The Ride to The Rink: Maximizing Fun and Growth in Summer and Spring League Hockey

0:08 hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world and welcome back to another edition of the ride to the rink. It is summertime, mike. It's summer, it's hot outside. Where I'm at, I'm sweating when I go outside not my favorite thing to do, hopefully. You kids out there are playing multiple sports this time of year. You're in the baseball, you're in soccer, you're in the lacrosse, whatever you like to do. But some of you, many of you, if you're listening to this show, most likely play summer league hockey or spring league hockey, depending on when you're listening to this, and we wanted to do a quick ride to the rink about how to enjoy summer league and spring league, because most summer and spring leagues, mike, do not have practices. It's one game a week. It's real loose. You typically have a fun Jersey on. It might be an outside highlighter to color, it might be something cool that you put together, but in my opinion and kids listen summer and spring hockey should be a blast.

0:55 It should be fun. This is your time to go out there without the fear of a league or a title or anything, and just enjoy yourself, hopefully with your friends, and then work freely on things that you want to get better at, no matter what position you you play, it's not about doing stuff crazy on the ice. It's going to put your team in a bad spot. But this is that low pressure league time of the season where you can just go out there and enjoy the game. You should be enjoying it year round. You should be, but again, no practices. One game a week, mike. I think summer league is just a party in the summer when it comes to hockey yeah, and it's not so much about you know, putting your teammates in in your team in a bad place. It's about your ability to try different things and have the freedom to try those things.

1:38 Most of us don't get that during a season because we're, you know, worrying about what what the score is at any given time. Hopefully in the spring in the summer league. You know we're not worrying about that. It depends on what level you're at. If you're playing in a really cool three-on-three cross-ice league as an eight-year-old or you're playing in a high school, you know summer league as a high school player, you know. Just, you know I've had so many youth players in spring league because they're dying for goaltenders, have tried goaltender. I'm like, okay, I'll never do that again, but try it. And you're born into a goalie or you become a goalie. That's what happened to my son. Yeah, yeah. Or you say, oh, wow, I'm really actually good at this, so I'm going to try it.

2:19 Just a matter of using this time and this little, this little window of opportunity to still, you know, develop your skills, uh, develop your love for playing, have some fun, try different things, and but don't stress out about, right, uh, making a bad play or or not making the right play, but on the same, at the same, uh, thought process. Make sure you just don't get into really bad habits, right, and don't get into play, don't get into things where it's not realistic, depending on the level you're playing in. Listen, if you, if you're fortunate to get to play, like spring or summer league hockey with a bunch of friends you normally wouldn't get to play with because maybe you're at a higher level than him, this is the time where you should have 40 assists in the game, right?

3:01 This is a time when you can now dictate the ice and influence the play. Use that to your advantage. And I think, just in closing, on my end, I would just say you know, if you're in those environments too, remember anytime you're an athlete and anytime you're in, especially hockey rinks, because they're not, they're far and few between right, there's a lot less hockey rinks than basketball courts and tennis courts, and, and, and, big of all courts, and, and, and you know baseball diamonds. Think about how you conduct yourself, think about how you're acting, think about what you're saying to officials and other parents and coaches. Don't allow this to be the free for all of spring and summer of losing the fact of who you are as a player.

3:47 And I see it like players in the spring and the summer lose perspective that they're still being looked at and and evaluated and talked about. And you don't want to leave the rink after getting kicked out of a spring league game Cause you thought it was meaningless, but somebody else didn't think it was meaningless about the way you acted. So just be okay. Be be very aware of that that we let let our guard down because it is spring and summer, but don't let your guard down so much to make yourself look bad. Yeah, mike, I think these are great points and, like I said, when I say it's a party, I mean a party for you to amplify the things that you do well and work on the things maybe you don't do well. This isn't the time to try 15 Michigans a game right.

4:30 It might be time to try one if it presents itself okay. Right, it might be time to try one if it presents itself okay, to be fair, if you want to have fun with that. But it's not time to to try 15. It's not try to time to do something crazy. Listen, I've maintained and players listen to me, I've maintained this for years you want to be a great forward, play defense. You want to be great defense, play forward. This is a great opportunity for you to try other positions, as mike said, to learn some perspective on that also. Mike, we didn't talk about this. I know a young man who plays spring and summer league at a different rink with different kids so he can interact with different hockey players, and I think that that's a really great thing that he does. Right. You meet new people, you meet new types of players. You have to learn how to deal with that. That experience in those environments right help make you more well-rounded, not just as a hockey player, but as a person.

5:14 But I do want to close this with saying before before I'm going to throw it back to you too that make sure you consider playing other sports as well. As much as I love playing summer and spring hockey, you should also be looking forward to some of those other spring and summer sports. They're very important for your development. Playing hockey year round nonstop is not awesome. It's not awesome for you, right? You got to take the mental break. You got to take the physical change and look at other things. Mike, you had something else? Yeah, unless of course it's roller hockey or floorball or street hockey. That's a different sport. But yeah, but listen, it's hard to do that when you're a kid. It's hard for a parent to go. Oh my God, if they miss these three weekends in a row, they're not going to advance, it's you know.

5:56 If you're a good hockey player, you're going to be a good hockey player in August, just like you were in April. And I think just take the time to refresh, you know. Get yourself in a different mindset. Let your body rest Right. Go with some tennis balls. Go with some golf balls, go play a little pick a ball, go play catch, go play, go swimming, go play anything, go do something and find. Find a bunch of other kids in your, in your neighborhood and, if you're lucky, you're going to find, you know, a lot of lifelong friends that love coming to watch you play hockey during the winter. Yeah, no, I think that that's true, Mike, and it's fantastic advice. Well, that is going to do it for this edition of the Ride to the Rink about summer and spring. Remember, kids, we believe in you. We're doing these little mini shows because we believe in you and we can't thank you enough for listening.

6:40 Remember, you can hear all of the Ride to the Rink episodes at OurKidsPlayHockeycom. Or if you want to hear the full episodes of Our Kids Play Hockey, the whole hour-long episodes, you can send them through with. It's ourkidsplayhockeycom. But for Mike Benelli, I'm Lee Elias. Thanks so much for listening to this edition of the Ride to the Rink. Have a great week and remember, skate on.