November 30, 2010 • 12:33 pm 0
If you haven’t seen this article already you should take a look. John Buccigross of ESPN has written a really good article on why the US hasn’t produced a higher number of top quality hockey players through the years. He also talks about how parents should help their children become better players. It’s really a great article.
He also has an older article about Rules for Hockey Parents that is a good read as well.
Hope you enjoy the articles.
Filed under: coaching, Small Area Games
November 19, 2010 • 12:56 am 0
Jeremy Weiss of WeissTech Hockey is running goalie training videos over on his site, you can go directly there by clicking this link or you can use the below links to see individual drills. Jeremy has teamed up with Dennis Hans (sorry if I misspelled your name Dennis) to create a training program to help coaches work with their goaltenders. I think it’s worth your time to check it out.
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Filed under: coaching, Goaltender, Practice
November 13, 2010 • 12:49 pm 0
These drills come courtesy of the USNTDP.
Filed under: Defensemen, Drills, Forwards, Passing, Shooting
November 11, 2010 • 10:51 am 0
Impact of the Coach
“I have come to a frightening conclusion;
I am a decisive element on the ice.
My personal approach creates the climate.
My mood makes the weather.
As the coach, I possess tremendous power to make my players’
lives miserable or joyous.
I can be the tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I
can humiliate, humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, my response decides whether a crisis will escalate or de-escalate and a player humanized or de-humanize.”
The above adaptation from Dr. Hiam Ginott was originally written with classroom teachers in mind. Since we all agree that coaches are in fact teachers, and regardless of age classifications, we are trying to teach our players how to become better at the game of hockey. Often it is not what the coach knows; it is what the players have learned. Can coaches transfer their knowledge to their players?
Research has indicated that players retain information based on following methods:
5% of what they HEAR
25% of what they SEE
75% of what they DO
90% of what they TEACH
The most effective coaches spend a minimal time talking, allowing their players to learn and develop by doing. Obviously, we will spend time teaching fundamental skill techniques such as skating, puck handling, passing and shooting. Without a proper foundation, the players’ development will be limited. Allow the players to practice proper techniques at a slow comfortable speed to insure correctness before you ratchet up the speed. Practicing poor technique fast only insures that the player will become bad quickly.
Research has shown that those players that learned and developed by doing and experimenting have had far more success. Players that do not fear making mistakes during their development have stretched their skill level outside their comfort zone. Too often, the habits that players develop in becoming good enough (comfortable) are the same conservative habits that keep them from becoming great (paraphrased from Tiger Woods).
Practicing with a purpose should be paramount in developing your practice plans. I cannot emphasis enough the use of competitive drill situations that cause players to think and make decisions. Drills should be competitive, have outcomes and consequences. Too many practices are strictly physical; the players follow strict drill patterns as mapped out by the coach. The drills have no options and the players just follow the specific drill pattern as designed by the coach. The game is arguably 85% mental and only 15% physical, yet many of our practices are just the reverse.
SMALL GAMES WITH A PURPOSE
Effective coaches have developed a philosophy and established objectives. These may be modified or even changed as the season progresses. It is important that your players and when appropriate the parents know your philosophy and objectives. I believe the coach does not have to be liked by his/her players. The coach is an authority figure and often must be firm and exercise that authority. However, effective coaches have their players’ respect and trust. The most effective coaches are consistent and treat all their players fairly.
Treat all your players, as you would want a coach to treat your own children. At the youth levels, you should hold a pre-season, mid-season, and an end- season parent meeting. Be transparent in your expectations, philosophy, and objectives. I have often used this phrase when talking to parents – “You love them and I will coach them”.
Have fun enjoy your season – What you see is what you coached.
Submitted by
Al Bloomer
USA Hockey Director Emeritus
November 2, 2010 • 8:48 pm 0
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote a landmark book entitled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in which he defined and popularized the concept of the “paradigm shift.” Years later, Dr. Stephen Covey brought the concept of paradigms and paradigm shifts to a much broader audience with the publication of his bestselling work, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
In its most basic form, a paradigm can be defined as a model of something, or a very clear and typical example of something. Therefore, a paradigm shift takes place when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something is changed. Quite simply, a paradigm shift is a change from one way of thinking to another.
I’m sure you’re asking yourself what any of this has to do with the sport of hockey. A great deal, actually. Over the past twenty years, our society has been constantly changing. Massive paradigm shifts have taken place in all aspects of society and sport. Think about the advances in technology and communication. In the early 1980’s, only a small group of believers could see a vision of a future that included things we now take for granted such as cell phones, laptop computers and the world wide web. Up until a few years ago, a large portion of the population still had not changed their belief that the internet was just a fad that was only of use for a select few.
Now think about the advances that have taken place in the areas of sport science and athletic training. Athletes today are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before. Strength and conditioning programs are now sport-specific. Sport scientists on the cutting edge are constantly redefining the accepted theories on optimal athletic training and improving both the athletes and the sports in which they are involved. In reaction to both scientific and common-sense realizations, many sports now contain practice routines that look vastly different from what they may have twenty years ago.
I will now ask you to think about the typical hockey practice in our country. Does the typical practice session look any different than it did twenty years ago? I would argue that it does not. Hockey is one of the few sports in the United States that has not embraced change. Many of today’s hockey coaches, from the youth levels through the
professional ranks, hold fast to the belief that what worked for them twenty or thirty years ago will work for today’s players.
If we define a paradigm as a typical example of something, then what is the American hockey practice paradigm? In watching hundreds of hockey practices every year, I am amazed at the similarities most practices contain. Here’s what I see:
• A slow moving warm-up that typically includes stretching muscles while sitting or lying on the ice.
• Skating drills that are not specific to game situations or designed to build and improve technique.
• A few flow drills such as 2 on 0’s or 3 on 0’s which typically result in players skating at much slower speeds than they would in a game situation and making passes and taking shots that would not be an option in actual competition.
• A number of different team drills, such as 5 on 0 breakouts, which consume a great deal of time and don’t allow for the number of quality repetitions players need to fully develop a skill or grasp a concept.
• Practices finishing with traditional conditioning drill such as Herbies or sideboards. Even though we’re training for a sport that requires quick bursts of power and energy, and science has proven that skating technique begins to break down after about 20-25 seconds at top speed, our coaches insist on skating players in a single drill for up to two minutes to “condition” them.
Does any of this look familiar to you? As a coach, do you see practices that are run like this? Do you run your practices like this?
Our current paradigm is outdated. Twenty and thirty years ago, players could overcome the type of practice routine outlined above by developing their skills on the pond or the outdoor rink. Outdoor rinks would be crowded with kids of all ages, developing and honing their skills while playing the game and having fun. No adults to organize and criticize. No whistles, no talk, no overzealous parents screaming from the stands. Just the players and the game.
Society has changed and hockey has changed along with it. Players are no longer spending their days on the pond or the outdoor rink. There is too much structure and too many other options to occupy their time. Every day coaches in our country have conversations lamenting these facts and longing for the good old days, wishing things would return to the way they were. But we all know that things are not going to go back to the way they were. Rather than giving in to this realization and deciding that there just isn’t anything we as coaches can do about it, I would argue that we need to be more creative with our practice time. It is up to us to help our players learn the skills and hockey sense that once came naturally from time spent on the outdoor rinks.
It’s time to make a paradigm shift. It’s time to make small-area games the cornerstone of our hockey practices. Using small-area games in your practices is a great way to bring the feeling of the outdoor rink indoors. Players work harder, learn more and have more fun when practicing with these drills.
We will take a look at the what’s, why’s and how’s of small-area games as well as provide you with some different games that you can begin to use in your practices today. Make the paradigm shift. Your players will thank you for it.
Read part II of Small Area Games
Coach Nielsen's Ice Hockey Drills 