The subtle difference between NHLers & AHLers
A scouting lesson, plus advice for your off-season training
Having worked both in pro hockey and in pro tennis, I see many similarities between the two sports from a mental game perspective.
As a 22-year-old looking to solidify his position among the world’s best, World No. 48 Ethan Quinn is in a similar spot as an NHL prospect coming out of his Entry-Level Contract. Here’s a podcast excerpt from Quinn and his coach Brian Garber about the mental edge held by top ATP pros.
(Lower-ranked players), under pressure, try to play better than they are.
If you watch the best players in the world, at 5-5 they play within their parameters better than anybody.
(Certain guys) try to play out of their “box” and s**** their pants quite often under pressure.
(The top players) are so aware of what they’re good at and what they’re not good at.
Lots of players between 200th and 400th have a false perception of who they are, or nobody’s told them what their identity is as a tennis player.
The same phenomenon can be seen in NHL prospects transitioning to the Show. By and large, offensively dominant draft picks make the NHL at a higher rate, but they’ll only hit their full pro potential if they 1) develop a clear understanding of what they do well and not so well, and 2) play inside their capabilities at critical moments (late lead, overtime, big game, playoffs, etc.).
The very, very best junior scorers wind up playing the same role in the NHL, but those who are just five or 10% less proficient will need to adjust in order to earn ice time and carve out multi-million dollar careers.
At the same time, it’s important for youngsters to experiment in order to become projectable athletes. Playing inside the box leads to the best results in the short term, but becomes constricting in the long term.
The challenge, then, is balancing two hard-to-reconcile philosophies: to promote range when it comes to general (athletic) and specific (hockey) capabilities, while maintaining focus on reliable, repeatable actions when the competitive pressure is on.
