Give your athlete a sporting chance

Give your child a “Sporting Chance”
in hockey and real life

Winning @ all costs is destroying youth development. What does it take to get people to see the big picture? This means developing habits that will lead to success versus winning games @ an early age. Work, training habits and figuring out how the mind works, will go further toward dictating success than winning @ all costs @ a young age. We have a number of goals @ our summer camp as we try to connect with young athletes.

We teach young people that training and hard work go hand in hand and can be a source of fun and good times. Sweating with your peers in a training environment can be as much fun as scoring and winning. Creating awareness while exposing both assets and liabilities are paramount to young people defining their game; whom they are, and what we collectively believe they can be.

Most young people “think” they train, “think” they have a passion for the game and life, “think” they work. They have no way of knowing until they are involved in the highest synergy settings possible where they can visibly see who does each skill the best. Only then are they in a position to emulate those that set the bar in each skill and exercise. This is not about winning. This is about developing habits that lead to making you a winner on the ice sheet and in life. There is room for everyone to overachieve in their asset categories.

Early success has become a priority of adults @ the expense of a solid foundation in place to prevent fatigue, complacency and sophistication @ an early age. We are witness to this every day we go in to a rink to view another prospect. “Fatigue, complacency and sophistication kills. Fatigue because of conditioning levels, complacency and sophistication because of too much, too soon @ an early age and failure to consciously guard against it.”

We spend too much time sorting out the weak fm the strong, deciding who is best and who is the worst, when in reality no one can predict fm year to year who is on top until age 25 or 26. Even then I’ve seen people totally wrong in their assessments. We place too much emphasis on ratings; failing to realize that young people were put on this earth to validate and anoint themselves as soon as they begin to figure out how life really works.

This is our obligation to our athletes. The most important part of how life really works is learning to train and work. They will find a way regardless of what you say, write, believe, report or how you rate them if you will just let them grow in a “playground setting” with guidelines. They need only to recognize and accept what they do well, and what liabilities need to be managed, so they can contribute in a team setting. If you need to grade your athlete, do it with exposure and awareness as the primary motive. Take your assets, build on them and manage your liabilities to the unnoticeable level if that is possible. Do not have ratings be the deterrent in any situation.

This is Minnesota Hockey Camps; a “playground setting with guidelines” in place to ensure that each child gets an opportunity. We are @ a point in our society where playground settings are close to extinction and this was the underlying reason why so many young people were able to figure out who they were without some adult coming down on them. This was the driving force behind each person figuring out how life works and success.

No one manufactures a champion. Champions rise out of adversity and understanding of their strengths and weaknesses knowing they have a support system in place. They develop in programs that have the vision to allow kids to experiment and try something without worrying about the other team scoring. We know how to take the game and blend it in with recreation. We know how to run a pond hockey practice with guidelines that emulate the early players who developed on outdoor rinks. We’ve been able to equalize the amount of fun in the weight room, on the dryland, in the classroom, on the shooting range and on the ice sheet. We’ve been witness to players leading in each of these settings and not the same players. Hard work is gratifying; a skill in itself.

The skills are in the drills and FUNdamentals are the priority.

We’ve been witness to our worst camper going on to be a lawyer, our lowest talent levels going on to be millionaire professional athletes and a player unwanted going on to be Captain of a Gold Medal group of athletes he was cut away from two years earlier.

We want each of our athletes to recognize the importance of physical activity as well as the use of their minds and curiosity level. Once defined, it’s easier to implement an attitude, swagger, boldness and competitive instincts that lead to young people becoming winners in hockey and real life. This leads to players developing the skill to express their skills; an acquirable skill that gets left out of the mix in most programs and educational settings.

Teaching young people how to win in life is a lot more complicated than teaching a puck skill or breakout. Some coaches have it down in theory, but too few have the skill to teach young people how to win. We believe we have the Template in place to get the message across to our campers. We have it in a formula and we know how to get it across. We are proud to say, “MHC mirrors life with lifetime values.”

A sport, like life, is a process that becomes simplified when we understand how everything works; meaning the body, mind and life. Learn all this and real life becomes a walk in the park when it comes time to commit to something you love. –Ole Gringo-

ã Copyright by Chuck Grillo, Minnesota Hockey Camps
24621 So Clark Lake Rd P.O. Box 90 Nisswa, MN 56468-0090
Phone 218.96.2444 Fax 218.963.2325 Email chuck@mnhockeycamps.com
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