The Ride to The Rink - How to Prepare and Perform Your Best for Tryouts and Evaluations

Tryout season is here, and whether you’re heading to the rink feeling confident or battling nerves, we’re here to help you approach it with the right mindset. In this episode of The Ride to the Rink, Lee, Mike, and Sherry break down what you can control, what really matters in an evaluation, and how to set yourself up for success—both on and off the ice.

We’ll talk about:

✅ How to manage nerves and set a strong mental outlook

✅ Why most teams already have a roster in mind—and what that means for you

✅ The importance of preparation, from gear checks to pre-tryout routines

✅ What coaches really look for during tryouts

✅ How being a great teammate can make a difference

Plus, we’ve got advice for parents—because your role in this process is just as important! Whether this is your first eval or your tenth, this episode is packed with insights to help you skate onto the ice with confidence.

🎧 Listen now and get ready to bring your best to tryouts!

#Hockey #YouthHockey #HockeyTryouts #HockeyEvals #HockeyMindset #TryoutTips #HockeyTraining #HockeyParents #HockeyLife #HockeyDevelopment #SkateHard #GameReady #HockeyMotivation #Teamwork #BeAGoodTeammate #TheRideToTheRink #OurKidsPlayHockey

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Transcript

Lee MJ Elias [0:00 - 1:24]: Hello hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Lee, Mike, and Sherry with you today, and we're talking about tryouts and evals that are coming up. And you might be listening to this episode on your way to an eval when this is coming out. So we want to talk to you about two things today. One is the outlook on a tryout, kind of mentally what you should be thinking about and maybe realizing this time of year. And then also we're going to give you some. Some quick tips and thoughts about actually getting to the rink and being on the ice at a tryout. These things go hand in hand. And I think where we want to start with is this. We know that you feel some anxiety, maybe a little fear, maybe uneasiness, or maybe you're feeling superbly confident on this tryout today, but you're feeling something okay? And I think the first thing you need to do, kids, is acknowledge what you're feeling and not just living it. So if you're on the darker end of that spectrum, it's okay to say, hey, look, I'm a little nervous to do this try. It's okay to say that out loud. Okay? Adversely, if you're. If you're feeling a little excited in a positive way, you should say that, too. Like, I'm feeling pretty confident today. Acknowledge your feelings. And then I think the second part is to get your mind straight, to understand what you're walking into. When you walk into an eval for a team and a tryout, the. The truth is this, kids, and. 

Mike Bonelli [1:24 - 1:24]: And. 

Lee MJ Elias [1:24 - 3:16]: And you may want to believe this. You may not. Most of the teams that you're trying out for have already been chosen. The coaches know who they want on their team. The organization has an idea. There may be a few spots up for grabs, but the sooner you can acknowledge that that is the situation you are walking into, I think the better your mind and your mindset will be to approach the tryout. The second half of this is that you have to remember, kids, and this is the important thing I really want you to remember. You've been trying out for this team all season, no matter where you played. If you're returning to the same organization, your coaches, the team, the organization, they've been watching you all season. They've watched you develop. That is how you should be looking at evals, the effort and the mindset you put in throughout the year. If you're going to a new organization, you put the work in during the Year. Now, you have to showcase those skills, okay? But you have to remind yourself, do not put the entire pressure of the world on yourself for one or two or three skates thinking that this is the make or break moment of my entire hockey career. That is done over the course of the journey, over the course of not just one season, but, but many seasons. And the work that you put in on the ice, off the ice, to prepare. Now, if you're. If you're in a position to say, I've done that, I've done the work great. If you're in a position, you say, you know, I haven't done that. I haven't done the work great. Now you know that you need to do that if you want to make a higher team. There's no right or wrong path, kids, okay? And look, nothing I'm saying is going to take that feeling in the pit of your stomach away, okay? That. That's part of going to an event like this. But you do need to have the perspective. I think that will give you an edge of knowing what you're walking into. I'm going to bring in. In Mike and Sherry here just to kind of share thoughts on this two kids. And remember, kids, look, evals are always a weird time of year. We're just trying to give you that perspective. Mike. 

Mike Bonelli [3:17 - 5:03]: Yeah. I think you can relate this. If you're a player right now, like school, right, You. You get anxiety over a big test and, and you know, it's coming up, or you have regions or you have, you know, there. There's the end of the semester, their end of the quarter, you know, or of. Of evaluations that you need to go through in school. And why do you go through with confidence? And why do you go through without confidence? You go through with confidence because, you know, you're prepared. You studied, you. You read. You read the. The. The stuff you needed to do. You did the work. You did all the work leading up to it. You know, I'm. I'm assuming that 98% of your teachers aren't giving you a test on a subject you've never reviewed and talked about and saw. Same thing in hockey. You're gonna. You're gonna walk into the rink, you're gonna have familiarity with the rink, you're gonna know what's expected of you, and you're gonna know that, you know, I am prepared for this. I've worked, like Lee said, I've either worked all year to get to this point to get ready to showcase who I think I am, or I really, deep down inside, no, I really haven't done the work, and I haven't really prepared for this, and I should just expect what I get out of it is what I put into it. And it's just. It's just, you know, those are things we can do as parents, too, if they're in the car with you, you know, don't. You can't look at the tryouts as, oh, my God, tomorrow's a tryout. It's. It's a process. And if you have a chance right now and your tryouts are, you know, three weeks from now, you can still reset your mindset to go into an evaluation. And a tryout doesn't matter what your talent level is. That's irrelevant to this conversation. It's about, what are you going to do when you walk in the rink to prepare yourself to be the best. It's to showcase your talents and what you do to the best of your ability, regardless of what other people think of you. 

Lee MJ Elias [5:03 - 5:06]: Yeah, sure. Do you have anything to add to that? Do you want to. You want to dive into tips? 

Sheri Hudspeth [5:08 - 5:48]: No, I think I'm with Mike, obviously. You know, I'm big on preparation. Check the night before. I know you got a lot of nerves, so if you got a lot of nerves, something you can do, check your equipment, make sure you're ready to go, have a good meal, make sure you're getting sleep the night before. And big thing, too, is showing up on time. Right. You don't want to be showing up late, so make sure your parents that they know you got to get to the tryout on this time. Be there, arrive early, check in, make sure that your jersey's right. Like kids, if you get a jersey and your jersey's ripped and they wrote down your number already and you come back 10 minutes later and change your jersey, make sure that they write down your new number. Like, just little things that are going to go a long way and help you have success throughout your trial. 

Mike Bonelli [5:48 - 5:49]: Yeah. 

Lee MJ Elias [5:49 - 9:29]: And then as you get on the ice, kids, you know, one of the things I like to remind you all. And when I'm running a tryout or I'm on the ice for Trout. You've been on the ice many times this season, and you're just getting on the ice again. The ice hasn't changed. The dimensions of the rink haven't changed. The puck has not changed. Your jersey may have changed, but you have the game that you have. So just go out there and play the game that you have and be very attentive and like, again, these are good tips for any point of the year, not just evals, right? Everything Sherry just said, everything I'm about to say, be attentive to the drills. Try and learn. Don't be first in line. If you're not sure what a drill is, watch so you can execute, okay? Remember, we're not watching you the entire time you're on the ice. Just like practices, just like games, right? We. We have to evaluate these things as coaches, I think above all, and. And this is something. I'm kind of speaking to you kids as a coach now and as a parent. I want you to. To just work hard out there and work as hard as you can. Again, I want this all season. This is not. This is not limited to evals. I'm just telling you this today, all right? But I think the important thing is this. You have to be able to come off the ice. And I'm going to say it again. Tryouts, games, practices. You got to be able to come off the ice and look at your. Your parents or look at your teammates and just say, I did every single thing I could today. I did the best I could. I'm telling you kids that that's enough. That's enough for me as a hockey person, knowing that you did the best you can. Okay? If you did the best you can, you'll get placed where you get placed. You've. You've focused on everything within your control, all right? You don't control the decision of where you're going. That's another thing I want you to remember here as you come to the evals. You control your effort, you control your mindset. And as Sherry said, you control your diet. Both the food and the stuff you put in your mind, okay, the food in your body and the. The knowledge in your mind, those are the only three things you can control. So when you go to an eval or a tryout, make sure that you have focused on the things you can control. As much as you want to believe this, you have no control over the outcome of these evals. Just like you have no control over the outcome of a game, you can only control yourself. So when you go into these evals, acknowledge your feelings, all right? Acknowledge the situation. Have a grip on it. Remember, you've been playing all year. This is not the first time you're stepping on the ice. Be prepared again year round. Make sure your gear's in your bag. Show up on time. Introduce yourself. Be kind. You know, advocate for yourself. If you feel like you need to do that in the right way, a professional way. These are year round things, kids. And that, that really is the crux of this episode of the ride to the rink. You should be doing this year round, and I'm going to end it the way we started it. If you're not doing it year round, that's okay. This is your, this is your siren to go out there and start doing that. Okay. It starts right now with you listening to this episode. And if you have been doing that, great, continue to do it. There's really no in between or outside of this thing. It's like that's how you approach the evals. You go out there and do what you've been doing the whole season, all right? And also, obviously, be a great teammate. All right? There's nothing wrong. Like, you know, last thing I'll say to you kids out there, I feel like sometimes you go out there, I gotta get a one up on a kid. It's not how it works. Just compete. Compete to the best of your ability. Help kids, help them get better. It's not, it's not going to change your spot on the team by helping someone. Right. And if you somehow miraculously teach a kid a move and he pulls it off in the tryout, he's not making the team because he taught him that move. Trust me, okay? Be a great teammate. All right? I look for that tryouts. Who's helping each other, Right. Or who's hurting each other? Mike, Sherry, any final thoughts on this before we end the episode? 

Mike Bonelli [9:29 - 9:35]: I think, I think the. That's the overwhelming theme in anything. Just be a good person. 

Lee MJ Elias [9:35 - 9:36]: Yeah. 

Mike Bonelli [9:36 - 10:20]: Be kind, compete and be prepared. And I think if you have all those things going in and if you've been doing that already, you're probably in a great situation where you're going in with a lot of confidence, knowing that the coaches all want you to be there and everybody in the organization wants you to come back, great. If you really haven't been that player and haven't had that guidance and kind of missed the boat on some of those things, you know, it's a real good opportunity to reset and restructure your thought process and go in and kind of reinvent yourself, Especially if you're going to a place we've never been to, if it's not the organization you normally are at, you can go in and, you know, be a whole new person, a whole new player, and, you know, get yourself on the right foot or skate. 

Lee MJ Elias [10:21 - 10:23]: Sherry, any final thoughts? 

Sheri Hudspeth [10:24 - 10:36]: No. I think maybe just parents enjoy the process. Right? Relax. Take a breath. Being in the stands, yelling, skate as loud as you can, doing hand signals, none of that's going to help. Just enjoy the process. It's a very short one. 

Mike Bonelli [10:36 - 10:36]: It's. 

Sheri Hudspeth [10:36 - 10:47]: It's a short amount of time that you get to do this. So put trust in them that they're prepared and that they're going to go out there and do their best and just give them a hug after and. And hopefully they land where they land where they want to land. 

Lee MJ Elias [10:47 - 11:20]: Yeah, kids, that's actually great advice for you to tell your parents. Hey, Mom, Dad, I got this. Well, I'll be fine. Yeah, chill out in the stands. Okay? Just let me. Let me do my thing. All right, that's going to do it. For this edition of the Ride to the Rink. From Vegas to the Connecticut, New York border to Philadelphia, the three of us are appreciative of you kids. I'm going to tell you this. I'm not going to wish you good luck, because luck has nothing to do with it, okay? Go out there and do the best you can. That's what you need to do. We'll see you on the next ride to the rink. Kids, remember, no matter what happens, no matter what team you make, we believe in you. You should, too. Skate, all my friends. We'll see you soon.