It’s a bittersweet feeling when youth hockey ends. On one hand, the season has been filled with exhausting practices, long drives to away games, and days spent supporting your teammates on the ice. On the other hand, it feels so sudden to lose something that you’ve worked so hard for—especially if you lose your final game. Here are some tips for managing your emotions when youth hockey ends and you don’t go out with a win.
Honor Your Losses and Celebrate Your Wins
Whether you lost or won your last game of the season, it’s important to honor your losses and celebrate your wins. This will help you move on from this season in a positive way while also giving yourself time to reflect on what went well and what didn’t go as planned during this chapter of your hockey career. Sitting with those feelings of loss can be difficult but it is important to recognize them. This can be done by taking some time alone or talking through them with family or friends who understand what you have been through this season.
Talk About Your Feelings With Your Teammates
Connecting with teammates is another great way to process emotions when youth hockey comes to an end. Whether it was a successful or unsuccessful ending for the team as a whole, there are lessons that can be taken from each experience and shared among teammates. Talking about how everyone felt during different moments of the season can help build understanding between players and create a lasting bond even after youth hockey comes to an end for each individual player.
Focus on What You Gained Throughout This Season
Though losing your final game may feel like all of your hard work has gone unrewarded, it’s important not to forget all that you have gained throughout this season—even if there was no championship trophy at the end of it all! Take time now to focus on those positive aspects of being part of a team and playing the sport that you love—like learning new skills, developing relationships with teammates and coaches, and getting into better shape physically than ever before! These accomplishments should not be disregarded just because they lack traditional recognition awards associated with winning championships.
Though it isn’t easy dealing with disappointment when things don’t turn out as planned in life—especially in sports—it doesn't mean that everything has been for nothing. As long as we take time to recognize our successes, learn from our failures, connect with our teams throughout every experience, good or bad; we will still come away having gained invaluable lessons from this phase in our lives! Even though youth hockey may have come to an end for now—the skills gained here will serve us well beyond the rink too! And who knows…maybe next year will bring even bigger wins. !