Dear Coaches,
Share this with your players, I just posted it on my
Substack but that only goes to about 30 people so I posted it here because I think it’s of value for as many people to get this message as possible. Enjoy…Fun Fact about me:
I don’t like player advisors. 98% of them, so don’t get offended if you think you’re a great one… To the point that I’m considering becoming one to be the change I’d like to see in the world.
I’m passionate about player development and a first principle of player development is… You have to play to develop.
Simple enough, yet kids are coerced and manipulated into thinking the inversion of this principle is actually true. Let me tell you a story I just heard to articulate the points and lessons…
Bad Advisor/Good Advisor
Bad advisors operate and sell their ideas to their clients below 200.
Most things come back to incentives, and the advisor and client incentives are not aligned:
Advisors who use Force(below 200 energy) to deceive you into making a choice that is great for their ‘brand’ but detrimental to your development should not be your advisor.
The Michigan logo next to your name on their website will give them more clout to expand and make more money. The Ferris State logo next to your name might have future clients looking for a ‘cooler’ advisor with ‘better’ teams representing their client list.
Okay, okay, I’m gonna tell the story now. First, For anonymity, I’m going to list a bunch of schools in my opinion that are at various levels within D1 hockey… This is no dis on the school, just want you to get an idea of the framework I’m working from articulating the story and lesson.
The Levels Within D1 Hockey
Tier 3 D1 Schools- Stonehill, Robert Morris, Ferris State, Lindenwood, Niagara
Tier 2 D1 Schools- Sacred Heart, Bemidji, Union, Duluth, Dartmouth
Tier 1 D1 Schools- Michigan, Notre Dame, BC, BU, Maine, North Dakota
(Again, this is to ‘make a point’ not to discredit the teams, Meek Mill says ‘there are levels to this shit’)
There are some advisors out there convincing ‘great players’ at Tier 3 D1 schools to get in the transfer portal and try to ‘get called up’ to Tier 1 schools citing ‘they have better chances of playing pro from ‘bigger’ schools…
Note: The transfer portal was meant to get players out of bad situations not to audition for bigger roles in the movie.
I was just told of one case where a player lit up his freshman year at a Tier 3 school, listened to a dumbass advisor and transferred to a Tier 1 school and then lit his sophomore year on fire warming the bench and eating hot dogs in the stands as a healthy scratch.
Only to beg to go back to his original Tier 3 school for his junior year…
I hope he fired his advisor after learning the lesson meant to be learned…
The incentives of even ‘trusted advisors’ are typically not aligned with your goal to ‘develop as a player’.
The first rule of development is you have to play.
The second rule of development is if you are in an environment where you are flourishing and someone advises you to leave that environment, they are toxic poison to your growth…
There are players in the NFL that played at FCS schools like South Dakota. If you are good enough AND PLAYING… People will find you with opportunities.
If a hotshot South Dakota running back listens to his dumbass advisor and transfers to Georgia only to become 5th string running back, the NFL can not find him on the bench.
So if you’re playing, you have a chance, if you’re not… You don’t.
Please if any players are listening to me… Go where they are knocking walls down to get you on campus and don’t interrupt the compounding they have planned for you for ‘something bigger’.
Just as more is not better, it’s just more. Bigger is not ‘better for you’ it’s just bigger…
Bad advisors will play on your fear of not playing pro unless you’re at a Tier 1 school, good advisors know if the team loves you and there is opportunity to play, there is opportunity to advance.
Good advisors also don’t care about the logo next to your name, they don’t even care about your name… They care about the human spirit.
Bad advisors are ‘extracting’ from you.
Good advisors are ‘giving and serving’ to you by putting you in a place where you can grow.
Bad advisors are looking to grow their brand.
By analogy, bad parents tell you or even guilt you to finish med school even though you don’t want to be a doctor anymore because THEY want to tell their friends how ‘accomplished’ their kid is. Great parents tell them to drop out of med school and pursue something that is fulfilling to the kid.
Bad parents give bad advice for clout. Bad advisors give bad advice for clout.
The human mind… Especially the 18-24-year-old human mind cannot tell truth from falsehood, but there is a way to know if you’re being misled…