The Ride to The Rink: Unlocking Creativity on Ice with Christian Grunnah

Lee MJ Elias [0:07 - 0:32]: Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world, and welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Lee and Christie today, and we've got our friend Christian here of Grow Up Power Skating. If any of you are on social media, believe me, you have seen this person, you have seen his Instagram, you have seen his social media stuff. And Christie, he has delivered a lot of gold on the big episode this week. But for the episode of the Ride to the Rink, he's got some other stuff going on that we got to share, right, kids? 

Christie Casciano [0:32 - 0:43]: And I think it's something that you might not really associate or think about with skating. So we're going to open up your eyes and open up your minds, and here's Christian. 

Christian Grunnah [0:44 - 2:49]: Guys, when you hit the ice, every time you hit the ice, what is the first thing that goes through your head? Right? For me, when I coach and when I play, I think about, how can I be the most creative? Can I unlock my creativity on the ice? Now, if we really just break that down to the word create, what can I create for myself on the ice, for my teammates? What kind of opportunities can I unlock by result of really good skating, by being really smart about my decisions and my positioning, right? So the more I'm able to unlock any kind of pressure that I might have in my brain or in my feelings that I need to perform a certain way for my coach, for my parents and let that go and allow myself to almost paint a picture every shift that I have. What do I want to do in that shift? And usually that really comes down to the creativity that I'm able to unlock and in the way that I move, right? Can I win every single race? Can I be really effective in every battle for the puck? Can I find more space for myself and my teammates by changing speed, by changing direction, by protecting the puck? How creative can I be? And usually that's going to help me have a lot more fun because I'm going to. I'm then going to make moves that I really. I've worked on and that I really enjoy. I'm going to be a really tough opponent to play against because people aren't going to be able to just predict what I'm doing because I have a different mindset than just a rigid set or I go, here I do this. I'm unlocking a. A potential in myself to play with more freedom and a flow of what I can do personally versus anyone else on the ice. 

Lee MJ Elias [2:50 - 3:20]: You know, Christian, something else you brought up on the big episode that we have to tap into here. When you talk about creativity, you had spoken about how in your life you had. You had also studied things like the arts and acting and theater. And we talk a lot to the kids on the show about things like music and writing and speaking and just. Just the different aspects away from sport. Can you tap on it for a minute about how that type of study, that type of exploration into creativity not only helps you in life, but helps in hockey, too? It's a muscle you can flex. 

Christian Grunnah [3:21 - 5:06]: Absolutely. The, the best part about our game is that we have to play together in order to be effective. And one of the. The best, but also the hardest things to do, especially as a young player, is actually putting your energy and your focus on someone else. Right? And one of the things that I learned from doing theater or acting was to get outside of my own bubble, I had to listen more. I had to focus on someone else and what they were doing and what they were giving to me, and I had to respond to that. Right. So not just thinking about, oh, what's, what's my process, but what. What's my teammate doing? What's the person that I'm sharing this space with, giving to me? And, and how can I level that up for them? Right? Because we're all connected, right? The six players that we have on the ice can't leave out the goalie. Right. The. All of my teammates were all going to have an effect on one another, right? And the best players are the ones who are leveling up with their teammates. That means that they're not again, playing in a bubble or with the blinders on or a mirror in front of their face. Right? So in. In having experiences away from the rink. Right. In. In acting. Right. Or even just in friendships, the more I can listen, the more I can see what's happening for a friend. Right. A teammate, someone sharing that space with me, the more I'm going to be able to help them. And then eventually that's going to make me a better person and a better teammate. And my teammates are going to be excited to play with me because they know I'm not just focused on what I'm doing for myself. I don't want a highlight reel just for me. I want to level all of us up to. So that we can all have success. Right? 

Christie Casciano [5:06 - 5:23]: And Christian, you know, the kids listening now, they love getting better at hand eye coordination. They love practicing their shot and stick handling. How much should they work on skating to improve their game? 

Christian Grunnah [5:23 - 6:26]: Absolutely. You know, I tell kids all the Time I'm like, you know, when you get on the ice, the first thing you got to do is you got to move, right? You only touch the puck a handful of times every shift. If you're lucky, sometimes you have a whole shift where you might not even touch the puck. Right. So as tedious as it is, right. The more discipline we can have to really hone in the blades on the bottom of our feet before we hone in the blade at the bottom of our stick, the more effective we're going to be, right? So if we're not wasting energy, right. If we're not just, you know, relying on our, our hard work or our athleticism to get our. Ourselves into the place that we want to be, but if we really have a complete, masterful relationship with those skates, man, are we going to be way better off. So all the time that you can spend on making a good relationship with your skates and right. The easier it's going to be when you play in that game. So you don't have to think about it anymore. 

Christie Casciano [6:28 - 6:30]: That's the key. So you don't have to think about it. 

Lee MJ Elias [6:31 - 7:09]: Good relationship with your skates. Good relationship with other people. Kids, listen, if you're listening to this show, you love hockey. You're not listening to the show if you don't love hockey. Just remember hockey can be in everything that you do. You also have to remember that you're so much more than just a hockey player. Right? Wherever you're at on that journey, remember, we believe in you. You should, too. For Christian Gunna, for Christiciano Burns, I'm Lee Elias. Kids, thanks for listening to the ride to the rink. We'll see you on the next episode. Make sure to have fun, skate hard and skate on. Take care, everybody.