 Remembering The Little Things and ThePower Of Positive Thinking. By: Mark Hatfield (Former NFL and CFL Player)  In 1995, when I was in training camp with the Detroit Lions as an undrafted rookie free agent from a small Canadian school, there was a very successful third-year defensive end named Robert Porcher. Robert Porcher had been a first-round draft pick in the NFL, coming from a big name American university. His face had been plastered on the cover of magazines and in the sports sections of every major newspaper. Everybody was there to see him, TV cameras, reporters, and fans, thousands of fans. It was unlike anything you see here in Canada. On the first day of training camp, I was on offence and he was on defence and we were doing one-on-one drills against each other. I was in a line of offensive players and he was in line with the defensive players. I looked over and saw that he was adjusting his order in line so that he could go against me. You know that game? Go against the weaker player so you look good! He wanted to go against the rookie from Canada so he could run me over! Everybody was there to see what the impact of off season training would have on his play and more importantly, whether he was now ready to take the Lions to the next level. Faced with this kind of pressure, what did I do? Did I pack my bags and head north? Did I lay down and let him win? No! I knew that all I had to focus on was doing what my coaches had been teaching me since my earliest days of playing football. I had to remember the little things: stay low, get my hands inside on his chest, and keep my feet moving. I got focused for the big moment, the moment of truth. We walked up to each other, he gave me a smile and said, in his strong southern drawl, “Sorry ‘bout this kid.” I gave him a little smile and said, “Sorry `bout this, eh!” What happened next? I blocked him…I blocked him all the way through to the sidelines and into a group of cameramen. That night, the coach started the team meeting by showing the video of that play. He pointed to the screen and said, “that is how you play in the NFL!” The next day at practice, same drill, this time I noticed that Robert Porcher was rearranging himself again – so he wouldn’t have to go against me, the undrafted rookie free agent from a tiny school in Canada. To this day, I look at that as one of the proudest moments in my football career. It didn’t happen because I was focused on making a big play and showing off to my coaches. It happened because I remained positive and I focused on getting all the little things right. The ‘little things’ are very powerful. This is also true in hockey. When we break down skating, stickhandling, moves, and shots to their biomechanic elements and practice them with quality repetition, both on and off the ice, then we can really start to improve our performance. This is precisely the type of training that I focus on in my high performance summer hockey camp. We work on defining the little things and on training them correctly. We reinforce focused repetition of these skills and techniques on the ice and off the ice. We keep it positive and fun, it’s the kind of training that will help you to refine your skills and develop your abilities to take your hockey game to the next level. Couple this type of skills training with off-ice speed, agility, and balance training and on-ice power skating and you will start having your own ‘Robert Porcher’ stories. Train Hard! Mark Injury Prevention and Dryland TrainingOttawa Hockey News Main PageWe do not warrant any of the information provided by the sites listed on ottawahockeynews.com. All links and information are provided as a courtesy and how you choose to use the information. obtained from this site and those we link to is at your discretion. |
