Dallas Ice Jets

May 30, 2010
Hockey directors Karson Kaebel and Paul Taylor

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
- Albert Einstein

Youth hockey players want to be successful, just like everybody else wants success in their life. The word success, of course, is open for interpretation - but it can apply to anything from raising your grades at school to improving your puck handling skills. This isn’t about success, though. It’s about the one true thing that helps you achieve success: Your attitude.

Most of the time we are caught up in the final outcome or goal; the thing we are working on attaining and our primary focus is on the execution, the how of getting to the end result. Newsflash: Few have ever achieved a goal being solely focused on execution of skills and tactics without possessing the right attitude.

As far as we at the Ice Jets are concerned, the most important thing to achieving your goals in hockey - and life - is your attitude. You can read thousands of blogs and articles, magazines, websites and books that help you identify tactics of execution to reach your goal, but seriously… what is the whole point of all this effort if your bad attitude is going to drag you down? Without a positive and resilient attitude all the instruction in the world will make little difference to your development. The power of a great attitude can and will give you the best chance to succeed.

Let’s look at this realistically. Two players just finished their season and met with their coaches to get an overview of their game. Both need to improve on their skating and stickhandling. Player A sees this as an opportunity to improve for next season. He creates a plan with his coach for what he’s going to work on and stays diligent in practicing and training during the off-season. Player B takes this criticism as an area he is just not that good at, does not create a plan and does not practice and train during the off-season because he has a defeated attitude. Obviously Player A’s time, efforts and most importantly attitude will significantly improve his game for next season; whereas Player B will be exactly where he left off - or worse from not training. There is always a choice in how you look at things, and each of you has countless opportunities in your game and in your life to choose to have a positive attitude.

Having played youth, junior, college and pro hockey we understand the importance of having a positive attitude and willingness to learn. We have seen great outcomes stemming from having the right attitude. As coaches, we see that our most successful players are upbeat and want to learn. They are the players who are more open to listen to criticism and instruction and apply it; they want to learn and are willing to push through their personal challenges and weaknesses to improve. They are the players who have higher energy levels, communicate successfully with their coaches and peers, and have an infectious positive attitude that spreads across the team.

“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.
- Og Mandino

Every single Ice Jets player will achieve his goals and be successful with the right attitude. We are here to help you to stay focused, help you to learn and improve, and to help you keep the right mindset. With the right attitude, no goal is out of reach.