The Player Every Beer League Team Needs

Why doesn't anybody hang out after beer league games?

Speaker
0:00

Your Bear League team's probably not a group of unfriendly people. You show up, you play, then everybody scatters after the game to wherever they go after games. And you've been doing that that way for years. Maybe now you're kind of wondering, why doesn't anybody want to hang out? The problem isn't that your team's antisocial, the problem is you're missing one very important person. Hi everybody and welcome to another edition of the Beer Leagueer podcast. Now, I've already made a video previously about what to do if your team just really isn't for you. If people just don't get along, if you just have personality conflicts on the team, you know, if you're stuck on a bad team, how do you handle that? This is not being stuck on a bad team. This is you're on a team, everybody gets along, or at least most of you do. You like these people, but you're just trying to figure out why isn't anybody doing the fun, non-playing hockey stuff that you hear about beer leaguers doing. Doesn't really mean you have the wrong team. You've got probably the right team, you're just missing the glue. That's what this episode is all about. How to be the glue guy on your beer league team. Uh, full transparency on this topic. This is something that you know we cover a lot. Uh kind of this locker room talk on these podcasts. This is something I saw come up and have a lot of discussion in the hockey players subreddit. If you don't check that out, I highly recommend it. There's a lot of good stuff on there, a lot of uh veteran hockey players on there, people that have played, I think, all kinds of different levels of hockey, uh, but also a lot of new players come on there to ask questions, and a lot of beer leaguers are on there just kind of wondering about beer league stuff, stuff like this. Like, hey, I hear about people going and hanging out with their team. My team doesn't do that. What the heck? Is it just my team, or do people not really do that, or what's the deal with that? So that's something that came from this that prompted me to go, hey, this is something we talked about, that's something I know a little bit about. Maybe I can shed a little bit of light on it. All right, so first thing, define what is the glue guy. So the glue guy doesn't have to be the best player on the team, the loudest player on the team, anything like

What is a glue guy?

Speaker
2:20

that. It's the person that decides the team should hang out. I mean, it's really just a decision that this person makes and vocalizes, it's the person that brings it up after games, maybe before games, if you're, you know, team needs to get ready and make it a known thing so people know that that's something that you want to do. It's the person that that talks about this kind of stuff. It's not just going out, but I'm using that as kind of the example through all this. It's hanging outside of hockey, it's doing non-hockey things. When I say glue guy, I'm talking about off-ice glue guy, not necessarily what you would consider glue guy on the ice, just to make that clear for everybody. Uh, really, like I talked about that this came from that subreddit. One of the things that was brought up there that I think made a really good point is teams that are social, so teams that hang out outside of just playing hockey, it's really just one or two people making it that way. It's generally not uh all the team you know, everybody on the team knows each other from outside of hockey and stuff like that. There are teams that are like that, but in Beer League, usually it's not. Usually it's you met playing hockey. Maybe you have one or two buddies that you know from outside of hockey that you brought in, and a couple other people have that, but it's usually not the vast majority of people know each other from other things besides hockey. So, really, it's just one or two people trying to make this a more than just on the ice social club, trying to do something a little bit more with it. So, really, like I said, it doesn't have to be, you know, anyone that's like the former pro or the best player on your team or anything like that, or even a good player that's on your team. It just has to be somebody that takes the time and care to do little things like bring some beers for everybody after the game. So you decided, hey, I want my team to do fun stuff, I want to hang out a little bit, I want to make hockey more than just show up to play and then head home right away. What can I do? I want to be this glue guy. All right.

Bring the postgame beverages

Speaker
4:20

Pretty simple steps to have here. One, parking lot and post-game beers. However, your team does it, wherever you're at, if it's in the locker room, if it's in the parking lot, something like that, be somebody that brings those. And when I say parking lot beers, post-game beers, it doesn't always have to be beers. That's usually what it is. It's beer league. I mean, that's what we talk about, you know. Grab a, I guess, depending on the size of your team and how voracious of drinkers they are, a 12-pack, 24-pack, something like that, uh, whatever. But I mean, there are plenty of non-drinkers out there, so it's also finding that out to include those people. Are the people that don't drink on your team? Maybe nobody on your team drinks, and bringing beers is a terrible idea, but everybody wants some post-game, you know, Gatorades or Power Aids or whatever. That can be the thing. Uh, nothing too crazy because people have to drive home. But you know, something like that. I mean, it it depends on your team, depends on your situation. But being the person that facilitates this as much as possible is not a hockey skill you have to have uh if you want to make this happen. So this is something that anybody can do. The other big part of it is talk about it. Say, hey, you know, after the game tonight, you know, stick around. Uh, we can go out and grab some food from somewhere that you know is is still open, or uh,

Tell people the plan ahead of time

Speaker
5:40

you know, like part, like I said, parking lot beers or hang on the locker room or something, but vocalize it, let people know. And if people don't want to, you know, aren't planning on it because people have stuff to get down to, hey, next week, same thing. You know, we're gonna try doing this. Or if all of your games are super late, you know, be be the person that says, hey, you know, we have in two weeks, we have a game. Instead of being at 10:30, we got a nine o'clock game in two weeks. I'm bringing uh bringing some post-game beverages for that game. So everybody make sure you're hick, you know, clear your calendar for that night. You're you're gonna be home late. I mean, that's it's it's putting it out there, it's letting people know uh that that that's gonna be a thing, just so it it gets out there. Like I said, vocalize it, vocalize it so it is is out there in the locker room, so people know of it, so it's not a surprise. Because if you after the game, just try and go, hey, uh, I know it's already 11 o'clock, but do you want to hang out for another hour and a half? Uh please, you know, just telling you about it now, probably not gonna happen, honestly. Maybe some people can, but a lot of people can't. But if you let them know that's gonna be a regular thing, a lot more likely to have happen. So something to think about, especially because uh fall winter beer league, uh, when this uh podcast is going out, is getting ready to start up probably in a month or so. So something to talk about before the season starts or right in the first game of the season. Let people know you want to do this. Another thing to notice if you want something like this to happen, if you want to make your hockey team a little bit more social, is really there's kind of for what we're talking about, glue guys, there's kind of two different

The fun guy and the useful guy

Speaker
7:19

types of it uh that you need to have. You usually need both of these guys. Uh, you usually need kind of the fun guy, and that's the person that is, you know, has stories, telling jokes, uh probably busting balls of people, stuff like that. That person, you need the fun guy, then it also really also helps to have the useful guy uh as part of this. Who's the useful guy? Well, the useful guy is the person that is maybe the person that's bringing uh the beverages, maybe it's the person that's remembers, hey, these couple guys don't drink. I'm gonna make sure they have Gatorade so they can stick around with us. Maybe they're the ones that brings, you know, some post-game snacks that people like. Uh, maybe they're also the ones that just has stuff in the locker room that people need after a game. You know, they have like helmet repair kits and things like that, just so people, you know, stick around and like, oh, well, I was gonna fix uh my helmet at home, but hey, I can sit here and and put in some new screws uh and hang out a little bit. They're the person that kind of has that stuff. You kind of have those two types of people, uh, that is two different types of people, but it can't be the same person, it can be one glue guy that does all this. So, again, if you're trying to be the person that's getting your team to get to do more fun stuff and get to hang out more, you might have to kind of take on both of those roles for that, or maybe it can help encourage other people to help out with some of those types of things that you need. Because there really is kind of those two types of people that I think really help drive that, to help push for people hanging out, people feeling more comfortable hanging out. Uh, and you know, once they start doing that, it kind of snowballs with it. Okay, so one of the I guess this could be one of the more difficult things that you have to do if you're going to be the glue guy in your Honagie team, is some of the I guess you would call them

The social skills that actually matter

Speaker
9:13

soft skills that you need. Um and really what this is, is it's just helping people feel more welcome, feel more connected on the team, that it isn't just something you show up to, play, leave right away, that you do feel a little bit more like a family uh or a group of friends with stuff. And there's a couple different ways you can do that. Um, one, I mean, this should be a no-brainer, but you know, if you're playing on like a beginner team or it's a brand new team or you're in like a draft league or something like that, where your teams change all the time, make sure you know everybody's name. You know, make sure you know everybody's name on the team. It sounds ridiculous, but there are teams out there where people don't know the names of everybody they play with. So learn the names. Nicknames are fine if they're real nicknames and not just one that you gave somebody, you know, going like, oh yeah, that's uh that's Steve, that's Jim, that's uh Gray Gloves. Because I don't know his name. Yeah, that's that's not that's not cool. Learn everybody's name. Simple thing to do. You know, be encouraging to people without being uh patronizing

How to chirp without being an ass

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10:29

to them, bust balls for people definitely helps if you're self-deprecating with that, uh, if you can make fun of yourself first. That definitely, definitely helps break down a lot of the barriers there with that so that you can start busting balls of people and hopefully not try to not be in a mean way with it. I mean, hope you should know the people on your team of how far you can take that and encourage others to do the same thing with it. And kind of the flip side of that is also kind of being the peacekeeper on the team. So if

Be the locker-room peacekeeper

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11:01

people do get pissed about stuff on the team, it doesn't boil over anything. You know, I mean it's it's beer league, it doesn't matter, but it does matter. You know what I mean? And there are people out there that get super competitive with things and get super pissed and then can drop it right away, but that can unfortunately trigger other people that get pissed with them. So kind of being the peacekeeper there uh really, really helps with that because it helps keep everybody you know in a good mood. You're playing hockey. I mean, you you paid to play out there, so nope, nobody wants to have a bummer of a time. So that definitely helps, and all those can kind of work together. Knowing people's names can make it easier to kind of bust balls for people, and if you're encouraging players and being positive about things, it can make it easier to be the peacekeeper with it, and if you're beaceeper, it can make you know it it's a circular thing, so all those can kind of work in conjunction with each other to to really kind of help I think start that ball rolling and set the stage for what I think you're trying to accomplish uh on your team. An important thing to remember if you are trying to get people to hang out, if you are trying to uh to make it a more friendly, more I keep saying family, but it's not really family. It's in like the uh fast and the furious family kind of connotation, uh away of family of things, is you know, to also understand where people are at with things. You know, not everyone's able to hang out after games, not everyone's able to hang out every night, not everyone's able to stay out super late after games. Some people maybe never can, you know, maybe I mean there's people that work late nights, there's people that have super early mornings. Understand that, not giving them too much crap about it, you know, and kind of meeting people where they're at with these types of things, along with that, with all the stuff that we said before, kind of knowing where people are coming from. Uh, you know, some people have super high stress jobs and going to Beer League is their way to de-stress. And so there are some people that have a lot of stress that this is their physical activity to get it out. Hopefully they don't take things too far, but that might mean them, you know, yelling about stuff more or getting overexcited about things, and that's kind of where that peacekeeper role can help with that stuff, is kind of helping buffer that so it doesn't get other people pissed, it doesn't cause any problems and things like that, uh, because you kind of know where they're coming from. So that's a lot of it is really again meeting people where they're at and getting to know that, getting to know that about people. Hopefully, that gives you kind of the playbook of what you need to either be the glue guy or help someone else be the glue guy or work with other people so that you have more than one glue guy

You don't have to do it alone

Speaker
13:46

on a team. You know, if you can't be it, encourage somebody else to be it. Maybe you can't be the, you know, the the funny storyteller person, but you know somebody else that is, encourage them to be that person on the team. You know, encourage these things from people. And it doesn't have to be one person, it doesn't have to be two people. It can start off with that, it can be everybody. Everybody can have a part of this, everybody can do different things to help be the glue guy on the hockey team. If you can get that, that's great. That that's an amazing thing to have. If you don't have a glue guy, find a glue guy or become that person. Look for the person that brings beer unprompted, who everybody says hi to whenever they come in the locker room, and the person that everybody misses when

The teammate every team wants

Speaker
14:29

they're not around. You want to have that person on your team, and honestly, even if that person is not good at hockey, you always want to have that person on your team. So be the glue guy, name the glue guy, find a glue guy. One of those things should be able to happen on your team. And remember, you know what? If you're trying to do this and nobody else wants to, like I said, I did do a video previously about what to do if you're stuck on a bad team. Because if you're wanting to be somebody that wants to hang out and do stuff outside of hockey and the whole team just does not want to, well, maybe maybe you should go check out some of the uh the ideas from that video. I'd love to hear what you think about glue guys. If you're the glue guy, if you have a glue guy, how do you define it? Things that people on your team do that help your team be a more fun social activity versus just show up for an hour, play hockey, and get the hell out without talking to anybody. Love to hear about it. Drop me a note down in the comments, head on over to thebeerleaguer.com. As always, that's where you can leave me messages, check out past shows, anything like that. Always love hearing from you guys. Thanks a lot. Catch you in the next one.