Getting Our Legs Back Under Us
October 17, 2005
Over the course of the last 4 weeks, the USA Women’s National Team has not had as much success as I would have hoped for. Namely, we have lost our first 4 games to Canada this year…but our goal of winning the Olympics is still 4 months away. It is at these times, when the chip seem to be down, that as an individual and as a team, you have to reflect on “what more you can do to win.”
Our Hilton Skate to 2006 Tour kicked off at the Excel Center in Minneapolis, MN. We handily beat the WCHA All-Stars in both Minneapolis and in Duluth, MN. Our next games we against the formidable Canadians. In women’s hockey, the USA and Canada are the two best teams in the world. Neither of us has ever lost to another country, but we continue to go back and forth with each other. Last year, at the 2005 World Championships in Sweden, we beat the Canadians in a shootout to prevail as world champs. This year, they defeated us in the Four Nations Cup in Finland in September. I was hoping that the tide would turn back our way and we would take the next two “W”’s from up north, but to no avail. TSN, the ESPN of Canada, broadcasted our last two games, showing our loss of 3-2 and 6-0 to Canada. These losses however, have only inspired us to do more.
The team spend the preceding weeks skating twice a day in St. Paul MN, in addition to off-ice workouts, sports psychology meetings, chalk talks with coach, nutritional meetings, and team gatherings. We have been pretty cohesive in the last few weeks, spending all of our free time together, so I do not blame our lack of chemistry off the ice for the recent losses. I also know we have been working hard on the ice as well and trying to do all of the little things that will make a difference in the end. So what proved to be our downfall in the last series to Canada? I point to time.
Every team goes through cycles and we are in the beginning phase of what we hope peaks in February for the Olympics. We have been in MN training ourselves back into hockey shape. We came into this phase in great athletic shape, but as every athlete knows, you develop your legs over the course of a season. The first 2 weeks of any teams pre-season usually brings the burn back to the legs and starts to convert the pure muscle that you developed in the off-season, into skating muscle. You try to maintain the bulk that you established in the summer throughout the hockey season, and at the same time, increase muscle strength through repetitions on the ice. I think that our team, after 3 weeks of training, was just starting to get our legs back under us, and start to find each other on the ice, whereas Canada is well into their season, having started in the beginning of August.
What you cannot do is panic in times like these. Hopefully every coach and the leaders of the each team, have cool heads on them in order to reevaluate what the next phase should consist of. I ponder all the time what I can do to help USA win gold again. I think about the little things as a player and as one of the captains that might make the ultimate difference. We are lucky that we still have 4 months to prepare. I imagine that over the next few weeks we will spend more time on our systems and start to gel more as a team, instead of greatly talented individuals playing on the same ice surface. We will start to figure out what roles we all play on our team, how we can contribute the most, and how we can make each other better. The final cuts still loom in everybody’s head, but for now, we must focus on our next game, and approach everything one day at a time.