The Hockey/Life Connection

Tyler Kuntz, a former hockey player and now a coach of elite teams, currently working with the Daemyun Killer Whales, recently gave a talk at the TeamSnap Hockey Coaches Conference.

In this talk, he touched on the importance of balancing both life and hockey, an important skill for everyone involved in the hockey lifestyle. From players to coaches to hockey moms and dads, all people involved in this challenging way of life need to seek balance.  

Without proper balancing of “real” life and hockey life, it’s easy to become too stressed or too overwhelmed. It’s also easy for important relationships to fall by the wayside in favor of hockey or, conversely, for players to lose focus on the game due to issues at home.

Kuntz seems to believe that the key to balance is making sure things at home and in one’s personal life are taken care of first. That way, those things are not a source of worry or distraction when one is at the rink. Homes should be cleaned, routines should be established, and players and coaches should basically do everything they can to make their home life run smoothly. Kuntz thinks that this will cause things to fall into place on the ice as well.

Whether you agree with Kuntz or not, it’s easy to see that when things aren’t great at home, it’s hard to concentrate or on or excel at anything else.  So, whether his strategies are followed perfectly or not, it’s a good idea to try and take care of home life first. Whether it helps your “hockey life” or not, you have nothing to lose by keeping things controlled and orderly at home, and it might just help you and/or your child.