Oak Park Hockey Coaches

Welcome to the Healthy Mindset App podcast where host Mike Hartman, a performance coach and former professional athlete, brings his passion to help athletes and workplace athletes achieve their dreams and goals while being mindful of everything else in life. Mike also uses this platform to share his targeted assessment application, Healthy Mindset course, meditation and goal setting technique for the athlete and workplace athlete. We're glad you're here. Now let's dive headfirst into this episode of the Healthy Mindset App podcast. Here's your host, Mike Hartman.

This week on the Stories of Gratitude. I am going to thank my, my coaches who really taught me the game of hockey. Of course I'm going to thank both my parents because if it wasn't for them, I would never have played hockey. But just going back as a young kid growing up in Oak Park, Michigan, a small town just outside of Detroit, and I loved hockey, just loved playing, wasn't very good. It took me a while to grasp it. I remember somebody said to me in school, I was just learning, I think I was probably six years old and somebody said to me, hey, you were standing at the blue line picking your nose. I mean, it's funny what we remember going way back, but I just want to just mention that, you know, coaches have such an impact in our lives. I believe that everybody needs a performance coach or a life coach or a coach needs a coach. I think the value of coaches is so important. But I'm just going to look back on some of the coaches that have, like, helped me and I'm very grateful for that because if it wasn't for them and they didn't show the love and the passion of helping myself and many others, I don't think I've ever would have gone on and played sports. So it's important, especially a little message to the coaches, is that we always look back at what we've had in our life. So some of you coaches, you know, we might say things, so some things will never be forgotten, but could just think back. I hope I'm not leaving anybody out but Steven Woody Woodberg, I remember him in Oak Park. I remember they had those blue track suits and I couldn't wait. I remember getting up early in the morning and watching cartoons and dressing in my clothes and putting my hockey gear over my clothes as a, as a young kid in Detroit and having the smiles of, we called him Woody there. And Marshall Shenkopp, who I got to know even better over the years, and Lebanski, the Labansky brothers, they were inspirations. They started off all three of them played at some level of hockey, whether it was varsity or JV for Michigan State, but that didn't even matter. It doesn't matter the level where you played. It was the love that they showed us and Arnie Rapoport and. And I know I'm leaving many people out, but, you know, I reflect back on those days of playing Oak park and having so much fun. So I'm really overwhelmed with the gratitude and the impact that each of these coaches had on my life. You know, if I look, I'm looking back, and they had the passion for the game. I could vividly recall countless practices where their enthusiasm and dedications inspired us and their patience. You know, you have young hockey players skating all over the ice, and it's not until you get older that you really appreciate the guidance and having these coaches help us shape our skills and helping us as young players. And I think it should be called learn to fall, not learn to skate, because we would fall on the ice and, you know, you never really felt like a failure because what they did is they would say, okay, let's get back up and have fun. The drills that they had, I mean, I could remember we did Superman drills where we're skating down the ice and we do the Superman in between the blue lines. And you don't really appreciate things until you get a little bit of. A little bit older in your life. And the mentorship that they brought to us and the guidance that they brought to us at the rink and teaching us the importance of being resilient and good sportsmanship. I remember then I got a little bit older playing in the house league. That sportsmanship was everything. You know, the dedication to teaching us how to do that has left a long lasting impression to me. So just, I'm just expressing my gratitude to some of these coaches who first really taught me the game. My uncle Sherman, who took me to the. To the. To the ranks and to the, you know, to watch. There were even down to the Olympia back then to watch the Detroit Red Wings. So I just want to say you're just not coaches and mentors, but your leaders and your friends. I may have not talked to some of you for 40 years, but the memories of our time together on the ice will forever hold a special place in my heart. And I ended up, you know, living my dream, playing hockey. But if it wasn't for you and what you have brought to me as a person, this never would have happened. And I wanted to kick off the first episode of Stories of Gratitude. We're Going to have many different people come on many different stories that we're going to share with you. Yeah, professional athletes. I have some lined up as well. So for this, this is actually now our fourth season, our 257th episode, and there's only so much we could talk about having a healthy mindset. I mean, people that know us or they're in our community, the healthy mindsetapp.com I mean, that's what we do. But this is more of just a big thank you to you. So I just wanted to bring that out. Anybody listening, please leave us a review on Apple or it would really help us or thank you. If you listen to Spotify, great. We're very appreciative. Looking forward to doing many of these throughout the year. I have some great stories lined up. I have things that have happened in sports that probably nobody would ever believe, and I'm going to share the stories and there isn't going to be anything negative. So you're not going to hear from me stories that were negative. What I'm doing is I'm grateful for the fantastic individuals that have that are in my life and they're still in my life to this day. So huge thank you to you. You know, going back many years, you remember these things. And it's funny, I remember even Marshall Shenkopp and Woody and just the things that they did. And also Rob Lebanski, I used to watch him go play in the Oak Park Thursday nights. They had the Oak Park High School and he wore number 20. I actually wore number 20 myself. But it was also because of Don Luce, who's a great friend of mine to this day. He drafted me. But I want to, if I'm remembering that correctly, that was one of my favorite numbers. And I just remember the inspiration that you brought to us, whether you realize it or not. And your guidance extended, like I said, well beyond the rank. And just a big thank you to you. And this is how I wanted to start off the first chapter of many that we're going to be doing. And feel free to reach out and with sincere gratitude, thank you.

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