Our Kids Play Hockey
Our Kids Play Hockey is a podcast that focuses on youth hockey, offering insights, stories, and interviews from the hockey community. It provides valuable advice for parents, coaches, and players, covering various aspects of the game, including skill development, sportsmanship, teamwork, and creating a positive experience for young athletes. The show frequently features guests who share their expertise and personal experiences in youth hockey, both on and off the ice.
The show features three hockey parents, who all work in the game at high levels:
- Christie Casciano-Burns - USA Hockey Columnist, Author, and WSYR Anchor
- Mike Bonelli - USA Hockey Coach and Organizational Consultant
- Lee M.J. Elias - Hockey Entrepreneur, Author, and Team Strategist
In addition to the main podcast, there are several spin-off series that dive into specific aspects of youth hockey:
1.Our Girls Play Hockey – This series highlights the growing presence of girls in hockey, addressing the unique challenges they face while celebrating their accomplishments and contributions to the sport. Each episode of Our Girls Play Hockey is also hosted by Sheri Hudspeth who is the Director, Youth Hockey Programs and Fan Development for the Vegas Golden Knights.
2.The Ride to The Rink – A shorter, motivational series designed to be listened to on the way to the rink, offering quick, inspirational tips and advice to help players and parents get into the right mindset before a game or practice.
3.Our Kids Play Goalie – This series is dedicated to young goalies and the unique challenges they face. It provides advice for players, parents, and coaches on how to support and develop young goaltenders, focusing on the mental and physical demands of the position.
Together, these shows provide a comprehensive platform for parents, players, and coaches involved in youth hockey, offering insights for all aspects of the sport, from parenting, playing, or coaching to specialized positions like goaltending.
Our Kids Play Hockey
The Ride To The Rink - Don’t Let 12 Seconds Define Your Game
In this week's episode of Ride to the Rink, Lee and Mike dive into a crucial lesson for young players: how to keep your emotions in check and stay present, no matter what happens on the ice. Using relatable examples and practical advice, they explore how a few seconds of frustration—or celebration—can derail your performance if you let it. Learn why “being a goldfish” and practicing emotional awareness are key skills for hockey players and athletes alike.
Whether you’re scoring big or bouncing back from a mistake, this episode will teach you how to stay focused, control your mindset, and keep improving every shift.
Tune in to hear why we believe in you—and why you should too!
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Key Takeaways:
1.The “12-Second Rule”: Don’t let a few seconds of frustration or excitement dictate your entire game.
2.Be a Goldfish: Let go of mistakes and move on quickly—just like the best players and goalies do.
3.Balance Good and Bad Moments: Celebrate or process emotions briefly, then refocus on the game.
4.Practice Emotional Awareness: This teachable skill can be honed both on and off the ice.
5.Staying Present: Whether it’s during a game, at school, or with family, the key to improvement lies in emotional awareness and mindfulness.
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Practical Tips for Players:
•After a mistake or success, take 15-30 seconds to acknowledge it, feel your emotions, and let it go.
•Review game film with a focus on learning, not reliving mistakes or getting stuck on highlights.
•Practice emotional control in everyday life to build resilience on the ice
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#HockeyMindset #RideToTheRink #OurKidsPlayHockey
Click To Text The Our Kids Play Hockey Team!
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Lee MJ Elias [0:00 - 2:03]: Foreign hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Lee and Mike with you today. Mike, I heard one of the greatest statements or metaphors, I don't, I don't really know what it is. From a coach the other day, and I wanted to share it here. It was a basketball coach. I'm going to apply it to hockey because I did it with one of my players the other day. I, I have a young player, good player, very talented, but every time he misses the net, shoulders go down, looks upset, looks, looks up, it looks mad every time a D gets the puck from him. He's just really hard on himself, okay? And it's coming from a good place. You know, he wants to be good, he wants to score goals, he wants to play well. But I see him get back in the line at practice or I see him come off the ice in a game, and he's just so frustrated with himself that he couldn't get that puck where he wanted it to be. And so I went up to this player at a practice, that practice is 60 minutes long. I said, hey, man, how long does it take you to take a shot as an offense man? And he goes, two seconds. See, I wanted two seconds. And I said, how many shots you think you take at practice? Really, a practice? He says, you know, 15 to 20. I said, yeah. So you're letting 15 to 30 seconds of an hour long practice ruin your entire practice in a game? How many shots you take in a game? Maybe four or five, right? Maybe six if you're, you know, a really different level. 12 seconds of a 45 minute game, you're gonna allow 12 seconds to dictate your entire mentality for the game. Now, I'm not saying those 12 seconds might not change the course of the game, but your mentality cannot be based on those 12 seconds. Your mentality is based on how you play that 45 minute game or that 60 minute game or whatever you play 48, doesn't matter. So, kids, the point I'm trying to bring to you is this. A lot of stuff happens in a game. You're out there for 60 minutes or less. Make sure the entire time you're out there is what you're focused on, not 12 seconds. Mike, any thoughts on that?
Mike Bonelli [2:04 - 3:08]: Yeah, you can't allow the little pieces of the game to dictate the whole game. Right. That we're all ebbs and flows happen all the time. I think if you're a goaltender, you probably know how to manage that the best, because you probably practice it the most. But as any kind of a player, be able to, you know, as Lee talks a lot about in a lot of our episodes, you know, be a goldfish. Right? Just. Just understand that. You just have to. It just. Just. It comes and goes. Bad play. Don't harp on it. Good play. Great. You're expected to do that. Just. Just make these plays where they don't dictate every single moment of the rest of the game. Enjoy the moment of a great play. How many times players, right, that we score a big goal and we're celebrating, everybody's happy, and everybody's looking up at the stands, at mom and dad, puck drops, boom, goal against. And I think that's because you weren't able to forget about the good. The good thing, just get back to business. And I think the same thing, negative. You know, you get. You have a bad play, that little bad shot, rings off the post. You should have scored. Everybody in the rink knew it was an open net. Should have put it in. You got to be able to rebound on that, turn around and just try it again.
Lee MJ Elias [3:08 - 5:32]: Yeah, you make a really good point. That this goes both ways. It's not just the bad plays, it's the good plays. Right. The amount of times. And you just said this. We get, you know, we score a goal, and then there's the shift after a goal, and we get scored on because we're still living in that goal right now. Let's just break this down a little bit more for the kids. There's grace here. There's a grace period here. Right. If you go out there and make a mistake or something doesn't go your way or you score a big goal. Yeah. You can feel that feeling for a few seconds. All right? I'm not telling you. If you make a bad play just to be like, I don't care, it's no big deal. Coach Lee and Coach Mike said I should get over. That's not what I'm saying. Okay. And you mentioned goaltenders. You got to compartmentalize. Okay. Something good or bad has happened. First thing you need to do is acknowledge that something good or bad has happened. Okay. The next thing. Yeah, I gotta do is maybe figure out what you're feeling. You're elated, you're excited. We just got a big goal. Or I feel horrible. I just gave up a goal. Or I'm frustrated. I wanted to make a goal. I wanted to make a pass. Acknowledge that feeling now. Okay, so now you've acknowledged what happened and now you know how you're feeling. The next step. And this should all take place in about, you know, 15 to 30 seconds. All right. Usually happens between plays is letting it go. All right. Whatever it is. Okay. That was a great feeling. I got to get present now. I got to get back to the game and I'm refocused. All right? I can't have a player that in the third period is still stewing over something that happened in the first period. I can't have a player who on their next shift is still thinking about what happened on the previous shift, good or bad. I need you present on that shift. That's the work that needs to be done now. So kids do not let most likely what is three or four seconds from a game or a practice dictate the entirety of that game or practice. The game is based on capitalizing on. On mistakes. The quicker you can compartmentalize good and bad and get back to the game. That is a skill, my friends. That is a immense skill. To be a goldfish skill, we'll call it, because of what Mike said. Get present and get back in the game. Great players can do that, right? Great athletes. We're not even talking hockey. Great athletes can do that. It's not always going to go perfect and it's not always going to go bad. But if you can stay present, even keeled, focus on what you can control, those are the keys to becoming better and better and better. So that's it. Mike, any final words on this before I close it out?
Mike Bonelli [5:32 - 6:44]: No, thank you. Summarized it great. And I think that something, again, as a lot of things we talk about in these ride to the ranks, this is a teachable skill. This is thing. You can learn this by practicing. It doesn't have to be on the ice. Matter of fact, don't even be in the rink. You can, you can practice all of this. You can even practice it. You know, I've seen players practice it watching their game video, like, knowing, like, because you, when you watch a game video of you on huddle and you're sitting there sitting and you're sitting there looking around and saying, oh, my God, what a play that was. Oh, what a horrible move that was. You in that moment are feeling the same emotions. You could train yourself out of those emotions. You could create and say, oh, okay, this situation, I'm going to do this. On that situation, I'm going to do this. And I think you could. And like anything else, it's. It's something you can learn and something you can then implement in practice. Don't just, you know, you can't go to the next game. Go. This is what I'm going to do, right? Think about how you're going to strategize around it. Find what works for you. What works for you might not work for other people. Like, one way to forget things isn't the same as maybe how other people forget things or reinforce those negative thoughts in your head. There's other strategies around getting out of that.
Lee MJ Elias [6:44 - 6:44]: Yeah.
Mike Bonelli [6:44 - 6:56]: And just practice it. Embrace the fact that you are going to have these emotions. Everyone has them. Just learn how to. The more you can learn how to deal with them and control them, the better player you're going to become.
Lee MJ Elias [6:56 - 7:43]: Yeah. And kids, everything Mike said, plus this, your ability to become aware of these situations, what you're talking about, Mike, is so important. And guess where that happens. On the ice, off the ice, at school, at home, with your parents, with your siblings. I mean, it's an all the time thing. If you really want to practice it, you practice it all the time. Anytime you're feeling any emotion, that's usually an indicator that you need to become aware of what you're feeling. Intense emotion, right? So that, that's the key and that's the ride to the rink. You know, we say every episode, we believe in you. You should too. The you should too part matters, right? I can tell you I believe in you till I'm blue in the face. You gotta believe it, right, kids? So just remember that. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Ride to the Rink with Mike and Lee. Remember, we believe in you. You should too. Skate hard, have fun. We'll see you on the next episode.
Mike Bonelli [7:43 - 7:44]: Everybody take.
