Red Wings prospect Givani Smith penned a new installment of his “Taking Flight” blog on DetroitRedWings.com, discussing the ways in which Detroit and Grand Rapids’ going-on-nine-month-long offseason has affected him:
Whether I’m in Canada or the U.S., I have stayed in contact with the Wings. Dan Cleary calls me, Shawn Horcoff calls me and Ben Simon, the head coach in Grand Rapids, he calls me and we just talk. Our conversations, they’re pretty generic. With Ben Simon, we just talk about what’s new, what’s new with myself, with him, what has he heard between the ongoing season and how we’re going to start the season or anything. With Horcs and Clears, it’s just more like catching up on things and making sure I’m still doing the right program and on step to achieve my goals that I want to achieve.
During this extended break, my training, if anything I’ve been able to do it better. With all this time, I’ve learned to realize that there’s many different styles and different ways to do things, to get things done. Through all this time, I’ve been learning and spending my time wisely and just trying to get better as a person, as a player, and also just learning new skills. I also do watch what I eat. I don’t count my calories, but I watch what I put into my body because whatever I put into my body, that’s how I’m going to feel. As I said earlier, my routine is pretty routine. A typical day for me would be I’d wake up, head to training for about two to three hours and then just come back, relax and hang out with my brothers back at home, study, and then pretty much repeat the whole process.