Adam's early hockey history can be marked by three distinct periods: taking it, faking it, making it.
When he was a kid, he was small for his age, and that led to getting pushed around a lot on the ice. But despite the knockdowns, his determination shined through and he promised himself he would do what it took to become a star.
Somewhere along the way one of his parents told him to fake it until you make it, which he did. Every day before his games in junior high, he’d load up his equipment with padding to make himself appear buff. Not many people were fooled, but that didn’t matter: they felt too sorry for him to check him, and thus the plan worked.
Finally, once he got to high school, he actually grew into his body and no longer needed the padding. This led to a great core strength, as he’d been skating around with tens of pounds extra from all the “fake muscle”. His skating, as a result, was strong for his age and the rest of the game soon followed. ■

[184 words]