CHAPTER
12
Back in the early 1950s, a great Russian coach by the name of Anatoli Tarasov took charge of Russia’s national ice hockey team. Before he retired in 1972, he had four Olympic gold medals and 12 World Championships. Experts all over the world praised him the greatest coach the game had ever known.
Canadian and American hockey people often claimed that the key to Russian hockey success was the length of their season and the quantity of their training time. Tarasov responded that it was rather the “tempo and the intensity” of each practice. His theory was “train hard and briskly or don’t train at all.” U.S. Olympic Coach Herb Brooks used the same technique to coach the “Miracle on Ice” hockey team of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Often in practice, the coach is a “nice guy” – casual, joking, and easy-going. Come game time, however, the coach sounds like he is in an outhouse that was tipped on its door. You need to find ways to get the kids “up” for practices and, sometimes, to settle them down for games.
When I started coaching, I expected to have leisurely practices knowing that the kids would “step it up” for games. I was wrong! Practices need to be intense. I’m talking here about the coach and the drills. At game time, you (the coach) need to be less intense. You should still remain energetic, but you should be less vocal than you are in practice. The coach needs to be, in word and action, at a high pitch in practice drills. Then, come game time, he should tone down his voice and actions. The kids know that a game is going on and that it means more than practices. Even young kid understand that. But practice is a question of habit.
The team will start to form habits at practices. It is a fact of nature that humans are largely creatures of habit. Help your players form good basic practice habits and do them intensely.
Kids have a short attention span, so don’t have long practices. One hour of high-tempo practice is worth three hours of the other kind. Practices, including scrimmages, should be no longer than 90 minutes.
Use available practice time wisely. Write down a plan before each practice or, better yet, make one for the entire practice season. You probably won’t stick with it religiously, but it will give you guidance as time progresses.
Do your practice planning on paper by closing your eyes and visualizing each drill. Imagine where the kids, the coaches, and you will be.
Think about where the lines may form and devise a way to keep the lines short. Or plan for another drill to be inserted where the line will be. For example, if you are working on a “give and go” routine with a line for the “give” and another for the return pass, it makes for two potentially long lines. Have an assistant coach form an identical drill. The lines will be half as long and the kids will get twice as much practice.
Make them work fast – as near to game conditions as possible. Insert a coach or one of the kids into the drill as a defender. Have enough balls available to assure an intense pace.
Don’t stop practicing when the game schedule starts. There is a reason for that old adage “practice makes perfect.” Intensity (or tempo and concentration) at your practices will, to a great extent, determine your intensity in games. It’s that “extra something” you hear coaches talk about. It is often responsible for the “momentum” you hear announcers talk about.
Ask for a kid to volunteer to show the others how a drill is done. Don’t always pick the same kid. Spread the glory around. When a kid is picked to demonstrate, he or she rightly thinks, “The coach thinks I’m good.” That is exactly how you want every kid on the team to feel.
Watch for places in your practice where the kids are standing around. Work out a drill for those times. Have an assistant coach run that drill. Never assume that the kids know the basics. High standards, high expectations, high humor, and high practice intensity will produce the best results.
End your practice with a scrimmage. Have an assistant coach be the official. Follow the same rules in scrimmages that the league will follow during games. Explain what violation occurred after every whistle. Stop scrimmages for quick coaching pointers. Have the kids stop and freeze when the “official,” or you, blows the whistle. This will allow you to give more meaningful tips. Do it quickly and move on.
Catch the kids doing something right and let them know about it – right then. Every time you catch the kids doing something right and praising it, you will reinforce that behavior.
During practices and scrimmages, highlight any good progress for every kid. Do not fabricate praise, but do recognize when a kid does something a little better than before. “Atta boy/ girl!” “Way to go, Bill!” “Yes, Bob, well done!” “That’s great, Jenna!” This rule also applies to games.
If you don’t have enough kids to form two teams for scrimmages, you, the assistants, siblings, and parents can join in, but they must be asked to play at the kids’ skill level.
Finish the practice and scrimmage with a short talk. Keep it very short or you will lose their attention. Tell the kids what they need to work on. Ask them to close their eyes and imagine themselves doing a particular move or play. This point cannot be overemphasized.
Pick a universal problem or drill that needs improvement. Ask the kids to close their eyes and picture a particular circumstance with you. Describe it. For example, “OK, guys, you are passing the puck to a teammate. You’ve picked someone in the open. Just as quickly as you pass, you are off toward the goal. Now picture yourself as the guy who gets the pass. See yourself returning the pass to the teammate who is breaking toward the goal.” Do it again. Ask them to work on that move or play at home in the basement, yard and in their minds – visualization does help.
During games, there isn’t much you can do except keep your cool and continue teaching. Your teaching should be generally directed at those on the bench or just coming to the bench. You should still display high intensity with your words and actions.
You can yell “good stuff” to the kids in the game, but give minimal instruction. The kids in the game may be too occupied to hear, let alone respond. If you have complicated instructions, a time-out is in order.
Try to have fun, and try to keep the kids’ intensity up without losing your cool or letting them lose theirs. If a kid does “lose it,” it is best to get them out of the game for a little while.
If you feel you are loosing it or the team is having a really bad day, recall this simple prayer:
After the game, have a quick wrap up meeting. Have the treat coordinator hold the treats until you’re finished summarizing the highlights and the areas for improvement. If you lost, praise the other team: “Today they were the better team, but next time you can be the better team.”