The Ride to The Rink: The 5-Minute Reset Every Hockey Player Needs (with NHL Veteran Bobby Ryan)

Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world, and welcome back to another

edition of The Ride

to the Rink. No big deal. Just got a guy who played 800 in NHL games. Bobby

Ryan here today, second

overall in the draft. You guys should look up the 2005 draft, who was number one

that year, because

it would have been you if it wasn't this other person whose name rhymes with

Schmidby Schmosby.

Anyway, Bobby joined us on a really great episode today. We talked about a lot of

things, but kids,

something we wanted to bring up to you has something to do with your mentality

on the ice. And I'm

going to let Christie introduce this question. Because it was really great. Bobby,

after a kid has a

game or, you know, after a practice and let's say the game didn't go great or

maybe it went really

well. So you're either really high or really low. What's a great way for a kid to look

back at

their performance in a game and figure out how to get better and not be too hard

on yourself?

It's a great question, and I think I would preface it by saying to every kid that's

listening,

something that was told to me when I was about their age was that you were never

as good as you

thought you were, and you definitely weren't as bad as you thought you were. So it

is very, very

important to stay in the middle. And what I like to do with my son, who's eight, is

pick one thing

that we did really well today. whether it was a pass or a goal maybe it was a goal

maybe it was a

pass maybe it was something that led to something really good let's create one

positive thing in

our minds that we did but let's also pick something that we could do better so a

negative was it a

turnover did we lose the puck in front of our net did if we're goalie did we let

something in that

probably could have been saved whatever it might be we're going to pick one

positive one negative

And then you take those two things and say, what can I do better next practice?

What is one thing

that I can do better next practice or next game? And how can I do that? So it sets

yourself up for

success next time you get on the ice. You know, Bobby, you know, our players as

they get older haveto start taking a little ownership in that concept, right? Of knowing like what they

can do to

motivate themselves and understand that you're never as bad as you thought you

were and you're

never as good as you thought you were. What is a strategy that a player can use

as they get older

and mom and dad aren't prompting them? What can they do by themselves to

remember to kind of go

through that process of finding the good and the bad every time they train? Yeah,

I think if you're having these conversations with yourself, you're already ahead of

the game. If

you're listening to something like this that's already putting yourself in a mental

space to help

yourself, you're ahead of the game again. I found that after everything and I did

this throughout

my entire career and it very much helped me is that I took five minutes every time,

no matter what it was of quiet. You know, coaches, you would always listen to your

coaches after

the game and then at a certain level media. But then you go away and I would go

away and I would

get on the bike and I would spend five minutes to myself just. completely clearing

all the

mechanisms that are around you to maybe tell you that you were really good or to

tell you that you

were really bad and you get into your own headspace. And there's nothing you can

really do except

be accountable. You just have to be accountable. And if you want to be good at

anything in life,

you have to be accountable. And hockey is no different. So spend five minutes to

yourself. It

doesn't have to be five. It could be three. Just come up with those two things. And

then the third

thing comes from those two things. Positive, negative, and what can I do better?

The only thing

that I can really set myself up for is preparation,

being ready for the next time I go. And you have to find a way to get yourself three

to five

minutes. Just find a way. It could be in the car with music on. It doesn't matter.

Just find a way

to give yourself three minutes to go over the highlights.

Bobby, that's great advice. And to kind of close this out with my question, we

talked about this on

our big episode this week. Kids, I actually recommend if you have the time to go

listen to that.But how, you know, we tell the kids on the ice, we tell you kids that hockey is a

sanctuary. The

rink is a sanctuary. And I'd love for you to talk to the kids for a second about, you

know, when

you step in those doors, how the outside world can kind of disappear and how

important it is that

you allow that to happen. I was going to say, as you mentioned, it can kind of

disappear.

You owe it to yourself to make it disappear. You owe it to yourself to show up. You

owe it to your

teammates as well, right? You made a commitment to go. You owe it to your

teammates not to be mad

because homework didn't go well. School didn't go well.

The note came back from the girlfriend and it wasn't good. Whatever it might be.

You have this opportunity in front of you every night that you get on the ice to let

all of that

just fall away and be a kid and play hockey and compete at the level that you want

to compete at.

And, you know, if you're in a situation where your hockey and your school aren't

the same life,

you get to separate those two. And I think that's one of the most important things

that I had as a

kid was that I was always able to separate those two worlds. And hockey became

my world outside of

school and school dominates life for these guys, right? What I would say to any kid

is there's

nothing like I don't remember anything better in my hockey career than just getting

to the rink and

smell. The rink has a smell. The ice has a smell. The locker room doesn't have a

great smell, but I

hope you guys understand the way that you can hear the ice and the crackle. Like

that just used to

set me on a certain wavelength every time I would walk into that. And I hope that's

that's my hope

for any kid that's playing is that they get. there and um as kids are listening to it i

hope you

find that sanctuary and it's adults that are rearing these kids and teaching these

kids like create

it just create it for them it's it's the best part it's the best part of their game it

really is

And Bobby, I'm sure you agree that the coolest part about what you just described

is it never

really goes away. It's something I've noticed that nothing will make me feel like a

kid again, likewalking into an ice hockey rink and everything you described. Right. And that's the

coolest. You

don't know that when you're 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Yeah. But you find that later on of,

wow, it still is

this most amazing experience in the world. Nothing better. Nothing beats it. I love

it. All right,

gang, you just heard from Bobby Ryan. It's another great episode of the Ride to

the Ring. Kids,

remember, wherever you're at on your hockey journey, we believe in you. You

should, too. Skate

hard, have fun, learn something today, all right? We'll see you on the next Ride to

the Ring. Take

care, everybody.