A coaching mentor of mine used this phrase yesterday and
I thought it was pure gold – so I had to share it with you.

We “overpay” for mistakes and losses all the time.

You make one bad pass that leads to a goal and all of a
sudden, you’re a horrible hockey player, you can’t do
anything right and you don’t want to go back on the ice.
All because of one bad pass in a game of mistakes.
Hockey is all about mistakes – capitalizing on the ones
your opponents make and minimizing the consequences
of the ones you make. It’s amazing that we can let our
mental game go south so quickly – but I see it happen
all the time with my players and I have to admit it used
to happen to me when I was a young player too.

And sometimes we do the same thing when we lose a game.
We beat ourselves up for days. How did we play so badly?
How come our execution was so off? Where did we go wrong???
All because of one loss in a long season.

We overpay when we lose – and we undervalue our successes.
Success is never final and failure is never fatal in hockey.
In fact, sometimes making those mistakes or losing that game
teaches us a lot more about ourselves as a player and as a team
that success does.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love winning as much as the next person.
But I don’t let my happiness or my sense of self-worth be dictated
by whether we won or lost our last game.  This is not easy to do
but it is an absolutely critical mental skill to have when we play
such a long season in our “game of mistakes”.

So as we head into the intensity of playoff season, remember
to be your own best friend. Don’t overpay for mistakes or losses.
Think about how some key areas where you need to improve,
make a plan of what you need to do to be better next time, and
then move on.  Life is too short to dwell on the past.

And you’re only one shift or one game away from being back at the
top of your game.

Work Hard. Dream BIG.

Your friend and coach,

Kim

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS
Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey
www.TotalFemaleHockey.com