The Ride to The Rink: The Importance of Environment in Youth Hockey

0:08 hello hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the ride to the rink. It's mike benelli and leo elias with you today and we're going to be talking about how important it is to ensure the environment you're in is what you're focused on, over the level that you're at. I'm not saying that they're both not important or anything like that, but we just had a great interview with Brian Decord, who is a professional goaltending coach. His son, joey Decord, many of you will know, plays for the Seattle Kraken and he said that, mike, he said environment for goaltenders especially, is more important over the level that you play at. But I think that that's actually pretty important across the board, that you need to be accepting of your environment, understanding of your environment, but also knowing what environment you want to be in to become a better hockey player. You agree with that?

0:50 Right, I mean having spoken to I mean, geez, at this point, you know tens and tens and you know of ex-players and current coaches and ex-players that are now parents of kids For youth hockey players. I think they almost all agree that the environment that you're in and being happy and having fun and being in a place where you feel valued and you feel like the coaches out there wanting to coach you and you like the coach, is so much more important than how many letters are on the.

1:30 You know on the jersey and the league you're in and you know the amount of games you play. And it's so important, I think, for youth players and their parents Right, but youth players to really think about, about, like, do I need to move? Do I want to move? Do I want to? Am I upset that I don't get to play somewhere else because three of the other guys or girls on my team moved? But I'm happy and it is. It's hard to fight that feeling, but it's also do what's best for you and do what's best for what you do, what's best for what you feel in your gut and what you feel you want to do. And I think for me as a parent, like, I want that kid to advocate.

2:13 I want you, as a player, to advocate for that Like. No, no, I'm happy, I like where I'm at and I and I really enjoy coming to practice every day. My, I think it's a really great point you just brought up of just advocating for you, and I think you also did a great job of defining environment. Environment, just to reiterate the kids you're playing with the coaching staff. Is it fun to show up to hockey every single time? And look, it's not always going to be fun, right, there's going to be times you got to work. There's going to be times you got to do things that maybe aren't so fun. But we're talking broadly. As a hockey player, are you enjoying where you're at right now, regardless of the level? And again, we're also not saying don't play at the highest level you can play at. We want you to play at the highest level you can play at, but environment plays into your development and I think that that's something that's really important for you all kids listening to understand that if you have three A's next to your name but you're getting no shifts, that might not be the best environment for you to get better, whereas if you're at a different level team and you are a member of that team and you are looked upon and the environment is there for you to grow, that could be more beneficial to you as a hockey player long-term.

3:16 And it's tough because you're getting pressure from everywhere. Sometimes it comes from the league, sometimes it comes from friends, sometimes it even comes from parents. But as a youth athlete, you have to be able to ask yourself am I happy here, why or why not? And you should go to your parents and say hey, listen, I don't feel right about this. Can we talk about it? And parents should be discussing that with you. Go ahead, mike. Yeah, no. And I also think that if you're a player, maybe that's not playing as much and maybe you don't feel like you're the best player on a team and you're like, oh my God, this is such a hard team, like like I want to move, I don't want to play here, cause I'm you know that's sometimes. You know you can embrace that, you can take that ability and say, you know, wow, I'm really like I'm struggling here, but if I'm, but if I'm, if the, if the people in the locker room and she's just like, just be a good human being.

4:12 The number one recruitable piece of being a great hockey player is being a great human being. And if you experience that in your room, if deep down inside you walk in and, as Lee was saying, you're happy, you're energized, it's not that's easy, it should be hard, right, but you're. But you feel like you're in a safe place, that you can, that you can compete at the level you want to compete at, that you can push your teammates and they're pushing you, that you can, you know, communicate with your coach and they can communicate with you. Then there's no rush to leave that environment. And the old adage that if you're good enough, they will find you. If, in fact, you want to enhance your own development and get to the next level, as they say, it will happen if you're in the right environment.

4:58 Yeah, I'll say this too. There might be a question well, how do I know if I'm in the right environment? Well, it's like a lot of things in life You'll learn through experience. When you're in a bad environment, you'll know that's an environment I don't want to be in again. And I want to reiterate what Mike said Environment does not mean lazy and easy right. Environment should be competitive in a place where you can learn Some of the best seasons I've ever had environmentally, where I was not anywhere near the best player but, man, the coaching staff really took me under their wing and taught me. That was a great environment for me, because I learned and I grew and I enjoyed that right. Another thing kids and parents. I know you're listening too. This is really important, kids.

5:39 If you don't tell your family how you're feeling, they won't know. Sometimes parents assume you're not having a good time, or they assume you're having a great time and you might not be having a good or a bad time. So I think it's really important that you tell your parents hey, I love this team, I enjoy playing on this team. Believe me, they want to hear that. And if you don't tell them that, they may not know. Adversely and Mike, I'm going to throw it back to you If you're having a miserable time, you should tell your parents that right, I'm not enjoying this, I'm not learning anything, and then have a conversation. It doesn't mean you're going to quit the team and leave the team. It means you should have a conversation with an adult that you believe in, that you trust path. That's part of growing up. But at the end of the day, mike, again, there's too much focus on making the AAA tier one showcase elite teams and not of where is the environment where I can really grow as a player?

6:32 Enjoy my hockey, enjoy my time with my friends and enjoy the experience of hockey. It's a balance between those two things. Right and I'm as guilty as this as a parent as anyone that I or I want to project where I think my son should want to go more than he maybe wants to go and just listen to your kids, and if you're a parent, listen to this with your player you're going to ask right after the episode. Turn around, turn around right now pause the pause and say all right, you know I want to know where do you want to be here? And they're going to say, yeah, I love it, oh, thank God. Or they're going to say, no, I'm not really happy and I, you know, I don't think this is something I want to do. And you know we've talked to so many professionals that will say, if you allow that to happen, that you know, the water will find its level, the player will get to where they want to get to quicker than if we're trying to push them into that place, right?

7:29 And I'll just say in closing look, I think it's important if you make a commitment to a team, you finish that commitment. I do believe that for the players listening and the parents listening, If you made a commitment, you should finish the season no matter what. But it's okay to have these conversations right of I'm happy, I'm not happy, and even to find a solution of how do I get happy or how do I stay happy right. But environment, environment is very important. We don't talk about that enough in hockey and we're going to do episodes for your coaches about creating that environment. But right now, this episode is all about you, the kids listening on the ride to the rink, about finding that environment. You guys are great. We believe in every single one of you. Continue to skate, continue to enjoy this game and remember we'll see you on the next ride to the rink.

8:09 For Mike Minnelli, I'm Lee Elias. Skate on everyone. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.