Story from John Payette
Growing up as an athlete in Newmarket, Ont. presented its challenges. My Dad could see I was eager to improve and figured out ways to encourage me in sport.
In the early years of minor hockey, I labored as a skater and struggled to keep up. However in the warm-up before one game, something felt different. The ice seemed to be working in harmony with my skates and legs. This must be what it’s like to be a good skater, I thought. Enjoying my new-found speed, in my mind, it had to be due to one of Dad’s clever ideas.
So after the game, I asked if there was something he may have added to my skates that could have made me faster and more comfortable on the ice that day. After a pause and with a straight face, he said, “Yes, as a matter of fact I did make an adjustment. I applied Go Fast to your skates. What did you think?”
Go Fast became my very own special speed ingredient designed by my Dad. Before every practice and game, he would take my skates down to the basement for an application of Go Fast.
I was the envy of all my teammates. They wanted to know more about Go Fast. Could my Dad make them some? Before a game, it was not uncommon for my teammates to be crowded around holding up one of my skates, peering down the blade for evidence of this magic ingredient. My answer was always the same, “I’d love to help you guys but my Dad designed it just for me.”
Handing Dad the skates before every practice and game continued on to my days playing Junior hockey.
Trying out for a top Canadian University hockey team and away from home for the first time, I was struggling at training camp without Go Fast. I told my Dad about the challenges I was having at training camp. He smiled -- then confessed the realities of Go Fast.
Initially, my world came to a crashing halt and then it hit me: I had it within me to achieve much more.
Although I was eventually cut from that University team, I cherish those experiences with my Dad and his lessons would eventually take me to new heights in competitive sports.
Every athlete needs a Dad like that.
John's sister, Lucy, works at Petro-Canada
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