What does it mean to be in the VHL?

[Dom 1,445]

As a kid, we all watched our favorite players playing hockey on the tv. We played outside wearing their jerseys, knowing them by their numbers and trying to reproduce their plays on the ice with our friends. Some of us got lucky enough to get a spot in the VHLM and this is when the dream of playing in the VHL become more and more possible. You get to a point in your young hockey career that its not a dream anymore, but an objective and you know its not impossible to reach it. From a young player point of view, the VHL seems so amazing, but is it the case? How is it to be in the VHL? What does it mean? This is what we are going to explore together today.

 

Being a model:

Being a player in the VHL means that you are probably the hero of a kid somewhere in the world. Maybe in your native country, maybe in your family, maybe its just a kid who like your infamous moustache? One thing you can be sure, is that you are a model, everything that you do is seen by those kids and they might want to be like you. Your role as a VHL player is to make sure they follow a good model, work hard and be a great responsible person out of the ice and the odds of hearing a future draftee saying your name when they ask him who was his favorite player can be high. How do you want the medias to react to that draftee’s words? Do you want them to laugh and say that his favorite player is not someone to take as a model or you want them to be proud of that kid’s choice? This is all in your hands, everything you do in that league will someday be history and you are the one writing it, make sure it’s a good one!

 

Dealing with Pressure:

Being in the VHL also involve pressure. You are no longer a prospect; you are now officially a VHL player and things are expected from you. This is not a free pass, thousands of people pay to watch you and you shouldn’t disappoint them. It is true that your teammates are not enemies, but it is also true that they are always in competition with you to get the most ice time. Not only you need to compete with the other teams, but you always need to prove to your coach that you deserve your ice-time. If you are on the first line, there is 9 players under you who would love to get your spot. Always give the best of you on the ice and be aggressive, don’t give them that opportunity of claiming your spot. If someday for some reasons you do end up loosing it, don’t give up. Take it as a warning, try to find a solution, maybe there is something in your game that used to work but doesn’t work anymore. Hockey is always evolving and strategies changes with time, sometimes it goes better for you but sometimes you need to adapt yourself to these new strategies.

 

Travelling:

Being in the VHL also means that you will travel a lot. Surely, this can be great to visit new cities in different countries. Nobody would complain to be paid to go to London, New York, Moscow and many other cities. It’s a ‘’dream come true’’ situation for sure. But after a few seasons, this becomes usual to you. If you’re home is in Los Angeles and you need to travel to Moscow, after 10 times, its no longer excitement that you feel but pain from knowing you’re going to spend a few hours in the plane again, dealing with the time zone change and be away from your family again. Travelling suddenly loose all its magic. What you need to do to keep a good mood is to stay with your team, talk with them, hangout, play, just have a good time while making sure you stay in good shape for the game.

 

Staying healthy:

Being a VHL player also means that you need to stay healthy. More than ever, your body is your most important thing to take care of. Your diet needs to be a strict one with the help of professionals and your training also needs to be strict and assisted by a professional. But the hardest part is to stay in good physical conditions in a very physical sport. At the beginning of a season, everyone is healthy but after a few games getting hits by other players at high speed, you start to get some pain. While the fans complain that there is too much time between games, you on your side need to prepare to get hit again while you didn’t recover of the hits you got 2 or 3 days ago and sometimes you even need to play 2 days in a row. That small pain you had at the beginning of the season quickly become a burden that stay for a long time and sometimes even lead to a bigger injury that get you out of the game for a few days, weeks or even months. Hockey is not an easy sport physically and it only gets worse when you join the pros.

 

Earning millions:

Everyone is aware, like it or not, being a professional hockey player involve earning millions. Of course, you will never complain about getting all that money, but you need to be careful. While being rich mean that you should never have to worry about your financial situation anymore, there is also a dark side of it. You need to be careful with drugs, gambling, and alcohol. While you can afford all of these, they quickly can affect your performance on the ice and it also can become public. Once everyone knows about your problem, it becomes a slippery slope where its hard to get yourself back on the right path. Some players won millions and ended up working in a tim hortons’s.

 

 (1018 words, claiming on week ending on 01/31 and 02/07)

Edited January 29, 2021 by domg5

[Banackock 8,160]

Being a model:

 

Dealing with pressure:

 

Travelling:

 

Staying Healthy:

 

Earning Millions:

[Smarch 3,196]

Review: I was looking for some TPE, but in all honesty I’m really glad I stumbled upon this media spot as my review. It was well written and focused outside a few minor spelling and punctuation mishaps. I enjoyed the look at what it means the be a VHLer and what might some from that experience. 
also should point out nothing wrong with working at Tim Hortons, someone’s gotta make coffee every 15 minutes.

 

Good write up, very interesting take and something different to read.

 

8/10

 

 

[Ledge 1,131]

Review: I love this. In a very similar situation to smarch above ^, I'm just looking for last minute tpe and I found this gem of an article. It's a fantastic way to look at the VHL, and gives it a real life perspective. Love the bolded subtitles too.

9/10

[Dom 1,445]

Claiming for a second time