Hockey Chat:  Being great at hockey skater is not instantaneous. Hockey coaches that teach young kids know that there are stages to learning.  It’s starts with balancing on skates then to moving forward, skating backwards, and then eventually backwards crossovers. Each stage is difficult for the student but it builds them up and makes them better.

Hockey Chat: When a player is called up to the big leagues of the NHL he has got the chance to make a name for himself and an impact on the hockey world.  He knows it’s his big break.  Years of training had lead up to this and now he’s been called upon to be the best player he can be.  But if he uses that chance to be a puck-hog or run up the penalty minutes, he has not used his big opportunity wisely and he’ll be a big let down to the ones who believed in him.

Last summer, as I sat in Yosemite Valley looking up at the famous El Capitan rock formation, I realized that I needed to come to grips with some things that I did not like about myself. I took out a piece of paper, and on it, I made three columns. At the top I wrote “Who am I,” “What do I want to change,” and “How am I going to get there.” As I started to write, I found if difficult to be honest with myself. But after I was done, I realized two vital things: (1) Nothing could happen without Christ, and (2) my days of self-fulfillment needed to end.

When I was 17, I was a young, brash, three-sport athlete who took any challenge that came my way. My aggressive personality allowed me to “hang with the big-dogs” on the court, in the field and on the track. That personality, however, also caused many setbacks.

In last week’s NFL playoff game, Ryan Grant of the Green Bay Packers fumbled the ball away twice in the first few minutes of the game. Grant’s turnovers resulted in the Seattle Seahawks taking a commanding 14-point lead before the Packers, or Grant, knew what hit them. It would have been easy for Grant, a young player and first year starter for the Packers, to have his confidence shaken and to take himself out of the game psychologically. However, with focus and great intensity, he bounced back and ran like a veteran, racking up over 200 yards on the ground and helping the Packers to a victory over the Seahawks.

During our football season, whenever we were down by a lot at halftime our coach would tell us, "You're getting outwanted. They have more will to win than you do."

Any competitor wants to win. But our coach did have a point in that some want it more than others. They tend to play harder because of their will to win. One reason desire is so important is that it motivates us in everything we do. A player can try and try to force himself to give outstanding effort, but he won't be able to keep it up for long unless the final goal of winning motivates him.

"Looks like you went to the football game," noted an office associate. The unsolicited observation instantly caused the accused to wonder how in the world his office associate had known. He was right, as the football fan had gone to the local junior varsity game the night before. But how in the world had his colleague known that he'd been at the game? "How did he know where I was last night without being told?" he thought.