Holiday Message
Happy Holidays to you and your family from our Minnesota Hockey Camps family. All the best during the time of the year we have a lot to be thankful for. Sports are a true test of a person's intangibles. Lifetime relationships are developed over a short period of time because of the dynamics of the sport, demands of the job and the people we have the opportunity to meet through our work and travels.
Develop and cultivate as many relationships as possible. Take all the good out of each of them and put them in a memory bank.
If you send your child to camp, and they return home a better player, you will be happy. If they return home a harder worker, better person, with a better understanding of life and what it takes to play the game, you will be happier. We do all that and more. Minnesota Hockey Camps has a way of creating awareness of assets and liabilities. We teach young people the value of hard work that is fun while eliminating blind spots that shorten and stifle careers.
If you had your choice of one improvement, you will want them returning home a better person. This is something that happens just by being @ the camp and rubbing elbows with people who have a passion for life, people and the game.
The game of hockey has people in all capacities who know the value of validating and anointing themselves beyond other's beliefs, words, feelings and evaluations. We learn early on that we control our own destiny and in no way do others validate our worth and success.
We all recognize the need for support systems in every person's life, but it still comes down to each of us just “getting it done”. Keep supporting each other and the results will be dynamic. We are all part of something much bigger than all of us combined; namely each person's life and career. Our wish for this Holiday Season is something thought provoking that enhances our chances of maximizing our unique skills. This costs nothing and ends up being priceless.
It’s easy to judge a person but it takes a special skill and caring person to do something to help others solve an intimidating problem or task.
All of us would like our children to improve so they can move on through the levels. Seeking greatness in your assets is our Holiday Message to you and your family. Along with that, is you raising your level of Curiosity which enhances your chances. Keep asking questions wherever you go; whoever you meet. One of the most important traits of great leaders is Curiosity. This will blend in well with your aspirations. Every year players like Scott Hartnell, T J Oshie, Ryan Malone, Matt Greene, Derek Stepan, Clarke MacArthur, Chris and Tony Stewart came to camp; they would say something like, “You’ve seen me play this year. I don’t want to hear what I did well. I want to know what I didn’t do well and anything I can do to improve.”
Carl Sneep has always sought advice on improving and is now learning how to adjust to pro as the only rookie on the WBS Penguins team. He is fortunate to have mentors who care and know the value of instilling boldness and courage @ the pro level.
Our camp has an attitude. Countries have attitudes (Canada’s hockey attitude), States (Provinces), Communities, Organizations, Teams, Lines, Defensive pairs and Individuals have attitudes. The top one fuels the one underneath and on down. Infectious play of individuals fuels the level above and on up to the top. The USA Miracle on Ice team started out as a collection of good college players and ended up impacting the entire world. They, along with the players we coached @ camps and in high school, are the underlying reason why we enjoy an NHL career.
Winning a game, or a spot on the team, is an attitude. Everything is an attitude. We know communities where young people grow up knowing how to win. There are organizations and teams that go in to each game or a play-off setting knowing how to win. There are individuals who have the “IT Factor” that translates in to performing in critical moments and finding a way to win. Lines and tandem pairs get on a roll and earn nicknames. Goaltenders show a caring level toward their teammates that makes their teammates want to play hard for them.
Our goal is to separate ourselves fm the pack with our unique assets and still find a way to blend in to a team setting by respecting each other’s individual skills. Over-achieving in our unique assets causes those around us to emulate what we do well. This is a team that grows as a team. This is how teams, staffs and departments within a company grow.
“Try to do something out of the ordinary every shift or training session. This builds in to magical and revered memories that ultimately become defining moments in our career and lives.”
Al Neuharth, USA Today Founder wrote, "After 65 you should retire, relax, help others and enjoy it." He says, "Too old and crotchety are risky, but so is young and cocksure."
We say ask questions, sort out all the responses and make a decision. Retirement is nice but maintaining your curiosity level is more important. We want to reduce retirement to recalculating.
Recent observations and circumstances carry more weight, because what you see is what you get. We say and write a lot. We are hoping you have the willingness and wisdom to sort out the good from the bad. This is the way to survive in this world. We only do it to create awareness before problems happen and expose problems when they happen. We have to solve them, because they never just go away. Let’s refer to this as the “Crisis Control and Authenticity Tests” of a human being.
Al says, under 35 - We should listen and learn.
We say listen, learn, chip in with comments and show up on time for work regardless of age. Listening is an ongoing process. Listening is a lost art and a difference maker in winning and losing. Chipping in improves the company culture and performance. Promptness costs the world billions, people their jobs and determines company success.
Al says, 35 - 65 Help run things and look for opportunities to run them yourself.
We say be a detail person, and care about others, before any personal gains. Compete to win. Do this and opportunities fall in your lap. Good people take care of good people, regardless of the situation. Our feeling is there are a lot of good things that will fall in your lap when you work hard with pure intentions.
Personal gains come from respecting unique assets of others and sharing, even if it's a puck. Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin are standard bearers and raise the bar. Sharing stops and losing starts when greed enters in to the equation. We have to guard against it. The way to guard against it is by creating awareness this can happen, exposing problems and solving them. We can’t confuse greed with good greed.
Pass smartly when you should pass, shoot smartly to bury it when you should shoot (good greed is a must if you are going to score with regularity) and carry it smartly only if you have to. The good ones think about who they are going to give it to before they get it. Handling the puck is a given. Adding the word “smart or smartly” to every fundamental and expression of skill will raise the level of performance.
Bottom line, age and experience don’t give you answers. Passion for life, work, people and play does. When we are around people with a passion for life, work and play, we are on a high. It’s fun to be around people who live what they do. They have the will to win and excel and cherish the opportunity to bring others in to their lives.
The Holidays are a time to rehash memories. Life is all about creating memories; magical and revered that all add up to define your life. When it is all said and done, each memory is a special moment. In Astronaut John Glenn’s words, “A final haunting valediction of a person who made the supreme sacrifice and/or those who sacrificed so others could feel comfortable and enjoy a better life.”
This is our camp and life; all about developing people and creating memories while instilling boldness, courage, will to win/excel, skill to get out of yourself and bring others in to your life, the skill to express your skill and the skill to achieve greatness in some asset category. Greatness isn’t about being the greatest. It’s all about doing something great that becomes a memory that lasts forever.
With our economy struggling, we hope we found a way to give you something that didn’t cost all of us anything but time; time to write, read and digest.
We wish you all the best the Holidays have to offer. Take time to give thanks.
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 All rights are reserved. No part of this book, blog OR template may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from Minnesota Hockey Camps
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