Introspection is the ability to look inside oneself to find solutions to problems in daily life.
Its a sign of maturity. In today's day and age, its so easy to point the finger of blame at someone else to rationalize a poor day at work, a poor performance, or a failed relationship.
How often have you walked into happy hour on a Friday night, or sat next to "THAT GUY" in the change room at men's league hockey at 11pm on a Tuesday night, and you feel like punching yourself in the face because you get sucked into the vortex of a friend or co-worked who subjects you and the room to the old:
"My boss hates me. He gave the promotion to that new guy because that's his "boy".
Or, the old standard:
"I got laid off because my boss is a jerk and he likes the other people in my department better than he likes me"
Its a misery for all within ear shot of the deflector.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if just one you heard someone taking accountability for his own poor performances?
Its easier for employees of companies to deflect and to point the greasy end of the pooper scooper at someone other than themselves.
The same is true in pro sports.
Blown assignments happen and are exploited into goals and touchdowns against in nearly every game we attend or watch on HD TV. Mistakes are a part of the game. Its how pro athletes react to their mistakes that sets them apart from the rest. Guys get inhured, they slip into slumps and they struggle. They are human. Its how they prevent themselves from getting eaten alive by their lack of confidence that set apart the mediocre ones from the Hall of Famers.
Today, I listened to Brian Duff and Andrew Peters interview Sabres veteran right winger, Drew Stafford, on Sabres Hockey Hotline. Its been 100 or so days since the Sabres cleaned out their lockers and left First Niagara Center for the last time in the 2013 regular season from Hell.
In late April, a disappointed Stafford went home to Minnesota, looked inside himself, and started the process of taking accountability for his poor play in 2013. Thats where Staff's journey to self-discovery began. I want you to listen closely to his story because it brought a smile to my face to hear him say that he wasn't satisfied with his performances, nor for his leadership. Rather than wallow in the muck and mire of it all, he stood up, took accountability, and installed his own plan of correction to see to it that he never has to endure such a miserable experience in his pro hockey life, and I dare say in his personal life, ever again.
"Its devastating thing in the world to not be able to play playoff hockey", Stafford said today.
Stafford identified the problem and he looked inside himself for the solution.
He spent the summer working on two key areas of his own game: Mobility and Mechanics.
Stafford has changed his skate blades to that he can glide more on the ice. In other words, improving his performance by controlling that which he has control over. Stafford has been working smarter, not harder. Athletes tend to overcompensate when they are slumping. They lift heavier weights, shoot more pucks, skate more "gassers". Sometimes, less is more. Stafford says that he is only concerned with the things that he can control and that he has to be prepared at all times on the ice. He feels by improving his movements and mobility, his overall game will be will improved this season.
Stafford sought help from the Sabres' skating coach. He also credits the book Stillpower, by author Garret Kramer as the source of his inspiration. Personally, I haven't read the book yet, however, I have ordered it. There are things in my personal and professional life that I am not satisfied with and I want to make corrections to prevent mistakes and failures from happening repeatedly.
For now, listen to Stafford's testimony. I think you'll be impressed by his candor and by his brutally honest self-analysis of his own play on the ice.
Fuel your performance, and life, with the clarity of Stillpower.
For years, athletes, coaches, parents, and organizations have searched for the secrets to optimum mental performance. However, in spite of a myriad tools and techniques, success and contentment continue to be as elusive as ever. Until now.
Garret Kramer’s Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life offers a revolutionary explanation for this predicament and provides a basic, yet dynamic, approach for the future. In a fluent manner, Garret reveals the innate principles behind both creativity and consistent achievement. Stillpower highlights the misalignment between the experiences of all performers and the strategies of the coaches, psychologists, and experts who are hoping to help them.
Stillpower uses real-life examples to explore such questions as: What is “the zone,” and what must we do (or not do) to get there? Why do we need to understand the difference between insight and intellect? Is goal setting really useful? Why doesn’t willpower work? And why do the best mentors focus on a person’s state of mind and not behavior?
Virtually all of us—athletes and nonathletes alike—are looking outside of ourselves, trying to unlock the keys to happiness, freedom, and excellence with ease. In Stillpower, Garret Kramer encourages us to look within to finally find the answers.
Stafford is going to be 28 years old in October. That is a fact that is hard for me to wrap my head around because I first met him when he was a 19 year old rookie at Sabres prospects camp. He got great talent and can play a dynamic game, when he believes in himself. When he succumbs to the pressure of the media and the fans, like he admittedly did last season, his game crashes and burns.
Sabres fans want to see more of the 31 goals 12 assists Drew Stafford from 2010-11. They will settle for the 20 goals and 30 assists Stafford from 2011-12. However, they do not want to ever see the 6 goals and 12 assists edition of Stafford from 2013-- ever again.
Hopefully, Staff has the stillpower to turn his game around this season.
***
The Sabres knew what they were getting when they drafted JT Compher in the second round at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
He's a smack-talkn', face-washin', elbows high winger, who's got a motor and a moith that never stops!
At the Team USA WJC training camp on Lake Placid, Compher has found himself parked in the penalty box on more than one occasion because of his post whistle antics. He's getting in the heads of the Finns and the Swedes and it seems to be working. He's been playing center and is causing havoc with his neutral zone D. He's a turnover-creating machine. Its uncanny how he creates pressure with his feet and stick, finishes puck carriers with his body and it causes fat turnovers. Its really impressive to watch this kid work in open ice and in tight spaces.
Compher plays with a lot of Steve Ott's passion.
He told me at Sabres prospects camp that he loves how Ryan Callahan and Jonathon Toews play the game.
Team USA should write his name on their roster in Sharpie, not pen. he's a keeper.
August is usually a sleeper of a month for the Buffalo Sabres. However, the team has already created quite the hockey buzz this month.
This week began with the Sabres signing a 30 goal scoring veteran named Jamie Tardif, who will no doubt have an immediate impact on Rochester's offensive production.
Then, on Tuesday, the team signed RFA winger Corey Tropp to a one year deal.
Today, the team announced that Rick Jeanneret has signed a new three year contract extension that will see him broadcast fewer games per season. The team also identified RJ's successor in Dan Dunleavy.
The only business left for Darcy Regier to do right now is to do right now is to re-sign RFA center Cody Hodgson to his new long term deal. And, last but not least, sign 2013 1st rounder (16th overall) Nikita Zadorov to his entry level contract. Fellow first rounder, Rasmus Ristolainen, signed his entry level contract in Buffalo at the conclusion of prospects camp in July. Zadorov is in Buffalo right now, working out, and getting ready to head over to London to begin Knights training camp. Last July, the Sabres signed both forst round picks, Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons one week apart. I was hoping that they would do the same with Ristolainen and Zadorov this season. Wait and see mode.
Busy week for BUF. Tropp, Tardif signings. RJ extension. Dunleavy hiring. Now all I need is a Hodgson signing and Zadorov entry level deal
The youth movement is alive in Buffalo's broadcast booth as well as on the ice these days.
Today, Dan Dunleavy joins Grigorenko, Girgensons, Armia, Pysyk, McNabb, Foligno, Hackett, Larsson, Ristolainen. Zadorov as the newest new "kid" in town.
Forster Hewitt Award winner, Rick Jeanneret, has just signed a new three year contract. At the end of the three year contract, he will retire from his Hall Of Fame broadcast booth position.
RJ, you are top shelf!
Congratulations to veteran hockey play-by-play broadcaster, Dan Dunleavy, who will replace RJ beginning in 2016-17.
Dunleavy is no stranger to hockey broadcasting, having worked for Leafs TV and The Fan 590.
Here's Dunleavy's call of the Buffalo Sabres at Anaheim Ducks in 2010.
We’re excited to have @dan_dunleavy on board. He’ll fill in for RJ over the next 3 seasons before taking over full-time in 2016-17. #sabres
The Buffalo Sabres today announced that Rick Jeanneret, hockey’s longest-tenured broadcaster, has signed a new, three-year contract with the team to remain its primary play-by-play voice. The Sabres Hall-of-Famer will call an increasingly reduced number of games during the next three seasons before stepping away from the microphone for good. Veteran broadcaster Dan Dunleavy has been added to the Sabres broadcast team and will serve as Jeanneret’s substitute before assuming the primary play-by-play duties for the 2016-17 season.
“We are very lucky to have such a deep and talented pool of broadcasters in the Sabres organization,” said Sabres President Ted Black. “RJ is a hall-of-fame talent and we are thrilled that he will be with us for three more years as he winds down his prolific career. We are also excited to bring on Dan, who is a proven play-by-play talent that we know will be a capable successor to RJ. Having an up-and-comer like Dan and a broadcasting legend like RJ behind the microphone will be a great one-two punch for our Sabres broadcasts in the coming years.”
Jeanneret, who was awarded hockey broadcasting’s highest honor, the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, in 2012, will be embarking on his 42nd season behind the microphone for the Sabres in 2013-14. He began his broadcasting career with the team during the 1971-72 season and, at the end of his new contract following the 2015-16 season, will retire after calling Sabres games for 44 seasons. As part of his new contract, Jeanneret will remain with the team in an honorary capacity after he retires in 2016.
“This decision was obviously very difficult for me to make,” Jeanneret said. “It has become a yearly deliberation, deciding if the coming year would be my last or what season I would finally step away. I initially thought doing a full year of games this coming season and then retiring was the way to go. After discussing it with my family and with the Sabres, we all thought signing this new deal was the right choice. I get to continue to do what I love while slowly reducing my workload and eventually turning the reins over to Dan, who I greatly respect and believe Sabres fans will grow to love.”
Dan Dunleavy will take on play-by-play duties in 2016-17.
Dunleavy, who comes to the Sabres from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ broadcasting team, will begin his substitute play-by-play duties this season, filling in for games that Jeanneret takes off. In addition to his play-by-play duties, Dunleavy will serve as on-air talent for Sabres pre- and post-game broadcasts and will have a substantial presence on Sabres.com.
“I am excited and honored to join the Sabres organization and its tremendous broadcasting team,” Dunleavy said. “I’m excited because it’s well known that Buffalo is a hockey-crazy city that adores its hockey team. It makes being a broadcaster so much more thrilling when you know that the fans are on the edge of their seats while watching their team. And I’m honored that I get an opportunity to work with and learn from one of the best play-by-play announcers hockey has ever seen in Rick. He is the pinnacle of our profession and I’m humbled that I will be following in his legendary footsteps.”
Prior to joining the Maple Leafs’ broadcast, Dunleavy spent 19 years at Sportsnet Radio and The Fan 590 Toronto. In addition to filling in as a play-by-play voice for the Sabres in the 2010-11 season, Dunleavy’s experience includes nine years of play-by-play of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, the 2008 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Halifax and Quebec City, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Men’s and Women’s Hockey, the OHL’s Mississauga Majors, and Canadian Hockey League and American Hockey League games on Rogers Sportsnet. The Toronto native has also called soccer and lacrosse games, serving as the play-by-play voice for the National Lacrosse League’s Toronto Rock on The Fan 590 and is the radio and television play-by-play voice for Toronto FC on Sportsnet TV/Radio and TSN 1050 Radio.
Jeanneret and Dunleavy will be joined by Rob Ray, who will return to serve as color commentator for all Sabres broadcasts. Brian Duff will also return for his third season with the Sabres broadcast team, maintaining his role as the in-game host for pre- and post-game coverage, as well as intermission reports.
While Darcy Regier and Ritch Winter negotiate his next (hopefully long term) contract, Cody Hodgson is doing his best "Zoolander" impression. He's a role model.
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