Day 1 - Systems Thinking (Inputs and Outputs) · Mental Mastery Hockey Academy

Day 1 - Systems Thinking (Inputs and Outputs)

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever heard any of the following sayings….

“you get what you put in?”
"garbage in, garbage out"
"the definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting different results"
"The world is nothing more than just cause & effect"

These are all quotes explaining the same universal principal that gets constantly ignored by athletes… that inputs = outputs.

You must understand you live in world that is built on rules. Some rules can be broken, such as the laws of the government. Some can’t be broken, like the laws of physics.

“Inputs = Outputs” is one of these unbreakable rules you must respect & integrate as an athlete. If you choose to ignore it you will be forever stuck in your development.

STORYTIME:

In Junior A I had two different roommates in one year. Let’s call them Thomas & Parker.

Living with each of them was a wildly different experience.

You see, I had my set routine fixed. I’d wake up and go to bed at the same time each day. I had my diet that a nutritionist provided that was perfect for high-level performance. I had my structured off-ice training plan for stickhandling, shooting, recovery and weight lifting. My goal was to train like a pro and I was consistently doing so each week.

Both Thomas & Parker were the same kind of player when they joined the team. Both were 4th line guys, not getting much ice-time and not heavy contributors generating points & plays for the team.

Parker was the first roommate. His routine was the exact opposite to mine. He stayed up late. Slept in. Rarely did anything extra outside our team practices besides playing Call of Duty. Ordered takeout frequently and drank routinely. Parker never played beyond the fourth line and was traded mid-season… for Thomas.

Thomas appeared to be the same kind of guy when I first met him. The only two differences was that he played FIFA instead and didn’t drink booze or beer. But for the rest he still was pretty lazy outside team practices and had poor health habits.

2 weeks into living together he approached me.

He had asked if he could train together with me and my program that I followed.

Not going to lie, I wasn’t initially interested because I wasn’t sure if he was serious or just joking around. But when I looked at his face he had this expression of hunger in his eyes that I couldn’t ignore.

So I agreed.

Over the next two months he copied everything I did. From my diet to the training I did off-ice. Each habit I used to help myself consistently perform he executed as well.

At first the only main result he said was that he felt good. He was still a fourth line player and not a force on the ice.

I said to him to give it some more time.

The results were paying off a month later.

Each practice he was dialled in and had incredible focus and energy.

Towards the end of the regular season he was joining me routinely on the second line.

He had made a transformation for himself.

By changing his inputs… which meant changing his behaviour, actions & lifestyle.

LESSON:

Your lifestyle is nothing more than a list of actions you repeat daily and weekly.

To truly get the most out of your hockey development you have to analyse and make changes to your entire lifestyle, not just your training.

You start this process by focusing on a particular goal, which we call an output.

You then continue to break down this output into it’s various inputs… like a math equation.

Input A + Input B = Output

You do this to identify the potential things you can adjust, change, add, remove or refine to get you closer to your goal.

For example, if you want to score more goals, that out put can be broken down into a whole list of inputs such as:

Skating into high-chance scoring positions
Shots taken per game
Shots on goal per game
The kind of shot you used (wrist shot, snap shot, slap shot, backhand)
Did you utilise an angle change
Shooting through defenders
etc, etc

Now instead of simply focusing on scoring more goals, you focus now on generating more or less of the above inputs. As naturally if you do, the output comes along anyway by itself.

Look at Alexander Ovechkin. Most of his goals come from the following simple inputs.

Skating between the hash-marks and top of the circles in the offensive zone
When he gets an incoming pass he is skating with backwards c-cuts to build rhythm
Unleash one timer

That’s a simple breakdown to showcase how to think about this process and improving your game.

KEY TAKEAWAYS & SUMMARY:

Your ONLY path to better results is a change in YOUR actions, behaviour & lifestyle. Which either means you do more of something. You do less of something. Or do something completely new. Those are the only options.
Expect a delay in observing the results when you make changes in your actions. You won’t immediately score another 20 goals when you make changes. Therefore be patient.
Focus on inputs over outputs, as inputs lead to outputs.
Constantly analyse your game, observing the inputs that lead to the desired outputs.

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