Good mental health is key when it comes to playing sports.
That's the message from the 2017 OHL Humanitarian player of the year Garrett McFadden.
The Guelph Storm defenceman spoke at several seminars at the Golden Acres hockey school in Blenheim over the past two weeks, sharing his personal story and teaching the young athletes about how to keep their minds as healthy as their bodies.
"The one big thing I want to focus on is staying positive," says McFadden. "To have the mind to be positive and draw the positives out of every situation is going to help you and make your life a lot easier than dealing with the hard times and the negatives."
McFadden says when it comes to teaching young athletes about mental health, it's important to start with the basics and move up from there.
"Teaching them what feeling happy and what feeling sad is like," says McFadden. "Some coping strategies here and there on how to get yourself back to feeling happy and how to turn around a day for those young minds."
Mental health is so important to McFadden that he started ‘McFadden’s Movement’ -- a mental health campaign that's aimed at helping young athletes.
You can find out more about 'McFadden's Movement' by clicking here.
-With files from Paul Pedro