The Ride To The Rink: Mastering the Hockey-Life Balance as a Young Player

Lee MJ Elias [0:00 - 1:20]:skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Mike and Lee with you today and you're probably right in your season now getting started. Kids, listen, we're going to give you some tips today that are really important. A these tips will impress your parents, which is something you want to do, whoever your guardian is. We're also going to give you some tips to create less stress around your hockey schedule based on things maybe sometimes some of you think about, some of you don't. But we want to talk about how to create a routine for yourself. Not just for hockey, but for school and hockey and every activity that you do. If you're listening to the show, kids, we know you love hockey, okay? But it all plays in to each other. School is part of your life. Other sports may be part of your life. You might have siblings that do other things. Your ability, not your parents ability, your ability to create routine, to create a schedule is something that you really need to do to not just do well in hockey, but your life in general. So Mike and I are going to go over some of those tips on how to create a routine and then I'm going to share a tip at the end on how to impress your parents. And I think it, you know, if your parents are listening with you, look at them, they're just going to be nodding in the car wherever you're listening to this going, yes, please do that. That would make my life easier. Mike, why don't you start us off? 

Mike Bonelli [1:22 - 1:47]: Yeah, well, my, my advice really for all players right now at this time of year, going into the, going into the season, you're laying it all out. My biggest thing is plan, plan ahead, Plan what you want to do, plan where you want to be. We talk about goal setting all the time from an athletic point of view. But this also comes into play with how am I going to balance my academic schedule and my hockey schedule and my soccer schedule and my tennis team. 

Lee MJ Elias [1:48 - 1:49]: And my YouTube time. 

Mike Bonelli [1:49 - 1:54]: How am I going to do it? Like, and then you can't. If you wing it, you can't do it. It won't work. 

Lee MJ Elias [1:54 - 1:55]: It never works. 

Mike Bonelli [1:55 - 2:30]: I think you need to plan it out. And by planning it, and this is, I think, you know, Lee's talking about one other thing would impress everyone. Your teachers, your parents, your siblings. If you plan it and share it now, other people could plan around you. Be proactive, plan that out. You know, I just, I look at like, be proactive, prepare and plan. If you could do all Those things, you know, you can then, you know, really position yourself to be in a real strong area to not only help you, but to have people help you. And they don't know if they don't know your plan. 

Lee MJ Elias [2:30 - 2:42]: I gotta say, all those proactive plan kids, this takes place before the action takes place. This is what you have to remember. Not five minutes before, in some cases. 

Mike Bonelli [2:42 - 2:48]: Days after the test was administered on a Friday that you missed. That's not the time to go to your teacher and say, oh, by the. 

Lee MJ Elias [2:48 - 4:31]: Way, yeah, kids, I'm going to tell you a quick story real quick before I get to my big tip. You know, I'll never forget. It was the seventh grade. I was in science class and I had, we had a test come up that I totally forgot about. And I crammed right, like right there in the classroom. I tried to memorize, I think, I think it was the, the pieces of a microscope, that's what the test was on. And I crammed and I did it all right there in my seat with my young seventh grade brain. And I got a hundred percent on this test. I'm going to tell you right now, that was the worst thing that ever happened. Because after that test, I think, oh, I, I could do this every time. Never again, never again through the rest of the grades in college ever did I ever do it that well again. Nor did I do it well, in fact, as the grades got harder, the worse that it got. And the only truth is this, do not fall in that trap, all right? It is very unlikely that you will be able to do something last minute and get a good job. Now listen, think about this. For hockey, if you did not pack your bag and you did not get everything ready and you run and you rush, there's a good chance you'll forget something. That's why you got to do it well ahead of time, typically the night before if you have early games. Okay, listen, here's my big tip for you and your parents. Kids, you got to learn to do the math, all right? You got to learn all the aspects that go into, let's just say in a way game or even a home game, right? From your point of view. It's like, oh, yeah, I got to get my gear in the car and go to hockey. Let's take a broader look here and we'll go backwards. You got to get to the locker room, then you got to get to the rink. You got to be there on time. You got to figure out the drive time to the rink. You got to take in Things like traffic. What time of day is it? We were talking on our big episode this week about what. What is rush hour? Certain times of the day, there's more traffic than other times of the day. 

Mike Bonelli [4:31 - 4:32]: Yes. 

Lee MJ Elias [4:32 - 5:22]: Now you know what time you got to leave the house. But before you leave the house, did you feed the dog? Did you feed the cat? Did you close the doors? Did you close the windows? All right. Did you eat your breakfast? Now you got more time back. You cannot rush these things and expect to do well. I'm gonna say it again, going back to my seventh grade science quiz. You may do this once, and maybe you have the best game ever. That is not a routine or lack of routine you want to get into. If you want to impress your parents, kids, this is what I suggest you do. Write out a list of all the gear that needs to be in your bag and write out a list of all the tasks that you believe you need to take care of before you leave the house to get to the rink. And if you want bonus points, write out when you think you should achieve those tasks. 

Mike Bonelli [5:22 - 5:22]: You. 

Lee MJ Elias [5:22 - 6:49]: If we have a 7:30, 8:30am game, the kids not packing the bag before we leave, you pack in my house, you pack your bag the night before. And I'll tell you what, my own kids have, have found this to be very beneficial. A, you don't have to rush in the morning and forget anything, but they, they just know it's the right thing to do. And, and a lot of times we'll put the bag in the car the night before it's done. We know it's set. If you want to impress your parents, write these things down. We also talked about this, too, for the parents. You know, sit down with mom and dad or whoever's driving you the game the day before. You help decide what time to leave. You know, when you need to be there. You help them decide. You can ask them, how long does it take to drive there? Take some accountability in learning this, kids. If you do this, I promise you, your parents will get you a donut. Parents, you got to get them a donut if they're willing to do this. Or maybe a low carb nice, healthy treat of some sort. Okay. All right. Do the work, kids, because this is all stuff you're going to need to do when you're older. The younger you can get this, the better chance you're giving yourself. Not just in hockey, but in life, by the way, Mike. Right? Not just limited to hockey. You can do this for school, you can do this for A lot of things. This is all about preparation for your life. So that's my big tip. Hopefully a lot of you take it again. Look at your parents. They're nodding. They're just nodding in the car. Yes, that is correct. I would love for you to do that. Honey, I don't want you to forget your stick again. All right, Mike. Anything for the kids before I close this out. 

Mike Bonelli [6:49 - 7:08]: No, just make it easy for yourself. Make it easy for yourself. It's planning, preparing, not procrastinating. Make it easy for yourself. It's because then everything else lays out. Like, just put. Put yourself in that position of everybody stressed out about you. Well, you just stick. Give them the answer. Say, here's what I'm doing. Here's my plan. And now we can work around you. 

Lee MJ Elias [7:08 - 7:32]: Right? Love it. Kids, listen, wherever you're at on that hockey journey, we believe in you. You should, too. For Mike, I'm Lee. Thanks for jumping on this ride to the rink, kids. If you ever have a question for us directly, have your parents email us team atourkids playhockey.com or you can text us through the episode. There's a link. We love hearing from you as much as we love hearing from the adults. Okay, I'll talk to you next time. Kids, skate on. Have fun. See you next time. 

Mike Bonelli [7:33 - 7:33]: Sa.