know, high school, junior college, minor, pro, NHL. There's. There's literal steps. It's not a. It's not kind of an ethereal thing like how do I do this? How do I do this? 

Lee MJ Elias [11:10 - 11:10]: Right? 

bobby robins [11:10 - 11:12]: It's well, here's how you do it. 

Lee MJ Elias [11:12 - 11:48]: Just tremendous advice from Bobby Robbins here. Kids like kids. Listen, if you have an email or your parents have an email and you're interested in more advice like this, Bobby's actually joined our team through our mailing list and if you go to hockey wraparound.com or with this episode in the description, there'll be a link you can join that mailing list. And Bobby is just sharing stories and advice like this for hockey families that want. It's really valuable. So check that out. But kids, remember, no matter where you're at in your hockey journey, we believe in you. You should too. All right. Thanks so much for watching this edition of the Ride to the Ring for Bobby. I'm Lee. We'll see you next time. Skate hard. Have fun. Take care, everybody. 

bobby robins [11:56 - 11:56]: Sa.