Last week I posted the M2 Hockey Beginner Station Training Manual for free download. One of the primary concepts behind running stations is to ensure you have a large number of kids moving, as opposed to standing around in line.
We all work hard to keep kids involved in the great game of hockey. Unfortunately for the approximately 4,000 people in the small Minnesota town of Wadena, this task was made much more difficult when a tornado ripped through their rink in June
In order for a coach to be effective, he/she must be able to communicate effectively with his/her players. Coaches need to know who they’re coaching – not just names and faces, but also personalities, goals, and desires. When a coach begins to understand the “why’s” of his/her players, then the lines of clear and effective communication can begin.
In Mid-August the NHL held a camp for prospects where the league tried out lots of new rule adjustments. Lots of hockey people have very strong opinions about the league messing with the rules, but I think there are some very legitimate ideas proposed at the camp which could benefit the game .
“How you do anything is how you do everything.” -source unknown
This is a great quote, and one relevant to everyone in the hockey coaching field. With so much happening on the ice, it’s often easy to overlook small bad habits that creep in to teams. Eliminating these habits will not only make you a stronger team, but also help form players with better character.
In part 3 of 3, we cover tips for coaches during tryouts. It’s no secret tryouts can be one of the most stressful points of the season. With a few well-planned parts to your sessions, you can eliminate a lot of the difficulty typically associated with this time of year.
This post is part 2 of a three-part series revolving around tryouts. These posts will cover tryout tips for players, parents, and coaches. This focus is on tips/thoughts for parents. Parents have one of the most difficult parts of the process – they’re utterly helpless, everything is in the hands of the player and coaches.
During the tryout times, I get a lot of players who ask me about the tryout process. Over the past year or so, I’ve written several pieces about tryouts, but I wanted to give players (hopefully some of my own trying out as well) a couple quick tips for entering tryouts.
As I sit in the lobby observing about a hundred kids coming in (some I’ve coached, some I’ve coached against), one thing is very apparent….everyone is on pins & needles. This is the final tryout camp for one of the teams in the North American Hockey League. Players enter with the hopes of making a high-level US-based junior team. Parents wait nervously in the stands and lobby, sometimes pacing back and forth, chain smoking, or just sitting there fidgeting. It’s fun hockey to watch because every player on the ice is competing.
I think if most coaches went around their locker room and asked how many player watch NHL games, a good number of kids (generally speaking) would raise their hands. I would venture to guess if you asked who watches a game without texting their friends, updating Facebook, or Tweeting – the number of hands raised would be drastically decreased. Players (and coaches) who watch professional hockey have tons of opportunities to learn from the best in the game every time a game is televised.