The Ride to the Rink - Winning Strategies for Youth Hockey Players with the Bruins' Kevin Neeld

Are you fueling your game with the right habits? 

🏒 Discover how sleep and nutrition can transform your performance on the ice! Hosts Lee MJ Elias and Christie Casciano team up with NHL performance coach Kevin Neeld to share essential advice for young athletes. From the importance of a good night's sleep to making healthy foods more appealing, this episode of "Ride to the Rink" is packed with insights to help you excel.

Key Points:

• Sleep's Role in Performance: Learn why a consistent sleep schedule is crucial for energy and skill retention.
• Nutrition Essentials: Understand how your body is built from what you eat and the impact of sugar on your game.
• Taking Initiative: Tips for young athletes to proactively manage their sleep and diet.
• Making Healthy Foods Fun: Creative ways to enjoy vegetables and boost your nutrition.
• Empowerment Message: Encouragement to believe in yourself and your journey.

Got questions or need advice? Reach out at team@ourkidsplayhockey.com. 

#TheRideToTheRink #YouthHockey #SleepAndNutrition #HockeyPerformance

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Transcript

Lee MJ Elias [0:08 - 0:56]: Skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Christian Lee with you and our friend here. Kevin Neild is a performance coach at the NHL level. The guy's in the NHL. I'm gonna say it again. He works with NHL athletes. He's at NHL games. There's a reason I'm pumping you up so much, Kevin. Because, kids, I know for a fact your kids tell you. I'm sorry, Your kids, your parents tell you to eat your vegetables, to go to bed, to take care of your body, and we know you hate it. So we brought on someone from the NHL to talk about nutrition and sleep and taking care of your body. So, Kevin, I'm gonna throw it to you real quick. Just let's go over for the kids listening. And again, kids, you're great for always jumping on these shows. I know you want to learn and grow. It's a good audience. Kev, talk to them. A. Let's just start with sleep. What is the importance of sleep for a youth hockey player? 

Kevin Neeld [0:56 - 3:30]: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of hockey players, A lot of youth hockey players, they. They know that it's important to develop their skills and to work hard in practice. And, you know, that requires a certain amount of attention and a certain amount of energy. And, you know, sleep is really the. It's what refills the gas tank in both of those areas. And, you know, I think one of the things that I never really understood as a kid is that when you practice or when you train or when you do anything, even when you're learning in school, that's almost the, like, the input for your body to get better at something. But the way that your body actually learns those skills and retains them to use in the future is while you're sleeping. Your brain is very, very active while you're sleeping in kind of consolidating everything that you went through during the day and, you know, filtering out some of the stuff that maybe doesn't need. But with skills, specifically the nerve circuits in your brain that are used to produce the skill, your brain is replaying those over and over and over and over while you sleep at night, so that when you wake up the next morning, it's a little bit easier to repeat that same skill. So, you know, I think the big things with sleep are that you try to find a consistent bedtime and a consistent wake time. So. So, you know, the earlier you can go to bed, the better. And, you know, obviously, school dictates when a Lot of kids have to get up. So, you know, the largest opportunity to get more sleep, which, again, is refilling your energy tank and then also allowing your brain to learn the skills that you learned that day at practice. The best opportunity to do that is to go to bed earlier. And then, you know, the three things that we reinforce, even with our players now, is that you want to keep your room cool, dark and quiet. So. So, you know, working with the Bruins, we. We like to reinforce that bears sleep in caves, right? So, you know, the cave is cool, the cave is dark, and the cave is quiet. So, you know, making sure that there's no lights coming through the windows, you know, minimizing the amount of light in your room, making sure that it's completely quiet in your room. If you need some white noise, you know, I spent some time living in the middle of different cities where there's street noise and things that you can drown that out with a fan or a little bit of white noise. But for the most part, keeping your room cool enough that you don't feel like you're overheating at night, completely dark and quiet, it's gonna help you maximize your sleep so that, you know, when you wake up the next day, you're ready to go. 

Christie Casciano [3:30 - 3:40]: All right, so you're feeling better with good sleep. Good nutrition's important, too. Kevin, what is an important part of eating the right foods for kids to. 

Kevin Neeld [3:41 - 6:30]: Yeah, I think there's a couple things, and the first thing for kids to understand is that your body is literally made out of the ingredients that you eat. So when you take food in, when you eat food, your body breaks it down into really small pieces, and then those pieces are used to build the different aspects of your body. It's used to build your muscles, it's used to build your bones and your, you know, they call it connective tissue. But all the different things that. That your body is made out of starts with the ingredients that you're eating. So, you know, I think, you know, you hear your parents and, you know, hopefully your coaches and people at school reinforce how important it is to eat vegetables every day. And that's a big reason why, you know, eating meat and eating vegetables are two of the most important things to give your body the building blocks it needs to be strong and to help give you the energy to play on a day to day basis. Um, you know, the other big thing is to just be aware of how much sugar you're taking in. I think, you know, we talk a little bit about sports drinks and you know, when I was a kid growing up, I thought, it's called a sports drink. It must be good for me all the time. And the reality is that, you know, the. A lot of sports drinks have a lot of sugar in them, which, while you're actually playing a game is okay, but for the most part, your body doesn't need it. Your body has plenty of energy already, already stored in it and the added sugar. What happens when you drink a lot of sugar is that you get this massive sugar rush. So the sugar in your body goes up, your energy goes up, and then really quickly your body realizes, we don't need all this sugar, and it pulls it all out of your body, out of your blood, which, along with that, you know, the blood sugar is going up and then it crashes way down. And on that crash, your energy plummets, your mood plummets, your ability to think clearly and to make good decisions, which, if you're playing in a game, as you probably know, are very important. All of those things take a nosedive along with it. So, you know, I would really prioritize, you know, sports drinks that have no sugar in them and, or just drinking water throughout the day as much as possible and then minimizing, you know, other foods. You know, I try to. I think there's some value in kids learning how to read nutrition labels. And two things that I've taught my kids are just to look for how much sugar is in something and how much protein is in something. And, you know, nutrition can be a really complicated topic. But I think in general, if you're looking at minimizing so as close to zero sugar as possible, and then, you know, the more protein you can have, I think the better, the better it is for most kids. 

Christie Casciano [6:30 - 6:32]: So great advice, Kevin. 

Lee MJ Elias [6:32 - 8:01]: Just insanely actionable items for you kids listening. Now, I'm gonna tag on one more piece of advice, and this is the dad slash coach talking. Kids, if your parents have said to you, you gotta go to bed, you gotta go to bed, or I know you'll all heard this one. Eat your vegetables. Eat what's on your plate. I'm going to give you a twofold thing for you here that can really help you out. One, you just heard it from the pro. Sleeping vegetables and good food are really important. So if you really want to be serious about being a hockey player, okay, or anything, like a good athlete, whatever, whatever you're doing athletically, you need to take the initiative to say, I've got to find a good bedtime and I need to Eat better food. That's the first part. The second part, kids, I would just short of guarantee you that if you're able to shock your parents by saying, I need to go to bed and I need to eat my vegetables, it's going to really benefit you in the long run, all right? Because we don't love having to tell you to go to sleep and eat your vegetables. All right? It's our duty as parents. But if you could take the initiative even at a young age, I'm talking to you kids that are maybe 8, 9, 10 years old. If you can take the initiative and do that, you're going to do yourself a lot of favors. It can be hard, I'll admit it. And we're only telling you to sleep and eat because we care about you and we love you so much. Right, Kev? So, Kev, this is really good stuff for the kids. Thank you so much. 

Kevin Neeld [8:02 - 8:43]: No, happy to do it. I mean, I have a 4 year old and 7 year old at home myself, and some days they like their vegetables more than others. But I also think there are ways to make good foods more enjoyable to eat. You know, we've had, we've cooked with some different seasonings that, you know, roasting vegetables, that's been helpful. You know, sometimes we'll add like a barbecue sauce or something to dip in. You know, when I was a kid, I liked broccoli better when there was cheddar cheese melted on top. So cheese was, you know, as, as, as you're working to shock your parents by asking to eat more vegetables, I would also, if you don't love the way that they prepare it, maybe there's a couple helpful hints in there for you. 

Lee MJ Elias [8:44 - 9:16]: Yeah. And, and kids, if you're listening to this actually on the right of the rink, if you look to your mom or dad real quick, they're probably smiling or just nodding their head a lot. Just, just say, I want to try. Okay. But no, yeah, that's a great point too. You, you can, you can make those experiences better. Like, hey, look, kids, you don't like what you don't like, I like. You got to try things. I'm a big proponent of that. But you can make things, Kevin, great point. Just more enjoyable by, by just maybe thinking outside the box about how you want to prepare those and eat those. And, you know, your parents play an active role in that too. Kids, don't, don't be afraid to ask them to try some new things. All right? 

Christie Casciano [9:16 - 9:18]: And ants on a log are delicious. 

Kevin Neeld [9:19 - 9:19]: Always. 

Lee MJ Elias [9:19 - 9:26]: Right? Those of you who don't know. That's raisins. Peanut butter on. On a piece of celery. Right? I mean, that's, that's, that's, that never goes out of style. All right. 

Kevin Neeld [9:26 - 9:29]: Yeah, don't actually eat ants, please. 

Lee MJ Elias [9:30 - 9:39]: We don't know. Are they high in protein? You know, whatever works right now. Yeah, no, kids don't eat. They don't eat bugs. All right, Kevin, again, fantastic stuff. Thanks so much for being on this episode with us. 

Kevin Neeld [9:39 - 9:40]: Cool. Happy to be here. 

Lee MJ Elias [9:40 - 10:16]: All right, kids, listen, that is some legit professional advice from someone who knows what he's talking about. We really appreciate in kids, remember, no matter where you're at on your hockey journey, we believe in you. You should, too. Okay? You've got to believe in yourself. It can't just come from your coaches and your parents. It comes from you, too. That's going to do it for this edition of the Ride to the Rink. Remember, kids, if you have a question you want to ask us, you can text us. There's a link accompanying the episode in the description. Just tap on that. It comes right to us. Or you can email us with your parents team@our kidsplay hockey.com and we'll get back to you on one of these episodes. But for Christy, for Kevin, I'm Lee. This is the end of the ride to the Rink. We'll see you on the next one. Skate on.