Kim McCullough

Are you selfish enough?

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Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

High-level, high-achieving athletes are pretty selfish. They have to be. A large piece of their lives revolve around their training, nutrition, mental game and performances. You’ve got to be pretty self-absorbed in all the fine details of your mental and physical game in order to get to, and excel at, the elite level of any sport.

So you make choices that not every athlete makes. You skip a party on a Friday night and go to train instead. You stay up very late to get your homework done because you were at tournament and just couldn’t get the work done. Your friends that don’t play hockey wonder where you’ve disappeared to from October to March.

I don’t call these things “sacrifices.” It really annoys me when I hear elite athletes saying they’ve “sacrificed” so much to get where they are. Because it’s simply not true.

No one is forcing them to be an elite athlete. They’ve made a choice to compete on the highest level. So they have to make choices that match that desire to be the best. 

No one really wants to do hill sprints at 6 a.m., or miss their high school prom for a hockey tournament. If you’ve made a BIG choice to be the best – a choice that most athletes simply aren’t willing to make – you’ve got to make a lot of SMALLER choices to help you get there. And those smaller choices to do what’s best for YOU are a little selfish. Nothing wrong with that at all.

But I’m going to let you in on a little secret. To truly be an elite hockey player, you can’t be selfish. Let me clarify – you’ll still need to have a ridiculously high level of focus, desire and determination as it relates to your own level of performance and you’re going to have to make those tough choices.

But the best players in hockey are the ones who make their teammates better. Doesn’t really matter what position you play, at some point, to move yourself from being good to great, you’ve got to become a team player.

It’s really easy to get wrapped up in all of the things you need to improve on personally as a player in order to reach the next level. But I can guarantee you that scouts and coaches want and need players who can make the players around them better. So while it may be easy to be selfish and stay “me” focused, you need to shift your focus to making the rest of the team better in order to excel.

I remember when I made this shift when I was playing college hockey. Instead of worrying about all the things that were frustrating me at practice, I focused on making my linemates better. I communicated with them more and I helped them play to their strengths. One was extremely fast and the other was unbelievably good at winning battles along the boards. So I thought about what I could do to highlight those strengths. 

My strengths as a very aggressive player with strong playmaking skills made us an extremely effective line. But it wasn’t until I shifted my focus away from “me” to “we” that we all took our game to the next level.

You’ve got to be a little selfish (or self-focused) to become an elite athlete, but you’ve got to be team-focused in order to become a true team player that scouts and coaches want to bring onto their team.

To learn more about how to take your game to the next level, visit www.totalfemalehockey.com. Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years. She is currently the Girls Hockey Director at the PEAC School for Elite Athletes in Toronto and is the Founder of Total Female Hockey.

Three C’s of girls’ hockey success

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Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

With just over a month left for you to prepare until the season starts, I wanted to share the three C’s of girls’ hockey success with you.

1. Creativity

The majority of girls’ hockey players that I’ve coached are very literal and over-analytical. Which means that they tend to do exactly what the coach writes on the board or explains in the room, even if it makes them a less effective player.

For example, when the coach draws out a breakout on the board and asks the winger to have their feet moving up ice near the hashmarks in order to receive the puck, most girls’ hockey players will be able to execute it perfectly. The problem is that the puck might be 10 feet away, and instead of going after the puck, they’ll continue to skate the pattern the coach asked for. 

It seems to me that most girls’ hockey players are “coach pleasers” which means that they’ll do exactly what the coach asks of them. It’s not a bad problem to have, except for the fact that hockey is a game of mistakes and the play rarely unfolds exactly the way it’s written up on the board.

The truth is that most girls don’t watch that much hockey on TV or go out to play pick-up hockey regularly throughout the season, so their exposure to the game is largely isolated to when they come to practice or play in games. 

So in reality, us coaches are going to have to build in games, drills and scenarios that promote creativity into our practice if we want our players to be more comfortable with being creative out on the ice. And players – do your best to think outside the box and be creative. Take what your coach shows and teaches you and apply those concepts to the game. But recognize that the game never unfolds exactly as planned and it’s the players who can be creative within the context of the systems and strategies of the game that are going to have success at the next level. 

2. Consistency

In order to be a successful player at this level and the next, you need to be consistent. Being consistent in your play makes you a very valuable teammate. Your teammates  need to know they can count on you to deliver the same high-level performance every time you hit the ice. Your coach needs you to be consistent so that they  can put together a game plan that showcases everyone’s strengths and makes  the entire team successful.

And the scouts who are looking for players for the  next level need you to be consistent too. They are investing a lot of time (and in some cases, money) to have you be a part of their college team and need to have a solid grasp of exactly what kind of player you are so that they can determine how you can help their team succeed. If you are great one game and invisible the next, that may hurt your chances of getting to, and excelling at, the next level. 

3. Competitiveness

This is the biggest key of all. You can be as creative and consistent as you want, but if you aren’t willing and able to compete as hard as you can each and every game and practice, you will limit how successful you can be in this game. 

Competitiveness is not just going “full out” in practice and games once the season starts. That’s a big part of it, but if you don’t prepare throughout the summer, you won’t have the foundation in place to compete at the highest level possible all season long.

Whether it’s your off-ice training or mental preparation, making wise nutrition choices or working on your hands and shot, all the work you are doing this summer to prepare for the season is going to pay off big time when it comes to your ability to compete at the highest level possible all season long.

You may be willing to compete at the highest level possible, but if you haven’t prepared yourself physically and mentally, you simply won’t be able to compete against anyone who has been putting in the work on the “little” things all summer long.

You’ve only got four weeks left until the season starts. And while that’s not enough time to dramatically change the shape you’re in or drastically improve your skills,  it is enough time to make significant progress towards your goal of having the most successful season possible.

With September less than four weeks away, it’s time to get in game shape – fast. You can use the same body-weight workout circuits that my athletes and I use in the park to get in great hockey shape before the season.  To help you get fast, strong and fit enough to dominate during training camp, you can get your copy at www.totalfemalehockey.com/game-shape.shtml. 

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years. She is currently the Girls Hockey Director at the PEAC School for Elite Athletes in Toronto and is the Founder of Total Female Hockey.

No. 1 pet peeve for coaches

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Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

If a player wants to drive their coach crazy, they should completely avoid doing “stops and starts.” We’re just a few weeks into the season, and it is very apparent that this is the concept that most players struggle with.

Stopping and starting is a skill. And it’s also a habit. So while every player can perform the skill of stopping and the starting again on the ice, not every player chooses to stop and start during the game. 

Nothing makes a coach more frustrated than watching players “loop around,” “circle” or “do fly-bys.” It doesn’t matter what you call it or if it’s in the offensive zone, neutral zone or  defensive zone (which is the worst time to loop around by the way), it drives every coach crazy.

So why don’t players choose to stop and start? Because, in the beginning, it is much more tiring. When you are used to looping around and circling, then stopping and starting can be very taxing on the body. 

Stopping and starting requires a lot more work by your muscles and lungs in the short term. But the truth is stopping and starting is far easier than looping around, once you’re used to it.

The reason “looping around” drives coaches crazy is because players quite often turn their backs on the play when they do it. It takes much longer to recover when you loop and you are usually in a horrible position to receive a pass. You are wasting time, space and energy when you’re looping around.

Stopping and starting allows you to execute “straight line skating.” We all know the shortest distance between point A and point B is a straight line. So it is much more efficient to stop and start, and it also allows you to be able to watch the play and be in a better position to support the puck.

Like with any new habit, going from lazily looping around to stopping and starting is going to be hard. You’re going to find that you’ll be more tired after your first few shifts of stopping and starting than you were when you circle.  But once your body gets used to it, you will have made the game much easier for yourself – and for your coach. 

No more missing passes because you were facing the wrong way. No more getting stuck in your own end because you did a “fly-by” in the in-zone, instead of stopping right in front of your check. You will be much more explosive and much more efficient. 

So do the work and focus on stopping and starting early in the season. It may be tiring in the short term, but it will certainly pay off in the long term. 

To learn more about how to take your game to the next level, visit www.totalfemalehockey.com. Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years. She is currently the Girls Hockey Director at the PEAC School for Elite Athletes in Toronto and is the Founder of Total Female Hockey.

Hill sprints and hockey excellence

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Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Outdoor workouts are a great way to mix up your summer training and challenge yourself as you get ready for the upcoming season. I regularly run outdoor training sessions for my players and hill sprints up an area ski hill are a big part of those workouts. The hill sprints give the girls a great workout, but just a few days ago, the workout provided them with a great lesson as well.

After we had done eight hard circuits of speed and strength training, we headed over to the hill. And just as we were walking over, another girl got off her bike and started running up the hill, too.  When we got a little closer, I realized she was one of the players from the Under-18 provincial team this past season.

During one of her rests between sprints, we talked about the upcoming provincial team tryouts and I asked her how often she came out to train in the park. She said, “I come out and run these hills every weekend,” before sprinting up again.

In between our training group’s sprints, one of my players asked where she played, and when I said she plays Junior (the highest level here in Ontario), was on the provincial team and was trying out for the team again in two days, they were understandably impressed. While her hockey accomplishments are definitely noteworthy, I’m sure what really impressed them was that she was out there running up the ski hill, by herself, on a holiday Monday, two days before her tryouts started.

When I said that she came out to run the hill every weekend, one of the girls said, “That’s probably why she’s on the provincial team.”

 Training when no one is watching or cheering you on says a lot about a player. It’s one of those “little” choices that sets you apart. The girls I am working with are training as a group and I am there leading them through the workouts, but they have made the choice to get better this summer. And I could tell that the fact they were running the same hill as this “elite” player meant a lot. 

When our training group got together at the gym for our next session the next day, that same player was there again, doing her fitness testing for the provincial team. And as she was doing her final running test, and blowing away the competition, one of the girls in my training group said, “That’s because she runs that hill every week.”

Getting to the elite level is no big mystery. If you want to be great, you have to be willing to do the things that others aren’t. Like running up a ski hill, by yourself, on a holiday, two days before tryouts. Those are the “little” choices that make you great. 

With September less than four weeks away, it’s time to get in game shape – fast. You can use the same body weight workout circuits that my athletes and I use in the park to get in great hockey shape before the season. To help you get fast, strong and fit enough to dominate during training camp, you can get your copy at www.totalfemalehockey.com/game-shape.shtml. 

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years. She is currently the Girls Hockey Director at the PEAC School for Elite Athletes in Toronto and is the Founder of Total Female Hockey.