Icing on the cake

Get the meat and potatoes part your game down good. I’m talking about the basics; skating, stick handling, shooting, passing, and checking. Learn how to play the game. Learn the rules, learn the plays, and learn how to get the most out of each practice. Build the foundation to your game, and then add the icing to the cake. Specialize in something. Take part of your game that you feel you are really good at and make it your trademark skill. If you have good hands and can make great passes and accurate shots, work on this skill and take it to the max. Put a little extra in your specialty. This will often take extra time that you won’t get in regular practice. You’ll have to make time in some cases to refine your skill. This could be in the driveway, skate and shoot, or out in your backyard with a lacrosse stick. If it’s your speed and moves, start working those legs. Practice your moves in your backyard. If it’s for hockey, find some ice or get the roller blades out, or both. If you can make killer moves on the ice or around the attack zone in lacrosse, you will stand out. Don’t be afraid to make any mistakes when your working on your specialty. You have to make a few mistakes to get good at anything. This is how you learn to push the limits of your abilities. A lot of this just takes plain old fashion hard work and practice. Most important is not to forget about your basic skills. Every specialist needs a solid foundation to build off from. If there’s no cake, what good is just the icing, you wind up with just a lot of fluff. If you can make great shots, but can’t catch the ball, what good is that? Don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches that might elevate your game. If you don’t try something new, you won’t learn anything new. The game needs specialists. They come in handy. What’s your specialty?