I grew up in downtown Toronto and I took the subway everywhere.

To school. To training. To my friends’ houses.  And to the rink.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Toronto subway system,
here are a few critical details you need to know.  It is busy all the time
and it doesn’t exactly provide door-to-door access to hockey arenas.

So I’d be on there with a HUGE hockey bag, a couple of sticks and
usually my backpack taking up way too much space and stinking up
the joint with my equipment. I definitely was on the receiving end
of more than my fair share of evil glares.

Most of you probably get driven to the rink on most days by your
parents or a relative. Maybe you even have access to a car & can drive
yourself.

My parents rarely drove me to the rink growing up so I either had to
arrange a ride with a teammate or take the subway. I didn’t get my
license until I was 23 (it’s a big city thing) so borrowing my parents’
car wasn’t an option either.

It wasn’t easy lugging that bag around to get to and from the rink.
One story in particular from my childhood will tell you all you need
to know about how committed I was to getting better.

While my parents didn’t drive me around to the rinks much, I was
fortunate that they had the means to send me to hockey camps.
I had to research the camp, figure out costs and they would pay for it.

But…and this is a big BUT, I had to figure out how to get there on my own.

So one year, I found a summer camp that I really wanted to go to and
sorted out all the logistics. It looked like the subway/bus system could
actually take me from door-to-door which would eliminate one of those
annoying long treks with my bag slung over my shoulder.

I knew I had to test out how long it would take me to take transit there
before the camp actually started.

So I left my house at 6am in the morning. I took a bus from my house
to the subway. I went one stop and then had to switch trains. I took that
train to the end of the line and then switched onto a different train system.
I took that train to the end of its line and then waited for another bus. That
bus took me close to the rink and I only had to walk a few minutes to
arrive at my final destination.

It took me 2 hours to get there.

And another 2 hours to get home.

On my test run, I didn’t have my stinky bag and cumbersome sticks to
carry around, which I knew would make the trip even more challenging
when I had to do the real thing, especially since I would be on transit
during rush hour (in both directions).

I made this trek daily, both to and from the rink, for a few weeks. And
I did it again the next summer.  It was not fun. It was long and hot and
tiring. And I got stared at more than I really wanted to.

But I didn’t care. It was what I was committed to do to get better.
No one was forcing me to do it. In fact, I was so excited that my
parents were letting me go to camps this way that I would have
done it every day all summer if I could have.

It is also worth mentioning that the 2nd year I did this, I was 16
and I started training at the gym 4 days a week. So guess where
I went after I got off that final bus after 2 hours on transit?
Back on the bus and subway, after a quick shower and change,
to go to the gym for a few hours.

If I had the choice, I definitely would have preferred to get a ride
to the rink on those steamy summer days. It would have been
easier for me and I would have had much more energy to get
my workouts done at night.

But that wasn’t an option. There really wasn’t an alternative plan.
So I got it done.

We all have obstacles in our lives that keep us from having an
ideal training environment. Maybe you are in the a similar boat
as I was and don’t have a ride to and from the rink or gym. Maybe
there isn’t a gym close to you. Maybe you don’t have easy access
to public transit to get you from point A to point B.

I always tell my players that excuses are for losers. If you want
something bad enough, you’ll find a way to get it done. No one
would have blamed me if I didn’t go to those camps because it
was ‘too hard’ to get there.  And they certainly wouldn’t have
judged me for skipping the gym after that long day on the bus
and at the rink.

But I would have judged myself. I knew what I wanted and what it
would take to get there, so I just got it done.

So as you’re going through these next few summer months, ask
yourself if you’re really committed to getting to the next level.
If you’re skipping workouts or ice sessions because you’re too
tired, or it’s too hard to get there or because you’d rather chill
by the pool with your friends, you’re not really committed.

You decide. Excellence is a choice you make every single day.

Work Hard. Dream BIG.  Choose Excellence.

Your friend and coach,

Kim

PS – Training camp is only 6 weeks away for most players.
Are you ready to hit the ice and have a great start to the season?
If you’ve been slacking off with your workouts so far this summer,
I can help you out.  I have a workout program called Game Shape Fast
that will get you into great shape in no time. Once you get your copy,
you get instant access to the program so you can get started right away.
You can check it out here: https://totalfemalehockey.com/game-shape/