The Ride to The Rink: How to Stand Out Before Pre-Skates, ID Skates, & Tryouts

Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome to another edition of The

Ride to the Rink. It's Lee and Mike with you today. And for all we know, you

might be on the ride right now to the rink for an ID skate or a pre -skate or

any other kind of skate. And what we want to talk to you about today, kids, is

kind of how to approach the tryout before the tryout, right? These pre -skates, these

ID skates, there's a mentality that we want you to have going into these so that

you understand what it is. And we don't want you to put too much pressure on

yourself if you're going to a pre -skate or an ID skate. Now, for those of you who

don't know what that is, sometimes organizations will have a skate before evals,

right? Again, it'll be called a pre -skate and an ID skate. It's kind of an

opportunity for you to get on the ice with an organization.

if some time has gone by. But there's also sometimes that you may feel that, well,

wait, if tryouts are a week, is this a tryout? What are we doing with this pre

-skate thing? You know, kids, I'm going to be honest with you. When you get into a

pre -skate or an ID skate situation, don't think about any of that. Just go out

there and skate and work hard, always have fun. Might not be the best skate for

you to say, well, I can just go lazy here today. No, you want to work at these

things. But get the most out of them. That's the question.

you should be able to evaluate within yourself without worrying so much about where

you're going to be evaluated, right, especially if it's a pre -skate, right? Mike,

let me bring you in here, too, talk to the kids a little bit about ID skates and

pre -skates and things that they should be thinking about. Yeah, so I think we all

know that no matter what happens in a pre -skate, ID skate, a tune -up skate, a

clinic, a camp, you're walking at, you're always being evaluated, always. And I think

as a player, when there's coaches in the building, when you're going to a new

organization, just think about all the little things that go into this ID time that

you have, right? The minute you walk in the rink, does he carry his own bag? Does

she shake my hand when she checks in? Is she checking in or he checking in by

themselves? Or, you know, over the age of 10, you're like, oh, hi, my name's Mike,

I'm checking in for this tryout, and I can't wait to, you know, have an opportunity

to be on the ice. Like, be in a situation where you set the impression because the

adage of you never get a second chance to make a first impression is even truer in

the ID skate. Now, you could be a skater that doesn't get on anybody's radar, and

maybe if you didn't have a great ID skate, maybe you're lucky. But if you got on

the radar, whether you had a big hit, had a great pass, did a great back check,

did something on the bench that was positive, you know, made a great defensive or

offensive play. The minute the coach sees you and they evaluate you, then that's

going to kind of mark you as a player. That now, fortunately or unfortunately,

you have to maintain that standard. And think about that mindset the minute you walk

in the rink. When you get out of the car and walk through the doors, think about

the fact that, and put in your brain that if you want, and this is not to put

pressure on you, it's the reality of what you're doing, is from that, from the

minute you walk through those doors, you're being evaluated. Yeah. Not just when you

get on the ice and when you get off the ice. And even when you leave, you know,

when you throw your bag at mom and say, hey, go get me a soda, and where's my

dinner? Like that is, that is going to be, those are negatives that coaches respond

to and look at. And I think one last thing I would say about

are going to go to their coaches saying, oh, you know, the player was good, but,

you know, I don't know, I didn't really like him or her. Like, those are real

things that happen. And, you know, just be aware of it. I mean, I think you have

to kiss butt, but you do have to be cordial and being a good special. Yeah, I'll

take this a step for the first. First off, side note, kids, if your parents are

carrying your bag out of the rink, we see that. Your parents should never be

carrying your bags. And parents, if you're listening and you're carrying your kid's

bag, you look at them right now and say that was the last time. You carry your

own bag. Okay. Like that's, that's part of it for me. Like that's a pet peeve of

mine. But kids, listen, here's the thing. There's a thing called fight or flight

response. All right. So when we say to you, well, the evals all year, that can

cause a little bit of a jolt of anxiety maybe. Or like, wait, what do you mean

it's all year? I need to be nervous all year. No, you don't. All right. So if

evils are all year, then they're also, they're happening all the time, right? So

it's, it's not something you need to worry about because it's all the time. It's

the norm. What that does mean is that everything Mike just said, carrying your own

bag, acting like a professional, working your butt off, passing the puck, learning

how to be a team player. These are things you should be doing all the time. If

you're saving it for a pre an ID skate or an e -val, if you're saving it or you

only do it then, that's not good. That's not a habit. That's fake, actually. All

right? And it's going to come out eventually that that's not really who you are. So

the best players that I know at the highest levels have very high character.

They work hard all the time. They are professional as often as they can be, which

is usually all the day. They try for it all the time. No one's perfect. Okay. But

if you start building these habits and do them year round, you'll be fine at all

of these events, the pre -skates, the ID skates, the evals, because it's who you

are. And that, that gets around. It gets around. That kid's a great kid.

That's a great kid, right? You want that kid, right? That's the type of messages

you want people to say. What you don't want to do kids kids is show up to an

eval and say okay i'm going to be professional today and then you make the team

and we find out that you're really actually not who you said you were so make it

who you are evaluation of life right i'm going pretty grandiose here kids just be a

great person work hard have fun we say it every episode right and no matter what

you're approaching whether it's a practice a game an eval a pre skate have a high

level of character at all of them all right they're all important if you really are

serious about this and i always say this if you're listening to this show you're

serious okay it's an all the time thing to be a good person to be a good teammate

i love that mike brought up what the other kids say because it's it's true it's

not so much you need to worry about whether people think of you but it's have such

a great character that it's undeniable for those other teammates to say that kid's

great we love playing with that kid right that that's what you want people to be

saying not so much fear of what did they think of me it's no i'm going to i'm

going to be me and that's got to be good enough right so kids again a little bit

of a larger life stuff here but it plays into the game

I'll say this to you two kids. Mike, I'd love for you to comment on this. There's

no in youth hockey, there's no pre -skate, there's no ID skate. There's no one skate

that is dramatically going to change the trajectory of your hockey career or your

hockey time playing. There will be days that dictate things in your career,

but it's the summation of all of it. Who you are as a person will shine through

whether you have a good day or a bad day. you can have a bad try

skates like that, all right? But I'm going to say it again, even for those kids,

who you are shines through. All right. Every great player, every great player,

including Wayne Gretzky all the way down, has had really bad days at the office and

really bad evals, and they still succeed because of who they are. Mike, your

commentary on that. Yeah, I love that. I love the idea that just be yourself.

Don't try to be somebody you're not but also just be aware that you know it's just

like when mom and dad you know tell you you know when you go to somebody's house

they have to be in your best behavior and you know make sure you don't eat with

your hands and you know wash up after yourself and thank and thank them for the

ride home like we're reminding you those things because you can forget and you can

be in a place where you're like oh this is not who I am and be who you are you

are. That's very important. And it's more important than actually how good a hockey

player you are. But those true things will shine through and you'll get and no

doubt about it, other people that are at the ICD skate will notice. Yeah.

I'm going to say this too, Mike. I rarely say this on the air. This is almost a

guarantee that if you're a good person and that shines through, you'll be successful

in things, not just hockey. hockey. It's not always going to go your way, but

that's part of life. That's why the consistency on this really matters.

Also, you know, Mike said this. I'm going to bring this up, two kids. Don't be

something you're not. You know, coaches used to love it when I would come in and

they'd say, you know, they'd do questions, right? What kind of player are you? And

I'd say, well, I really pride myself on being a playmaker, although I'm trying to

work on all aspects of my game. All right? And I say that because I want them to

know, look, I like to pass the puck. I like to move the puck. That's who I am

right now, right? It would be a mistake for me to say, well, I'm a goal score

when I'm not a goal score. And then I go out there and I don't score goals. Like,

well, okay, that kid's not a goal score. Know your strengths. I really pride myself

on my skating. I work really hard at skating. Okay? And then I want to build my

game in other areas. Kids, that's music to a coach's year. Right? this is what I'm

good at. This is what I want to be better at. I've never had a player come in

and say, well, I'm great at everything and that was great at everything. Okay? It

just hasn't happened yet. Maybe one day it will, Mike. Maybe one day we will. Kids,

be yourself. Remember, it's normal to feel a little bit of fear or anxiety at an

evaluation event. I'm not telling you not to feel that. That's normal. You're feeling

it because you care. And that's why I want you to recognize that. If you're feeling

a little nervous, you care. You want something. Identify what you want and then just

go all out and do the best you can. Have fun with it. You've got to have fun. If

you're not having fun on that ice, it's not for you. You got to find ways to have

fun as often as you can. All right?

Work hard, have fun. Get better. That's going to do it for this edition of the

ride to the rink kids. Remember, wherever you're at on your hockey journey, we

believe in you. You should too. We'll see you next time. Have a great, great skate

today. Take care.