Jonny Suporn: The Hockey Coach Inspiring Players Globally

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Introduction

By: Daniel Magazu (@ridethewave_news)

Jonny's story is a testament to the power of perseverance. As a young boy growing up in Connecticut, Jonny discovered his passion for hockey, and that love led him to coaching skills for a company called Stop It Goaltending. This opportunity opened doors to an even greater opportunity after the CEO of Stop It Goaltending asked Jonny to run a facility in Middleton, MA, where they could start their own business in player and goalie development. 

With a unique approach to coaching, Jonny focuses on the finer details of the game, something that a coach of a fully rostered team may not have the time to address. Through his hard work and determination, Jonny built a successful business from the ground up. He is passionate about transferring the skills he has learned to his clients, analyzing professional players and using their techniques to teach young players. Check out his website: https://huhockey.com

Moreover, Jonny leverages social media, @huhockey, to connect with his audience and build a community around his passion for hockey. His engaging content and genuine approach to coaching have earned him a dedicated following of 12,000, and he continues to inspire and motivate others through his online presence.

One of Jonnys most popular Instagram reels

Here are three valuable lessons that I learned from Jonny:

1.  Dedication can help you excel at something even if you start late. Jonny started playing hockey at age 9, which is later than most kids, but his passion for the sport drove him to practice every day, and he excelled faster than his peers.

2. The 10,000-hour rule is key to becoming a master at any skill. Jonny explains the 10,000-hour rule to his clients and encourages them to dedicate themselves to their craft. He believes that he has already surpassed the 10,000-hour mark in his hockey training, which gives him the skill set and insight to be able to teach young players.

3. Pursuing your passion can lead to unexpected opportunities. Jonny stumbled upon the opportunity to run a hockey training facility in Middleton, MA, after working as a shooter for a company called Stop It Goaltending. This opportunity allowed him to start his own business and pursue his passion full-time. Additionally, his work as a hockey skills coach led to a job at a ceramic manufacturing company, which he secured because he was training the kids of his former boss.

A Career in Hockey

By: Jonny Suporn 

To talk about how I got to where I am, I think it’s important to go back in time to when my passion for hockey first started. I remember being a 9 year old kid, idolizing Chris Drury and the New York Rangers, mostly because Chris played youth hockey out of the same rink that I learned how to skate at in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

I love hockey. I love everything about hockey. It’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I played other sports like soccer and baseball, but nothing drove me like hockey. 

I actually started playing hockey later than most kids. I think I was 9 years old when I first stepped on the ice. And 10 when I first played on a hockey team. 

Despite my late start, I believe my passion for hockey was so engraved in me that I excelled at a much faster rate than my peers. I was already old enough to take initiative and made practicing a part of my daily routine from age 10 until now. I remember getting off of the bus from middle school and immediately grabbing my hockey stick before I even got a chance to put down my backpack. 

It wasn’t until sophomore year of college that I started coaching skills. And I actually stumbled into the opportunity while working for a company called Stop It Goaltending. I was a shooter for Stop It, assisting goalie coaches who were training young goaltenders. They told me to shoot pucks at a certain spot and showed the goalies how to make the save. I worked about 3 days a week and my roommate Cam, who was a goalie, became a goalie coach for Stop It. 

After about 6 months of working for the company, the CEO, Brian Daccord, who was also the Goaltending Consultant for the Toronto Maple Leafs, approached me and Cam, and asked us to run his facility in Middleton, MA. Cam would run the goalie development and I would run the player development. It was an opportunity to essentially start our own business and looking back, it was probably one of the greatest opportunities I have ever had. 

Starting from the ground up, I had to market myself as a skills coach. Mind you, I played AAA youth hockey growing up but didn’t make it to the NCAA. Sure, I could’ve played junior hockey after high school, pushed off my education to play in the NCAA one day… but that risk wasn’t in the cards for my family at the time. It was either going to college and getting my degree or getting a job and helping pay the bills. 

So I went to Merrimack College, studied electrical engineering, and played club hockey for Merrimack in the ACHA. All while working for Stop It as a shooter and trying to get my first client as a hockey skills coach. I remember my first client ever, Colin Freeman, who I still skate with to this day. He was 8 years old when we first skated together. Now he is 13 and has become an amazing hockey player. More importantly, he’s become a great kid with outstanding character. I want to think I played a part in his skill development and the man he is becoming. 

I take a different approach for my on-ice skills sessions. I try to work on things that a coach of a fully rostered team simply cannot. I get into the nitty-gritty. I fix mistakes that I see on the spot. I will stop a player midway through a drill and point out what they could improve on. I teach skills that I have found success with in my own game, and I analyze professional players and try to transfer those skills to my clients. 

I explain the 10,000-hour rule to every one of my clients after our first session: The 10,000-hour rule states that if you dedicate 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to any skill, you’ll be a master at it. Play an instrument, paint, learn to sing, play a sport… practice anything for 10,000 hours, and you’ll be a master. Without even knowing it, I started working towards my 10,000 as a young kid, and I’m still working at it. I wish I had started a stopwatch back then, and I’d love to know how many hours I’m at now. I think I’m over 10,000 now. This gives me the skill set and insight to teach young players. 

Following my passion has definitely changed my life for the better. I found my first real job out of school because I was training the kids of my former boss. I had just graduated from Merrimack, still growing my hockey training side hustle, and after one of my sessions, had a conversation with my client and found out he owned a ceramic manufacturing company. With my engineering degree, I was a good fit to work at his company, and I did. I worked there for 3 years full-time, all while working hockey on the side. It was and is still the best side hustle I could ever have. Why? Because every time I step on the ice for a lesson, I love it. Time flies by, and I still don’t consider it to work. I am getting paid real money to do what I love. What more could I ask for? 

I am slowly but surely getting to the point where hockey training may become my full-time job. The tough battle I am going through now is that I get paid exceptionally well at my full-time job where I used my electrical engineering degree to land. And then I train hockey in the evenings and on the weekends. My weeks are consistently busy, working about 55 hours a week. I’m not sure how long I can keep up with my current workload, but until my legs give out, I will continue to do what I do, stacking away money to eventually start my own business. It might be in hockey, a restaurant, a store, I haven’t quite figured that out yet. The truth of the matter is hockey training is really an evening endeavor as every kid out there goes to school during the day. So if I did hockey full-time, I’d need to figure out what to do in the morning. 

My goal in life is to one day be an entrepreneur, working completely for myself. Right now, that’s not the case. I work for my employer from 8am-4pm, and then get on the ice at 5pm. The grind has allowed me to buy a condo in Gloucester, MA, where I live now with my girlfriend, Jess. We have dreams of one day owning our own Wine & Cheese store and I am going to do whatever it takes to manifest that. 

If you want to get into coaching or personal training, it all starts with having a passion for it. If you are going to dread showing up to the sessions, it’s going to be a tough time. Once you have the passion and the expertise, then you just need your first client. Work with them to the best of your ability. Give it your all, every single second. They will refer you to someone, then that person will refer you to someone, and so on. Word of mouth still is one of the most viral advertising methods that still works today. I would say 90% of my business in hockey has come from word of mouth. A parent sees another kid improve on the ice and they ask the parents how they did it. The parent tells them about me and they reach out. The proof is in the pudding. I only recently focused on growing my social media presence. My goal here is to put out as much free value to the world as possible, build a significant following, and then figure out what I can do to monetize that following through online coaching or courses. It’s all still a work in process and I am still figuring things out as I go. All I know is that I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to train these kids and have a significant impact on their lives as it relates to the sport and the people they will ultimately become. A lot of the things I teach relate to life just as much as they relate to the sport. 

So to summarize, teaching the sport of hockey has been the most fulfilling experience I’ve ever had in my life. It has allowed me to create and build relationships with amazing people, gave me an opportunity to jumpstart my professional career outside of hockey, and influence hockey players and fans all around the world through in-person training and social media. My passion for the sport at a young age has allowed me to transfer my skills and knowledge about the game to the world. I differentiate myself from other coaches by truly connecting with the kids and explaining skills and concepts to them in a way that they can actually learn from. I use real world examples when I teach and I reiterate things until they stick. 

Find something you love doing, then figure out how to get paid for it.

The various social media channels for my business, Heads Up Hockey, can be found below in my signature. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about anything I wrote about. 

Thank you for reading. 

Sincerely, 

Jonny Suporn

Email: [email protected]

Website: huhockey.com

Instagram: @huhockey

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