Thanksgiving Thoughts

In light of the recent holiday here are some thoughts.

Things I am Thankful for:

1. My family. They supported me giving up my steady job to pursue my passion and continue to provide support on a daily basis.

2. My customers. They trust me with their children for a couple of hours a few times per week. In return I promise to return you a kid who is bigger, faster, stronger, and more mentally tough.

3. My brother Jeff. Thanks for the help with everything buddy.

4. My friends.

5. Leftover turkey sandwiches, which I enjoy more than the actual meal.

Top 10 Things NOT to do...for young athletes

1. Do not eat fast food more than once per week. But, once per week is fine.

2. Do not eat fries and pizza everyday for school lunch. Eat pizza on Fridays, every other day pack a sandwich and a piece of fruit.

3. Do not drink more than one soda per day. But one soda per day is fine (diet is much better).

4. Do not be lazy; do your off- ice training, skate hard at practice, clean your room.

5. Do not take things for granted; be thankful you have the opportunities you have to go to good schools, play hockey, and have families who love you.

6. Do not lift weights unless you have a good teacher, trainer, or strength coach, you will just be putting yourself in position to get injured.

7. Do not watch TV every night. Watch TV 3 nights per week. Every other night go down in the basement and shoot pucks or stickhandle, read books, do homework, spend time with your siblings. Make a schedule for which nights are TV nights.

8. Do not play video games more than two nights per week. Use nights after school to play football or basketball with your friends.

9. Do not be difficult to coach. If a coach asks you to do a drill, or pick up some tape in the locker room, or pick up pucks, do it at 100 miles per hour with no questions asked.

10. Do not take shortcuts. If you want to be a good athlete you have to practice hard, train hard, play other sports, and make sure you enjoy what you are doing.

Today's Teenagers vs Yesterday's Teenagers

Sorry to everyone following along with me here, I was in Montreal defending the cup from last years Canadian Hockey Enterprises, which explains the week off from posting. This post may sound like a rant, but just some thoughts I have.

Old School Teenagers

The fact that I am writing this article is making me feel old, but I would consider myself somewhat of a dying breed. Old School teenagers were flat out tougher than today's teenagers. When I was a teen (that doesn't feel good to say) here are some of the things that characterized me, my friends, and teenagers of old. We used to play tackle football, street hockey, man hunt, etc until all hours of the night, all seasons of the year. Snow on the ground? Even better, let's throw snowballs at each other across the street and aim for each other's heads. I vividly remember living in Quincy during Hurricane Bob and having my cousin Mark knocking on my door to see if I wanted to take advantage of the 3 feet of water in the backyard to play "kill the man with the ball". Needless to say we were out there flopping around beating the hell out of each other.

We played football, soccer, baseball, basketball, and hockey and often times after playing a hockey game I would put on my pads and get in the car with my mom and dad and drive to my football game an hour later.

During the summer all of my friends would landscape, work construction, roofing, painting, etc. As soon as you were physically able we were working for some pocket money. We all drove shitbox cars for the most part too.

We had conversations with each other face to face, picked up the phone to call our buddies and that first girl you had a crush on.

Today's Teens

This breed is a sharp contrast to the way things were when I was growing up. When young guys come into the gym to train I hear them talking about playing NHL Live or Halo on their XBox (I may not even be saying this right, which makes me feel kinda good). Kids are sitting in dark basements playing these video games with kids across the globe while wearing headsets for 4-5 hours on end. Do you know what would happen if 15 year old me ran into 15 year old you? I would stuff you in a dumpster and take your lunch money. Kids are talking about sick goals and touchdowns they scored, which is great except they scored them using their thumbs while holding a game controller.

I know of 10 and 11 year old kids who have cell phones. What is that about? What could they possibly need phones for? I got a cell phone when I was 17 only to be kept in my car in case of emergency because I was a terrible driver along with everyone else my age. Now you see kids walking around texting each other or using IM instead of actually speaking to each other. Kids have become so used to texting that they are losing their ability to communicate as humans.

As far as sports goes, parents of kids age 10 think they have the next Wayne Gretzky on their hands and start sending their kids to play hockey year round. No more football, soccer, basketball, etc, just hockey all the time. I'd like to tell some of these parents, "guess what, little Johnny probably doesn't even have a shot to play Div3 hockey in college, but he may have a shot at DIV 1 Lacrosse except you will never know because his skates are permanently laced on."

Summer Jobs? Ha! Some of these kids will do some manual labor but bitch and moan about it like it is the hardest thing in the world. And still they are better than the kid who sits on his couch all summer and whines at his Dad who works 60 hours a week when he asks him to mow the lawn once every 10 days. Drive around a high school parking lot nowadays and you see that some of the kids are driving nicer cars than their teachers, and they deserve it, they have worked hard (sarcasm?).

Solution

If you are parent start trying some of these things today and you just might see some really amazing things happen with your kids.

1. Ban TV on weeknights. This will force them to find other ways to entertain themselves. This goes for video games, IM, and other crap. You may notice they start putting together street hockey games or going to the park and scraping up their knees.

2. Give them cell phones for emergency purposes, not so they can text 400 times per day. Watching young kids text like they are a gifted musician playing an instrument makes me wanna puke.

3. Make them try other sports. Church League Hoops, pickup soccer, flag football, anything really.

4. Send them to the gym to lift weights. If you have the means, then send them to a qualified strength coach or trainer who will make sure they turn into well rounded, strong athletes and people.

5. Don't buy them a brand new Explorer when they get their license to drive. Buy them a beat up station wagon so they can appreciate that first nice car. I have yet to get my first nice car but know that when I do, a new Jeep will feel like a Maserati.

6. Make them try landscaping or roofing for a summer.

More than Just Strength and Conditioning

Just a quick thought today.

I find myself more and more involved with what my athletes have going on in their lives outside of the gym. Usually as soon as guys enter the gym I start firing questions at them about grades, school in general, about college and the recruiting process, whether or not they are staying out of trouble, etc. I have noticed a trend. Kids are coming in with the best report cards in their lives, noticeably more confident, not to mention playing the best they have ever played in their chosen sport. I think strengthening the body transfers to all aspects of life. I also think I am involved in more than just strength and conditioning.

Monday Chatter November 10 2008

I couldn't really think of a theme for a unified blog post, so I am just going to rattle off a few thoughts on my mind.

In the picture above from left to right. Myself, Deb Aylward (Dayls), Eddie O'Connor (Eagle), Rich Aylward (Rocket), and Mike Aylward (Big Mike).

1. Last Thursday evening I had the pleasure to train the Aylwards and Eddie O'Connor in one session. I already know how bad ass the Aylward men are, but I was completely floored by Deb. She was much stronger than I expected and kept complaining that Mike, her husband, was slowing her down. She also hates to stretch. Her son Mike, one of my best friends, is over in Iraq patrolling the Syrian border as we speak. Thanks for your service Mikey, love you buddy.

2. Based on an article I wrote this morning, if you aren't going to train with a good strength coach or trainer, why do you continue to waste time going for jogs, walks, and long bikes? You should be lifting weights, doing more intense energy systems work, and overall training like an athlete. Watch any college or NFL football game. Do you want to look like one of them or the same fat guy at the gym who does 30 minutes on the eliptical 3 times per week?

3. Want a good quick workout to do? Go to a park and perform the following. One short distance sprint, 5 pushups, and one time across the monkey bars. Drop down on the other side, catch your breath quickly and repeat 10 times. If you aren't breathing heavy you aren't working hard enough. Sometimes training can be this simple and fun.

4. This week is the last week of the fall session at the facility. If you are looking to put on size, speed, and strength this winter, come train with us at Sullivan Training Systems. Shoot me an email for more details at tssullivanjr@gmail.com.

5. We have had some impressive performances this fall session and I will blog later this week with a highlight reel.

6. I have no idea why I can't figure out the spacing of these blog posts, but it makes me want to spike my laptop on the ground, set it on fire, and perform the Maori Haka dance around it.

5 Tips to Make Your Recruiting Visit a Success

If you are a high school athlete starting to enter the recruiting process, there are a few things that will separate you from the rest of potential recruits as you begin to sit down and interview with coaches. Notice I use the word interview and not meet, or speak. It would be beneficial to start thinking in these terms if you are going to be meeting with coaches. Here are some tips you can use right away to make these meetings a success.

1. Overdress. Will it make a difference to a coach if you show up in jeans and a polo shirt versus khakis, jacket, and tie? Maybe, but why risk it. If you show up dressed well, a coach will know that you are taking this opportunity seriously.

2. Eye Contact. As you sit across a desk from a potential college coach, make sure you maintain eye contact and be confident. They are making judgements about you even when you aren't speaking.

3. Ask Questions. Show up to each recruiting trip with 15 questions to ask the coach. You may not get to all of the questions but it gives you a good number to start with. Write them on a sheet of paper and take some notes as the coach answers your question. He will be blown away by this. Good question: Can you describe the style of play that I will encounter in your league? Bad Question: Are there a lot of hot girls on campus?

4. Figure out exactly where you stand. If this were an interview for a job you wanted, you would close the meeting by asking for the job. So ask for the job. Ask the coach where you fit in with his plans for your recruiting class.

5. Repeat this process on all of your recruiting trips. If you use the same 15 questions at each meeting, you now have 3-6 sheets of notes on your questions from each school that you can use for reference when you make your final decision.

Winter Session 2008-2009

I am happy to announce that we are accepting applications for the Winter Session. There will be two options to train. One will be a two day per week training schedule and the second option will feature a three day per week. Session will run from November 24 through the last week in February. For more information please contact me at tssullivanjr@gmail.com

Below is an article I wrote for the Boston Patriots.

7 Successful Habits for Young Athletes

1. Academic Success. It is crucial for young athletes to start developing solid study habits as they get older. When the college selection process begins, any coach will tell you that a good player who has excellent grades and good test scores is invaluable to a program. Usually a coach has a small number of players they can be more lenient with during the admission process. If you remove the obstacle of you getting admitted, you make the coach’s job much easier.

2. Hard Work. Kids might not be happy to hear me say this, but hard work may be the best trait a player can possess. The beauty of this habit is you have complete control over how hard you work. You want to build a reputation as a “guy who will go through the boards if you asked him too”. Coaches love these guys. So start working hard in practice, stay after to shoot pucks, ask what other things you can do to get better, block shots, finish checks, and just flat out hustle at every opportunity.

3. Be a team player. This means at all times, not just when you feel like it. Pick up pucks at practice, clean the locker room, don’t talk back to coaches, be positive to your teammates at all times, don’t bitch and moan.

4. Summer Jobs. As soon as your son or daughter is old enough, they should be working in the summer even if you are wealthy enough where they don’t have to work. A kid who spends a summer or two working construction or landscaping becomes a mentally tough kid. I would take a construction worker over a kid who plays video games all day. Also, it makes them respect the value of hard work and education. Five summers of landscaping for me really made me think about how I should work hard in school because I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life.

5. Reading. Read anything and everything. Find an author or some books you like and read them. It makes you smarter. Read magazines, newspapers, anything you can get your hands on.

6. Play every sport you can. Don’t specialize in hockey. Play baseball, golf, football, soccer, water ski, tennis, etc. It makes you a better athlete and actually makes your body more injury proof by being exposed to multiple stimuli.

7. Respect your parents. You won’t realize it right now, but your folks kill themselves to get you to practice, to pay for select teams, off ice training, school, etc. Tell them you love them and appreciate everything they do, and clean up after yourself for god sakes!