Actually, the seeds for this post — and its title — sprouted a few weeks ago when I got the sense that a hockey dad was advising his son wrongly.

Understand that the boy plays a “team” sport.  Know what I mean?  And what I thought I heard the dad saying was that his son should pretty much forget his coaches’ advice.  Moreover, the hockey dad seemed to be advising his boy to sorta go through the motions with his team, and then get his training elsewhere.

Ya, that’s when I first arrived at the idea that team players don’t function  in a bubble, a vacuum, whatever.

Now, as many readers know, I’m really into social media — from Twitter to Facebook to the new Google+.  I’ve also more recently become pretty active within a number of hockey related groups over at LinkedIn.   And a recent question asked by a LinkedIn member coach had to do with one of her goaltenders suddenly requesting to move from that position to play defense.  ???  Now, I don’t want to go into all the ramifications such a move would cause, but I do need to say that it would cause a whole bunch.  You don’t have to know hockey either, to appreciate that such a move would create a void in one place, perhaps too many bodies in another, and most likely totally disrupt the team chemistry.  Said yet another way, that player could have made such a request long before team tryouts, but to do it once the team was picked would affect the coach’s plans as well as most teammates.  And, might we say, that that player — and his or her family — should realize that they don’t live in a dawgoned vacuum?

As an aside here, perhaps a quarter century ago I coached an extremely talented young hockey player (emphasis on “extremely”).  If there was a problem, he tended to be moody, with this sometimes affecting his performance and those around him.  He was a great kid, but…  I soon discovered that he was also extremely talented in other areas of his life, including being exceptionally bright, and an awesome artist.  Interestingly, perhaps, he also dabbled in another sport that was not team related, and he began climbing the ladder there as well.  Anyway, he ultimately actually made a name for himself in the other sport, and I suspect that his move to train and compete as a soloist was the best decision he ever made.  If you get my drift here, he was likely to struggle if he kept working within a team sport, but he did find a place where he could actually function within somewhat of a vacuum.

Yet another very related story stems from a telephone conversation I had with another coach just a few days back.  He was mentioning how surprised he was that a given hockey mom was kind of a pain in the butt.  As he explained it, her dad was a fairly well known coach, so he thought she would be a model hockey parent.  Hmmmmm…

I told the other coach that I not only understood what he was saying, but that I’d seen numerous similar examples of this in my 40-years of dealing with teams and other hockey programs.

Whether I have the answer to this is debatable, for sure.  However, I’ve noticed that my problems have occurred only with daughters of coaches, and not the sons.  ???  How — or why — should this be?

My only (slightly educated) guess would be the frame of reference within which two siblings might hear things mentioned around the dinner table, wherever.  In other words, it’s more than likely that the sons had experienced the lockerroom scenes — for real, they’ve been teammates, they’ve spilled some blood, sweat and tears on a battlefield, they’ve been beaten on some by coaches, and they’ve had their mouths smashed by opponents.  And, from my totally old fashion, sexist perspective (because I’m grandfathered in that area — LOL), most daughters have not had such experiences.  So again, I think two youngsters overhearing their dad’s war stories could hear two very, very different things.

And the gist of that discussion with the other coach — about the pain-the-in-the-butt hockey mom — had everything in the world to do with this idea about functioning or not functioning within a bubble.  Or, in my friend’s case, it had everything to do with whether that hockey mom truly understood what it’s like to be part of a team.

To expand further on that last statement, let me air what is commonly accepted around the hockey rinks, in that a kid’s attitude is very much a reflection of his or her mom’s and dad’s.  Truly, parents are not usually able to hide their own opinions very well from their kids, and those attitudes — be they great or not so — always seem to find their way into a team sport’s lockerroom — in the way he or she interacts with coaches as well as with teammates.

I don’t doubt some parents would like to argue the above.  Ha.  Dream as you wish, but ask a friend, ask a coach, ask anyone.

One of the tough parts to all this is to hear a coach say something to the effect that, “He really is a good kid, but…”  Ya, the “but” part has to do with the poor kid still being influenced by a wayward parent.

A funny thing…  I’ve only gradually been able to get to know the kids in my charge this winter — from my clinic beginners to another clinic I work in to a Mite team I coach to another older Bantam team.  The Negative Nellies (or Normans) tend to jump right out at ya, while other kids and parents are seemingly so passive one might never get to know their true feelings.  The more I get to know folks, though, the more I’m positive the kids’ coachability will be a refection of their parents’ attitudes.

And here’s the good or bad part to the latter…  Coaches in a player’s past are always being contacted for a reference.  Oh, I’m not talking about the formal kind, but we are constantly stopped at a rink, emailed or called to answer questions about someone who previously played for us.  One problem folks have to realize in this regard is that a coach’s reputation goes on the line with every single one of those conversations.  In my case, I hope I’ve earned a rep for being truthful over some 40-years in the game, and I’m not about to toss that all away to lie about a given kid — whether my opinion of him or her is good, bad or indifferent.  AND, believe it or not, other coaches always seem to get around to asking about the parents.  Why?  Because the kid and his or her parents are always a package deal.  So, if a reader is still resisting the belief that his or her own actions and attitudes reflect on their youngster, it might be time to panic.  The new team — if it is in fact a team, isn’t a collection of players living in separate bubbles.  And what the future coach is looking for are all the right parts — skill-wise and attitude-wise — to act as one.

As I suggested from the start, though, the idea that we don’t function in a vacuum has as much to do with life as it does taking part in a team sport.  Whether we like it or not, we’re all a part of our society, most of us work in an office or within a crew that either functions smoothly and peacefully or doesn’t.  We’re neighbors, some of us are students within a group of other students, and some of us engage in some sort of a club activity.  No matter, it is hard in this day and age to do much of anything that doesn’t affect others.

No, we don’t live in a vacuum, and I’m going to have to do a better job of reminding myself about that.  So should parents, however, so that their youngsters get to enjoy the awesome experiences of being part of all the groups in their future.

First, after almost a lifetime of running my own programs, I’ve more recently had the chance (and the pleasure, really) to observe a number of other AA and AAA programs, both closely and long distance.

Secondly, the following question just arrived in my email inbox from LinkedIn…

“With the new checking rules moving legal checking to the bantam level, how does this impact high school freshmen teams, where the current ages span both the peewee and bantam levels?”

Why did that push me over the edge — enough to send me reelin’ at my ‘riter? It’s because the obvious answer to that coach’s question lies in the need for some consistency within a given organization.

Okay, I obviously didn’t explain myself very well with that answer, so here’s both the short and the long of it…

I think I’d answer the coach who submitted that question with the suggestion that checking skills should have been taught to his kids almost from the very start of their development.  Hey, even though Mites aren’t allowed to “body-check”, collisions happen all the time.  Moreover, nearly everything short of a big hit is not only permissible in the little guys’ and gals’ game, but I’ll suggest that skills like steering and trapping an enemy puckcarrier are vital to every single level of our game.  So, by the way, is it necessary to learn early-on to handle the puck with your dawgone eyes up!

Then — oh, boy…  Probably better than a year ago, Boston University Head Coach Jack Parker raised the ire of New England area hockey folks by suggesting there just isn’t the talent in these here parts to bring many local kids on board — to his program or to most other local Division I colleges.  And, man, did the fans scald the legendary BU coach on that one.

I hopped into one of the hockey forums to agree with Parker, citing “skills” as being one of the major culprits.  Ya, skills…

Now, I dare anyone reading this to argue with my claim — or partial blame — here, that I actually started the trend towards the use of that term.

I’m guessing it was more than 20-years ago when I was invited to sit in on the founding of a revolutionary new hockey program.  My part was only a small one, really, in that the owners of that new organization sought advice from several local hockey gurus as they attempted to put together the best developmental program they could for Southern New England high school players.  And, believe it or not, the founders were gradually piecing together a program that would ultimately be followed by just about every other high level hockey program for decades to come.  Where I jumped in was after they’d arrived at the typical weekly schedule of games and practices.

The owners did really want to provide more than others of that time, and they were asking my input about including a weekly “powerskating” session for each organization member.  I happened to flinch at hearing that term.   For, to me, it infers that “power” is the most important component in hockey skating.  Trust me:  It is not.

Actually, the program that I’d become relatively famous for to that point in history had evolved to include far more than just an hour of skating work.  Ya, I’d increasingly viewed my students’ needs in a more holistic way, to include skating, tons of puckhandling, introductory passing and receiving, and some occasional work on shooting.  (In ensuing years, I’d even include some basic “checking” skills.)

That in mind, I suggested to the group that I wouldn’t trap their coaches — or mislead their customers — by calling that weekly session Powerskating.  Then, put on the spot to arrive at something more appropriate, I offered, “How about just Hockey Skills?”  (Quite obviously, that expression was shortened to “Skills” by the time it hit their brochures.)

Again, what I was suggesting would be a fast paced hour of intense skating and puckhandling, with some later attention given to passing and receiving basics and even some help with the kids’ shooting.

Ugh!  If I had it all to do over again, I’d have offered something even more descriptive for what I really meant, by calling it “Individual Hockey Skills”.  For, as a whole bunch of copycat programs soon began sprouting around New England, each included a skills session that was a far cry from what I’d envisioned.

Ya, reminiscent of the old song by Melanie — “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma”, I now shake my head as I walk through local rinks to see just what they’ve done to “my skills”.  I mean, it now appears that the actual individual skills part is long gone, and nearly every skills session is a mishmash of either unconnected stations or a series of numerical situation drills like 1 on 1′s, 2 on 1′s, etc.  Worse yet, I’ve stopped to watch some of those situational match-ups in progress, and I’ve yet to see a single coach correct either an attacker or defender.  (Geeeeeeze…  As I recall from my long ago Phys Ed Degree studies, “A drill doesn’t teach, coaches do!”)

Still, the total waste of skills time is probably compounded further by yet another shortcoming in most development programs, this brought to mind by that LinkedIn question.  For, you see, to deal with something like body-checking would take some foresight and planning on the parts of program organizers.  Or, as this old skills coach sees it, the very basics of checking must be taught at the youngest levels, progressions should be added at each next level of the players’ development, until fairly sophisticated players emerge at the highest levels.

Okay, I know that one needs even more explaining, too.  So, here goes…

The main point here isn’t about “checking” or “body-checking”.  What I’m really getting at is that there has to be an overall, program-wide plan for every single hockey skill.

As an aside, just picture all the things that had to go wrong in a kid’s development if he or she arrives at a the Bantam level with a lack in skating skills, puckhandling, passing, receiving, shooting, checking, or whatever.  To my way of thinking, he or she has been let down along the way — over about 5- or 6- or 7-years?

In the traditional hometown hockey program it might be the team coaches who were/are the culprits, but in the larger AAA programs I’m pointing a finger at those in charge of so-called “skills”.

Oh, the latter group may have used the fanciest looking drills, and they may have impressed the heck out of onlookers.  But they have also definitely let the kids down.

In other words, introductory skills have to be instilled at the very youngest levels, and those skills have to be heading somewhere.  We might initially be talking about basic stopping or turning skills, but each of those have progressions that should ultimately take a player to an extremely high level of execution.  And the same could be said about every other skating skill, puckhandling move, passing and so on.

As yet another aside, a while back I was shooting the bull on this very subject with someone who oversees a large hockey operation, and I ultimately blurted out something to the effect that, “Every organization should have a system almost akin to the MCAS!”

For those unfamiliar with that acronym, here in my home state it stands for “Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System”, or a system in which public school students (and their teachers?) are tested periodically on the students’ proficiencies in various school subjects.

What I was suggesting was something very similar to the MCASs being devised for a youth hockey organization, so that players had to achieve certain basic skills — and perhaps even knowledge of some basic playing principles — at this level, the next level, and so on.

And, as I intimated above in reference to the MCASs, I feel the teachers — or coaches in this case — have to have their feet held to the fire when it comes to their students’ successes (or failures).  Said yet another way…  If players are arriving at Pee Wee and Bantam levels without some pretty decent skills, someone other than the kids has to be held accountable.

Now, I poked a little needle at the guys and gals who might be using fancy looking drills in their skills sessions, perhaps partially to impress those in the bleachers.  And, I know this is a problem — maybe a huge one.  Yes, parents generally are impressed with all sorts of activity — players buzzing all over, 8-pucks going at the same time, etc.  And they might not even be noticing high priced coaches standing still to blow a whistle or oversee a line of players.  (What they’re also missing, quite obviously, is the need for coaches to be actively involved in a given drill, and constantly providing feedback to the players as they pass by.  Again, the drill seldom does much for a player, at least beyond a point.  No, it’s the coach’s help or advice that makes all the difference in the world.)

Oh, since I’m on a roll with asides today…  I actually authored a manual years ago called “500 Drills” (and it was purchased by NHL, AHL and European teams, besides lots of amateur level coaches).  My point?  I know plenty of drills, simple to pretty fancy.  Still, I never use a one of them that isn’t appropriate to where my kids are at a given time, or what their needs are on a given night.  Said yet another way:  My drill selections are NOT based on impressing anyone; I pick drills that help bring my kids from one level of play to the next.

So, what to do about this problem?

Well, Number One, I don’t believe those of us responsible for the players’ development should be caving and doing wrongly when we know what’s truly right.  If you think about it, to do things solely to please the parents is to suggest that they know more than the guys overseeing the ice.

Number Two, I am not totally dismissing the paying parents in all this.  Ya, in a way, the customer is supposed to be right.  But, then again, no self-respecting mechanic is going to totally agree with a car owner who wants to frequently skip oil changes.  Nor is any doctor worth his or her salt (pardon the pun) going to okay a diet high in chocolate cake, solely because the patient likes that best.  Naw, at some point those of us who know better have to step up — have some gumption, and do what’s right for the customer.  If this means better educating everyone involved in the program, so be it.  But again, what’s the choice:  Keep doing wrongly, or start doing things the way we know in our hearts are right?

Then, before ending, I see yet another thing shortchanging the kids when an organization’s skills program isn’t quite right.  For, if individual skills aren’t dealt with properly during those supposedly dedicated weekly sessions, team coaches are faced with the need to skip work on team related stuff, instead having to devote a good portion of their weekly practices trying to do what others should have been doing.

So, there you have it, from a rather old skills coach who has been around the block (or rink) too many years to mention.  And, for my money (if I was still a paying hockey parent)…

1) Organizations who see themselves as really class operations have to put true meaning back into skills by viewing them as “individual skill” sessions.  In other words, get back to enhancing the capabilities of individual players by concentrating on skating, puckhandling, passing and receiving, shooting and checking skills.

2) There seems the need for a program to better educate parents, helping them to better appreciate how their youngsters can improve far more in the long run from such an approach.

3) Although a daunting task, I’m suggesting here that every program should have their own type of MCAS approach to individual skill development, this to include clearly defined progressions for every individual hockey skill, with defined levels for when such skills should be learned and then mastered.

Lastly, rather than getting upset at the likes of a Jack Parker — for telling local hockey folks exactly the way it is, I think it’s time we who know best get things back on the right track.  For sure, it’s going to be a long journey, and we just may need to accept the fact that we haven’t done the greatest job with our current Pee Wees, Bantams and Midgets.  Better late than never, though.  And that reminds me of a quote I’ve seen a lot lately (I paraphrase):

“Plant a tree today, knowing full well
you’ll never get to enjoy its shade.”

Ya, perhaps it’s time we look to our current Mites and Squirts as the next crop of local players to be among the best in North America.  Whether we’ll be around to see that happen shouldn’t be our motivation.  Doing what we know is right should be.

*

Want a treat?  Go to YouTube.com and listen to the wonderful words and voice of Melanie in “Look What They’ve Done to My Song“!

Before I get deeper into this, however, I probably ought to begin by saying that I don’t just trust everyone — or at least not right off the bat.  Hey, just because you hang a shingle out and claim to be an auto mechanic, it doesn’t mean you really know your stuff.  And just gaining a degree in something or other doesn’t mean you’re necessarily a top butcher or baker or candlestick maker.

Nor does a sheepskin mean you’re a world class doctor.  Case in point…  Many years ago, my late dad had been hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer.  Thank God he questioned the nurse who was about to relieve his pain with a couple of aspirin (which had been recommended by his doctor).  Geeeeeeeze…  Anyone knows that aspirin acts as an anticoagulant.  My point:  There’s nothing wrong with questioning anyone, doctors included.

On the other hand, I had to be super trusting the day my mechanic asked me if he could cut my Cadillac’s tailpipe in half.  Whaaaaa?  Ya, the guy was trying to troubleshoot a really mysterious lack of power in my car’s engine, and he had a hunch he knew what the problem was.  Why did I give the guy a go-ahead on cutting that pipe?  Well, he had worked for years in NASCAR pits, he was famous in the local area for solving problems others couldn’t, and he had worked wonders for me over many, many years.  So, although I cringed a bit at the thought of him hacking my car’s tailpipe in half, I trusted that guy to the max.  And, guess what…  As he explained to me later — after he’d looked inside the pipe, the Caddies of that era came with double lined exhausts, and sometimes the inside pipe would shrink and choke-off the flow of air.  Unbelievable!  Yes, I’d trusted that guy, mainly because he had a reputation for knowing things other so-called mechanics hadn’t a clue about.  And, in the end he saved me countless dollars, because any mere mortal would have replaced a kzillion other expensive auto parts before arriving at the real remedy.

Okay, so I’ve come to appreciate a wide range of folks over recent years…  Roland Lacey and Michael Mahony are two guys I scramble to call or email when I have a serious Internet problem.   I don’t let just anyone contribute to my CoachChic.com hockey site, so you can be sure I totally trust the likes of Bruce Turpin, Shaun Goodsell, Maryse Senecal, Scott Umberger and a host of others.  Do I trust those folks for no reason?  Absolutely not.  Actually, a lot like my old mechanic, I found their credentials interesting, but I was more convinced by their track records, or the quality of their work.  Have we had some healthy philosophical arguments?  Ya, I’d like to think so.  And, I’d also like to think that they’ve trusted my area of expertise when their specialties collided with mine.

If there’s one theme to this point, it’s probably that we all have to trust someone at sometime.  Yet, I’ve also suggested that it shouldn’t be a blind trust.  No, not at all.   And that brings me to a number of experiences of late…

Over the past week, a pretty high level coach from the United Kingdom has contacted me for advice.  Oh, there’s no problem with our relationship, but he’s having his share of problems swaying a few of his elite level hockey players.  As he explains it, his team is moving from the B Pool to the A Pool (a much tougher level), and his players know they have some challenges ahead — mainly in the areas of skating and shooting.  I thought it good that they knew they might be lacking, but then I found it puzzling that they wrestled with some pretty basic advice.  For example — and a lot like young kids I so often deal with here in the states, they resisted shifting to more flexible hockey stick shafts.  Ugh — because, if they’d just trust me and their coach, they’d likely instantly add velocity to all of their shots.  Yes, I said instantly.  Oh, I sense that their coach and I will win in the end — as will those players, but they are seemingly going to wrestle for awhile until our point finally gets across.

I hate to say it but, there’s a huge difference in the amount of trust shown by the parents on my two teams.  God bless most of the parents on my youngest team, because they are basically new to the game of hockey, and they’re super-willing to heed any advice given them.   Consequently, their kids gain almost immediately.  On the other hand, my older team’s parents probably have just enough hockey knowledge to give an old coach (more) gray hairs — or, should I say, their experiences to this point seem to stall their kids’ progress just as might be happening to those few elite level UK players.

Actually, one of my long-time messages for hockey parents is to put more stock in their kids’ practices than games.  As I like to say it, “The games are merely weekly quizzes, telling the players and coaches how they’re progressing at the moment.”  Said yet another way…  A high school coach isn’t going to care a bit about how many goals a kid previously scored, or his or her team’s won/loss record.  No, the coach is going to care far more about the things learned in countless practices over the years, and whether a given youngster can really play the game.

Then, for an example that might make me either laugh or cry…  A number of years ago I had a very skilled young 6th grader join my junior high school team.   Actually, I could see from the start that he was pretty headsy, and that he could think the game far better than a lot of my older kids.  (This wasn’t all that unusual, since he fit in the mold of a lot of “second sons” I’ve coached through the years.)  In no time at all, that little rascal was able to jump into our powerplay unit — with 7th and 8th graders, and there were times when I felt he was capable of actually running the show out there.  If there was a problem, the boy’s mom went from just trusting her son’s development to me to ultimately questioning my choice of forechecks and other such things.  So, while I thought the boy was initially on track to be a local high school star (and maybe go further), the mom ultimately moved him to a different team that practiced and played at a level far below ours.  No longer would the boy be challenged with wild off- and on-ice drills or relatively high level X’s and O’s, but at least the mom could have her say on most hockey issues.

Considering the three above hockey examples, I’m not suggesting that players or parents have to trust every coach, and they don’t even have to trust yours truly.  What they really need to do, however, is find someone they do trust, and ultimately follow his or her advice pretty close to the letter.  As I suggested above, those elite level UK players are probably going to eventually follow their coach’s suggestions; it’s probably more a matter of how much time will be lost until they’re able to take advantage of some sound advice.   The same might be said for those parents who put games ahead of practices.  As for the little guy described in the last paragraph, I’ll be watching the local high school hockey write-ups over coming years, just to see if his mom has been able to coach him well enough to star as he should.

The main theme here, however, has to do with whom you really do trust.  As I suggested earlier, anyone can hang out a mechanic’s or cake decorator’s or hockey coach’s shingle.  It’s also likely that medical and law schools can churn out as many extremely talented pros as not so trustworthy ones.   So, while education surely matters, a track record probably matters a whole lot more.

There is, however, a reason why I’ve chosen to tackle this subject at this specific time.  For, you see, that burning question hit my inbox twice in just the last few days.

My long-time friend Jill Messaged me on Facebook with this one…

I’ve got a friend…  who’s struggling to find a U10 Girls team that she can coach.  She is a hockey and soccer player (and outstanding at both), has decades of experience coaching, is really smart, is a great parent, and has two 10 year old girls who play hockey.  She’s looking for an opportunity where she can coach her girls in a league relatively close to where she lives…  Do you have any thoughts or ideas I could pass along to her?”

I’m going to hold on the rest of that note from Jill, mainly because it should prove useful a little later.

A few days later, I received the following email from Tim, a long-time CoachChic.com member, this pretty much mirroring Jill’s question…

I enjoy teaching and am told I am rather good at it. My day job consists of training and supporting software users. And as I mentioned previously, I have been a ski instructor…  Well, I thought I would like to learn more about coaching (hockey). So, this past Saturday I attended a USA Hockey Level 1 coaching clinic.   Now, I have no illusions that I would automatically become a coaching expert.  Far from it.   But, I like to do things in a progressive, methodical way.  Having completed the coaching clinic, I contacted our local hockey director, letting him know that should any of the house Mite team coaches need some assistance during practices, that I would like to make myself available.  His reply was nice enough, but essentially said “Thanks, but we have all the help we need”.

Now, I’d like you to read the following, and tell me if it doesn’t suggest real sincerity on Tim’s part.  In fact, I think he’s a lot more understanding than I’d be…

And this could indeed be true  (that they have all the help they need).  I suspect many Dads help.  And hockey is just starting, so the head coaches probably have already made their plans.  So, I replied back, asking him not to forget me if they are shorthanded at some point during the season.

All I could do was shake my head — in response to both Jill’s and Tim’s plaints.  And as I suggested in my response back to Tim, my fingers were getting itchy and I was sensing a need to write a flaming sort of blog post.  (What else could I do?  Most states currently have gun laws!  Grrrrrr…)

Taking a deep breath, I instead posted this topic on both Twitter and Facebook, in hopes someone would make better sense of all this.  Verbatim, here’s how it looked:

What do you think about new #hockey coaches
being turned down as helpers by local youth programs?  ???

My friend De, a youth hockey board member from Kansas, put it as well as anyone could…

*

Why would anyone turn down anyone (safe) that wants to volunteer their precious time?  (I’ll get to that “safe” part momentarily. )  Let them, and then say thank you!

… I can understand why some clubs turn away coaches with little or no experience if they have children on the team.  Second I think…  (it should be made) mandatory that any coach who wants to get involved must be an assistant coach first and be taught by an experienced head coach. I could go on for hours but that is my first thoughts on the topic…”

Robert goes on a little later during our exchange…

… I only know of one coach this year at my club that was turned away and it was because of some issues he had as a parent.  He was disciplined as a parent from the Board last year for conduct in the stands during games.

Going along with Robert’s thoughts — when it comes to new coaches initially needing to be assistants, my long-time California buddy, Mike, states…

I think new coaches who are USAH certified should be able to help out with youth programs. They need to be mentored. I think that’s very important.

  There are no flies on my Florida friend, John D, who actually echoes something I’d been thinking all along…

What (expletive deleted) turns down free, quality help??? seems like someone is afraid that a volunteer would steal their thunder, or worse… *gasp* actually impart some knowledge!!!! *the horror*… Tell whomever is turning down help to (more deleted), put their pride aside, and accept a freebie!!!!

John K is from New Jersey, and he’s right on board with all the recent opinions…

I think that’s crazy (turning away volunteers).  Sure, you don’t “give” a new person a team and then leave him alone on an island, as much for the kids’ sakes as the coach’s.  But we have to encourage and develop new coaches (and referees!) in the same way we do with players.  There’s only so long us old guys can keep going and if we don’t develop new guys to replace us, then there will be no game left.  The way we should develop coaches is to get interested parties involved by helping with teams or learn-to-skate or whatever…

By getting them involved under our direct supervision and guidance, we not only can help give them the tools and put them in a position to succeed, but we can also evaluate them easier and weed out the ones who don’t belong with kids in the capacity of a coach.

Kyle Mac is a young coach in New Brunswick, Canada, and he contacted me through a series of Twitter Direct Messages…

Hockey would not be where it is today if it weren’t for growth and progression at the grassroots and minor hockey levels.

It is appalling to think that there are well intentioned enthusiastic volunteers not getting the opportunity to contribute toward continual positive experiences for young players.

Where I live that isn’t the case. Hockey New Brunswick and KVMHA have made so many opportunities to enhance my coaching resume available.  It is impossible to grow our game with elitist views!

This issue maybe more prevalent in areas where minor hockey is stronger.

Now, I said earlier that I was holding back on the rest of Jill’s Message, and I did that because I believe it’s a good way to wind down this topic…

I think she (Jill’s friend) is feeling boxed out by an “old boys” attitude and an inability of these guys to bring in someone different from themselves with new ideas.

Ha!  I’m with Jill’s friend, in thinking she IS being “boxed out” by the “good old boys”.  Hey, the guys currently coaching want to coach their own kids, whether they’re good coaches or not.

I went on to suggest that Jill have her friend look into other programs.  I just have to believe in my heart that some organization will know better than to turn down help.  And, while it may not be fair of me to say this, I suggested she look into so-called AAA programs rather than town based ones.  There’s just a different mentality, as I see it, with quality of the program taking far greater significance than with the basically parent run organizations.

Just so you know, I’ve advertised for months for a young guy who might like to act as my assistant.  And I’ve promised I’d be willing to share as much as I’ve learned over 40-years on the bench.  Ya, I’m dying for good help.  Of course, my motives are much different than those who turn potential helpers away — I sincerely want the help, and I also want more for my kids.  Nor does a bright young guy frighten me.  One of my long ago assistants now works on an NHL bench, and I couldn’t be prouder.

Lastly, if this post should fall upon the screen of a youth hockey program director — and especially one who is in the habit of turning away potential new coaches, I hope you’ll listen to the others who have spoken here.  They’re from all levels of the game, and from across the US and Canada.  I also happen to know they range in ages, from pretty young to older and very experienced.  More than anything, I’m hoping folks will set aside pettiness or shortsightness, and look at the bigger picture.  Personally, I’d like to think that hockey in my area will be better for my having toiled here.  Which has me ending with the words from one of the youngest contributors…

It is impossible to grow our game with elitist views!

An old wives’ tale is a type of urban legend, similar to a proverb, which is generally passed down by old wives to a younger generation.  Such “tales” usually consist of superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details.

Hmmmmmm, again…  “…superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details.”  Ya, that’s what I’m going to be talking about.

Of course, I’m going to relate this to my profession, while my friends might do quite the same.

In my case, I am all about teaching the game of hockey.  I do that in all different ways, from running clinics, writing, producing videos, and I also see my work with any team as a form of teaching.

Like any school teacher or college professor, there’s a code that guides me — mainly to teach what’s right, or to convey truthful information.  Personally, I don’t mind once in a while telling someone I’m not sure on a given subject, or that I just plain don’t know something.  To me, that’s far better than guessing or flat-out lying.

Even more compelling is my need to be up on the very latest in science, especially when it comes to anything having to do with physiology, biomechanics and the likes.  And, because it’s always been a favorite field of mine, coaches and hockey parents will hear me often relate teaching methods according to the “principles of motor learning”.

With all that, I find myself constantly shoveling (whatever) against the tide.  I mean, the wives’ tales don’t die — they just keep coming, whether untrue or not.  And I’m suggesting I see this happen in my profession on nearly a daily basis.

Typically, such infractions happen in rink lobbies, in dressingrooms, and in the stands.  (The water cooler might be the place such things take place on your job.)  A mom or dad might wonder aloud about some hockey problem, this followed quite gladly with the gospel according to some self-proclaimed hockey guru.  Oh, the guru might not really have a clue on the subject, but he or she has heard that such-and-such is the absolute right thing to do.  The problem, of course, is that the given wives’ tale stemmed from someone who knew little on the subject, and it’s been passed on through a dozen others who know as little or less.

Did someone say, “…superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details”?  Ugh!

Still, somehow, such advice keeps getting passed along, until it oftentimes overwhelms the truth.  Is it possible the more something is said the more credibility it gains?  For sure, things shouldn’t work that way.  Around the rinks, however, it almost seems so.

Okay, so here are the things that led to my frustration on this day…

I’ll soon to releasing my Skater’s Rhythm-bar to the ice and in-line hockey communities.  It’s an unbelievable training device aimed at adding smoothness, rhythm, energy efficiency and power to a skater’s forward stride.  Like everything else I do, that thing is based on scientific principles and skating mechanics.  (Come to think of it, the reason this gadget is handheld is because of what I know about motor learning!)  Earlier versions have been used by players from beginner to pro, and every one of those users (or their parents) would tell you that my simple device results in near miracles.

Now kinda in a “pre-launch” mode, I mentioned my Rhythm-bar in a Facebook post about a week ago, and I received an expected comment sooner than I’d dreamed.  I mean, within a few minutes a hockey dad asked me about the way a hockey skater’s arms should pump.  (On the one hand, I guess the guy’s question told me that the prevailing wives’ tale was still very much alive and kicking — darn; on the other hand, he gave me the opportunity to at least explain a little science — to him and to anyone else who happened to browse that post.)

Not to bore my non-hockey readers, but I’m guessing some folks are going to want to know a little more about the above discrepancies.  So…

If we study a track sprinter (or any runner for that matter), we’ll see that his or her legs reach forward and thrust backward.  Obvious, of course.  But we should also notice that his or her arms and hands pump along the same forward to backward plane (and the shoulders rotate in this way, as well).  What’s happening is that the upper body is attempting to keep everything in balance with what’s happening down below.  In fact, the sprinter’s arms and hands are pumping rather forcefully in equal and opposite reaction to the movement of each lower limb.  If you want to better appreciate the benefits to forcefully pumping the arms, though, just envision attempting to run with your hands in your pockets.  Ha.

True scientists and biomechanical experts will tell you that a hockey player might use very similar movements to a sprinter when he or she first takes-off.  Of course, common sense will tell you that the skater needs to get some forward momentum, and that the initial thrusts of the skates will be rearward.  So again, upwards to about three steps, the skater will push back, and at the same time balance things and increase forward power by pumping the arms forward and backward.

An interesting thing happens after the first few steps, however, and it’s where we lose the carriers of those wives’ tales.  For, after the take-off, a hockey player will shift into “skating mode”.  Yup!  From about that point onward, the skates thrust outward, rather than back.  (To the naked eye, the skates seem to push rearward, only because the skater moves forward and the thrusting skate momentarily trails behind.)

Okay, when we analyzed the sprinter, we noted that the arms had to balance-off what was happening down below, and that those upper body movements were done in equal and opposite reactions to what the legs were doing.  Soooooooo…  Since energy efficiency (and so much more) relies on that, the hands and arms (and shoulders) of a skater MUST travel on the same plane as the thrusting skates — or dawgoned outward!

Adding insult to injury, another wives tale carrier emerged just the other day…  I’d just recently made a new hockey friend over on Google+, and I’d thought we were on the same wave length.  Owing to his background, I kinda know he knows his stuff.  Yet, when he sent me a link to his YouTube.com channel, I noticed he included among many videos one done by a notoriously non-scientific spinner of wives’ tales.  Now, that particular skating guru probably offers a number of positive things to young skaters, but she is WAY off-base when it comes to the mechanics of a forward stride.  I mean, WAAAAAY off-base, since she perpetuates the notion that a skater’s arms should pump in a forward to backward motion (as the legs thrust outward?).  Ugh.

Much as I did earlier — when I suggested you think about running without using the hands and arms, I don’t mind mixing more common sense with science as I pose the following…

I’d like to ask the carriers of wives’ tales why a slideboard is prescribed as a great way to enhance skating power and positive muscle memory.  And, if you’d like to visualize something else, try to sense how you’d move your hands and arms in order to assist a forceful push laterally and across the board.  Actually, it would be laughable to try pumping the arms forward to back while on a slideboard!

Then, if you’re into off-ice workouts for skaters, you’re probably familiar with the benefits of jumping exercises.  Done rightly, a great deal of explosive power can be gained from such movements.  However, while all vertical jumps are helpful, most advanced level coaches will tell you that lateral jumps — like side to side over a barrier — are even more specific to the skating movement.  Why?  Because — in skating mode — the thrusts are outward.

Lastly, I didn’t mean to get carried away with either the skating movement or my Skater’s Rhythm-bar.  My real intent has been to bring to light all the falsehoods constantly thrown in the faces of those who would really like some help.  I don’t know if much can be done about the know-it-alls who frequent the rink bleachers and snackbars.   I feel it’s a losing battle most times — there are just too many of them, and they’re never held accountable for any of the advice they so freely share.  That so-called professionals are distributing “…superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details” is a crying shame.  As for me, I guess I have to just keep hammering on this keyboard, attempting to undo as much harm as I can.  (Did I say “Ugh!” yet?)

Part of what spurred this post was a neat full-page article contained in the local newspaper, “The Enterprise”.  I kinda like nostalgia, so the heading near the top of that page — “BLASTS from the past” — really got my attention.  And so did the sense that I’d recall of lot of those blasts as I scanned on down…

Now, despite what some might think, I actually missed the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635, the first on record to strike New England.  Ditto the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

Evidently the idea of giving hurricanes human like names started shortly after, and I do vaguely remember 1954′s Hurricane Carol.  I’m guessing current Whitman, MA residents will have a hard time believing this, but my little hometown contained as much farmland as historic shoe factories when I was young.  So, the numerous uprooted and toppled trees left in Carol’s wake totally changed the landscape where my buddies, my collie dog and I so often roamed.  Unbelievably, that article says that 4000 homes, 3500 cars and 3000 boats were destroyed during that storm.

It seems funny to me, but I have few recollections of Hurricane Gloria, another powerful blast that hit in September of 1985.  I think part of the reason for that was that the college hockey team I was coaching back then wouldn’t have gotten underway until several weeks later.  In other words, Gloria didn’t affect my hockey (or my home), so she wasn’t all that memorable.

Oh, but then…  Ya, but then…  On August 19th of 1991, a guy named Bob came to call in Southeastern Massachusetts.  Oh, did he ever.  Hitting land in New Bedford, MA, Hurricane Bob tore through Cape Cod and up the coast, causing damages set at $1 billion.

Talk about power outages.  Much of Cape Cod was without electricity, including the rink where my largest hockey school of the summer was scheduled to begin on the following Monday.  Yikes!

For sure, the rink manager and I went back and forth several times per day.  And, while the fate of my hockey school may have been the biggest thing going on in my life right then, I had to appreciate that the manager’s woes were on an even grander scale.

Electricity is needed to run the compressors that ultimately freeze the ice.  And, minus that power, the ice begins to melt.  My sense is that it’s almost an exponential thing, in that the ice holds for awhile while the building is still cold, but things begin to deteriorate rapidly as more ice melts and the building warms.

So, the questions the manager and I constantly discussed over several days were:  1) how much of the ice has been lost, and2) how long will it take to re-establish the surface if the power comes back on.  Ugh.

Now, if you think that’s a nightmare, consider that I had to relay information to 70-ish hockey families who were eagerly awaiting the start of my school.  And I had to do that based on the information provided me by the rink.

Also consider that this was 1991, and about the only means of communication were “land line” telephones.  Talk about an equally daunting nightmare, as I worked my way down the long list of telephone numbers…  Why adults allow toddlers to answer phones is beyond me, but envision me sitting, twiddling my thumbs, and praying some little tyke is really gone to get mommy or daddy.  Also picture the number of busy signals and no answers I’d get as I worked through the list.  Best case scenario:  getting an answering machine that allowed me to recite a 15-second message and be done with it.  Not so good:  when a mom or dad wanted to talk for very long.

Okay, the plot thickens…  My hockey schools of that era were timed to the gnat’s behind — I mean, four groups of kids arrived at noon each day, they’d rotate through about seven unique stations, and they’d be gone at 5pm.  I’d spent weeks earlier in the summer refining that plan, so that every kid got his or her proper amount of time on the ice, a classroom, outdoor dryland training, etc.  The problem now, however, was that the plan I labored at for so long was designed for a 10-day program (or Monday through Friday for two weeks).  And it became evident by late Saturday before our scheduled start that the rink would not be functional by Monday.  Hmmmm…

So, besides all the phone calls, I had to spend much of the weekend totally revamping the camp schedule.  Why did the schedule need changing?  I’d guaranteed a certain amount of ice-time over the two weeks, so I had to redistribute what was planned for a 10-day program into what now appeared to be a 9-day one.  And, with the change in ice-time, every other part of my school also had to be altered.

Things weren’t getting any better, however.  For, all that done to accommodate a Tuesday start, it soon became apparent that power hadn’t yet been restored on Cape Cod, and we were now praying for things to begin on Wednesday.  Ya, you probably guessed it…  Back on the phones (my son helped me with that), and back to revamping the schedule for an 8-day camp design.  And, make no mistake about the challenge in doing the latter, because I’d often complete that work at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.

Could it getting any worse?  Yup…  Power finally arrived at the rink but the ice wouldn’t be ready immediately.  So, we were faced with yet another round of telephone calls, and I was back at the drawing board trying to give all my customers their money’s worth in just 7-days.  Man…

I believe that was it, though — a 7-day camp, beginning on Thursday of the first week and continuing through the next.  Phew.

Still, one great memory of that awful ordeal…  The mom of three boys who attended the camp for many years kept telling me, “Stop apologizing and stop worrying.  Everything will be fine!”  Can you imagine that?  Bless her.  (And in a way, she was blessed.  One of her boys went on to play for the Boston Bruins, another played professionally in Europe, and the other is a successful businessman.)

Of course, some young adults of today may not remember those times — especially the way we may have suffered trying to make so many telephone calls with at least some urgency.  Ya, how times have changed.

Okay, so enter “tropical storm” Irene.  Ha, I put that in quotes because that lady packed a punch as crippling to some folks as any hurricane I’ve seen.  Sure, Irene was seemingly selective, hardly bothering some pockets of real estate while hammering some others.  And, the power outages — at least from what I’ve heard — were as extensive as we get around these parts.

Oh, but the changing times…  I didn’t have any major hockey school planned prior to Irene’s arrival, but I did have a game scheduled with a team from Philadelphia to come north and play my AAA Bantams.  Playing the game wasn’t going to be a problem, since it would be completed a day before the storm was to hit our area.  The danger was in the Philly folks needing to travel back towards the south and through that storm in order to get home.

Technology helped solve some of my headaches concerning all that…  My team practiced at 8pm on the night before our scheduled exhibition, so I asked the manager of that far away team to call my cell phone and give me a final thumbs-up or thumbs-down.  Easy-peasy as one of my on-line friends often says — meaning that the Philly team decided to cancel, and I could share that with all of my players and their parents right there at the rink.

Further on the technology…  My teams have a website they can go to for any last minute announcements.  An email to a kzillion people can be sent in a matter of minutes.  And, should anyone not have power, all my team families and those who will attend my soon-to-begin Learn-to-skate/Learn-to-play program will have my cell phone number on speed dial.

Man, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the ease in communicating nowadays.  Hey, I love little kids, but I really did hate the eerie sounds of silence as I waited for them to go get mom or dad.  I hated the busy signals too.  And, although I could talk hockey all day and all night under most circumstances, I cringed a lot in those days when I faced another 43 calls while a dad wanted to discuss his son’s stickhandling woes.

All is good today, though, and all I have to say now is,  “Good night, Irene.” 

Why did I do that?  It’s because that other site — the love of my life — is mainly focused on sharing important training information for hockey players, their parents, and their coaches.  It’s hockey specific, and it tends to be geared more towards technical or how-to stuff.

Frankly, this old coach also needed an outlet — or a place to sometimes vent  — in areas that are only slightly related to hockey.  More I thought it a good idea to share with “outsiders” what the life of a hockey coach might be like, as well as share some thoughts on how our two worlds might actually be very much alike.

With that, let me talk a little here about having the skills to do our jobs well…

The spark for this entry really stems from some thinking I’ve been doing about my two hockey teams.

Each head coach in our Boston Bandits organization is given 10 summer practice sessions to ready his or her team for the start of the regular season (sometime shortly after the US’s Labor Day).  I’m not too worried about my littlest team of mainly 6-year olds — as I’ve said often in the past, they’re so mold-able it’ll be easy to ready them.  Where my worries do lie is with my older Bantam team (ugh).

In contrast to real young ones, it gets harder and harder and harder to change the playing abilities of older athletes, with the adult player’s die pretty much casted.  That’s not to say that my older kids — at around 12- to 14-years old — can’t be changed.  It’s just that changes take more time (than with little ones), and they’re not going to be as drastic (as they can be with my young Mites).

Anyway, I’d mentioned in my previous post about that older team struggling in a tournament, and I’d also said I’d taken a ton of notes from my in-game observations.  I believe I also shared with readers what I told my kids:  in that I can help them close the gap on some of the teams that thumped us, but it’s going to take a lot of work — and a true commitment — on every player’s part.

If the latter caused a problem in my previous plans, it’s that I had really hoped to show the kids some high level strategies to use against future opponents, but…  Ya, but…

In all my teaching and in all I’ve ever written to other coaches and hockey parents, the true secret to development is knowing where to begin the process.  In other words, a coach doesn’t start a first-time skater with hard “hockey stops”, but he should instead ease the youngster into things with something like an easy-to-do “snowplow stop”.

The same holds true with more advanced players, though…  I mean, if I want to get a player (or group of players) to Point L in a given skill, it is quite likely that I’ll have to go back to somewhere around Point D or E as a starting place.  Older players can usually lop-off the earlier progressions pretty quickly, so it’s probable that such a group could fast go through Points E, F, G, H and I, and then have to stay at that last point for awhile until it’s mastered.

The reason I went into that stuff is because my notes told me a story quite different from what I’d plan.  Ya, while I was hoping to teach them all those fancy X’s and O’s, what I realized was that my kids had to first be helped with some very basic skills.

And that brings to mind something else I’m always talking and writing about, in that we coaches can’t really look at those stupid letters or numbers as mere marks to be moved around on paper or on a greaseboard.  No, those X’s and O’s represent human beings (in this case young teens) who are being asked to perform some tricky on-ice tasks.  And, looking at things that way, I (and any other adult out there) should further realize that unbelievable skills will be required to execute those tricky tasks.

Yup, most of the notes I took during those tournament maulings had to do with my kids’ need for drastically improved skills.  And that brings me to something I cringe about, but nonetheless feel the need to address…

Whenever I observe a group (or individual) as I’ve just described, I can’t help blaming those who came before me.  I mean, many of my current kids have been let down through the years, being allowed to reach this level without having key skills in place.

Honest to God, I could write a book on this subject (or maybe I already have).  I mean, a lot of coaches run what I’ve heard described as “vanilla drills” (the kind that might look good but have almost no teaching value whatsoever), a lot of coaches take positions without accepting the corresponding responsibilities, and a lot of coaches feel their shortcomings in the teaching department will be taken care of by the kids’ next coaches.  (Ha — on that last point!  There’s a good chance the next coach and the next isn’t going to be any more effective or caring.)

While I’m on this rant, let me say that the kids’ coaches from just last year are not mainly to blame for their shortcomings.  Naw, the types of skill deficiencies I’m seeing stem from neglect when my players were beginners, Mites and Squirts (or during their earliest, formative years).

Oh, and the parents aren’t blameless here, because there had to be plenty of opportunities through those earliest years when they could have gotten their kids some outside help.

If some of my players or their parents (or other organization folks) happen to read this, have no fear…  I am NOT abandoning my plans for teaching the high level team play stuff.  What I do plan, however, is to go backwards for a brief time (to Point E?), so that the X’s and O’s will ultimately be easier for my kids to negotiate.  And, it is quite likely what I aim to help them with will serve each well as he strives for higher levels of the game.  (Darn, but someone has to do it; it just would have been better if someone did it a number of years ago!)

Hockey aside, I wonder how many of my faithful readers are responsible for other workers within their profession.  For, a lot of what I’ve said to this point applies within a work force, just as much as it does to a sport team.  A worker who struggles quite likely was let down previously — be it in school, or by other managers.  My thinking:  Stop the problem now (as I’m attempting to do), and start helping with some earlier progressions in the necessary skills.

Then, relating all the above on a personal level…  What’s the chance you find yourself short on something that’s affecting your work performance?  (And the same goes for me.)  Every job requires a number of background skills — be it as a goaltender, a defenseman, a mechanic or an IT exec.  Fundamentals are the key to proper execution, whether on the ice, in the office, or in the shop.

*

Just having joked about my genius, let me now hit myself in the head about twenty times for being such a dumbbell.  Thump…  Thump…  Thump…

A few years back I authored what I believe is an unbelievable manual for coaches of young teams.  The original was in hardcopy, but I more recently edited it, converted it to digital, and put it for sale through my Hockey Tips & Tricks store.  So far so good, I think.

Okay, so about a month ago I’m browsing through a hockey forum and notice a young coach asking for advice on a coaching manual that might help him teach the likes of positioning.  I was a little hesitant to just boldly tell him to buy my book.  Still, with the likelihood it would help him, I dared to do just that.

As an aside, I long ago named that manual after a serious need I saw within youth hockey circles.  I mean, most youth coaches don’t know a lot about teaching the X’s and O’s of the game, so I decided to dub it “How to Assemble & Teach A Basic Hockey System“.  I felt I was doing inexperienced coaches a HUGE favor, and I was.  But…

Don’t ya know, minutes after I just suggested that the young coach in that forum take a look at my manual, the responses started pouring in.  And, boy, were they scalding.  I’m talking some biggies throwing bombs my way, too — like a guy who had just won a championship with his 5-year old team (or whatever), saying that he didn’t believe young players should be taught “a system”.   And it seems to me there were other biggies chiming in — like guys who have coached up through Squirt B.   (I might be fuming now as I write this, but if you want some good laughs, read my last blog post having to do with their words of wisdom.)

I think I ought to say right now that I love dealing with young hockey parents and new hockey coaches.  So it’s likely the forum atmosphere that’s really to blame for the above.  Up close and personal, those guys and I would probably become great friends.

Here’s what I really want to get at now, however…  You see, I will argue anyone to the death about my manual being the best thing a youth coach could have in his or her library.  At the same time, I didn’t really do my homework when I picked its title.  In other words, I should have named it anything BUT something that implied it was all about X’s and O’s or systems.  (No, my manual is not about the left wing lock, the trap or the torpedo.)

To gain a sense of what that manual is really about, take a quick browse through its Table of Contents…

Now, I know you can’t see within each of those chapters.  However, I hope you can get the sense that most of my manual is about planning, being organized, and then having an understanding of hockey’s basic playing principles.  As for X’s and O’s, well…  Three chapters in the middle of the manual give a coach some great ideas for helping his or her kids with positioning, and those chapters do pull the X’s and O’s together to form something of a simple “playing system”.

All that said, I am very seriously pondering taking that book off the shelves for a few days, just to change the title.  The note I wrote to myself as I was driving to a rink tonight says “The Art & Science of Coaching Young Hockey Teams”.   I don’t know, though…  What do you think?

*

You hear me talk plenty about my experiences and friendships within Twitter and Facebook (while I view LinkedIn as a very different kind of social media).  And I even started a Facebook Fan Page recently, where I provide one pretty high level hockey tip each day (stop in, grab some ideas, and please “Like” the page for me before you leave).

I’m on the record for there being two big reasons I’m into these things:  1) it’s unbelievable for my business — to meet and really get to know so many people around the hockey world (and I do mean the entire world); and 2) my work has me going it alone most days and nights, so it’s awesome to have a virtual water cooler where I can commiserate with other “soloists”.

Anyway, along comes a new social media format that all my cyber-friends tell me I just have to jump into (oh, ya, like I have a lot of extra time).   Of course, you’re familiar with the Google name; what you might not have heard about yet is the new Google+ (or G+ as I’ve labeled it).  To be perfectly honest, I’m still getting my feet wet there, and I’m not sure I can explain it all that well right now.  I liken it a bit to Facebook, although I don’t think recreational users on Facebook will want to live in a seemingly more business oriented Google+.  The one feature most of us early users are raving about is the ability to group like people into “circles”.  (I’ll try to tell you more about that at another time.)  A lot like when I first joined LinkedIn, one has to be invited into G+.  So, if you want to come kick the tires, just let me know and I’ll hold your hand.

*

As much as I love my work, it doesn’t come without at least some frustration.

Ya, I supposedly “work for myself”, but one — no matter his or her profession — doesn’t work (or live) in a vacuum.  Naw, we can’t draw our daily pay without customers, contractors, vendors, to name a few.  And, while 99% of those we deal with on a regular basis can be absolutely awesome folks, it only takes one (or two or whatever) to sometimes make our life’s love feel more like a drudgery.

What I especially worry about is the occasional tampering with my attempts to be professional.

The latter has happened a little more often than usual over about the past 2-ish years — and I mean the number of incidences in that span probably outweigh the previous 30-plus years I’ve been doing what I do.  (Ugh.)

What I also hate is another supposed professional telling me something is no big deal, when my gut, my conscience and my kzillion years of experience tell me it is very much a big deal.  And matters can be made all the worse when the other so-called pro is going to walk away unscathed as my reputation hangs in the balance.  Grrrrrrrrr…

Of course, you’ve probably guessed that I felt I’ve experienced the latter very recently.  Ya, hung out to dry seems a good way of putting it.

Still, that’s not my purpose for banging my keyboard tonight.  Naw…  One can only dwell on sucky stuff for a day or so, and then it’s time to get on with more positive things.  (Pssssst…  Besides, as one who is known to do lots of favors for folks, it’s only a matter of time before the offenders come knocking on my door for help — again.)

Thank God — literally, that I’ve always seemed to bounce back and smile.  I think I also owe a lot of that to my upbringing, to0 (so thanks, mom and dad).

*

Speaking of making the best out of mush…

Around 1980, I had a good friend who helped me big-time behind the scenes with my high school hockey team.  If you can envision the year, you might also appreciate that my friend and I may have been the only two guys in our county who owned VHS video units.  In fact, my friend had the first portable VHS unit (camera included) that I ever saw.

Anyway, we arranged a deal surrounding the video-taping of my games…  I’d leave a blank tape in the ticket window as my friend would enter the rink, he’d shoot the game (with awesome shots), and then leave the tape for me to take home and review between games.  (Years later, I had a great young staff doing the same for me as I coached in college.)

It was also that long ago that I came to one lasting realization, in that the only games worth studying were those in which my team’s weaknesses were exposed.  In other words, the tape of a game we’d won handily proved of little value, while I could study for hours the one showing us being clobbered.  Make sense?

Well, what I’ve been leading up to is that my AAA Bantam team was recently clobbered several times in a weekend tournament.  Was that discouraging?  You bet.  However, as I described in my previous short shift, it makes no sense to cry for long; naw, sooner or later, I’ve just got to get back to work again.

Nor did I want my players to be down in the mouth for long.  Sure, it didn’t hurt that they discovered they had a lot to learn (I suspect I’ll have their attention at the next practices).

Really, though, I want to re-emphasize that point about my learning a lot when my team has struggled.  In retrospect, I probably should have had someone video the game for me.  Short of that, I came away from the tournament with enough notes to choke a horse.

My point here, I guess, is that I should in some ways consider myself (and my kids) fortunate that we did get hammered a few times long before our official season gets underway.  Perhaps a worse fate would have been for us to enter the season thinking everything was fine, and that we didn’t need to work on much of anything.

*

One of the best lectures I’ve ever sat through was one given my Dave Dryden (Ken’s brother), that talk being about his transition from years of NHL goaltending to his first stint as a Canadian junior hockey coach.  And among the kzillion tidbits Dryden shared, was his feeling that the best thing he could have ever done to prepare for his new job would have been to take a course in communicating better with his players.  Hmmmm…

Well, Dave and I took different routes toward our coaching posts, because I’ve had just about every coaching course one could ever imagine.   What I’ve found I’ve been lacking in is the business side of hockey.  (I’m almost laughing to myself here, while I could also almost cry.)

A couple of cases in point…

There is a well known powerskating lady who keeps getting recycled in hockey publications, despite the fact that she seemingly doesn’t have a clue about the science of her work.  I mean, many of her drill principles and techniques are absolutely wrong, and even detrimental to a player.  However, there she always seems to be, face plastered on the cover of another USA Hockey or similar publication.  And why? Just guess.

There’s also a West Coast guy who has flooded the market with books and tapes on skating, and I can pretty much put his works in the same category as the powerskating lady’s — with tons of flash and dash, loads of smart marketing, and totally absent the science.

Before I sound too much like I’m crying here, though, let me say that I am awfully glad I spent so much time in the trenches — gaining a “scientific” degree, studying videos, studying under some of the world’s top skating authorities (who happen to work in labs, not in hockey schools).  And I’m also very thankful that I’m recognized by the right people in our game.

What gets hurt in all this is the bottom line.  I mean, while NHL teams have bought my books, and many of the world’s top coaches actually use some of the drills I’ve invented, I lose — big time — when it comes to reaching the masses.  Ya, like Dryden, having to do it all over again would have seen me taking a few extra courses — in marketing, advertising, accounting, and the likes.

*

Here’s a (daily) freebie for my hockey friends…

Celebrating the opening of my Coach Chic Fan Page, I’ve begun offering free access to some CoachChic.com posts that are normally reserved for members only.

Here’s the best part:  a new peek into my hockey secrets will be unveiled every day.

Here’s the bad part, though:  each normally hidden article or video is removed after about 24-hours, as it’s replaced with new stuff.

Bottom line:  you ought to get into the habit of checking my Fan Page every day in order to not miss a trick.

Oh, the first time you visit, please click the button that looks like this one:

Believe it or not, that gesture means a lot to me and my business.

With that, I’ve had plenty to get me on fire lately, and I’m feeling like my keyboard just might burn-up over this one…

Up front, two things…

1)  Before they closed their doors, I wrote one (and sometimes two) advice columns per issue for “Hockey/USA” magazine.  And hardly a month would go by over nearly 20-years without me receiving some nice words from a reader.  For sure they liked the content I regularly provided, but as often one of my faithfuls would compliment my writing style.  Oh, I don’t know a past participle from a parenthetical expression — trust me on that.  But I have always tried to write so that my readers could understand me.  Come to think of it, a number of my old readers dubbed my style “folksy”.   (Ya, that’s me, still the farm boy at heart.)

As an aside, I suspect some of my old high school English teachers are rolling over in their graves as I type.  For all the students they poured out their classroom doors, I’m sure they never dreamed their favorite jock would make part of his living authoring books, advice columns, video scripts and a blog.  (Of course, my old teachers never saw the advent of SpellCheck coming!)

Oh, ya…  When I transferred my engineering credits to get a degree in physical education, I was disappointed the new school was going to make me take dawgoned English again.  (Geeeeeze…  I just wanted to get on with the coaching courses!)  Anyway, after a few writing assignments in that course, the professor called me aside as a class ended.  Gulp.  Instead of what I’d feared, she whispered, “I really apologize that you’ve been made to take this class. “  (Phew!)  And she went on to bemoan trying to help most of her younger students string a few words together.

2)  Speaking of college…  I had a great guy as my Anatomy professor, and I still see him from time to time as he follows his young grandson around local rinks.  Anyway, if you can picture it, a lot of physical education courses are pretty close to what doctors might take in their earliest years — with lots of scientific, medical stuff.  And that Anatomy course was geared to having us learn the Latin terms for all the various body parts.  So, one day I kinda needled my prof about the fact that I’d have to as quickly unlearn all those terms if I was going to survive in my chosen field.  The poor guy wrinkled his nose, and I could see a huge question mark engulfing his face.  “Ya know,” I said, “I deal with regular folks around the rinks, and I’m not about to snow them with fancy words they won’t understand.”  (And in the real hockey world, no fancy Latin terms are needed to warn my older players about the butt whipping they’re going to get!)

That was the truth, though, what I told my professor.   And that’s not taking anything away from my customers.  I’ve had tons of doctors’ children skating with me, and as many players who belonged to lawyers, skilled mechanics, technicians,  construction workers and housewives.  And, I can tell you that each of them knows far more about what they do than I’ll ever dream.  Still, just as you and I would expect that a specialist would spell-out our problems in simple terms, I am not about to heap a pile of snow on my customers’ heads when they need advice.

Now, as for that “I Hate It When Hockey Folks Talk In Code” thingy…

I first noticed this many, many years ago, when I attended a coaching seminar at a college on the outskirts of Boston.  For, throughout his presentation, the head coach at that college kept using the expression “goal line extended”.  I mean, he had to have used it a good twenty times over about an hour’s talk.  And all the while I’m sitting there trying to figure what the heck he was trying to say.  ???  I did, of course — finally figure it out, I mean.  Probably even non-hockey readers know a red goal line is painted into the ice and across the front of each net, and the line actually does extend outward and across the ice to the side boards.  So ya, I guess, we could call that part going from the a net to the boards something like the “goal line extended”.  What I think the logical question would be is, what ever for?   The rest of the world understands that line’s existence — and where it runs, even if you just call it a dawgoned “goal line”.  Grrrrrrr…

In more recent years, a new term has emerged.  Yup, it wasn’t good enough that all of us understood that a rink is surrounding by “boards”.   So someone decided it best to redefine the “side boards” as the “wall”.  And, if you watched and listened to many Stanley Cup playoff hockey games this year, you probably couldn’t avoid hearing a play-by-play guy using the term “half-wall”.   Well, just in case you feel the need to sound politically correct or to impress someone with that kind of stuff, the half-wall is the general area in each end zone about halfway up the rink’s side boards.

As another aside here, I am thinking that a lot of this craziness stems from college campuses in the United States.  To be honest with you, I never felt inferior to professors when I coached in college — hey, they’re good at what they do, and I’m pretty good at what I do.  Maybe others, though, feel the need to complicate matters and invent new terminology just to elevate themselves.

With all that, you ought to know that the recent playoffs didn’t set me on fire.  Naw, I half-listen to announcers, anyway.  What did get me going are some hockey forums I’ve been participating in lately.  There, I find even more destruction of the hockey language, but it’s even sadder than what I’ve explained to this point.  You see, a lot of hockey dads and youth coaches in those settings are tossing around terms and phrases that they don’t even understand.   And I know exactly where they (half-)learned them:  from attending coaching seminars led by college coaches.

The phrase that’s killing me of late is “time and space”.  Ugh.  And it’s being used (and abused) in a way that suggests that simple collection of words — sprinkled here and there in a paragraph — can make anyone sound intelligent.  In other words, one doesn’t have to say much of anything over a hundred words or so, so long as he or she occasionally offers that “time and space” answer to a given problem.

I suppose someone is going to want me to define that, although I find it hard to do it well.

In effect, in a game such as ours, a lot of players are moving at a relatively frantic pace.  All the while, they’re attempting to do what they need to do, with their success quite often based on the fraction of “time” they have to execute, and the amount of open “space” they have to negotiate.   A guy carrying the puck is hoping for enough time and space to do what he wants to do, while a nearby defender is most often trying to limit those two conditions.

So, if there’s something else I pride myself in, it’s the proper use of hockey terms.  For example, what does the word “check” mean?  Oh, if I ask a little hockey player, he’s bound to tell me it means to scrunch someone against the boards (or smash their face off the glass) — gotta love the little ones.  So it seems, though, will most hockey parents and inexperienced coaches explain it that very same way (or at least that’s how most folks within those forums seem to be using the term).  Ha…

In reality, “check” can be either a verb or a noun.

In general, the term “checking” could be used to cover just about everything a player or team does defensively.  (You’ll understand more about that in a moment.)

Used as a noun, I might tell one of my guys that #12 on the other team is his check.  In other words, that’s the guy he should cover.

As a verb, I could similarly tell my guy that I want him to check #12, again meaning I want him to cover that guy.

Then, because checking encompasses just about everything a player does in his or her defensive game, check becomes a root word for defensive terms like poke-checking, forechecking, backchecking, and body-checking.  (Note, if you will, that all of those things take place when the other team has the puck, or when our team is on defense.)

Personally, I’m very careful when I use any of those words, whether talking to my players, hockey parents or other coaches.  First, I want to be correct when I speak with anyone about the game.  Secondly, however, I want to perpetuate the right use of terms, in hopes others keep it going.  Those in the forums, on the other hand, seem just plain lazy in this regard, and lots of kids are bound to lose something in their development for that very reason.

Lastly, I was moaning a bit to a Facebook friend just the other day, about how much all the talking in code annoys me.  And, since that friend is also a CoachChic.com member, I felt comfortable telling him that I’ve yet to use those kinds of perceived fancy terms in any of the 500+ articles I’ve posted there.  No, I’m writing and producing videos for those members because they want — and deserve — answers.  And, the very last thing they need are misused terms and a snow-job.  :/

*

Talk about avoiding no snow jobs…

I just released three videos aimed at helping absolutely
anyone TEACH SKATING!

I called these “Must-do Skating Drills,
because they are a must for players to master
on their way up the hockey ladder:

BEGINNER****INTERMEDIATE****ADVANCED

*

*

For example, I’m betting a lot of my social media friends sensed that I was stressing a bit over the past two weeks (I’d noted at one point that I was functioning on something close to zero sleep).  That craziness was attributed to my young team’s season-ending playoffs followed by a week devoted to the tryouts for my two next year’s teams.

Now, I’m sure that plenty of folks read that last paragraph and wondered how an hour or so at a rink each night could be such a big deal.  Ah, that might be so.  However, while players and parents might just go to the rink, do what they do and then go home, an hour of ice at a distant rink is more like 4-hours out of a coach’s day or night.  I mean, there’s usually a good hour of planning to do, I have to shave and shower and dress like anyone else going to work, and I’ve always been the first to the rink and the last to leave.  And, let me tell you…  It usually takes me a good couple of hours to wind down after.  Oh, I’m not saying every coach is like I’ve described it, but that’s the way I’m built.

Okay, so why am I so psyched?  Well, it isn’t because hockey is over for the time being.  Naw, I love every minute of what I described above; that’s kinda my calling.  That established, let me explain the many things I am grateful for right now…

My youngest team actually went through their very short season without a win.  (Not to worry ’bout that, folks.)  You see, those near-babies come from my Learn-to-play clinic, and they’re almost all first or second year skaters.  What has me so psyched about them is that they came so far over just a few months in league play.  What also had me so hepped-up is that few kids returned from last year’s team to help us a bit.  No, three kids off that team stepped in to play unbelievably for my Mite AAA’s this year, two boys are arguably the best players in their age division this year, and the rest from last season starred on teams in the local town program.  And, my little babies from this year — the ones who struggled on the scoreboard?  I am betting they are going to be the best in their respective levels come next winter.

My AAA Mites won their early-season 3-on-3 league, and finished third overall in the full-ice league.  They also ended the year with the fewest goals-allowed over the long season, which would suggest to most knowledgeable folks that they learned how to really play the game.  We lost in the league semi-finals by a goal, and the team that beat us won the whole thing by a goal.  So, we’re talking three teams being within a goal of each other, and I’m thinking anyone could have won all the marbles if the wind just blew a hair differently.

For sure, tryouts can be a gut-wrenching time for a coach…

Still, I was able to ultimately get a number of my previously noted “babies” onto my young Mite team for next year (phew), and I also got a couple of other nice little players.  Kids in those ages (like 6-years old) are really moldable, so I know I can raise the level of their game hugely in a short time.  The parents should also be a dream, since it usually takes them at least a couple of years to decide they know more than me. 

As for my older Bantam team, there was plenty of reason not to feel psyched in the start.  That group evidently experienced a pretty rough season this past winter, so I proceeded to pretty much gut the roster.  That’s never a fun thing to do — telling some kids they’re welcomed and others they’re not.  But, it did have to be done.  And, little by little, as we went through the week-long tryouts, I could see I had grabbed some of the right kids.  Actually, although we ended still needing a few good players, I knew that many pieces of the new puzzle had fallen into place.  And, just to further pick-up my spirits, it appears we have a good chance of now landing the remaining few pieces.

Of course, there’s more to this story.  For, in a way, it has been helpful that I’ve been able to put the skates away for a week…

Getting back to how time-consuming even an hour of ice-time can be for me, understand that I still always have the paperwork or administrative side of my New England Hockey Institute work to do.  Add to that my want to keep pouring articles and videos into the CoachChic.com site, my need to add new products to the Tips and Tricks Store, and also my obligation to keep on blogging right here.  So, just envision how it might be most days — as I try to get myself into an article, a video production, or some important paperwork, but I’m constantly having to keep one eye on a clock with the knowledge that I ultimately need to be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and at a rink pretty soon.  Again — except for the dawgoned administrative stuff, I’m doing everything I love to do.

Okay, so — although you wouldn’t know it by the temperature outside right now (like 20-degrees), it is finally spring.  And with that comes a solid week off followed by a slightly eased outside workload.  And, I’ve already gotten more stuff done in the first two days of my break than I’ve managed in the last month.  I mean, I’ve gotten all of my paperwork up to snuff (finally), I’ve released a new coaching manual, I’ve finalized two new hockey training programs (a Hockey BootCamp for older kids and adults, plus my little ones’ Mite & Squirt Summer School), and I’ve undertaken some business marketing projects I’ve wanted to sink my teeth into for ages.

I think I’ve made it known that I study business and marketing — a lot.  Maybe “study” is the wrong choice of words, however.

I subscribe to a lot of email newsletters, all of them having to do with on-line marketing.  I also take advantage of all the free ebooks out there, videos on the subject, and podcasts (mp3 audio programs).  I’ll usually save all the ebooks in similar file folders, just so I can scan the ones I need when the time is right.  I ultimately sort through the videos to see which ones really need to be watched, and which ones can be listened to without the need for visuals.  Why do I do that?  Well, I want to save those I’ll want to re-watch in their appropriate folders, and I’ll capture the audio from the others — as mp3 files, and I’ll add those to my podcast collection.  Then, when I’ve gathered enough audio files, I’ll burn them to a CD for playing later in my car.

Now, the reason I questioned whether I really “study” or not is because I attempt to make learning pleasurable.  I mean, I’ll slap a CD in the car’s deck, and just listen to a lecture (or whatever) as I’m motoring to a rink.  I don’t mind that my mind wanders on occasion — that can be good.  I’ll even often take the time to visualize some of the drills I’m going use in awhile, or how I might transition from one drill to the next.  And, if a particular audio program doesn’t interest me at the time, I’ll fast-forward to something that does.  More often, actually, I’ll look for something appropriate to my latest business project.

To make my point further…  I once created a program called “A Total Mastery System”.  It was REALLY elaborate, offering help to other hockey coaches by way of an ebook, a drill database, and a long audio program centered around my philosophies in coaching.  And, within the latter program, I suggested to listeners that they would hear different things during subsequent replays.  I think some of this has to do with our focus at different times.  But, I think the following is more likely to be going on…

Among the hundreds of hockey lectures I have (on old cassette tapes), there’s one I’ve always pulled from the shelf as I readied to build a new team.  The interesting part is that I recorded that one when I was still a youth coach, I heard different things when I later listened as a high school coach, and the same thing happened the several times I played it as a college coach.  And, why would that be?  My pretty educated guess is that I always heard the exact same words,  but I was listening from a totally different experience level.  Said yet another way…  Years later as I prepped to coach in the pros, I was hearing things and visualizing my players’ movements as a guy who was far, far removed from youth hockey.

Okay, so here’s what I’m getting at…  Re-listening to a program I’d already heard weeks ago tends to spark new thoughts, or ones that hadn’t struck me before.  Ya, my focus is probably different each time I replay something, but so is my experience level.

The sum total of all that is the fact that I’ve come to really know my stuff about how the Internet can work.

Oh, boy…  I’ve written at various times that I’d gotten a rash of bull about “knowing a lot of facts”, this from someone I used to value for their opinions.  What (among other things) changed all that was my discovering the way a large collection of “facts” leads to common sense.  In other words, the more background knowledge we have, the better our decisions.

What I’m getting at is that my scanning of ebooks, watching webinars, and listening to audio programs has poured a ton into my brain.  In most instances, they add loads of slightly related — and even unrelated — “facts” to my knowledge base, and this has suddenly proven very, very helpful as I’ve gotten into some new projects…

Take, for example, the release of my new hockey coaching manual.

Thank God, but gone are the days when I had to deal with printing companies and the storing of hundreds of books, not to mention the taking of orders and the subsequent (snail) mailing that followed.  Nope!  Today it’s possible to automate every step of that process right over the Internet.  Where did that knowledge come from?  Well, I must admit that I’ve had a few friends who helped (big-time) along the way, mainly with the mechanical side of things.  However, I knew all the involved theories from the so-called studying I’d done.

Better yet, I’ve been extremely psyched about the way lots of “facts” have gone into getting the word out about that manual.  (Hey, as awesome as it is, my book won’t help a soul unless they first discover it exists!)  Having so many friends between Twitter and Facebook surely helped there.  As so did what I learned about newsletters, building backlinks, search engine friendliness, and so much more.

Then, the grand prize…  I’d heard or read somewhere along the line that it’s helpful to have a website to compliment a given product.  Hmmmmmm…  With that, it struck me:  that I should build a site where owners of my manual can congregate and discuss the various challenges involved in hockey coaching.  And I’ve even more recently billed my manual as the one that keeps on growing and growing.  After all, a coach can begin with what I give him or her, but the ideas should grow exponentially as he or she gets to interact with like minded people.

Finally, with all the talk to this point about my like for enewsletters, webinars and podcasts, I received a message this morning that kinda explains part of what I’ve experienced this week (with a little break from my rink assignments)…

Noah St. John is awesome in my book, mainly because he has a totally (and helpful to me) perspective on the old “positive self-talk” thing.  Ya, Noah is famous for suggesting we ask ourselves lots of “Why” questions, rather than trying to convince our minds of something we probably know isn’t so.

Anyway, in this morning’s ezine, Noah is espousing our need to install “Goal-free Zones”, or time periods where our minds can be cleared for free, creative thinking.  In a way, he suggests that we need times when we don’t intentionally think at all.  He offered countless ways, although I know my favorites are walking and sometimes driving.

He continues, by describing how he flew through writing his own book by alternating 90-minute sessions at the keyboard with some form of a Goal-free Zone.  And he says, “Sometimes, my break would include going out for a walk and enjoying the sunshine – and suddenly, an idea would pop into my head.”  (I’ve related it often to others, that most of my best ideas came from walking a beach, resting in a hot tub, or driving the mountains.)

Noah continues, “… it often took the active process of getting away from my writing to allow my creative intuition to kick in and let itself be heard.”

So again, I’m not really glad to put the skates away this week, but I am psyched at all the things I’ve accomplished.  I’ve loved not being rushed so much, or sometimes even having the time to create my own Goal-free Zones.  I’m kinda proud for the way things are working out for my new hockey coaching manual, and I’m awfully thankful for the numerous and varied ideas I’d collected that helped so much with that.

Finally, as I typed that last paragraph, I was reminded of something my dad would always say…

“If you want to get something done quickly, go slowly.”

And, quite honestly, that advice has never, ever failed me.