Make way for Captain Clarity. An even more open and transparent version of Jonathan Toews.
For while the Chicago Blackhawks captain and Team Canada mainstay has had his voice heard on hockey matters ad nauseam over the last decade, he’s recently started breaking new ground. Not only did Toews join Twitter and Instagram, but he also taped a couple of podcasts with businessman/philosopher/athlete Aubrey Marcus over the summer which provided a strikingly open window into the mind of a man once dubbed “Captain Serious.”
During 90 minutes of conversation (which can be found on episode 77 of the Aubrey Marcus Podcast and episode 106 of Total Human Optimization), Toews reflected on the factors that drove him to pursue hockey to an almost unhealthy degree as a child and how he’s worked to find more balance since reaching the NHL.
He applied lessons he’s learned from studying Stoicism, Buddhist thought and Taoism to things that have happened during his career. He discussed his journey to becoming more empathetic and how it helped him be a better teammate. He even mentioned how his outside interests resulted in him being chirped as a “tree-hugger” and “hippie” inside the Blackhawks dressing room.
In short, Toews opened up in a way that superstar hockey players seldom publicly do. It required him to step somewhat out of his comfort zone, he acknowledged this week during an interview with Sportsnet, but that was part of his motivation for doing it.
“It’s kind of been a fun experiment to not only join social media, but also to enter some type of forum like (the podcasts) where I can discuss a lot of the other things that are on my mind and things that I’m interested in and things I want to promote, that are part of who I am,” said Toews. “It’s not exactly like the average hockey interview that you’re used to answering the same questions and that’s what people expect. Sometimes if you expose who you truly are, you open yourself up for criticism and I think that’s a good confidence-building thing, too, almost.
“To be open to that.”
This has been a journey for the 28-year-old Winnipegger – one that started earlier in his career when he began focusing intensely on his diet. That led to a better understanding of the importance of how and where the food we eat is grown, and eventually gave way to an interest in the path to consciousness and human optimization.
Toews now runs in the same circles as other influential people pursuing the same thing, including Aubrey Marcus, the founder of supplement and fitness company “Onnit” whom he was introduced to by Blackhawks teammate Duncan Keith.
During his appearance on Marcus’s podcast, Toews spoke of the fine line he’s had to establish between caring about hockey without caring too much: “I really think that it’s kind of a mind game you’ve got to play with yourself, where you want to be the best you can be and you’re OK with pushing yourself to that limit. But also when it’s time to withdraw you’re OK with those failures, that it’s not going to carry into your personal life and into your relationships, where you’re able to kind of differentiate between the two a little bit.”
His thirst for knowledge often takes him to books.
In June, Toews posted an Instagram photo from a European vacation featuring four that he took along with him on the trip:
• Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.
• Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance.
• David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo’s Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment.
• Jeff S. Volek and Stephen D. Phinney’s The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance.
Toews also recently received a personalized copy of Ryan Holiday’s new book Ego is The Enemy that carried the inscription: “Stay strong, stay humble, stay a student.”
Clearly, there is a lot more to the man than the labels we’ll hear thrown his way repeatedly throughout the World Cup this month. Calling him a two-time Olympic gold medallist and three-time Stanley Cup champion and Team Canada legend doesn’t tell the whole story.
While it’s uncommon to hear athletes discuss their journeys the way Toews did this summer, he’s received positive feedback from his peers about the podcast appearances.
“I’ve actually got a lot of support from some guys,” he said. “It was cool to see that there’s more guys out there listening to that sort of thing.”
He has quickly become an active presence on social media after waiting a long time to take the plunge. Matt Duchene, a Team Canada teammate, recalls Toews showing some interest in Twitter long before eventually posting for the first time on Feb. 21.
“He asked me about that probably three years ago,” said Duchene. “I was telling him ‘Just do it, man. Like it’s good. It’s a good thing.’ He waited and waited and waited and then he finally jumped on.”
He now has 160,000 followers on Twitter and another 66,000-plus on Instagram. He considers both to be a positive aspect of his life.
Many of his posts over the summer documented his treasured time on the lake back home in Manitoba, though he’s made a conscious effort to provide a deeper glimpse into what he’s about.
“I try not to be too cookie-cutter and try to be myself and show people what I’m doing in my spare time when I’m having fun,” said Toews. “Also the things that connect me to my sport and what I do and what makes me better at it and maybe how you can use those things as well.”
None of this will come as a surprise to teammates, who have grown accustomed to hearing Toews weigh in on matters ranging from the economy to food production, according to Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford.
It is, however, a different view for those of us on the outside – and it’s one Toews hopes to continue providing.
“He’s good with that,” said Crawford. “It’s not like it’s anything controversial. It’s something that is very meaningful and if gone in the right direction could change a lot of things, especially in (the U.S.) and Canada.
“Those aspects, those views, are just towards a healthier lifestyle. A healthier way of life.”
