Yesterday, I was on a podcast with a fellow coach and he asked, “What’s the #1 thing aspiring players should be focused on right now?”

You can listen to my answer below – it’s just 4 minutes long.

Here’s the short answer to #1: Be honest with yourself – what is one of your WEAKEST skills? Maybe it’s something on the ice (shooting, skating, stick handling) or maybe it’s something off the ice (focus, confidence, fitness). We all have lots of things that we can be better at, but I want you to pick one thing that you think will have MAXIMUM impact in your game. If you’re not sure what that thing might be, ask a coach or teammate. They know what you need to really work on and they will tell you the truth. Don’t get offended by it – own it and get to work on it. If you want people to notice how much hard work you’ve put in to get better this off-season, this is a great place to start.

But after I answered the question, I thought about it a bit more and thought of a 2nd thing that’s absolutely critical to focus on right now.

Here’s #2: Again, be honest with yourself – what’s one of your STRONGEST skills? Maybe you have a great snapshot from the point. Or you are really good at scoring in tight as a forward. Maybe you’re a centre who is amazing on face-offs or a goalie with lights-out lateral movement. You should already know what your best skill is (if you don’t, ask those coaches or teammates again). Now you’ve got 5 months to make it even MORE amazing.

Often players just focus on #1 – the stuff they suck at, their weaknesses. And while there is nothing wrong with making your bad stuff better, what about make your great stuff greater?

Getting to and excelling at the next level requires you to STAND OUT and BE NOTICED. That doesn’t happen because you’re average at a bunch of things. It happens because there are one or two things that you are absolutely AWESOME at (relative to your age group or level) and those are the things you should be celebrating and making even better.

So work on both ends of the spectrum – your weakest skill and your best skill. Make a plan to make those better and you’ll light the ice on fire when you get back at it with your team this fall.

If you want to listen to the entire podcast (it’s 75 minutes long – I like to talk a lot!) you can find it below . We chat about the importance of the mental game, building confidence, what gets you noticed by coaches, what scouts are looking for… all that good stuff. So if you’re looking for a way to spend the next hour or so getting better, this will help.