Monday, January 5, 2009

Learning how to play at big moments

Interesting article here about preparing young players to "perform on a big stage."

Pierre McGuire (pictured here), a longtime hockey analyst for TSN and NBC, believes events like hockey's World Junior Championship teach players "how to play at big moments."

According to McGuire, events like the WJC are "about emotion, having enough emotion to win, but also controlling your emotion so it doesn't become a detriment to your ability to win."

Tournaments and high-profile games serve as "an amazing preparatory tool for players in terms of learning how to become better and learning how to play at big moments. Very few players have the opportunity to be cultivated in an environment like that."

"The pros get it. The more big moments you play, the more leadership you have the more mature you become, and the better you can handle the big theater."

According to the article: "There’s nothing revelatory about this. Every successful young athlete in every sport learns about composure and gains maturity somewhere along the line."