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Manscaped even threw in two free gifts to their Performance Package 5.0, the Manscaped Boxers and the Shed Travel Bag. I have both of those and they are both awesome. Get 20% off and free shipping with the code THPN at Manscaped.com. Ask 20% off plus free shipping with the code THPN at Manscaped.com. It swoos summer boys, get on board or get left behind. Welcome, welcome, welcome everybody to the Hockey Think Tank Podcast brought to you by GMBM.com. I switched it up on top, he didn't know that was coming, that's my website, not his. I'm doing the intro today, hopefully you're here, hopefully your ears are not bleeding if you're listening to this in the car on full blast. I told, if I wanted to take over today, he said absolutely, Jay, who take over on this magic carpet ride. So, Topher, today's topic for our podcast, I want to talk about ways to push yourself in practice. All right, I think that a major, major reason that I as a non-skilled guy was able to climb the ranks of hockey honestly was because I loved practicing. I know a lot of guys hated practicing, I loved practicing, I found ways to make it fun. We talked about some of those ways throughout the last couple years on the podcast, but I think that if you truly want to be a good player, you really, really want to make it to the next level. Part of that is looking in the mirror and asking yourself, am I doing every single thing I can every day so that I'm getting better? No matter if it's a bad practice team-wise or all the extrinsic factors, all of the things that could affect you, you don't let those affect you and you find a way to get better every day. So, I wanted to talk about all of the different ways, let's throw the ideas out there, what are all the different ways that we can get better from our practices? So, do you want to go kind of like big picture first? Yeah, I mean, I think we just throw out as many ideas in 45 minutes here as we possibly can to help all of our players that listen, all of the parents who are talking to their players of ideas, things they can try and then coach us. So, yeah, maybe we go wider view, zoomed out and then zoom in as we go. Okay. Okay. So, I think the first thing to talk about is if you want to get better and you want to push yourself and we say this all the time, it's simple, not easy. So true. It's simple, but it's not easy because all it really is is being detailed and prepared every day. Like if you really want to boil it down to you want to create a competitive advantage for yourself over your peers and over your competition, like if you can be consistent every single day with your preparation, you're going to pass people, you know, you're going to get infinitely better, more better if that's even a word than everybody else, right? So like, I think if you really want to scope out from more of like a philosophical standpoint, simple, not easy consistency, what are your thoughts guys that word consistency. I'm sure a lot of you hear it all the time. It is the number one thing that will change your life. You want to be successful at anything. Success does not happen overnight. You need to consistently do little things every single day. And like we always talk about, your winds start stacking slowly. But over time, you look back in a month, in six months, in a year, in three years, and you'll be so much further ahead if you just focus on consistently everything you can do today, right now to get better, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, and almost becomes boring. Yeah. And, and, oh man, I was reading a book the other day. You know who it was? It was Mark Messier's book. I read Mark Messier's book. No one wins alone. I literally read it in like three days when I was in New Jersey on vacation. And it was a saying it was something to the effect of like there's marvelous in the mundane. There's marvelous in the mundane, something like that. And it is. It's so true because like, if you think about it, and again, we were out and then we zoom in, and, and this is something that I've been using a lot, like everybody always talks about that 1% better every day, 1% better day, you can only get 1% better every day. And then I was listening to a podcast. And this one guy was saying that, but he was like, it's way too cliche, 1% better every day. Like, what does that mean? So we actually quantified it. And it's okay. I'm going to quantify what this means. Well, 1% of a day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds. So if you truly want to get 1% better at something, do that for 14 minutes and 24 seconds more than everybody else. And that will give you a competitive advantage over them. But again, like that sounds easy, right? That sounds easy, but it's not. And I think everybody listening, maybe not everybody, but people who've tried to achieve great things like there, there comes an understanding and there comes a point of the conversation understanding, and there comes a point of inflection in your career where that 14 minutes and 24 seconds becomes a chore, right? It becomes a chore. It becomes something that you feel like you have to do. So I think part of this conversation could be, well, how can we make that not a chore, but also, or make it seem like it's not a chore, but also when it does seem like a chore, or through, like that's where the resilience comes in too. So there's kind of like two different ways you can go about it, thoughts. Let me ask you this, because every and everybody listening, players listening, you're going to hit those walls. This being consistent does not mean that you're not going to have bad days. It's not not easy, right? It doesn't mean there's days where you're not going to want to do it. Even though you love hockey, it's the thing you, there's days where you don't want to be at the rink. It's going to happen every now and then it will. So let me ask you this, how and what are some things you did when you had those off days to like find a way to get that 1% to find a way to make it a consistent day so you keep stacking your wins day after day? Yeah, I think there is an element, if I'm being completely honest of like pushing through and obviously like, I know this is like not going to be my best day. And I don't. And it is funny, right? I think that's a really good, honest conversation to have. And even like with the two of us having this conversation, because we always talk about how important passion is and how important loving the game is and in reality, like you're not going to have that passion and love it every single day of your life. You know, you're doing a three and three with three games on the road when you're in junior hockey or you're in pro hockey, you know, you're going through a slump in any capacity at any age, you know, there's there's days where the love of it and the fun of it, like it's not there, like, and easily and readily accessible, you know. And so I think on days like that, competition is best and you say it all the time, right? Like find a way to create some kind of a competition, whether it's with yourself, particularly most importantly with a teammate, have a scoring competition, you know, do something before practice, whatever, like find a way to compete. And I think it will help to like get you up for the days that, you know, everything in the world is telling you to knock it up. I totally agree. Number one, I would say for me, what I always did was recite my why, why am I here, why am I doing this, what are my goals, and then reverse engineering and being like, well, winning today is part of my goals, even though, you know, this usually happened for me when I'd be in a slump, if I unscored in five games or six games or depending on the league, two games, you know, like, oh my God, you start gripping the stick and you're upset or whatever it is, so then why am I here, okay, because this prepares me for the games, I have to do well at this, but then not allowing myself, kind of putting blinders on yourself and being like, all that matters is today. There is no tomorrow, all that matters is today, I'm going to find a way to push through this and have a good day and make this a day that moves the needle forward and gives me confidence at the end of this practice. In a big way that I always did this, I do this in my coaching, when I was a coach of hockey, I do this in the gym every day, again, like Toph said, is finding a way to create competitions. If you're a forward, go to somebody on the team, hey, scoring comp today, winner buys the other, the loser buys the winner a Gatorade or, you know, whatever level you're at or untie your skits, just put something on the line so that there's some pride and you really, really want to beat that other player, right? You're an offensive and it could, you know, it could be scoring comp, could be who gets more shots through today, who gets more blocked shots. I don't care what the competition is, just create one to find a way to extrinsically, meaning motivation coming from outside of your own body, from somewhere else, from someone else. Intrinsic motivation is what's inside of you. And there's going to be days where that intrinsic motivation may not be there. And that's when if you, you know, listen to things like this and create that battle or that competition or whatever it is, now you're being pushed instead of pulled by yourself. And it will help you so much, not only to work harder in that practice, to be more dialed on the details because you want to win, you always want to win against your buddies, but just, you know, finding a way to end the practice and look back at the practice and be like, man, I didn't want to be here today and I crushed it. I got better today. And those are the really big wins when you don't want to be there and then you show up and you find a way. And those are also the wins that you need to look in the mirror before you go to bed at night, when you reflect on your day, and you're like, most guys would have laid an egg today. Great confidence, man. And that's how you build confidence. Yeah. Yeah. And even going further, like momentum is kind of a thing, you know? And so like, maybe, maybe you couldn't give it your hundred, maybe, maybe all you had was 60, maybe all you had was 70, but you showed up and you're continuing, like think about your development and on a linear path, like you kept that momentum going forward, as opposed to, you know, just not doing it, not bringing it, whatever. And now you're taking a step back and, and again, everybody's, you have, there's so many people that are, that are traveling the same path that you are, to, to, to realize your goals and to realize your dreams. And so just keeping that momentum forward, however small, however small it may be, like that, that can prove to be a huge difference because everything's a habit. And so like you take a day off, and I don't mean this in the sense of everybody needs days off. You take like you, you don't give it for a day, like it's going to be easier, easier for you in the next day to justify not doing it again. And then it's going to be easier for you to justify it again, and again, and again, and again. That's why just like continuing to keep those steps going forward as small as they be, they can prove huge dividends in the end. It's what Toph just said there guys is so massive, Sir Isaac Newton, an object in motion will stay in motion. Like it's way easier to keep that ball rolling than it is to start, stop, start, stop, start, stop. You, you know, everyone knows this, especially older people who exercise and then go on vacation and take a week off and then try to get back into it. It's so much easier to hit that snooze and not get back into it. You know, after that seventh day off, you get home, like, I mean, I just, what's one more day? All of a sudden you haven't worked out in a month, right? An object in motion will stay in motion, and I want to, I want to kind of go at something Toph said there too. He said, you know, you're not going to feel your best every day and nobody's going to. So there's two 100% that I want people to think about. A, 100% is like your ability. Did you play to your ability? But there's another 100%, which is like your energy that you have in your body today. You're not always going to play to your ability, your top ability 100%, your skill game. But if you're giving that 100%, you feel great, you know, you can still give 100 in the effort department. But let's say you're coming off, you know, a weekend where you played a ton and you got sick, you're coming to the ring to get to practice and you've got like 75% of your normal energy tank. Well, if you give 100% of that 75% you have to give that day, you need to find a way with your self talk to look in the mirror and pat yourself on the back. A lot of guys will be like, oh, I didn't feel good today, you know, I didn't have my best day. Okay. Yeah. Maybe your skill wasn't there, but you only had 75% in the tank, but you gave everything you had that was in the tank. That's still 100% of what you had that day. This is easy to kind of blur lines with this, but this is a way that you can build confidence and take a win and look at a day as a win, even when you didn't have your best day. You know, maybe you, you played, like I said, you got sick, you played all week and you're coming and tired. You didn't eat well, whatever you come in tired, but you worked your ass off with whatever energy you had, you need to still look at that as a win. And that's a way where you can trick your mind from a psychological standpoint to keep your ball rolling, the rolling and the momentum standpoint and in a confidence standpoint. Does that make sense? Yeah, makes perfect sense. And I think the other thing too, you know, when you think about this and when you don't have your best, sometimes it's because of hockey related stuff, you know, an issue with the coach or not playing well, gripping your stick a little tight, things like that. Sometimes it's, it's stuff that's happening outside of the game. That's going to affect your game, you know, fight with your boyfriend or your girlfriend. And somebody in your family is sick, stress academically that you have to go through, you know, and we always talked about using hockey as an escape, like, Hey, like this is, this is the hour where I get to kind of do what I love to do, or this is the couple hours where I get to do what I love to do. And I think that mindset for so many people, once they think of it in that way, it allows the days where you don't necessarily feel like coming to feel a little bit more positive from an experiential standpoint. And so that's something we always talked about with our college guys, because being a collegiate athlete is difficult. It's really, really hard. You're balancing a lot of different things. And we always said, Hey, you know, use this couple hours that you hear at the rink. Like this is, this is your escape from reality almost, you know, this is, this is where you get to do what you love to do. And so having that sort of mindset can help you to push through things to it. It just gives you some perspective and allows you to again, go back to your why, like you said, and do it. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. As those of you know who listened to our podcast, we try to give our listeners insight and perspective to be the best version of you. Whether you're a player, a coach, or even a parent, we want to provide resources to help you live your best life. And one way to do that is through talk therapy. We are huge believers in therapy. It's a great way to have some guided self reflection and to get to the root of what might be interfering with you live in your best life. It can help you to learn better coping skills, maybe set some healthy boundaries for yourself and others and can empower you to be the best version of you. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's all online and designed to be convenient, flexible to your time, and suited to your schedule. Fill out an online questionnaire and get matched with a licensed therapist. And if that one doesn't work out, you can switch therapists at any time for no additional cost. Stop comparing and start focusing with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/thpn today and get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, h-e-l-p.com/thpn. And that was one of my points from the zooming out perspective of ways that you can get more out of yourself in practice to be a better player was you have to, when you get to the rink, switch on into hockey mode. It doesn't matter what happened outside the rink. Define that. What does that mean? What does hockey mode mean? So like, you really, you can't be giving your best if you aren't where your feet are. So if you're thinking about your test that you have later or breaking up with your girl or to family problems, whatever, when you come into the rink, you are not going to be able to give everything you have and get everything out of that practice that you can. But if you're going to practice, you're obviously physically safe. You're okay because you're at the practice, so like we know that. So you've got to find a way to be able to separate the outside world and what's going to happen at the rink. Now this is way easier said than done. No doubt about it, and this is a major challenge. My last year pro, my 10th year pro, I was going through a divorce. It was the hardest year of my career because I had a very hard time. I'd bounce up and down throughout that season as the stuff away from the rink was affecting my play. We didn't start this podcast till after that year where we had Matt Calderoni on who told us about creating an alter ego, and that's one of the ways that you can do that. As soon as you touch the door handle to walk into the rink, I'm no longer Jeff who's, you know, going through a divorce. I am a hockey player. I am your savage. I'm Jeffrey Jay, who's savage, name it, name your alter ego, whatever you want. And the only thing that alter ego is concerned about is hockey getting better, being your best, nothing else in the world is even a thing because that's somebody else kind of disassociating into hockey mode. If you can learn how to do this, it's going to help you to be where your feet are, give everything you can for that hour or hour and a half or two hours, you're at the rink, and you're going to get more out of that. And as soon as you get off the ice or as soon as you walk out of the rink, you're back into the real world. And it sounds kind of crazy, but a lot of elite athletes do this. So this is something you can learn from them on. I like that. I like that. So what's the J who alter ego? Well, for me, I think that's what everybody wants to know. Well, I didn't have this one. I played because I didn't learn it until what it is. It's like an act. Well, it would be there's no outside world there. I only live in the rink. I stay in the rink. I eat in the rink. I sleep in the rink. Like I would pretend that the rink is the only thing in my life. And I will outwork everyone. And I will try to outsmart everyone. As I got older, I became a smarter and smarter and smarter hockey player. Unfortunately, that happens. Wisdom comes with age, not youth. I wish I would have cared about learning about the game way more when I was younger. But it would be I will outwork everyone at every single thing, no matter how I feel. I will be a leader. I will lead from the front. I will do anything to win the puck. As Grandma said to me starting when I used to go up to Chicago, play against you, when Grandma for sure knew my team was going to lose by a touchdown. And she would make me say it before I got out of the car and Grandma closed your ears. The only time I've ever heard Grandma cuss is when she would say to me, "Who's damn puck is it, Jeffrey?" And she wouldn't let me out of the car until I said, "It's my damn puck, Grandma." It's the only time I've ever heard Grandma cuss. And she would say that to me if we're every game from like middle school all the way to when she come watch me and pro, "Who's damn puck is it, Jeffrey?" "It's my damn puck, Grandma." You know, like that would have been part of my alter ego. How about you? What's Tov's alter ego? And my alter ego name would have been like savage for sure. Psycho, something. Something. Psycho savage, Lavecchio? Something, I don't know. Psycho savage, Lavecchio. Yeah. There you go. I think my alter ego, that's an interesting one because like, I think about my career and there were times where I needed to like slow down and have a little bit more fun. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And, you know, obviously there's times where I'll need to be pushed and stuff. So, you know, I think my alter ego would have been like somebody who was just immersed in the experience and just loved what was going on, you know? And not like, not really kind of like put so much pressure on it, you know, just somebody like, I think naturally I'm competitive as hell. So that wasn't just like the my damn book thing, like I don't think I needed coaxing on that stuff. But like the have fun be where your feet are, I think I definitely would have had an element to that. I kind of see like, I kind of see, I think like sunshine from remember the Titans because he was a savage, but he was kind of like laissez-faire, go with the flow, but then when it was time to play, it was bang. He was a killer. He was skilled because you even more than me, I think got in your own head too much. You know, we all do that, but I think that your alter ego and what you needed was probably like, take a breath, yeah, you are, don't think about the future. Don't think about tomorrow. Like let's enjoy today, let's be a little bit more flowy instead of butt hole tight all the time. I think that that you. Are you saying I'm a tight ass? Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. Yeah. It's your biggest strength, but also like, you know, it probably also maybe was a little bit to your detriment as well. Yeah. If I had to guess. Yeah. No, I think, I think when you talk about alter ego, like it would have been a little bit more of let it slide off the back, you know, have a little bit of fun here, you know, just enjoy the experience, use it as the escape kind of thing. I think it's funny, like, because you think about alter ego, like we had pronger on, right? We had pronger on however many weeks ago it was. And his alter ego was psycho, like legit psycho in the best way possible. Yeah. Um, I, I needed to tame that down a little bit to be at my best, right, right. And so for those of you listening, alter ego doesn't mean you turn into a psycho. It's whatever you need to do to be your best for your game. You need to understand that, like Toph and I were completely different players. So our alter egos are going to be completely different. And the same for, you know, Joe and Johnny and Sally and Brenda and whoever, right? Like everybody's alter ego is going to be a little bit different. And what that alternate ego needs to bring out of them every single day. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So I don't even know, man, I was thinking, I just didn't want to use little Johnny, because we always use Johnny, um, another 10,000 foot view thing, things you can do to get more out of your practices so you can become a better player year over year. Toph said preparation, I'll, I'll rewind that even further. What's your nutrition and what's your sleep like? Like everybody listening. I cannot stress this enough, especially in today's world where everybody's go, go, go. And you want things done now and you want things faster. Don't eat fast food. Don't eat it. Get away from it. If it's fast, 99.99999% times it is not good for you. If you eat better and you sleep better, your brain works better, your body recovers more. You have more energy, everything fires optimally. You have less inflammation in your joints. One of my NFL guys is home right now in between OTAs and the start of training camp, which is in about today's in about, uh, like 12 days or so, I think, um, and he just flew down to Florida and is working with this doctor who takes his blood and does a very extensive blood panel and goes over all the foods that he should eat and shouldn't eat and all this stuff. It's been a two weeks and he came in the gym and he looks unbelievable. He's like, my, my joints have never felt this good and, you know, we were working on nutrition and stuff like that. And you know, like guys will buy in and they fall off. They buy in. They fall off and he's 100% bought in now and he's like, my joints have never felt better in my life. And like it's completely obvious in our training right now how good he is feeling. The poppy has all this stuff. And the only difference is he's eating way tighter. So like if you care and you want to get more out of practices, you need to be fueling the machine the correct way, hydration, food, and sleep. And I guarantee you, especially if you do that over time and you're young for years, you will get way more out of practices than everyone else who is not doing that. Hey, man, simple, not easy, simple, it's not easy. You know, like a simple thing, protein, carb, vegetable, every meal, like if you really want to boil down protein, carb, vegetable, every meal, I don't even care what it is. You know, the guys used to make fun of me in college because, you know, I'm not a great chef. I would, I didn't care what the mixture was a lot of times because, you know, I'm a college kid, I would have broccoli, oatmeal and eggs, broccoli, oatmeal and chicken, mainly because broccoli, super easy to make, throw it on the pan, you know, turn it on, oatmeal, I microwave it for a minute and a half, chicken, I just made that, you know, on Sundays for the week. So like literally I could make that real quick and I hit my protein carb veggie. There are days where I'd eat that two or three times a day. Not because I like the way it tasted because all I cared about was getting in protein, carb, veggie, every single meal. It's gross. The boys used to rip me apart, but I was like, dude, I don't care, I'm jacked. What's up? Me too. Same here. Nice to say that to everybody. Walk in a room. What's up? Do you have any more maybe like zoomed out things that can help you in your everyday practices to get more? Well, yeah. I mean, again, it goes back to consistency and simple not easy. And so, you know, we talk about routine all the time and like any high achiever, any personal development coach, any performance coach will tell you how important routine is. And that consistency in routine is everything. And so if you really want to boil it down to it, I'll talk about some of the people and I've talked about them before. But like guys that I've coached or played with that have gotten as close to realizing their potential as humanly frick impossible. I think about Colin Greening who I played with that Cornell, Colin Greening, you know, talent wise, maybe should have made the NHL, maybe not he had a great career in Colin Greening. Every day after practice, he did 10 minutes of cutbacks. Every single day after practice, he did 10 minutes of cutbacks. And then what did he become? He became an NHL forward by being able to be really good playing down low and in front of the net. So do you think doing those cutbacks for 10 minutes every day, four days a week in practice? You think that might have helped them be him become an NHL or? Absolutely. I think about Matt Molson, who I played with that Cornell every day, he was doing skating drills after practice. He was not a strength of his, but literally every single day he was doing skating drills after practice. And you know what? He became a good enough skater and ended up making tens of millions of dollars playing the game hockey in the NHL as a guy who got cut from his junior team at 18 years old. I think Andy Mealy, the year that he won the Hobie Baker and every day after practice, we did in tight scoring and focused on mindset and attitude and bearing the puck. Well, guess what? Hobie Baker that year and had I think 75 points during that, Adam Fantilly, one of the most routine oriented people I've ever met in my entire life. Well, he went third overall. You think that might be a reason why? So like having like, I always say this, man, but like one of the best compliments that a coach can give a player is predictable is your predictability. Like I know exactly what this person is going to be doing and I know exactly how this person is going to be doing it every single day. Like when you're predictable to your teammates, you're predictable to your coaches and your attitude and your effort and your routine to get better in your development path, like that is what makes people exponentially better and grow to like heights that they didn't even know that they could. It's not the best skating coach. It's not the best skill coach. It's not the best, you know, grand plan from a strength coach. No, like, and you can probably even see it in the gym VEX as a strength and conditioning coach. You can give two guys the same exact plan, the same exact plan and the person who does it with more intention in routine and consistency is going to infinitely beat out the person who doesn't. It's not you. It's them. You provide them a platform and you help, but at the end of the day, you can take a horse to the water, but the horse has got a drink. You can't force him to drink the water. And so like that's where it's such a separator. Like it's such a separator and it's so simple, but it's so hard, you know, like if you think about it, like shoot a hundred bucks a day, how easy does that sound? But like how many guys do it? How many do you do it? And like every time I get in front of kids and I talk to teams, like I kind of make a joke of it, but I'm like, Hey, what do you want to do to get better? Well, and this is where again, like you want to push yourself. The pushing isn't in like the going a hundred percent. The pushing is to doing the five percent before you have to go a hundred percent. That's like the devil in the detail and that's like the real separator, you know? So like if I ask a kid when I'm doing my team building stuff or I'm speaking in front of a group like, Hey, what do you want to do to get better or like what do you need to get better at? Oh, I want to get better at my shot. Awesome. What do you do to get better? I'm going to work on my shot. Okay. Well, what does that mean? I need to shoot pucks. Okay. When? I'm going to do it. I don't know. Every day during the week. Great. What time or how many? What time? Like get it down to the detail, man. Like get it down to the detail and like that little bit of work you do upfront. Like maybe you do it monthly. You sit down for five to 10 minutes at the beginning of every month and go through your routine for the day, and then it's just autopilot from that way on if you choose to do it every day. And all the studies will tell you like write it down and check it off. These little, you know, the 1% better, the 14 minutes and 24 seconds, write it in a journal, put it in your phone. And then when you do it, you got to write it down, have an accountability buddy, somebody that you do it with create competition. Maybe it's somebody that's across the country as a buddy of yours and you got to text them, Hey, I did my hundred shots today, you know? So like I get the 5% before the 100% I think I might use that a lot more now. It's the 5% before the 100% that's that's the separator, that little bit of planning. So you when you go into your day, you know what you're going to do. And then when you do that, it's so much easier to make it autopilot, you know, I absolutely love that. I asked Joseph Wall, one of my clients since he was 15 years old, I think probably going on 10 years, been been training him now. I asked him over the last two years, like, okay, like you've been dialed, like what's what's going on? What's the difference? And he said, you know, I finally listened, I do the same warm up on game day that I do on practices. Every day my warm up is exactly the same or it's a practice or a game. And I'm like, I don't want to say that for 10 years, but I'm glad you're doing it now. You know, a guy just signed for 13 sheets. You know, what's up, like, like, like, and it's not, I'm going to do this warm up because I'm superstitious. It's I like doing this warm up because I know that my body and my mind feel prepared and ready to go attack the game or the practice or the pregame skate or whatever it is right now. I just know this puts me in the best space mentally and physically to have a day. And that's why you do that. And that is 5%. Yeah. And Vax, did any of the four people that I talked about who either won Hobie Bakers or play in the NHL, did I say anything about game day? No. I said nothing about game day. Like, it's that predictability on practice days, like that's those are the people that make it. I mean, those are legit the people that make it, dude. With Tony Adams, who we had on the podcast that we did live here in my sick gym basement, what's up? If you haven't watched it on YouTube, check it out. If you haven't listened to that one, you need to listen to that one. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Going undrafted and making the NHL is, it's possible, obviously, it's hard. Going undrafted and making the NFL is infinitely harder. And he did that. And he is a starter. And one of the biggest things that I've seen from him is that he says, we say it all the time, and he was throwing me around the gym the other day. I let him, but I wanted him to for confidence sake. It's trained violently to play violently, practice violently, so you play violently. I'm going to play how you practice. And so like I put a hoodie on, he had a hoodie on, he's a corner back. So like he's got a hand fighting and pushing off. And I was like, all right, I'm going to try 50%. I want you to try 100%. I want you to rag down me and toss me around. And he threw my ass down so hard on the last red that I screamed, that's what I want. And he was so amped up when he left. And that was the last drill we did that day, so we'd end on a confidence thing. And it was it was trained violently, so you play violently, you know, it's, it's that mindset that's going to separate you guys. Bet on the action on the ice with Draft King Sportsbook. Download the app now and use code THPN. New customers can get 150 bucks instantly in bonus bets for betting just $5 on hockey. That's code THPN only on Draft King Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NHL. The crown is yours. Bonus BEX expire 168 hours after issuance gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler or visit www.1-800-Gambler.net in New York. Call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369 in Connecticut. HOPE is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort, 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus BEX expire 168 hours after issuance. See DKNG.com/hockey for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. Copyright NHL 2023 All Rights Reserved. Yeah. No. You kind of ended up roughly there. I was like, is there more? Just confident. Just pumped up. He's up. Another one that it's so simple, but this is something that almost all older players at the higher levels do that no younger players do. So if you start doing this when you're younger, it's only going to help you to create habits and routines like Toph just talked about, all these sick NHL players and why they got to where they got one of the reasons. It's like when you get to the rink, a lot of guys at the higher levels are like looking at their gear. They're getting both of their sticks ready. Not one stick. Because what if it breaks? You know, both of their, they've got two or three sticks. They all look the same. It doesn't mean, you know, when you're younger and you have different sticks, that's okay. But like, are they taped the same way? Do they feel the same? Is the nom the same? Is your equipment ready? Did you check that all of your equipment is in your fricking bag? All right. Young players. Yes. Listen to that. Did you check when you get to the rink, do you lay out your gear so it's ready to easily step into after your warm up? Did you check, are my skates sharpened? Do I have an edge on my steel? Young players. It's not that hard. Check your skates before you put them on. Do I have an edge? It's way better for you to miss the first five minutes of practice. If you realize that you don't have an edge, then to go out there, blow a tire and break your leg or have to get off the ice midway through practice, try and scramble finding somebody to sharpen your wheels, right? And that's just like a preparation thing. So make sure that you've got all your gear before you leave the house, make sure that your skates are sharpened, take both of your sticks for God's sakes, you know, like actually prepare like you want to be there. Yeah. Prepare like you went for a game, right? It's that simple, right? Simple. Not easy. Simple because it's doing it every single day. I mean, every day that I got to the rink from juniors on, first thing I do, get there, the reason I might get you immediately, maybe I shower before I put on the getch usually, put on my getch and the showering before was kind of like leaving the world behind. And now it's okay. It's hockey time. So I take a quick shower to like, you know, like I looked at it as like, you know, not a religious ritual, but like ritualistic and like, okay, like I'm washing off the world. Like I'm here presently now, I'm ready to go, I'm clean. Let's go. It's hockey time. Put my getch on and then I would lay out all of my gear in front of my stall, check over my gear and then I would tape all three of my sticks up, have those ready, then I would go and do my warm up or whatever we had to do. But that was every single day from 17 years old until I retired at 32, you know, and it just, it also gave me confidence. All right. All my stuff's ready. I know all my gear is good. You know, everything's ready to go. Nothing's broken. I don't need anything fixed. I've got all my sticks ready in case one of them breaks, right? For some reason I'm not scoring so I can blame it on my first stick and then go to my second stick and trick myself. It's almost, you know what we're talking about? You know that Steve Jobs thing, like Steve Jobs wore the same clothes every day. You know that? You notice I only wear black shirts and 99% of the time. Well, yeah. So, okay. So Jeff Lavecchio wears the same stuff every day. No, I did it because of him and Zuckerberg and I've heard that they do that. So, okay, so why don't you explain it then and because I see a very big kind of like similarity to what we're talking about to that mentality. Well, for me, it's like every day is the same. I'm going to show up every day the exact same way. I'm going to look the same every single day. I'm also going to limit like the things that don't actually matter and wasting time. Like when I was a kid, you know, obviously you're going to school. You're trying to impress the babies out there, trying to impress the honeys. You want to look good. I wear the same black first form shirts almost every single day. The only difference is it's either a long sleeve or a short sleeve. I wear the same black Bauer Lululemon collab pants every single day or Bauer Lululemon collab shorts every single day. So I eliminate that unnecessary thoughts in my mind. It's just like, yeah, I go on my closet, I got 40 of the exact same shirts and shorts. And if I'm working, that's what I'm putting on. And it just allows me to free up mind space to focus on the things that I need to focus on and eliminate a waste of time of going in my closet being like, I want to look hot today. What should I wear? No, I just bought all the same exact clothes. So I always look hot. What's up? Well, it's just it's routine, man. It's routine. And for particular Steve Jobs, because this is the story that I heard it from. It's like, hey, I need to make a million decisions during a day. And I don't want that I only have so much brain power. And so this is not a decision that I want to make every day. And I just I want to keep that brain power for the things that matter, like building an iPad or whatever it may be at Apple. And so again, it's just like setting up your day to optimize your performance, your nest. Yeah, there you go. Your nest. I also I wanted to I've been looking through this book here because we talked about the miraculous in the Monday, and I want to read it from this Messier book, because I think it's really good. So he's like, when a team or an organization is struggling for results, the answer is often in the small details. My uncle Vic used to say, those are the times you need to find the miraculous in the mundane. The majority of life in professional sports isn't sold out arenas and adoring crowds. Those moments occupy a tiny fraction of the week and are far outweighed by the sweaty bus rides in full gear after having dressed in a hotel ballroom for an away game practice as we used to do from time to time in my Oilers days in places like New York where ice time is hard to come by. Those moments are no fun, but everybody goes through them together. Winning teams need something, a story and event to galvanize them. It could be as simple as an uncomfortable bus trip through the Lincoln tunnel to New Jersey, whatever creates that bonding. But like, miraculous in the mundane, there's a video clip, Rass used to show this all the time. It's one of his favorite ones. Rass, for those who don't know, he's associate head coach in Michigan now. And so I got the chance to work with him for a couple of years. And his favorite video is of Nick Lidstrom. And so basically it was one of those like NHL 36s back in the day where they used to follow around a player for 36 hours on a road trip. And so they're following Lidstrom around like the guy like literally eats the same thing for breakfast. He has the same routine. He eats the same thing for lunch. And he absolutely loves that. And Babcock was the coach at the time of the Red Wings. And he was like, why is he special? He just loves the everyday man. He just loves that the monotony of what it means to be a pro. And like everybody always tosses that around like, what does it mean to be a pro, right? Like, what does it mean to be a pro? That's what being a pro is. Being a pro is like showing up everyday and executing to the best of your ability. It's being predictable. And knowing what that means for you because there's other guys who it's the opposite. They need variability in some things. In some things, they are that way, but I play with guys who need the variability. They need it to be different or else they feel stale and they feel bored and uncreative. And they can't play their game. So I don't want you guys to think that it's like, oh, you have to eat the same thing every day because that's what works for Lidstrom. You have to find what works for you to be your best. Now, I will say that for a lot of guys, it's a lot of the time, a very similar type of thing at each time of the day, at each meal, at each practice, very similar. Even those guys that need that variability, it's like when you talk about variability, there still needs to be a routine. Right. Their routine is they have choice within their routine. It's not like they're not showing up at the rink at the same time and things like that for the vast majority. There are outliers, but guys, try this stuff. I hope you're taking notes. I hope you're literally writing down throughout this podcast or you go back and you're like, okay, this is something I can try. This is something I can try. This is something I can try. We're not, we don't do this podcast to just talk. We literally do this podcast. I know part of it for me is like, I wish somebody would have told me this stuff at a younger age. All I wanted was to be a pro hockey player. All I wanted was to get a scholarship so my parents didn't have to pay for college. It's all I wanted. And I would have tried anything that anybody would have given me for advice to try this stuff. So please don't just listen, actually act on these things, please. And then find what works for you and stick to it and perfect it. 1% better, baby. Yeah. By focusing on the 5% the 5% before the 100% before the 100% little bit too many percentages. We got 1% we got 5% we got 100% but anyways, we had 70 or 75% we talked about it. 100% of your 70% did you know that 60% of the time it works? Every time. Every time. That. Brian Bysack 10 out of 10 out of 15 times. You always used to say that. What? You used to always say it Western. Yeah, that move works 10 out of 10 out of 15 times and I thought it was the funniest thing. That would be advice. It's such a basic thing. It's so good. Everybody knows Brian Bysack. Don't myself. What's up? I think every think that's enough for today. Well, I think just the last thing is is you said it a little bit earlier, but like, you know, when you want to push through again, there's sometimes an element of it. First of all, you have to have a great self reflection, a guy that I've been listening to a lot. You've probably listened to him a little bit, he seems right up your alley. Bedros Coolian. Does that name ring a bell? So like his big thing is self mastery where understanding thyself, understanding who you are, what makes you tick and like that, that helps you to be the best of your ability every single day, right? And so I think when we're talking about this stuff, understanding like the nuances that you have, because there are some days where it's a little bit tough, where I know I just need to put my head down to work and push through. There's also days that I know that I just need to have a little bit more fun and come to the rink with that kind of spirit in store. And so like, I think just really a lot of this comes down to self reflection. And we've given you guys hopefully some tools today that can help you. Like we really do believe in this routine, we really do believe in this 1% better, but that might look differently for a lot of people and understanding who you are, understanding your nests, understanding what gets you out of bed in the morning, what keeps you in bed in the morning, all that kind of stuff. Like the more that we do this, the more I continue on my own self exploration and journey to be the best person that I can be, just that that self reflection is everything, man. The self reflection is everything. So I would encourage you to really take a deep dive into yourself, take a deep dive into your routine and see if that's serving you, if you want to be the best that you can be at whatever it is that you're doing. It all starts with looking inward. It really all starts with looking inward. So I think that's just one thing. I don't know if it necessarily has anything to do with what this topic was, but I think it's really important. - Reflection, look inward, write down things, did this work? Did this not work? Reflect, tweak, repeat, you know? Learn, adapt, apply. Learn, adapt, adapt, adapt, adapt, adapt, adapt. - Over and over and over and over and over. If you really care, you will be constantly doing this. It's over and over and over. - Absolutely, ma'am. Well, hopefully we gave you guys some stuff to think about. Hopefully we gave you some stuff that you can use, some stories, you know, some tangible stuff that you can use to help you to be the best version of you as you're pushing yourself to be that best version of you. And before we do end here, we got some people's to thank, man. Like our title sponsor, Aisaki Sis. I almost called him Aikasi, oh boy. - Sleep at night, Tof. - Sleep at night, AisakiSystems.com. The best website out there for all your coaching, education, needs, and they have thousands of drills, whiteboard explanations, the ability to go in and draw your drills and send them out to your players before practice, send them to your parents, let them know what you're doing. Just a phenomenal, phenomenal place to go for all coaches out there trying to get better or make your life a little bit easier as you're going to the rink. We have partnered with them to do an association platform where you can get this with every organization or with every coach in your organization. So unbelievable value ad. We do a ton with these guys. They got some cool things up there, Sleeve coming out here in the next couple of months too. So AisakiSis.com, go there today, check out the association's platform, Jeffrey, Jehu. - Wanna thank Train Heroic. Train Heroic is the amazing app that allows me to work with so many teams and organizations around the world where I can completely base your training in season off of your team's schedule. Your practice schedule, whatever gym you have available to you, I've worked with so many teams that don't have a gym. They're like, "Vex, we've got bands, sliders and foam rollers." Okay, it's better than nothing. We'll make it work with whatever you guys have available to you. So that's why it's nice, isn't it? Any cookie cutter thing when I work with teams, organizations, whatever you have available to you, we find a way to get your players better at a hilariously cheap price. Just spoke to Tri-City Storm, who are gonna re-sign with me again for next year, a couple of colleges who are gonna work with me next year as well. Please, doesn't matter if you're a youth team, junior team, midget team, organization, colleges, pro, does not matter. I'm happy to help, I love doing this, just trying to help players actually get quality training year round, whether it's off season or end season. So thank you to Train Heroic. Also wanna thank Cheer Nutrition, Cheer Nutrition CBD Company that I'm with. I've taken CBD every single day, twice a day, for the last few years. And I've been taking CBD every single day since my last season, 2017, 2018 over in Europe, helps keep my brain healthy, helps keep my body always recovering from my very long strenuous days yesterday. I worked 16 hours straight, straight through, all right? CBD is a major reason why I'm able to work as hard as long as I do every single day. I can't thank Cheer Nutrition enough. If you have any questions on CBD, what it is, how to use it, anything like that, reach out to me. I'm here to help not trying to sell you anything. Or you can go to curenutrition.com, check out what they provide, use my discount code GMBM to save some money. ♪ Money, money, money, money ♪ ♪ Money ♪ (laughing) Also wanna thank a new sponsor, Crossbar. Crossbar is an end-to-end software solution for managing and running your youth sports organization, guys. If you wanna build an unbelievable website for your hockey organization, and trust me, I have talked to hockey directors that we work with and I'm seeing it more and more as I'm doing more research into youth hockey organizations, like this is the best option by far out there to build your website and streamline your operations within your club. So it's like, it's a legitimate game changer. It's got modern website design, registration set up in minutes. You can put in there for lessons, drop-ins, for your families. There's a club scheduler that you can use. It's a, they come with a five-star mobile app, a communications app, financial tools and reporting, volunteer management. I know that's a big one for youth hockey organizations, trying to wrangle in their volunteers and make it organized, facility-rank management, like all these different things. And it's just honestly like a one-stop shop for running your organization. Sports engine, I think, is kind of a thing of the past. Crossbar is an unbelievable value add for all organizations. And I can put you in touch with hockey directors where this has literally changed their lives by moving over to Crossbar. And so go to Crossbar's website and you will not be sad you did it. (laughing) - So dramatic. - I couldn't think of the words. It's like, it's like that Michael Scott. You know, when you have a thought and then you just lose it or what does he say? Do you remember that saying? - I don't remember that one. - You start a sentence and you don't know where it's going. - I know you're gonna go allow myself to introduce myself. - Myself. - Also want to thank Helios Hockey. Go to Helios Hockey.com and Helios is a sensor you put in your shoulder pads. And this is a sensor that gives you real-time data and feedback on things like your stride mechanics and a hustle score, which all of the kids absolutely love. They actually have a leaderboard where you can go and actually look at yourselves compared to other people that are of your age on what you're doing. And so we have partnered up with them. Go to Helios Hockey.com and use the coupon code think tank one word and you will get 20% off your pro annual plan or a pro 24 month plan. And game changer with this is you get access to your video through this app. So it syncs up with live barn or your iPhone or an iPad and camera, whatever it may be, directly after the game, based on how we were moving, it clips your shifts for you right there, right after the game, boom, there you go. Unbelievable stuff. Go to Helios Hockey.com, use that coupon code think tank one word and get it to day. Also, dude, this crossbar, incredible. Absolutely, absolutely incredible. Like it makes organizations lives so much easier, so much easier. So again, guys, all these partners that we have, it's quality stuff. We would not be talking about this stuff if we didn't believe it could be a value add for you. So everybody that we're talking about, just it can really help you level up whether you're a player, whether you're your coach, whether you're an administrator for an organization, whatever it may be, this is stuff that can really help you in your hockey lives. So lastly, wanna thank all of you. We love you guys. We appreciate every like, every comment, every download, every follow. If you can provide us some feedback by doing these things, it just helps us to get more legitimized on the old algorithm that everybody loves to talk about. And our goal is to provide positive value and a positive impact for the hockey world. And so if you like what we do, and you think it can help other people, if you can help us by doing those things, it goes a long, long, long way. So we appreciate you guys. We love you. Hopefully you got some good stuff out of this episode. And we will see you next week. Thanks guys again. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
This week Topher and Jeff are flying solo and talking about one of the things that every player struggles with at some point: figuring out how to push yourself in practice on the hard days. You’re not going to feel your best every day, developing strategies to still get the best out of yourself on those days is what fosters success - in any endeavor.
In this episode we talk about:
— Realities of a long season
— Goal Setting
— Routine
— Competition breeding excellence
AND SO MUCH MORE!
Thank you to our title sponsor IceHockeySystems.com, as well as Train-Heroic, CuredNutrition, Helios Hockey, and, our newest sponsor, Crossbar!
And thank you to our AMAZING LISTENERS; We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites!
If you’d like to join our Hockey Think Tank Community, head over to Community.TheHockeyThinkTank.com and check it out!
