Learning From and Acquiring a Senior's Mindset to Improve Your Journey
Making another person's hindsight your forward looking insight
Some people are like cats - they have to touch the hot stove themselves before they learn. But the wisest among us know that someone else’s hindsight can become our own foresight.
As a high school coach, I treasure the conversations I have with reflective seniors who have lived the highs and lows of their hockey journey. At our final off-ice sessions, we invite them to share their hard-earned wisdom with the younger players coming up behind them. It’s always one of the most meaningful moments of the season.
Brayden Balemian Insight - Enjoy Where You Are
Here is one of our 2025 Seniors from this year. He had bounced around during his high school year between our high school team and AA/AAA travel hockey.
University of Wisconsin Hockey’s Max Zimmer
Max Zimmer did not have an easier experience and started his career by fighting just to get into the lineup.
I talked to (coach) Barry about it all the time and we say if you could go back to freshman summer would you do it again and obviously the answers is yes but I've learned a lot of lessons along the way and you know I wouldn't take those away for anything.
I think I played like 5 out of the first 18 games and just having the right mindset and continuing to grow and excel each and every day and right now I'm kind of where I want to be in the lineup and it's about not getting complacent with anything.
Proper preparation
I tell myself this all the time you know I wish I had the mindset I have now the first couple years I was here coming in as an 18 year old right out of high school didn't really have to put in a lot of extra work to be successful in many things but you know once you reach the D1 level and you're playing it at school like Wisconsin you get you figure out that you’ve got to do the extra things every day instead of sitting around your apartment for a couple hours a day; getting to the rink and doing extra stuff.
And now it's it's nice to kind of get up early and get to the rink and get extra bike workouts and get school stuff done and having that feeling at the end of the day that you know you accomplished what you needed.
While Zimmer wasn’t the best player on the team, he found ways to contribute to the team’s success via his ability to help his teammates.
I've said all year that I want to try and push those guys to accomplish whatever they want to do and take the lessons I've learned to try and help the younger guys that maybe are going through some of those similar things and, teaching them that hey I've been there and one of the things that's gonna help you is just getting the hard work in every day and having the right mindset.
A guy like Dylan who's just turned 18 and he's looking forward to NHL draft and just to soak it all in and and you know this season hasn't been the most fun just cuz we haven't won a whole lot of games but soaking it in that I guess that's all I can say about it and enjoying the time you have here.
Stop and honestly reflect:
What mistake can you avoid by listening well to others around you?
What are some insights you can pass back to impact those along a similar path to yours?
What is someone’s hindsight that you can accelerate your own development by making it your insight?
Further Reading