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EP 60 - All Roads Lead To Beer League
23 Plays4 months ago
All roads lead to beer league. It’s an adage I’ve used time and time again at the hockey rink. Sports are full of fascinating topics, so on today’s episode I’m starting local: Sharing five reflections on beer league hockey.
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Transcript
00:00:08
Speaker
On Chris deals with it, I talk about the frameworks and methods I use to clear personal, creative, and professional roadblocks. My goal is to help others bridge the gap between where they're at now and what they want to achieve. If you're new to the show, I'm an engineer, writer, parent, game designer, leader, and reader who leverages that experience to develop creative solutions to problems. An AI statement that all elements of this episode are products of the author, Chris Croyder, and made without the use of any AI tools. Welcome to episode 60 of Chris deals with it. All roads lead to beer league. So this is an adage I've used time and time again at the hockey ring. Sports are full of fascinating topics. So on today's episode, I'm going to start local by sharing five reflections on beer league hockey.
00:00:56
Speaker
These five reflections are number one, effort can be talent sometimes. Two, the rink is a powerful relief valve. Three, parking lot beers. Four, the scouts have all gone home. And five, the moments write themselves. So the first reflection, effort can be talent sometimes. The result of a beer league hockey game is as close to irrelevant as it gets. There won't be a game recap online the next morning, there's not going to be highlights, there's rarely anyone even in the stands. The refs often don't care. Heck, in many cases every team in the league are going to make the playoffs anyway.
00:01:33
Speaker
Yet for the people playing in that game, it still means something. Guys will put their bodies on the line to block shots for their team. They'll skate full out. They'll mouth off to their opponent in ways they'd never do outside of the rink. How we play, both individually and as a team, can tell us a lot about ourselves. Are you the type of person who always gives consistent effort? Do you revel in scoring the goals or defending your team's net? Is your mentality to never get outworked? Are you setting a standard for your teammates by voice, by example, or at all? Or do you tend towards being the wild card, the chaotic force that's sometimes needed?
00:02:10
Speaker
A hockey team, like any other team, is a complex system of individuals. Every team has a unique and complex range of skill, experience, energy, and drive. Navigating and managing these complex systems of people and witnessing how others handle it can translate into managing complex human relationships outside of the rink. And teams evolve over time. Players move, drift away, and new players get added. The team integrates players into the fold, and the dynamic will shift. One of my favorite philosophical concepts is a ship of Theseus, and go back to episode 28, which was dedicated to this concept. I love using it when thinking about a hockey team. If you were to replace each member of a team one by one over a long period of time, is it the same team at the start as it is at the end? What elements of the team persist through those changes? The team culture, style of play, history, the uniform, logo, the team's history?
00:03:08
Speaker
For example, I had to leave a team for a few seasons after the birth of our second child. I came back around a year later, and while the team felt familiar, it also felt different. There were new faces, the team had a different energy, played with a faster pace, yet there was still this shared history, knowledge of teammates' tendencies that made it easy for me to slide back into a rhythm. Reflection number two, the rink is a powerful relief valve. During challenging and stressful times, going to the rink can be a relief. For about two hours, it's just you and the boys. Real, honest, human connection. There's no phones, emails, text messages, kids asking you for things. It's a momentary relief from our endless to-do list responsibilities and problems. It can break up the patterns of your days and weeks, something to look forward to. And each game is unique, unpredictable, and unknown.
00:03:58
Speaker
Hockey forces you to be fully present. It's fast paced, fully engages your body and mind, and comes with enough inherent danger that it forces focus. There is a flip side to this, where some people use a hockey game to work out anger, frustration, or their psychosis on others. And this is where having a team can help. You can have each other's backs, even if you don't fully understand or agree on their emotions, actions, or reasoning. And sometimes that means pulling a teammate aside, or calling them out in the locker room, and asking if they're okay. Or at least reminding them that their behavior isn't cool. There's accountability there. But I do think we need more relief valves like this in our society. I mean having to face your teammates and opponents in real life. It's a way to combat this epidemic of loneliness I've been talking about in recent episodes.
00:04:44
Speaker
A sports team is a great method to integrate yourself into a new community when you move. It's a way to set an anchor to steady yourself during a major life change. You'll find shared values, terminology, camaraderie, and a whole team of guys willing to help. Which brings me to the third reflection of parking lot beers. How your squad interacts in the locker room is just as important, probably even more so, than how they work together on the ice. The beer league hockey team has no salaries, no contracts, no coach, and general manager. Each guy is paying their share of the team dues to play. Sure, you're gonna have your best players, and your worst, but on the ledger, they're all equal. Guys come to the rink from a wide range of disciplines and economic situations. Blue collar, white collar, doesn't matter. On the ice, your jerseys have the same color. Usually.
00:05:33
Speaker
A hockey team is a great way to expose yourself to a wider range of perspectives than you might get at work or among friends and family. I've played in a line with a millionaire on one side and a burger flipper on the other. Entrepreneurs will share the bench with welders, accountants, sales professionals, teachers, college dropouts, delivery guys, radiologists, etc. Across a hockey team, you're guaranteed to get a wide range of views on current events, politics, relationships, raising kids, professional sports. It's valuable perspective taking. and a hockey team also comes with built-in networking. I've played regularly with teammates who became my accountant, my HVAC guy, my financial planner, a local beer distributor, the guy who I refinance my mortgage with, and the guy that handled the title insurance on that transaction. I know a lot of guys who know other people, giving me access to this powerful second-level network even when I need it. And there's always the group chat, which can be great for a few laughs during in the week and occasionally an annoyance of nonsense.
00:06:32
Speaker
Reflection 4. The Scouts have all gone home. When I say all roads lead to beer league, I mean it. Some players' roads come from high competitive levels. Minor leagues, elite colleges, junior programs. At the same time, some players don't pick up a stick until they're older. Working their way through adult learn to play programs or coming back to the game they played as a kid. Roads come from guys who are physical specimens to those with kegs for bellies rather than six packs. And there's often significant age gaps. The most extreme example of this was from a team I used to play on, one of our solid veteran wingers, well into his 70s, complained about how our team's youngest member was missing the game because he had to attend his girlfriend's sweet 16 party. I love it when a veteran player of older years just plain out works a kid in their early 20s. Old man strength is a thing.
00:07:22
Speaker
I think teams like this are great because they often offer younger guys some male mentorship. Whether overt or by example, it's really valuable to be exposed to the mannerisms, thought processes, leadership, effort, and friendship of older and more experienced men. But again, I go back to the fact that a beer league hockey game is as close to meaningless as possible. Often you have to remind these young bucks that there's no scouts in the stands. If you're a young hotshot, it can be sobering to learn that nobody really cares that you dangled a bunch of guys who have kids as old as you are and dominated a mid-level house league game. Beer league has a wonderful way to check people's egos.
00:08:01
Speaker
You know, at the same time, those younger hot shots can also motivate older guys to stay in shape, to work harder, to keep up and compete with that energy, and even maybe even lay a punk out once in a while. Reflection five, the moments write themselves. Over my lifetime, hockey has provided so much good in my life, including ample amounts of creative inspiration. My trilogy of sci-fi hockey books, The Intergalactic Adventures of the Raining River Bees, was my love letter to the game that gave me so much. It was inspired by one of my real life hockey teams, featured fictionalized moments from actual beer league memories, and captured many of my thoughts and emotions from playing the sport I've loved my entire life.
00:08:41
Speaker
Sports are a wonderful vehicle for stories. At the beer league level, we'll still share memories of guys who haven't played with us for years. In beer league hockey seasons, do tend to play out quicker. We'll have three or four in a calendar year. You play 10 to a dozen games, a quick playoffs, rinse and repeat. Each season does have a unique storyline, not unlike professional sports, except nobody cares about that storyline, except those playing in and running the league. Hockey has a great vernacular. Unique terms of phrase, ah words with different meanings. Some examples for saying a goal was scored. He fired the biscuit into the top shelf. Dangled forehand, backhand, tucked it in five-hole. Twisted wrister over the tendi glove and hit top corns. Went bar down with a clapper from the high slot. There's just so many fun terms and ways of saying things that I just love hockey for that.
00:09:30
Speaker
And as I discussed in my third point, a team provides valuable insight into different personalities and perspectives, which are gold to a creative person. I'm always taking qualities I admire or despise and injecting them into characters in my stories. I've even occasionally modeled characters after specific teammates. You know, I find a knight playing hockey with the boys can be a great reset for my mind, and it's a way of refilling that creative energy. I'd like to end today's episode with a really interesting quote. ah It's very philosophical and comes from arguably the greatest hockey book ever written, which is Ken Dryden's The Game. This book was crafted by a legendary goaltender-turned-politician who played for the storied Montreal Canadiens.
00:10:10
Speaker
When you are a presence, there are many things you need not do, for it is simply understood you can do them. So you don't do them. You don't risk what you need not risk. You let others' imaginations do them for you, for they do them better than you can. Like a man who opens his mouth to prove he's a fool, often the more you do, the more you look like everyone else. And with that, have a great day.
00:10:41
Speaker
If you feel that Chris dealt with it, I'd appreciate your support of the show by sharing it with someone who might benefit. Ratings on your favorite podcast player are also helpful in growing the audience. Visit chriscroiter.com for free downloadable PDFs with notes and resources from today's episode, sign up for the CDWY mailing list, or to send in your problems or requests for future shows, that's C-H-R-I-S-K-R-E-U-T-E-R dot.com, or use the link in the show notes.