“Inside Coaching Hockey” has been made available as a free PDF download at www.odha.com
Like any book, it’s next to impossible to gauge reader opinion. Those emails I’ve received have been entirely positive. If you’re a glass half-empty type of person, you could conclude that those who have not emailed me thought the work was a crock and figured it best to keep me in the dark. I’ll never know. Still, I forge on. The aim with Volume II is to delve more deeply into such topics as creativity, discipline, team control, specialty teams, game analysis, problem-solving, and more.
And as before, no drills. No recipes. No quick and dirty answers. It’s a bit – no, a lot – like parenting that way. When my son was born, I was writing a column for a Montreal weekly. As the first day dawned in my new overwhelming role as a father, I suddenly realized there were no manuals, guides, or rulebooks to guide me. I had to figure it out as I went along, as we all have for millenia. Rather disconcerting actually.
Such is coaching minor hockey. Figure it out. Why? Because you can.
1 – Being Creative
The stunned silence of a group of relatively new hockey coaches can be disarming. Do they think the speaker is nuts? Or delusional? Or has oodles of time on his hands? Does he obsessively file drills from 30 years back for future use? Is this a form of mental self-flagellation? Or, back to the first notion, is he nuts?
The challenge issued is this: Can you go the entire season without ever doing the same drill the same way twice? The answer is yes, you can. Anyone is able to do it. But are you willing to do it? And why?
So the silence in a room at a coaching clinic when the question is posed is often followed with its own pointed rebuttals in the form of questions. Isn’t there something to be said for repetition? Who has the time to do that? Kids love some drills; why change them? I love some drills: why change them? The parents love some drills; why change them? Who else advocates such a thing and why spend the time to do it? Won’t I dedicate more time to worrying about creating a new drill rather than what’s really important, the kids’ learning and enjoying themselves?
The points are valid. This from individuals who are used to routine, are comfortable with routine and may view teaching hockey as more or less a collection of drills that often bear repeating. Indeed, time plays a role. Of course, some drills will be loved. No question it’s easier to repeat drills than alter them.
First, the big picture.
Coaching and creativity coincide. Almost everything a coach does requires dealing with other people, be they players, parents, board members, etc. Most of the time, there aren’t even shades of grey. Just one wide swathe of it. The onus is on you, the coach, to come up with something that will help educate a youngster and provide the child with a valuable, fun experience.
Books, videos and the like help, a great deal in many instances. But as discussed in Volume I, it will still come down to adapting, molding and seeking solutions to provide those experiences. Even the worst minor hockey coaches know that autocratic approaches don’t cut it most times. The more bullheaded the coach, the less creative the solutions, the more trouble there is.
It’s probably not fair to pigeon-hole minor hockey coaches as being good or bad, smart or thick, creative or not. Each is a myriad of these characteristics rolled up into a giant galvanized rubber ball. If we were to apply the principles espoused by American researcher Howard Gardner from his work on multiple intelligences, we might conclude that minor hockey coaches all had criteria for each type of so-called “coaching” intelligence. Yet some categories would be higher. Creativity would be one.
My own best guess would be that we’d find a strong correlation between creativity and success, even though evidence would be anecdotal and subjective as to who has been successful. Then, too, what would constitute success in minor hockey? Championships? First place finishes? Most playoff appearances? Cleanest dressing rooms? Happiest players? Happiest parents?
Professional, junior or college hockey probably need to quantify coaching success. Jobs are at stake, money on the line. The opposite is true in minor hockey where goals are, or should be, altruistic. Woe be the hockey association whose performance objectives for youngsters are at the root of its definition of success.
Next: What creative coaches do
I like what I have read and will download. With your permission I will also distribute the link to my monthly email list- 40,000.
Very good observations and points.
Hal Tearse
Coach in Chief, Minnesota Hockey