Playing on the team that is right for you can be the difference maker in your development. You want to play at a level that is competitive and challenging, but also where you can touch the puck and improve your skills. Playing in a league where players are more advanced than you can be detrimental. It can cause a lack of confidence, skill development and more. Especially as a young, developing player, it is important to play and learn more about the game. Getting as many touches and as much experience as possible.
As tryouts loom just around the corner, it is important to have a great perspective. Making the top team might seem like the only possibility. It might seem like the world will end if you don’t. I’ve been a youth coach for young athletes at many levels, and I’ve had a lot of tryouts. I’ve made a lot of teams, and I’ve been disappointed in the reveal of the rosters. I learned that seeing it as a “demotion” or a “failure” won’t help anyone, especially yourself.
Instead, I tell my players to see it as an opportunity to be a leader on their team, to learn how to control the game and be more of a force on the ice, and to develop their resilience and to have fun. It’s like being the big fish in the little pond, instead of a minnow in Lake Superior, struggling to swim. Hockey is about more than the skills that we learn to perform on the ice. It is also about learning to face adversity, be a team player, adapt to unique situations, and to be a better person. All youth sports teach us these things, and it is what makes athletics such an invaluable experience. But, in the moment of getting cut, it can be hard to see it that way.
At Snipers Edge we want to help you become the best hockey player that you can be. We want to help you make the team. We create our products to help challenge yourself at home, to enhance your off-ice experience and, above all, to help you improve. The more you practice skills and handling the puck, the better you’ll become at all aspects of the game. By making things more challenging, like heavier pucks, and tools that make you emphasize certain movements, it helps to slow the actual game down and makes the fundamentals that much easier. Being a master at the fundamentals of skating, passing, and stickhandling will help you learn the game more effectively.
Making the team that is right for your development is the best thing for you, and that is not always purely making the top team. Keep practicing off-ice and outside of practice, and don’t get discouraged. The right team is the team that you can contribute your best towards, and keep improving and being the best that YOU can be is the only way to be the best teammate. Good luck, and keep training hard.
Amy Budde is a former professional hockey player with the Buffalo Beauts (NWHL) and in Sweden, and played collegiate hockey at Lake Forest College where she was named captain, All-American, among other accolades. Budde also spent years as a training professional at one of the premier hockey training centers in Minnesota. She is currently an executive with sports technology company Helios Hockey.
