Posts Tagged → coaching

Email to Families | New year, new schedule

Dear Families,

Happy New Year! The schedule in TeamSnap has been updated with the practices and game schedules for the next little while. There’s about 4 weeks left in the regular season. After that, we have playoffs consisting of 3 weeks of round-robin and 2 weeks of eliminations.

1. This weekend

There is a practice and a game this weekend (January 7 and 8). Looking forward to seeing everyone. We could use a goalie.

2. Goalie

If your child hasn’t played goalie yet or has played only once, the next four weeks is a great opportunity. We are looking for 2 players to be goalie more regularly as we head into the playoffs. We’d like them to be in net more consistently, so they have a chance to get comfortable and build up their skills.

3. Expectations for players

We are continuing our expectations from the fall.

  • Put on equipment independently.
  • Arrive 20 minutes before the start of a game
  • Take off equipment independently.

Thanks to everyone who has been able to do this. Let’s keep it up. Practices and games work really smoothly when this happens.

4. Lost and found

I have a white practice jersey and a neck guard. I will put these into the lost and found at Oriole, if they are not claimed.

5. Humble winners and gracious losers

We spend a lot of time talking about how to be a good sport when we lose a game, because it’s an important life lesson. Kids need to show themselves grace and appreciate the effort that they put in. They also can practice resilience and grit by coming back and trying again.

We don’t spend as much time talking about how to be a humble winner. Our team is in first place and some of our wins have been lop-sided. I don’t know how the rest of the season will turn out, but there’s a chance we will win another game. So here are a few things that humble w

  • Acknowledge the other team as worthy opponents. If they didn’t show up, there would be no game. Thank them for their play and, if appropriate, shake hands with them after the game. In house league, the team that you are on is a matter of chance. Any of our children could have been on the last place team.
  • Thank people that helped the team succeed. Hockey is a team sport. Many players, coaches, and parents had to pitch in for the win to happen. You can never go wrong by thanking someone.
  • Don’t trash talk teams or players. Our kids watch a lot of YouTube, which normalizes negative talk about losing or players with less skill. It would serve our children better to be able to empathize with their peers.

Thanks, everyone. Looking forward to seeing you this weekend.

Best,
Susan

Arena Notes | Working with Professional Coaches

I put up my hand to be a hockey coach, because there would be professional coaches helping out with practices. Most of what I know, I learned from the sidelines of watching house league and through osmosis as a Canadian.

If we didn’t have professional coaches, I wouldn’t have volunteered. So, I suspect that I’m part of the target market for this addition. They ran the practices for 2.5 months, from the start of the season until Christmas. I was hoping that I would learn how to do on-ice coaching from the professionals.

Since this is a bit of a single-perspective retrospective, I’ll use a “happy, confused, sad” format.

Happy

  • I liked having the professional coaches. I could count on them being there every Saturday.
  • There was a strong emphasis on skills, which was appropriate for the beginning of the year and lower skill players.
  • The drills were generally good and the coaches were competent. They demonstrated the drills well, gave good feedback, and was patient with the kids.
  • The kids improved. It was cool to watch the kids get better over multiple iterations within a single session.

Confused

  • I’m not sure what was the intention behind having professional coaches. My impression was it was supposed to be a train-the-trainer model, but that’s not what happened.
  • Professional coaching was probably expensive. How did we decide that his was a better way to spend money than paying for a subscription to online resources or a course? Some examples that would have been helpful are CoachThem (used by the Select team) or a course.
  • I’m not sure if this format led to low attendance by Select players. They may have felt it was too basic and the practices couldn’t complete with their other obligations. Or maybe the Select players wouldn’t have come anyways. It’s hard to know. But it probably would have been good to have drills that could be adapted to different skill levels.
  • At practice, we share the ice with another team. After a few weeks, the coaches on the other team ran some drills in parallel with the professional coaches. For example, during the skating portion, the volunteer coach did more basic drills in one lane. Eventually, they stopped using the professional coaches altogether. I’m not sure why this happened. Was it because they thought the professional coaches were not doing a good job? Or that they couldn’t ask for something different?

Sad

  • I would have liked to receive more coaching from them as a coach. I was hoping to have learned more about how to create a practice plan, how to read a drill, how to choose a drill, and what to look for to give feedback.
  • I would have liked to receive the practice plans in advance on “paper.” These would be a valuable resource for me now.
  • I would have liked more consistency in coaching. Some professional coaches involved the volunteer parents by setting up stations. Others did not use stations, which resulted in kids standing around waiting their turn too much.
  • I would have liked more continuity in the coaching. We had a lot of different coaches. Part of the reason is we have three different time slots at two arenas. Coaches were assigned to time and places, but the teams moved around. But also, we had substitute occasionally.
  • I would have liked more team tactics. We didn’t have many drills on how to work together as a team. To give a simple example, how to take a face off. Consequently, we didn’t start this until January, which was very late.

The bottom line is I’m glad we had the coaches. I wouldn’t be a coach without them. There was a lot of potential for positive impact. The potential was realized for the players, but less so for the coaches.

Email to Families | Week 14 Update

Dear Players and families,

This weekend we will be playing the last game of the regular season. Thanks to everyone who is arriving on time and getting dressed independently. I am impressed with the growth on the team.

1. Team tactics and strategy on Saturday

Please arrive 40 minutes early to practice on Saturday. We will be using the time to teach some team tactics and strategy. This material is best covered using a whiteboard, so we’ll do that in the dressing room before the start of practice.

2. Attendance

We were missing 1/3 of the team at the game last week. We didn’t have enough to make full lines, so the kids were pretty tired by the end. Please make an effort to attend the games. If you cannot make the game, update TeamSnap as soon as possible. We are allowed to borrow players, so that we don’t forfeit games.

4. March Break

There will be a practice and a game the second weekend of March Break (18 and 19). Please enter your availability now, so we will know if we need to borrow players to field a team.

5. Select Players

Players on the Select teams are expected to regularly attend practices and games. Selects have been diligent in attending games, we appreciate that, but there has been less diligence with the practices. Please do your best to come on Saturday, as we will be covering team tactics and strategy.

6. Photos

If you have not received a photo proof for your child, there will be one final makeup session on Saturday. It will take place 10am-1pm at Y. One more reason to come to practice early.

7. Goalie

We still need a second (and possibly third) volunteer for goalie. If no one steps forward, I will continue scheduling the goalies week by week. It would be better for the team, if a smaller number of players to honed their skills and became really comfortable in the position. It will involve playing 2-4 games in that role.

8. Off season

We still have a couple more months of hockey, so it seems too early to talk about the off seasons. But we will soon be choosing activities for the spring and summer. In choosing a physical activity for the off season, consider something other than hockey. Youth who play in multiple sports have fewer injuries and stay in recreational sports longer. Also, consider an activity that has symmetric movements, such as swimming, trampolining, fitness, because to offset the hockey stance.

Next week, the playoffs start, and it’s like pressing the reset button to starting a new season with a clean slate.

Thanks for your support. Looking forward to this weekend.

Best,
Coach Susan

Arena Notes | Hands on the steering wheel

I began leading the team this week as head coach. I created the practice plan, talked to the kids, and assigned tasks to the assistant coaches. It was hard work getting there and it was stressful, but we managed to pull off a close win.

When I put together the practice plan, I knew that there were two things I wanted to work on: passing the puck and playing positions. I went down the rabbit hole of Internet hockey drill repositories.

It takes a long time for me to read a drill. I’m like a kid who is learning to read prose— I use my finger and sound out the words, and I still get things wrong.

I picked out a bunch of passing drills. I went to shinny twice with my son and I practiced putting out cones and giving instructions. Not surprisingly, I’m terrible at it. By Thursday, I chose a set of six to email to Coach Matthew and Coach Mahmood.

Coach Matthew offered to lead off with a skating drill. I accepted gladly.

We only got through four of the drills that I had planned. And the kids were generally terrible at them. There was a lot of skating, so they got tired. There was a lot of passing, but not much shooting. I think the kids didn’t have a lot of fun. The saving grace was the game of British Poke Check at the end.

Before the game, I prepared the lines (assigning players to positions), something that Coach Matthew normally does. We compared notes and I made a couple of tweaks, but we weren’t far apart.

Before the game, I led the team meeting, something I had never done before. I announced the lines. I reminded them to pass the puck and to be ready to receive the puck. The best passer would receive an entire bag of Kit Kat Minis.

I asked Coach Mahmood to run the defence, which is something I would normally do. I wanted to listen in on how Coach Matthew ran the offence, and I wanted to watch the game as a whole. I stood on the bench to get a better view of the ice. I only fell off once and as far as I know no one noticed.

Our opponents scored their first goal 30 seconds into the game. By about 12 minutes into the game, we were behind by 5 goals. We were letting goals in and players were generally not passing. Coach Matthew kept saying, “Lots of game left to play.”

About 5 minutes into the second period, the team started coming together. Defence got tighter. Passing started to happen. We gradually started to close the gap. We scored the winning goal with less than a minute left to play. Our goalie made a crucial stop to end the game.

Then, it was time to hand out the Kit Kat. I told the kids that I was proud of their grit. I called out two runner-ups, before giving the candy to the winner. All three players are normally quiet and unassuming. Positive reinforcement for behaviour you want to see and starve behaviour that you don’t want to see.

I am proud of myself. Usually, the team wins and I feel like I didn’t have anything to do with it. But this was different. I identified the direction, I chose the drills, and I motivated the kids.

I feel like I’m driving the bus now. I feel like I deserve to be called Coach Susan. I’m not taking a back seat to the ACs, but still working collaboratively. And I think this is what the ACs want too. They didn’t want to be Head Coach, for their own reasons. My relationship with them is collegial, but not close, and I appreciate that they’ve been holding space for me to step up.

Arena Notes | What are we working on, coach?

On Saturday, we were using a practice plan that Coach Matthew used with his Select team. There was a mix of technical skills, team tactics, and fun drills. After we finished the first drill, Coach Matthew sauntered up to me and made a beautiful, effortless hockey stop, and said, “What are we working on, Coach?”

It was a light bulb moment for me. I’m the head coach. As if it wasn’t clear enough already, Coach Matthew wants me to be head coach. He said as much at the beginning of the year, that he couldn’t be head coach. He has also been taciturn and not opinionated about what the team was learning from professional coaches. I had hoped to take care of the off-ice details and leave the on-ice to Coach Matthew and Coach Mahmood. In retrospect, this division is not that clean. What happens in the dressing room is connected with what happens on the ice. And nobody had been driving. I was hoping one of them would step up, and they thought I would take the job.

So, I picked the next drill and paid close attention to how he gave instructions. I will need to pick up a whistle and whiteboard with an arena printed on it. He explained the drill using the whiteboard and then demonstrated on the ice. I listened to the words that he used and the scribbles on the whiteboard.

We lost our game on Sunday. In the dressing room, Coach Matthew pointed out that we were an easy team to beat right now, because we’re not passing the puck. I had been waiting a long time for him to say something like this, so I was looking forward to the next practice.

I’m taking the steering wheel now. I now have a direction, buy in, and some tools. Let’s go.

Email to Families | Week 8 Update

Dear Families,

We have a few pieces of news and reminders to share.

1. Rebalancing

After the first few weeks in the season, it is sometimes necessary to re-balance teams. The league does this to keep games fun for kids by making sure that no team is winning or losing all the time.

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to T and L. They will be with us for the rest of the season. We’d like to thank S and T for being great team mates on and off the ice. We are sad to see them go and wish them well on their new teams.

2. Covering zones and playing positions

Here are a few videos on playing positions in the defensive zone that have been selected by Coach Matt. All players should watch these videos. This might be new information for some and a reminder for others. In either case, it gives our team a common foundation that we can build on.

Overall defensive zone coverage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9r9AJx2jKo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzh7D768sVA

Coverage for each position
Defence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aXsrNrT5RI
Wing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikqt_iY4nSA
Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1BN-Om5i6Q

3. Expectations for players

To ensure that practices and games run smoothly, we have some basic expectations for players.

* Put on equipment independently.
* Arrive 20 minutes before the start of a game
* Take off equipment independently.

Many thanks to the players and families who are already meeting these expectations. If your child is not meeting these expectations, they may need some support from you to get there.

The changing rooms are small, so we’d like parents to wait outside. With the exception of tying skates and putting on goalie equipment, players at this age are capable of dressing on their own. If a player needs help with skate tying, they can ask for help or they can come out of the dressing room to ask a parent.

We need players to arrive early for games, so that we can have a team meeting. At that time, we review the lines and points of performance for the game. The coaches need to prepare a roster on paper for the game officials. It’s stressful for players and coaches when some kids don’t show up until the last minute. Also, this is why we ask that you keep your availability up to date on TeamSnap. If a player arrives after the game sheet has been submitted, they may not be able to play in the game.

Ideally, the players go on the ice as soon as the zamboni leaves the ice, so they can have a good warm up.

4. Positive reinforcement

I’d like to wrap up with comments on things that have been going well.

We had a great practice last week. We worked on skills and every player who was there improved significantly. I was delighted because one of my goals is for players to learn and grow.

So far this season, we’ve had 6 different players in net, including one person who had never been a goalie before. I’m really proud of our kids for stepping outside their comfort zone and trying something new. These are the kinds of lessons that we can take from the ice into life.

As parents, it’s important for us to provide positive reinforcement to the kids. About 70% of kids drop out of sports by high school, because it stops being fun. Many kids find the ride home particularly miserable, because parents like to provide “constructive criticism.” The most important things we can say to them are “I’m proud of you when you play hockey” and “I like watching you play.” I know how challenging it is to make this change, because I did it. But the results have been worth it.

Thanks to you, the families. We wouldn’t have a team without you. If you have any questions or concerns, we are here to help.

Best,

Susan

Arena Notes | What to do about huddle puck?

When young children first start playing organized soccer, they play “huddle ball.” The energetic players all start following the ball around the field. Although, there are positions, such as forward, half back, and full back, nobody is playing them. This phenomenon can be attributed to lack of knowledge, lack of maturity, and simple enthusiasm. Kids start playing positions as they grow older and taught a better way. They become more skilled at passing the ball, so chasing is less effective. Also, a full-size soccer pitch is large, so it’s not feasible for player to follow the ball.

The same evolution happens in hockey. Kids start out playing huddle puck. They need knowledge, skill, and trust to play positions. There are a few factors working against us in house league.

  • There’s a lot of variation in skill level. Some kids can’t skate fast enough to keep up with the action. Some kids are highly skilled and are capable of carrying the play themselves.
  • The playing surface is smaller and skating is easier than running, so kids receive less negative reinforcement for chasing the puck constantly.
  • There’s a lack of trust in playing positions. They don’t trust the system. The kids don’t trust each other to be in the right place to take advantage of the positions.

Our team is playing huddle puck, and winning games. I’m worried about how long this will last. We are going to start losing to teams that play positions.

The professional coaches are emphasizing individual skills, so they’re not covering this area. I asked Coach Matthew about this and he said that it takes a long time for kids to learn this. He kindly found some videos for me and the kids to watch.

Whether or not we are successful, we need to start setting the expectation that kids play the position that they are assigned.

I don’t know how to teach this skill. I don’t have the experience playing or teaching. Since, I don’t have anything better to offer, I’m going to leave things be. It’s especially hard to mess with a winning record.

Arena Notes | Week 6

I expected to be outside my comfort zone and I got that in spades, probably more than I expected. For the first couple of weeks of the season, I had trouble falling asleep after games because I re-hash all the things I got wrong. They weren’t big things, but it was uncomfortable not getting things right. It’s better now and I don’t have any trouble sleeping.

The experience has been simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar.

In my work life, I’m a woman POC in technology and I lead teams. I’ve always had to deal with unconscious bias and being the “only” in the room. That experience has served me well. I’m the only woman coach in our division. I haven’t met any other women coaches.

Being a coach who doesn’t play hockey is a lot like being a mid-level manager who doesn’t have the skill to be an individual contributor. It’s not so different from being a mid-level manager. I have to over-communicate with my peers to build relationships and present a vision for the team. My assistant coaches didn’t know what to make of me at first. They didn’t have any template for someone like me, so they didn’t know which way to jump. I hope they’re used to me now. I ask a lot of questions. I try get their input, though they don’t have a lot to say.

What has been unfamiliar are the practices and the kids.

During the on-ice practices, some of the coaches have been lovely and gave me things to do. Other times, I wander around aimlessly. I feel like I’m most helpful in trying to get things to go smoothly. I collect up pucks. I visit different drill stations and provide small bits of encouragement.

The kids are like space aliens to me. Although, one of them is my son, I feel like I don’t have a good mental model for their hearts and heads. When I talk to them on the ice, they give me strange looks. It’s like they’re here for the hockey, not chit chat. Most kids follow my instructions, because I’m an adult and they’ve been programmed to do that. A few of the select players don’t really respect me. They are slow to follow instructions and don’t make eye contact with me when I’m talking to them. I still need to win them over.

Whatever the struggles on my part, the team has a record of 4-1-1. The team will continue to be happy for as long as we’re winning. I don’t know how viable this is as a long term strategy, but that’s where we are in week 6.

Email to Families | Week 5 Update

Hello Families,

We are heading into our fifth weekend of the hockey season. It’s been good to see hockey legs start to come back and new skills being polished. We have a couple of requests for the parents, so our game nights run more smoothly.

1. Keep TeamSnap up to date with your child’s availability. We use this information when assigning kids to positions for a game. If something comes up at the last minute, you can send a message through TeamSnap.

2. Be dressed and ready to go 15 minutes before a game. We need the time before the game to familiarize the kids with their lines and talk about how they are going to play their positions. As well, the team will be able to make the most of the warm up time on ice before the game starts.

3. Finally, we have a general request, not just for game nights. We’d like to work towards players getting dressed and undressed independently, with the exception of tying their skates. We’ve seen the players being kind and helping each other in the dressing room, so this is an opportunity for learning and team building.

Thank you so much for your support, as always. We wouldn’t have much of a team without the families behind the players. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Looking forward to seeing you this weekend.

Best,

Susan

Email to Families | Week 2 Update

Hello Families,

We had a successful first week of hockey. We got our legs moving at practice and had a full turnout at the game.

1. The schedule of games is available. TeamSnap invitations have not yet gone out. For your convenience, here are the times this weekend.

  • Practice: Saturday…
  • Game: Sunday…

2. I could use 1-2 volunteers to help out with practice on Saturday. The job is most pointing kids in the right direction, moving pucks around, and providing encouragement.

3. A few kids have jerseys that are too big for them. I’m looking in to getting smaller jerseys, but can’t promise that I’ll be successful. If your child’s jersey is the wrong size, can you reply to this email?

  • What size and number is the jersey that you have now?
  • What size would you like?
  • Do you have a jersey from another year that you can use? If so, what’s the number?

I don’t know what’s possible, so I’d like to start by figuring out the mismatches. Thanks!

Looking forward to seeing you this weekend.

Susan

Original post 2022/10/19