Coaching hockey can be a complicated endeavor. The required skill-set to be a good coach is much different than the skill-set to be a good player. Because of this difference, many people find it difficult to make the transition from player to coach. I often hear new coaches say “I know what my players should be doing, but I don’t know how to get them to do it…” or “I don’t know how to explain proper skating technique, I just know how to show it…”

In these situations, I usually recommend that the coach try to break each skill down into three key points that he or she can verbalize. For example, if I were explaining proper forward skating technique, I would say that each player needs to (1) maintain a good knee bend, (2) push each stride to the side at about a 45° angle (not straight back), and (3) avoid head-bobbing. These three steps are easy for players to remember, and will become a reference point for you to come back to if skating technique becomes sloppy in subsequent hockey drills.

Once you have one or two players who are able to execute the given skill correctly, ask them to demonstrate the skill, and tell the other players to “watch the demonstration, visualize themselves executing with the same precision, and imitate the final result.” Reminding the players to watch, visualize, and imitate helps to encourage and motivate the precise execution of the given skill.

This coaching strategy can be applied to most situations, and can include everything from individual skills to team systems and positioning. Breaking skills and concepts down into three simple steps can help you, as a coach, to verbalize what you want the players to do. It will also help the players to comprehend and implement the instructions you are giving them. Once the players are executing the given skill correctly, you will them be able to make small tweaks that will further enhance their playing abilities.

Technorati Tags: Break, Coach, coaching hockey, Demonstration, Endeavor, Final Result, Hockey Coaching, Hockey Drills, Precise Execution, Reference Point, Simple Steps, Three Steps, Transition, Tweaks

What’s up guys! I do a monthly coaches meeting for one of our local leagues here in Utah… We decided to try this month’s meeting online instead of having everyone spend another night at the rink. I’ve had a couple of requests to see the meeting, so I figured I’d post it here. Keep in mind, some of the stuff we’re talking about is specific to our organization, but there’s still some good discussion in here.

Enjoy!

PS – I got some of my material on the small area games stuff from Coach Nielson’s recent blog posts at http://coachnielsen.wordpress.com/ He’s got a great site, with great explanations!

Technorati Tags: Area Games, Blog, Coach, Explanations, Nielson, Stuff

Just a quick report on today’s sessions…

Interesting day today at the Level 5 Clinic here in Minnesota. We heard from a bunch of pretty good hockey guys including Todd Richards (head coach of the Wild), Mike Sullivan (assistant coach of the Lightning), Mark Johnson (member of 1980 “Miracle” team and Head Coach of Wisconsin’s women’s team), Bryan Trottier (NHL Hall of Famer), and a panel of players from the 1980 American Miracle team.

One of the things I found interesting was Mike Sullivan’s take on defensive hockey (playing when the other team has the puck). He likes a very aggressive style when his team doesn’t have the puck, and showed us a few examples of his 1-2-2 forecheck that looked almost identical to our 1-2-2 Fooseball Forecheck. So – apparently it works in the NHL too

THEN – he showed an example of his neutral zone attack… and guess what? it was just a neutral zone version of the 1-2-2 fooseball! First man pressured outside in, second two took away the outlet passes.

Anyways – the main key that made this forecheck so effective in the clips was that the F1 was EXTREMELY aggressive, and F2 and F3 were REALLY fast to seal off the passing lanes.

So – that’s my report for today. Until next time!

Technorati Tags: Aggressive Style, Assistant Coach, Bryan Trottier, F1, First Man, Forecheck, Hall Of Famer, Head Coach, Level 3, Lightning, Main Key, Mike Sullivan, Miracle Team, Neutral Zone, Nhl Hall Of Famer, Puck, Sessions, Todd Richards

Hey guys – sorry for such a long gap between posts! I’ve been really busy this summer running hockey camps, going to family reunions, and a bunch of other stuff…

Anyways, right now I’m at the Level 5 Coaching Clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota. So far it’s been a pretty good event – we’ve heard from a bunch of cool speakers. But the most interesting thing I heard today as about COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT… or in other words BRAIN TRAINING.

There is a company called Applied Cognitive Engineering that has developed a product called IntelliGym that consists of a complex series algorithms that can be implemented into a video game that will train your brain to react quicker to the recurring patterns in athletics. They have already developed it for basketball, and are currently designing a hockey version.

Evidently, this is the same technology the Israeli Air Force uses to train their fighter pilots… it’s kinda like a flight simulator, only it’s totally different… I know that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s hard to describe. Basically, they’ve implemented hockey patterns into a video game that has nothing to do with hockey… (the example they showed us was a little space ship fighting game – but the space ships moved in hockey patterns). So your brain is being trained to react more instinctively instead of intellectually, and your reaction times improve.

With the Air Force pilots, they saw a 20-40% improvement across the board… the basketball players showed similar results, and hockey is expected to do the same!

The players’ decision-making skills can be tracked, and improvement within the game can be monitored. The game gets harder and faster as the player improves…Like I said – this stuff is REALLY cool. I thought I’d share the link so you can check it out for yourselves.

http://hockey.intelligym.com/

I’ll keep you posted on what I learn tomorrow… ENJOY!

Technorati Tags: Air Force Pilots, Basketball Players, Brain Training, Coaching Clinic, Cognitive Engineering, Cognitive Performance, Family Reunions, Fighter Pilots, Fighting Game, Flight Simulator, Gap, Hey Guys, Hockey Camps, Intelligym, Israeli Air Force, Little Space, Long Gap, Performance Enhancement, Space Ship, Space Ships, St Paul Minnesota