Mike Serba Memorial Golf Tournament

Can Hockey Skills Be Taught?

First – Why Do It?

If you have read the beginnings of my blogs you’ll know that when I started this, I said that I felt being involved in the playing of organized hockey can provide a great many life experiences and learning lessons. If you’re a normal parent that wants the best for your children you will want to do every thing you can to properly prepare them for the inevitable challenges they will face as they go through life. Now hockey isn’t the only pursuit that will provide  a valuable education; I just happen to think it’s a very good one.

Now to get the most out of any learning experience, it seems to me that there has to be a good level of dedication and applied effort in order to get a good result.

If you decide to continue beyond the basic entry level of hockey with your child then you will find that this involvement will require a considerable amount of time, money, and both physical & emotional energy. Since this will be pretty much a given, you might as well proceed with a good level of dedication toward the achievement of excellence.

Jack Of All Trades And A Master Of None

There are never any guaranteed outcomes in life; however I’m certain that if you just dabble in everything you do,  there are valuable lessons that will never be learned.

There’s a well know phrase; “Jack of all trades and a master of none”.

Another way of saying this is: “At everything you do, you pretty much display considerable incompetence”.

There is value in the process of striving to achieve your best and striving for excellence. Everyone that has achieved excellence in any endeavor has probably shared a similar type of process and experience. It takes, effort, time, passion and dedication. It will involve physical pain and mental anguish. There will be frustration when there is a lack of success and failure and yet there will be elation with progress and accomplishment. Most mere mortals will never achieve greatness, however the process involved in this striving is one of the most important lessons in life.

Now it doesn’t have to be hockey to learn this lesson. There are a great many pursuits that will provide this same experience.

With all of the time, money and energy required; If you commit with your family to proceeding to a higher level of hockey, then you might as well put in the dedication and effort towards learning the achievement of excellence. Reality is that most players will not achieve a career in hockey, but that isn’t the issue. The issue is the taking of this learning experience with you for the rest of your life.

Can Hockey Skills Be Taught?

Well of course they can be taught; just like any other skill or pursuit which involves physical dexterity.

Jack Of All Trades And A Master Of None?

There’s a lot more to come. In Part 2 I’ll give you one big piece of advice and an important warning.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.

Systemic Problems With Minor Hockey Part 2

If The Best Keep Leaving The System, Then What Are You Left With?

Referees

I have to say first; I want to be clear that I’m not talking about refereeing at the most primary level of hockey. Those kids that are 4 & 5 years old at the house league level. The young people refereeing these games are almost always young teenage hockey players from the organization that get some very basic training and get paid a few measly dollars to earn some extra spending money. The 4 & 5-year-old players are just struggling to keep the shiny sharp part of their skates in contact with the ice and the refereeing consists of just shuffling up and down the ice punctuated with the odd face-off. These young referees are at the same stage in the proficiency as the young house league players and yet I’ve seen angry parents tee-off in anger at these poor kids. Please; for heaven’s sake, lighten up and leave these young kids alone.

Now To The Real Paid Referees

When I started coaching years ago no-one was being paid (other than the “de facto” league owners). The only exception were the referees.

What bothered me at that time was that these guys were the only true professionals and many of them were making a lot of extra money. These guys could work 4 or 5 games a night and the pay for referees & linesmen was not at all bad and most of it was cash money that was probably not declared for tax purposes. What further bothered me was that I thought the state of proficiency in refereeing was damn poor. It was extremely frustrating to be a part of a game in which a number of bad calls had an impact on the outcome of the game.

There was a group of supervising officials from the GTHL that would attend games and supposedly review the performance of the on-ice officials, but I found out this was a considerable joke. It was pretty much a “good old boys” club and real criticism and corrective action was probably rare. I’ve seen the supervising officials visit the referees room between periods of a game. Most of the time they just joked; however, I’ve actually witnessed a supervising official give direction on how to call a game in between periods of a play-off game. It’s my opinion that this is absolutely wrong and unconscionable.

Abuse Of Officials

Back in the day and even now, the on-ice officials are subject to a lot of abuse from the fans and coaches. I was pretty good at it in my days. I had a voice that carried and knew just what to say that I could get away with, and wasn’t at all afraid to voice my opinion so that everyone could hear.

There Were Actually A Few Good Ones

While I had a dim view of the competency of many of the on-ice officials, there were a few good ones. As I reflect now it seems to me that becoming a top official is probably as difficult as becoming a top coach or a star hockey player. I don’t know exactly how the 2 or 3 good refs got as good as they were; I just know that these 2 or 3 stuck out from the rest. Firstly they had a very high level of competency in the call of the game but more than that they had way of calming down tense situations. They would handle a player or coach that was upset with a call by listening and explaining. Too many of the other refs would just get pissed and hand out more penalties as a show of power and just make situations worse. As a result the 2 or 3 good refs garnered a lot of respect.

And Then One Day

One day I picked up the major newspaper for my City of Toronto. Right away I saw an article about a recent incident involving a GTHl referee that had occurred a couple of days previously. The referee had assessed a major penalty in the last 10 minutes of a regular season game. A major penalty in the last 10 minutes of a game carried an automatic ejection from that game and a suspension for the following game.

At the end of the game the ejected player and his father parent threatened the referee that they would find out where he lived and get even.

The referee in the game was one of those recognized as being on of the best in the league. I don’t remember his first name but his last name was Marra. After this threat Marra made the decision to quit refereeing.

If The Best Keep Leaving The System, Then What Are You Left With?

There’s a lot more to come. Next I’ll deal with: can hockey skills be taught?

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.

Are All Coaches Liars?

This May Seem A Bit Harsh – But ……

You probably won’t be aware of it at first, but you’ll find out soon enough if you child shows noticeably above average skills and production.

Now I know that all coaches are not liars; however I know for certain from experience that more than just a few are out-and-out liars and a considerable number severely embellish one particular part of the truth.

There Are The Usual Promises

There are the usual promises that one hears from a coach as you move up to the higher levels of hockey and if your child is recognized as a really solid producer . It usually goes something like this; “I really think your son/daughter is a great hockey player and he/she would great wearing our jersey and I’d love to have him/her on my team” …. and then it goes on from there to; “they’ll be a first line player for sure”, lot’s of ice time including power play and penalty kill”, absolutely a go-to player” and “captain or alternate captain for sure”.

Why Do They Do It?

 Because The Primary Goal Is To Recruit Well

The first priority becomes recruiting.

And so, they do it because they want to impress everyone. Now that’s not an unusual human trait. Everyone wants to impress but many hockey coaches feel the need to impress and be highly regarded as an important aid to recruiting the best players.

Unfortunately actual “coaching” then becomes secondary. As I’ve written before, coaches feel the need that they absolutely have to win. And so, they quickly come to the conclusion if they can recruit all of the best talent; then they are assured of winning. (Actually, I have good evidence to the contrary. In a future blog I’ll write about a peewee triple A “dream team” that was put together in the early nineties that turned out to be a disaster).

The big area that coaches seem embellish the most is their hockey accomplishments. I’ve found this is where the majority of the majority out-and-out lies are made. I’ve caught coaches “BS-ing” such things as being drafted by an NHL team and playing some games with an NHL team. The reality is that there are some really good sources for verifying this information.

So Why Do They Do It?  –  Because It Works!

Why do they do it?  …. because this is what impresses parents the most. Even with parents that I’ve given advise to about this consistently come back to me with the same comments when talking about a coach or for that matter a guy that’s running a hockey school. They invariably make comments like “this guy was drafted by such-and-such NHL team”, “this guy played in Europe” and so on. This is simply what impresses parents the most. It is a big help in recruitment and good recruiting makes a coach’s life so much more easy.

The idea that this alone is the conclusive determination of a person’s ability to be a great coach is simply not true. Here are some great NHL coaches with little or no high level careers as hockey players; Ken Hitchcock, Jon Cooper, Bob Hartely, Pat Burns, and Scotty Bowman. There are a lot more skill sets that are necessary in order to be a good coach.

Unfortunately, there is now a lack of attention to coaching as the emphasis is so much on recruiting.

Are All Coaches Liars?

There’s a lot more to come.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.

A Guide For Parents

A Guide For Coaches

Too many think if you can skate a bit, draw some drills on a board and blow a whistle, you’re qualified to be a coach. This is so far from reality that it’s actually quite frightening.

This is a huge subject but I’m going to begin with some important essentials for coaches in minor hockey; however at this time, this is directed at parents to act as a guide to help parents to assess a coach. Much of this is also helpful in assessing the teaching quality of a hockey school.

If I were writing strictly as a guide for coaches, I would cover the important elements in a particular order. Since this is meant more as a guide for parents; the order is chosen with that in mind. Parents should look for coaches that demonstrate the following capabilities.

Patience

We’ve all pretty much forgotten what it’s like to be a child. Most daily communications are with other adults in the course work however young children don’t have the level of experience, communication skills and attention span of an adult.

I’m reminded of an interview with NHL coach Terry Crisp who won a Stanley Cup with Calgary Flames. In the interview Crisp talked about a great coach who mentored him in his early coaching career. I can’t recall who it was, but I believe it was Fred Shero (a 2 time Stanley Cup winner) when Crisp was an assistant with Philadelphia. Crisp said that one of the most important things he was told was: “be prepared to explain something to them a thousand times. And when they screw it up the thousandth time; be prepared to explain it to them the thousand and first time.” And these Stanley Cup winning coaches are talking about adult NHL hockey players, not bubble-brained little kids.

Young children have the attention span of a gnat and it’s very easy for a coach to become impatient and frustrated when they just don’t get it even though it’s been repeated several times. At the very young ages it not only requires great patience; it also requires: (a) some knowledge of how to have a command of discipline & orderliness and (b) some knowledge of how to teach. (or how people learn)

Discipline & Orderliness

Without some knowledge on how to maintain discipline & orderliness, you will end up with chaos during a  team practice. A lot of coaches just get frustrated with the kids running around and out of control and resort to yelling at them. First, I don’t think today’s parents will tolerate this and secondly; it just doesn’t work. It may work for the first few times however after a while the kids will just tune it out. There are proven techniques that work to maintain order, but I’ll deal with them later in a blog directed at coaches.

Here are some signs the coach has a few things figured out: they will draw out a drill on the hockey board and have all of the players on one knee while the drill is being shown, they will always have a pylon at the staring point of a drill and they will not allow random shooting of pucks against the boards during drills.

How To Teach or Understanding How People Learn

When I started coaching it was mandatory to become certified by taking some coaching courses. Quite honestly, at the time, I didn’t think they were going to provide me with much that I didn’t already know. I ultimately found (not so much at these coaching courses) how little I knew about the full breadth and depth of knowledge needed to be a really good coach.

There was one very important thing that I did learn in one of my early coaching courses. The course instructors did a great demonstration on the learning process. They sent 3  aspiring coaches out of the room and then explained a little teaching/leaning exercise to the rest of the room. This exercise involved a fairly long series of fairly unusual body movement exercises the aspiring coaches would be asked to perform when they re-entered. When the first came in, the instructor simply explained the movements and then asked the person to perform those movements. This first performance broke down very quickly. With the second guinea pig, the movements were explained and then he  allowed he allowed read the written description. The third guinea pig had the instructions explained, then he read them and finally one of the instructors demonstrated the the movements while explaining them. With each successive guinea pig the level of performance improved.

Watch to see if your coaching staff show, explain, and demonstrate.

Understanding How People Learn

Different people respond to instruction and learn in different ways. At the risk of offending; in my experience, I found that the young girls in the hockey school had a different nature of motivation and responded to a different sort of instruction. The girls wanted more detail whereas the boys responded more visually and instinctively. I found it interesting that the young girls looked as if they were progressing at a slower pace, however they were actually integrating the details of technique much better. From this experience it dawned on me that people respond and learn in different manners. If you’re not getting your point across; change your approach.

People think in pictures. When we describe something to someone pictures are flashing through their minds at a lightning pace bringing meaning to whatever is being described. If you’re not getting results; change the pictures.

There’s a lot more to come.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.

Coaches Don’t Grow On Trees ….. Or Do They?

To Help You Better Understand The Beast You’re Dealing With

First let me just say that for the most part; God bless the people who volunteer their time and get into coaching. Without them there would be no teams and no hockey leagues. However, as I wrote before, I’m not a huge fan of the level of the proficiency of coaching at the minor hockey level.  Most often, the coaching is being performed by people just stating to coach and who are pretty much dimly aware of all the knowledge, skill sets and experience required.  Too many people think that if you can skate a bit, draw out some drills on a board and blow a whistle; then you’re qualified to coach.  For now, let’s just say that I find this to be very unfortunate because this is when the young kids have an extraordinary capacity to learn.

Other than guidance from parents, the most important factor that will affect the development and success of a hockey player is the coach. In the GTHL, parents and kids tend to get hung up on the organization or the jersey when it’s the coach that’s the most important factor.  In the OMA, team options and therefore coaching choices are limited and the OMA never makes your life easy to make a team and therefore a coaching change. In the GTHL, parents have it far better. At the triple A level there are 12 teams to choose from and many more choices at the double and single A levels. My advise is to do lot of due diligence to find the best coach possible.

Where Do Minor Hockey Coaches Come From?

In my experience there are 3 basic ways people get into coaching.

At the earliest house league levels it’s usually just some dad whose son is starting in hockey, who played a bit of hockey in his youth and who has to drive to the arena anyway.

At the next level, the coaching entering the system usually comes from a parent that watches his son’s or daughter’s game and says to himself; “I can do a better job that idiot behind the bench”. From there they fall into 2 general categories; Those that take the job seriously, want to do a good job, quickly find out it’s more difficult than they thought, and then educate themselves so they can do a good job ….. and then there’s the  egomaniac (you can generally spot this one because that’s usually the guy that commands the audience of parents in the lobby and regales them with  examples of his brilliance and knowledge).

Paid Minor Hockey Coaches

A fairly recent development is the paid coach. As I wrote in one of my previous blogs, this all started sometime in the early 2000’s when three very wealthy gentlemen by the names of; Harvey Shapiro, Peter Friedman and Stuart Hyman, (who had children that were just starting out in hockey in the GTHL)  purchased the triple A North York Junior Canadiens organization. They were the ones that started to bring in paid professional coaches to the local minor hockey scene.

This coincided with a time when there was a proliferation of hockey schools opening up. Most of these hockey schools were started by players who didn’t quite make it to the “big time” and therefore didn’t make the big bucks. Having spent many years dedicated to hockey and with many having sacrificed their education in pursuit of a hockey career; starting a hockey school seemed natural. The problem is that running a successful hockey school is damn tough so getting a paid GTHL coaching gig was perfect for them. They were able to make extra money with the added benefit for them that here’s a source of students for their hockey school; maybe with a little added coercion of extra ice time for those that attend regularly at their school.

Coaches Don’t Grow On Trees ….. Or Do They?

In the next blog I’ll provide an outline of all of the skill sets and knowledge needed to be a good coach; but really it’ll be a great guide for parents to help them assess a coach.

There’s a lot more to come.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.