As the summer sun sets

I stood in the rain, the cold, the wind, and the ridiculously hot sun, and watched Tyler play lacrosse. I sat in the upper decks and watched hockey teams from Syracuse to the greater Boston area practice, and I watched the Mets on television whenever I had the chance. That's what I've been doing since last hockey season ended at a tournament in Buffalo New York. I haven't been doing anything too exciting, but it has been a nice quiet way to spend time off the ice. A few weeks ago it was time to lace up the skates and get back out on the ice. Today was our first clinic for Bantams and Midgets. My knee feels pretty good, and the players looked like they had potential to be great players. Once again it looks like I wound up with some great players. They may not yet realize that they are great players, but I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually. A few looked a little rusty, so we had a nice lite skate and skill practice to kick things off. There's no reason to skate players into the mud at a skills clinic, but it is the time to work on player's less than strong skills. It's also a good time to identify bad habits and try to correct them. Usually players don't like to focus on their weaknesses at practice, but you need to work on them somewhere – so why not now before team tryouts? It's starting to feel like hockey season again. Great hockey requires a lot of hard work and effort. It also takes a lot of heart and courage, but the secret to great hockey is making it fun. If it isn't just a bit fun, it can't be that great now can it? Who wants to play a sport that makes you miserable all the time anyways? There are times when it doesn't seem like a lot of fun, but there should be more times when it does. If you want to play great hockey you also need to use your brain and play smart. If you want to play smart - practice smart. Practice prepares you for games. Games don't prepare you for games. Rest is also a big part of improving your performance. There's a certain amount of recovery needed between games and practices, and sleep helps a lot more than staying up all night. Well, this is all the same stuff I've been going over for years. It's a new season, so let's go play some great hockey. The sun is setting and soon there will be a nice orange glow in the sky.