The Extra 2%
The Extra 2%
We have all heard of the baseball book & movie Moneyball and recently another book has been written that is called, The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First.” If you haven’t read them, these two books look at exploiting inefficiencies in the baseball market that allowed teams to compete against their bigger budget competition. Why is this important for hockey players you might ask? Well, I’ve always felt that no matter how good you are, and especially if you are not the next Sydney Crosby in waiting, then you need to find a way to improve your overall skill set in a way that helps to separate you from the rest of the field.
While this might not sound like revolutionary advice, the fact is we all hear similar advice from coaches, scouts and advisors in every rink across North America. You aren’t Big / Fast / Strong / Tall / Skilled / Insert-Deficiency-Here / ENOUGH to be a regular or to be an elite player on our team! They tell you that you need to focus on weight training, power skating and / or whatever professional summer training program that the pro’s use!
Sadly, everyone has a personal trainer, power skating instructor, boot camp task master during the summer. In fact, that has become the norm. If everyone is doing it, you need to do this JUST TO KEEP UP!
This brings us back to Moneyball and the Extra 2%. In addition to keeping up with the ‘Joneses’, I believe that you need to find minor edges to exploit if you want to be good enough to make the team or take that next step to become a star or elite level player. Especially if you are not the #1 draft pick or highly touted prospect!
Personally, I was not the fastest, most skilled or best conditioned athlete but I managed to make the most out of the tools I did possess. The fact was I developed specific skills that lent themselves well to earning ice-time and producing goals.
I spent hundreds of hours working on my back hand, which is a vastly under-developed shot today for most players. By adding 20-30 minutes to my daily training regime, I was able to have an effective offensive weapon that few possessed and which goaltenders weren’t prepared for.
This is today’s ‘TIP’ if you want to find and ADD that extra 2% to your game!!
I also spent an extra part of my daily regime working on my face-off skills. As a professional in Europe, I rarely lost a face-off. I have this conversation with almost every forward prospect I speak to, if you can become an elite face-off man, you put yourself in a position to earn valuable ice-time every game. If you are the best face-off man on the team, you will not only be on the ice for penalty kill face-offs in your own zone, but when there is a key offensive or defensive face-off with 20 seconds left to play in the game. This ‘extra 2%’ could be the difference between you being on the bench watching and you being on the ice at a critical juncture as a difference maker.
Mad Face-off Skillz = Ice-Time!
I rarely make promises in this business as there are just way to many variables that end up being out of your control but I can guarantee if you can dedicate 20 minutes a day to practicing face-offs, you will quickly become not only the best player on your team but one of the top men on the ‘Draw’ in your junior or midget/bantam league. Why? It’s very simple; most coaches do not have time to practice this skill during valuable and expensive ice-time. At most, the average player will get a few minutes per week dedicated to this specific skill. But when you can drop 200 pucks in 15 minutes and repeat that set of skills development over the course of a summer off-season, you can add a ridiculous amount of ‘draws’ to your skill repertoire.
Quick math for you…. 200/Day x 7 Days = 1,400 (April-August 22 weeks) 22 x 1,400 = 30,800 practice face-offs more than anyone else on your team.
This is a skill that relies heavily on hand-eye co-ordination, muscle memory and above all else repetition, repetition, repetition. Once you master the core skills, then you can move on to learning body positioning and other more advanced aspects of the ability. FYI, you can put these 15 minutes in by yourself each day, you just need the pucks and some open space! If you have someone to help you, all the better, you can do twice as much volume in the same amount of time!
Overall, by adding 15 minutes to your skills development a day, you can improve your ability by more than that ‘extra 2%’ that allows you to compete and grow beyond the average player at your current level.
I will try to go over a few more skills you can add to your program in future articles!
Creating a Comprehensive Off-Season Plan
The Playoffs are Over…What now? Creating a Comprehensive Off-Season Plan
With the season ending, you might think that it is time for a vacation from the early morning skates and hard work, but you would be wrong. If you plan on playing at the junior, college or higher level then you need to take the time to devise a practical and useful off-season plan. It isn’t 1980 or even 1995 anymore, which means riding the bike and a little shinny hockey throughout the summer just wont cut it. But I think I’m preaching to the choir on this issue.
The fact is everyone trains on and off the ice during the off-season, just to keep up with everyone else, let alone get ahead of the curve. Some of the topics we will discuss in this series of articles are: Choosing a personal trainer; skills development; Summer Camps; U16-U17 Provincial/State Camps; Spring Leagues; Putting your Plan together Properly.
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In my last article, ‘So What If Your Coach Hates You”, I argued that it is important to focus on controlling what you can actually control: how you can get better, grow as a player and improve your skill set in the time that you have left. I think that this is still sound advice for any level of development. However, the realities are that at some point, you will have exhausted all of your patience, chances and / or false promises from the Team. It is time to explore moving on, it is time to ask for a TRADE!
I’m not going to bore you with a textbook seminar on negotiation and mediation, I’ll focus on the options you have and when it is best to implement them.
The one thing that people do not realize is that this can very much be like breaking up with your wife or long time partner. As funny as that sounds, both parties have put significant amounts or blood, sweat and tears into this relationship and letting go and moving on may not be easy for some.
The outcome can depend entirely on the GM or Coach with whom you are negotiating. Is he an even tempered and fair minded person or a ‘Napoleon Complex’ type who let’s you know in no uncertain terms that it is “his way or the highway”!? Does he actually care about your development or is it all business? Is he a scorched earth kinda person? Lastly, does he prefer intimidation and yelling or more civilized consensus based discussion?
Having dealt with Coaches and Management in 17 Countries from NHL GM’s to Swedish Eliteserien Directors of Player Personnel, and having actually been a minor professional Coach myself, I know that things are never cut and dry. And to be honest, in 90%+ of instances, most negotiations or player discussions are dealt with directly, reasonably fairly as there aren’t a lot of surprises. When a Player isn’t playing well or up to expectations or is stuck in a secondary role that limits his development and statistical production, EVERYONE knows this fact and no one is blindsided by the desire for change from either party. The problems arise in two instances. First, when either the management or player has a totally different view of reality. Second, when the ego’s involved are totally disproportionate to the importance of the situation.
These types of scenarios when combined with the temperament and negotiating styles of the Management drastically affect your approach to a Trade.
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Asking for a Trade
If the main reason to leave is to be closer to home or another such personal reason, it is better to be up front about it from the beginning, those types of trades can and should be sorted out with little difficulty if you are sincere and properly explain your reasoning. I will focus on the situations where you just need to move on for a change of scenery for professional reasons.
Having exhausted all other options, the next step is to approach your coach or manager and have a candid discussion. Ideally, you would outline all the previous steps you had taken to improve your place on the team but that it was just not working and better if both parties moved in different directions.
Now I would recommend that you be as flexible for the club as possible in finding them a fair return on their investment. Ideally, you would communicate that you will not go public with your desires and would prefer to continue practicing and playing as hard as possible while they explored options so as to maximize their leverage and your trade value.
At this point, even though you have irreconcilable differences you have demonstrated that you are being reasonable and accommodating as possible out of respect for the Manager and the Team. If he is still talking to you at this point and is willing to consider your desires it would be a good time to give him a list of potential destinations that you would prefer but make it clear that you are not holding out nor demanding outrageous concessions. In a perfect scenario you would keep an open dialogue and he would take the appropriate amount of time to make a deal that works for you and the club.
Some might say that this is a dream world scenario, but respect and direct communication where both parties know exactly what they want and what the other parties’ expectations are usually leads to a positive outcome.
In all honesty, about 50% of the times that I have had to help a player in requesting a trade, we have been able to work things out in this manner. Unfortunately, in the other 50% of instances, personality traits and hurt feelings have resulted in a more adversarial process.
In short, the proverbial ‘Crap’ hit the fan and it was time to enter into a more aggressive negotiation phase. It was time to demand a trade! We will examine this process next article!
I would very much like to hear from you guys about your own experiences whether they were negative or positive so please drop me an email if you get a chance!!!
Good Luck
Jason