The Ride to The Rink: How Young Hockey Players Can Train Smarter This Offseason with Andrew Alberts

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of The Ride to the Rink. We got Andrew Alberts here today. Played in the NHL for a long time. That's the qualification you kids love. That's what I hear from you. Bring back more NHLers on the show. Well, we did. Okay. And it's the uh the spring-summer time when you're listening to this episode, although it's going to be applicable all season, kids, if you're listening to this in the winter. Um, and what we're talking about is training, specifically in the off season. What to do, what not to do, should you do it. And and kids, I know when you get to the offseason, there's a lot of different things going on. Some of you might not want to be near the rink, some of you might be told you have to do all this. You do spring hockey, summer hockey. There's a lot of decisions to make in the off season. So, where we're gonna start with Albi today is this no matter where you're at in this journey, it's important to kind of know where you want to go. So, I'm gonna have Albi talk a little bit about goal setting and the process of goal setting and why that's actually probably the place you need to start.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Go ahead, Al. Yeah, and and the beauty of this, it refers to it is applicable to any age group, right? And so um, if you don't know where you're going, you really don't know how you're gonna get there. And so uh I might have stole that quote from you, Lisa.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

That's a no, it's a great quote. How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you're going?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

There's somebody famous at it. I don't know who I sound smart, right? Um but but to all those listening, um, like it's very important for your for your summer training, no matter what age you are, um, you have to have a direction in which you're headed. Uh, you know, call it a young career, if you will, or or call it uh um a planning for the future, if you will. So uh a key key aspect of it is to have a goal and and not just have a goal mentally, or not just have your your your player have a goal, but ask them to write it down, ask them to write it down, and they don't have to explain it to you. It could be theirs, right? It's their idea, they own it. Uh, but have them write it down and have them put it somewhere on the fridge or on the door, the mudroom door, whatever it might be, where they're gonna see it every day and it's gonna hold them accountable to where they want to go. And so I think with these these young players, and and I've when I'm speaking of young players, I'm speaking of my son as well, is uh that I think taking small steps uh in the direction of where they want to go is gonna be a big boost, and you're there to support them in ways too, um, segmented in ways that it's gonna support them mentally, physically, uh, provide them with whatever they need uh to kind of get up and going towards their goal.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I love you know, it it you reminded me of a story now. My father recently, last few years, texted me a picture from my childhood bedroom uh of my wall next to my bed. So just to give the those of you listening, when I would wake up, this is probably the first thing I would see every day. And I remember vaguely writing it, but I was surprised to read it again as an adult. And it it just said basically, if you want to accomplish your goals, you have to give everything mentally, physically, every single day. That's basically what it said. And I had my goals set, and I write a new goals list probably every five to ten years of things that I want to accomplish, every still to this day. All right. Uh, you know, playing in the NHL has come and gone, that's okay. I have other goals that I want to accomplish now too. Uh, but kids, I woke up to that every single day. Uh, we talked in our big episode too. Uh Albi's talking about too, about our co-host Haley Skimora, how she would write, I am a gold medalist, I am a Walter Cup champion. These things are happening. So, kids, the big takeaway is write out what you want to accomplish and dream big. Dream as big as you want. All right. And then you got to write out the steps to accomplish that goal. We talked about this too. I want you to dream big. I would be wrong for me not to tell you this too. There's no guarantees that you're going to accomplish the goal that you're pursuing, but that's why it's worth pursuing. All right. Not nothing hard was ever easily won or gotten, or however you want to look at it. You will get so much further in life by trying to accomplish your goals than if you don't, and so much further ahead in accomplishing other things by learning how to do this process by just writing out your goal and the steps it takes to accomplish this goal. It will put you ahead. And I'm gonna say it again: dream as big as you can. Albi, any thoughts on that before we go to the next question?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

No, I just think and as parents, the parent angle is your job is to support their dreams, right? And remember, it's it's it's not it's not, it should not be your dream, it's it should be their their dream and their idea, and they own it. Uh, and your job is simply to support them, right? Um and provide them with whatever I guess needs uh they have to propel themselves towards that goal. So again, don't we're not doing anything for them, right? Uh per se. We're we're just supporting what they need to push for that goal, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Because kids, you got to do the work, you know. You know, one of the best things I was told too is in kids, I'll say this to you like this you have a right to have a dream, right? You have you have every right to dream, all right. Now, I will tell you this too, and Albi, I'm sure you could talk about this with your own career. You'll have no shortage of people telling you that you can't accomplish that dream, right? No matter what it is, I want to be like in the NHL, there's gonna be a billion people that say, Hey, that's never gonna happen, and you're gonna have to learn how to just kind of ignore that, right? Because again, any big goal, people are gonna think you're insane, all right.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

And and whether it's somebody telling you no or there's somebody on your tail that's looking to take your spot, you know. That that's the other the way to look at it. If if you're a player and uh you're in the locker room and you're looking across from you, is it gonna be you or this guy making the team, right? So so somebody's always behind you looking to take your spot. Uh and uh it's that was great motivation for me in every aspect of my career. Uh and Lee, we talked about uh being the hardest worker, right? Well, guess what? There's somebody else out there across the globe somewhere working just as hard as you or harder. So uh it's just about putting in the effort, putting in the work, putting in the time, and it's gonna pay off in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, and another quick story for you kids out there, and again, if you're listening to the show, you're probably a kid who's putting the work in. But a great scenario, I remember when I was a kid, uh, there was a young lady that um I can't remember the name of the event, but you know, it's the it's the thing with the flags when they throw the flags up in the air. Um, ColorGuard, I think it's called. Yeah, and I remember seeing her after school practicing every day. And I remember a lot of other kids making fun of her for practicing every day. I remember seeing that. And kids, I'm bringing this up because you you might be one of those kids every once in a while that you you fall into that trap of teasing somebody else who's doing something like this. And she was not very good when she started, but we all saw her practicing and messing up. Again, I was not one of the kids teasing her, I just remember watching this. Long story short, she became the captain of the team by her senior year, and she was one of the most decorated people in ColorGuard that the school ever had. It was simply because she was putting the work in, and she heard people making fun of her, she heard it, she didn't care, or or or didn't she didn't care enough to allow it to make her stop. Probably motivated, to be honest with you. Sometimes I remember when people told me, Hey, you can't do this, that would make me a little angry. Like, uh watch me. That was my attitude. All right, but I built up that resilience over time, and you know, Albi, here's another kind of segue here a little bit. We talk sometimes about how belief is actually kind of a skill, and that the separator, I think, as you get better, is the athletes that believe in themselves are probably gonna do better than the ones who are questioning themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with questioning yourself, or you know, at times you're gonna be unconfident. Like those happen, but it's the process, right? That belief is a huge part of this.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, yeah. Belief, and well, here's the thing it's like if you don't believe in yourself, who's gonna believe in you, right? I mean, your parents are always there, right? But sometimes uh it's just it's it's to say the phrase, right? Uh quiet, don't listen to that, kids, but like sometimes you know their little white lies, right? Hey, I believe in you, but is it realistic? I don't know. But guess what? If you think and you feel that you're gonna make that happen and you see your goal and you want to achieve that goal, yeah, there's nothing gonna stop you. Then you have everything you need to proceed, right? Um, and then it comes down to all right, well, how hard are you gonna work? What are you gonna sacrifice? You know, that's the biggest thing I think I noticed like through my career as a young player training in high school all the way through my career is what am I gonna sacrifice that others aren't doing? Am I gonna be in there at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning or am I gonna go out and have a couple frosties with the boys? You know, like so making decisions that are gonna propel you forward that and doing things that other people aren't. Um, and that's part of the process, right? Is knowing your process, what you have to do to be better than others. And you speak about the girl in the color guard. Well, guess what? It's extra time, extra practice. We talk about uh the belief and extra practice and how it shows you that you're you're getting better and those results will eventually come out. But it's not, it's not just like Rome wasn't built in a day here. It's not I go shoot five bucks and I I got a snapshot like McKinnon. No, like you put in the process to achieve these goals and you see the rewards as you continue to work. Um, so kind of a long way of saying believe in yourself. Uh, but it but it's it's true. And I think uh what you spoke to uh the way you described it is exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yeah, well, and look, if you're not getting motivated listening to this, I don't know what to tell you. You know, the other thing too is you you brought up too, we we use that word sacrifice a light a lot, Al B. You know, the the other word I think we're trying to phase in is you're making a choice, right? You're making a choice, it's not just a sacrifice, you're choosing something different, right? Um, in anything in life, you're gonna have to quote unquote sacrifice something for something else, right? There's only so much time, but when it's a choice, you can own that choice, right? And so, kids, you know, make that choice. You you have to make that choice, kids. It's not your parents, it's not your teammates, it's not your coaches. That comes from within. All right. I'm gonna say it again if you're listening to the show, you're probably one of those kids. Um, Albi, I do want to ask this too, uh, because I'd be remiss. We're talking about off off-season training. You know, one of the things you brought up in our big episode that was great is about just the nature of off-season training and that you know, finding the things to work on is not limited uh to just one thing. But for the kid listening, going, okay, now I'm super motivated listening to you, Albi. I want to go out and train. Like, now what do I do? What do I work on? I've written my goals out, I want to be an NHL player. Now what? How do you think they should compartmentalize the things they're gonna work on?

SPEAKER_01 10:38

You just I think you just said it compartmentalize. It's like, all right, well, let's sit down, grab a piece of paper and pen, and sit down and put down, all right, what value do I bring to a team, right? And what are the top three things that you do great? Uh, and then what are the three or four or five things that you need to work on? And you can also maybe ask your coach or your parent, hey, what do you see that I should work on as well? Because it's a different perspective, right? Right. Um, excuse me, but I think um as we touched on, the game is changing, and whatever position you line up as doesn't mean you're playing that position, right? And it's become all-encompassing. And you look at just for you know today's game and the playoffs, watching Colorado last night against Minnesota. It's just both teams have such dynamic defensemen that they're playing all over the ice, right? And causing confusion and causing havoc. Uh, and it's really the NHL has become and it's continue to change into a five-person uh uh offensive zone play um with players moving all over the ice. So you need to be a little bit of everything. You need to be physical, you need to be able to move the puck, you need to be able to skate. Obviously, that's a huge foundation. Um, but also chip in on offense if you need to. So uh whether you're your D number one or D number six, you're chipping in. If you're a first line, fourth line, you have to be able to play in almost all situations. So uh having a well-rounded game is kind of at this age uh an easy thing to do compared to when you're older. So put in the time now, you know, refining all aspects of your game uh to make you a better player as a very wholesome player, if you will, for lack of a better phrase.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah, I love it. And and and kids, be excited about that process, right? Like one of the things that has kind of surprised me as I've gotten older is how excited I am to learn. I think when you're young and you're in school, and school can be a drag sometimes, kids. And you know, you kind of that's all you've known your whole life is going to school and learning. You start to get this idea of like, oh, you know, like I gotta learn again. Well, as you get older, you start you start enjoying that aspect. So here's the here's the truth, kids. You like learning what you like learning about. I didn't love being in math class, I wasn't a fan of math, but someone was gonna teach me something about hockey. Well, I loved that. I loved that, so embrace that feeling as well. I will say math and English and all those things are very important. Continue to learn that. I'm not I'm not telling you the school doesn't matter, but I'm saying learn to enjoy learning because that's a skill. And Albi's talking about it too, like especially in the offseason. What a playground you get to have to learn, where it's not the the day-to-day practice game, practice game scenario. You can now choose the direction you want to go, and I think that's that's fantastic. Albi, any final thoughts before we part here?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Uh summertime unstructured play and uh kids be kids, get to the lake, get to the ocean, uh enjoy your time with your friends. It doesn't have to be uh you know a strenuous activity of of constant direction. Um, if you want to get on the ice, play three on three, go have fun with it, try new things, be creative. Um, we need more of that in our game. Um, and you learn from it, you learn from every mistake you make. So uh just think of anytime you hit the ice or you got you pick up your stick, it's somewhere, it's something you can learn in the summertime.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

I love it, kids. That's gonna do it for the ride to the rink, which you should not be on today when we're listening to this because we talk about how fire straining. Uh, kids, remember if you ever have a question or something you want to discuss on the show, you can actually text us. There's a link accompanying the show description. Tap it. You can write us a note, what you think, what you thought, you can send us a voice message if there's something you want us to talk about. Uh, kids, we really do love hearing from you. So let us know. And again, if you don't want it to go on the air, it does not have to go on the air. You can communicate with us on that. And I'll always say, as I say every Ride to the Rink episode, kids, we believe in you. You should too. Go skate hard, have fun, learn something. We'll see you in the next ride of the rink. Take care.