Play Your Game.com - Paul Buczkowski

PAUL BUCZKOWSKI
      Bio
      Setting Goals
      Respect
      Back to School
      Professionalism
      Those in the know
      Turn It Positive
      Finding a Job
      Eye Protection
      Playing Injured
      Gearing Up
      WCHL vs. CHL
      Europe v. N.A.
      Specific Training
      Training Camps
      Road to Success
      Dedication
      Life in the WHL

SANDY LAMARRE
      Bio
      Season to Forget
      College vs. Junior
      Sportsmanship
      Game Prep
      Conditioning

FORBES MACPHERSON
      Making the Jump

BRIAN PATAFIE
      Bio
      Stretching
      ICE

PATRICK POWERS
      Is Hockey Just a Sport?

ANDREW ZOPPO
      Be Tenacious

PlayYourGame.com is proud to welcome Paul Buczkowski as a feature writer. From the WHL to the NHL, Paul will bring insight to every aspect of the game, as a sport and as a career.

The Road to Success
By Paul Buczkowski
August 9, 2000

People view success in life and hockey very differently. My view and your view are probably much different. My view is that of happiness, self-fulfillment, challenge and sport. There are many hockey players in North America and Europe that are just making enough money to scrape by. Usually people do not see these players play. There is minimal spotlight for these players who are giving it all they've got in lower leagues and farm systems. The sweat, blood, tears, workouts and countless hours of practice are not seen. Most of them know that they will never be drafted or will never make it to the NHL, and yet they still go out there and work just as hard as those players in the NHL.

Having experience and having been to four Professional camps, I have seen first hand the caliber of players that were good, bad, or just indifferent. Some of them were signed because of their size, skill, or smartness. I have seen and played with average players who sign big signing bonuses and then never make it to the NHL. Most of these players, thinking that they would make it to the big time, started to spend their bonuses on things that were not necessary, and before they knew it, their rights were waived and they had no future earning potential. Do you call this success? I certainly don't.

My advice is that you have to take care of yourself and educate yourself. Professional hockey is a dog eat dog world. A perfect example is one of my experiences in Germany. There were two Canadians and myself on the team, all of us forwards, and two of us were considered goal scorers. In the first 12 games I had 12 goals and 1 assist. The other "goal scoring" Canadian had set me up on all 12 of my goals and was promptly kicked off the team, because he was not scoring any goals. I agree that you have to be in the right situation, but you also have to be a bit lucky as well. Like I said before, you must give every game your all, because you never know who is watching. There could be a head of a corporation in the stands that likes your work ethic, and it could open up a new window of success that is not even related to hockey. I call things like this success.

Hockey brings many new waves of opportunity, and it has to do with who you meet, friends you make, and contacts you have. You must look beyond hockey to be successful in life. The life expectancy of a professional hockey player is very short, so one must look further into the future. If you or your son just had a bad game, it is not the end of the world, so long as the effort was there. To wrap up this article I would like to say that these multi-million dollar contracts do not bring happiness and well-being but sometimes cause problems as well. One has to be lead in the right direction and that starts with education.

"My father taught me that the only way you can make good at anything is to practice and then practice some more. It is easy to practice something that you are good at, and that is what most people do. What is tough is to go out and work hard on the things you don't do very well."

- Pete Rose

Paul Buczkowski
1 Year ECHL
3 Years Europe
6 Years WHL