Use the ice as a mirror

Hockey is a game of constant change in direction. Players must be proficient in turning to react quickly to changes in possession or the movements of an opponent. Yet, despite the importance of turning, many skaters are unable to turn properly even at low speeds. A correct power turn requires a skater to have a wide low base and the ability to use both the inside and outside edges simultaneously.

One convenient tool players and coaches can use to teach power turns is the ice itself. The ice acts like a mirror by providing a sketch of the movements of a player. Unlike the human eye, the ice doesn’t deceive. When performing a correct power turn, a skater should see two curved grooves in the ice, both properly spaced apart to indicate the skater was low and wide enough. The grooves should be clean and without distortion. A skater wants to maintain as much speed as possible – unnecessary digging into the ice slows the turn.

Imagine a player turning to the right. Most are able to properly hold the inside edge on their left skate (outside leg), but run into difficulty on the outside edge of their right skate (inside leg). Instead of holding the outside edge, they tend to chop or shave the ice with their inside leg. If we break down a turn, it’s the combination of a one legged inside edge hold with an outside edge hold – when turning right, for example, it is the left inside edge combined with the right outside edge. Players trying to turn sharp run into problems with holding the outside edge as opposed to the inside edge due to the relatively greater pressure exerted upon it during the turn.

Players and coaches can use the ice as a guide. Am I low enough? The answer will be determined by the distance between the two curves in the ice. Did I hold my outside edge? If you see a clear inside curve without distortions, you know you maintained your edge properly. The feedback is instantaneous and unbiased.

The post Levine: Executing Power Turns appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

At the youth level, especially during the mite and squirt years, the value of playing pond hockey cannot be underestimated. It is a great way for players to develop their skills in a creative and free environment without the pressure to perform.

One retrospective study examined professional hockey players and quantified the amount of deliberate practice, deliberate play, organized games, and other sports from ages six to twenty. Deliberate play is like pond hockey or playing roller hockey in the driveway. The total hours of play each year exceeded deliberate practice (i.e. organized practice with drills) until around age fifteen!

The advantages of pond hockey over organized practice are numerous. Players take ownership for the game on the pond. They often skate harder, have more fun, and develop a passion for the game on their own terms (not those of their coach or parent). The best part of all, most little hockey skaters will “train” longer with pond hockey. You can’t keep players motivated for five hours with drills, but they will stay on the pond playing hockey till the lights go off if the adults just let them.

Pond hockey isn’t used enough because it makes the coach or hockey trainer less valuable and you can’t sell it. And that is exactly why hockey associations should build in pond hockey training into their player development programs. Doing so is incredibly cheap because a lot of players can play on one sheet, they can vary in age and skill, and no coaches are really necessary. Imagine an association with 60 mite hockey players. For $100 per family, the association could buy around 30 hours of ice and split the rink into four or five different sections with some rink dividers. Each team could take a section of the ice and play. A few volunteers can help place the nets and pucks in each section, but nothing else is required! Of course, the volunteers are there in case someone gets hurt, but that’s it.

Instead of stickhandling around cones, players can practice against real opponents. Pond hockey is the time to try the toe-pull you’d never do in a game. Rather than doing partner passing or some inefficient flow drill, players can mimic the same skill in a competitive setting. Maybe we’d see some more creative passing since making a mistake isn’t the end of the world?

At least through the peewee level, pond hockey should be an indispensable part of association player development programs. Parents and coaches should demand that their players be provided with the best opportunity possible to develop into elite hockey players – in other words, they should be given plenty of pond hockey time.

Chart from: Source: Cote, Jean, Baker, Joseph and Bruce Abernethy. “From Play to Practice: A Developmental Framework for the Acquisition of Expertise in Team Sports.”

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Yes, you read that right. I want your kid to fail. Specifically, I want your kid to fail in hockey, and the earlier he or she can start failing, the better. I am so convinced of the positive value of failure that I believe you, as a parent, should actually hope your player fails this season. Why? Because it is the only way they can truly succeed in the game and beyond.

Hockey is perfect for learning how to deal with adversity and failure. The consequences are minimal compared to many circumstances our players will almost certainly face as adults. And relative to those truly trying situations, the pressure to find a solution is low. It’s the perfect venue to learn from mistakes, to develop a sense of responsibility, to learn how to communicate with adults and to practice conflict resolution.

Imagine a player who experiences adversity and struggle during a long losing season, but learns to battle every game despite the odds. Envision this same player, tired and exhausted from a long semester, battling through the last few hours of a college exam. And can’t you see it now, this same player bouncing back after a bad week at work when the sales numbers just didn’t meet company expectations?

But for some reason, our culture doesn’t embrace failure. Instead we shun it and attempt to do everything in our power to “protect” our children from it. Rather than playing that long losing season, we look to move homes, change associations or find a better “AAA” team. We will argue better than any elite defense lawyer, debating the meaning of every word the coach spoke, instead of letting our players learn to be accountable for their own actions.

I understand some parents might say, “But the coach treated my player unfairly! I’m not a crazy parent. I’ve asked around. The coach made a poor decision and unfairly punished my player.”

First of all, I don’t believe there is a coach who is completely fair. At some level, whether it is in regard to the attention he gives to each player, the allocation of ice time or enforcement of rules, the coach will make a decision that is unfair. Second, I actually think a player would be lucky to face this sort of dilemma. It mimics the real world.

If you’re a parent, I hope you at least consider my advice. There are, of course, times when a parent needs to protect their player. However, these instances are quite rare. In the majority of cases, the best solution is for the player to take control of the issue. If they are allowed and encouraged to do so, I’m confident they’ll learn a lot and be better hockey players, students, and people as a result.

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Praise the process, not the talent

Numerous studies of academic performance provide some interesting results for the hockey world. The implications of these studies could change the way you praise your players.

Carol Dweck, a Psychology Professor at Standford University, has extensively studied children’s academic performance. In multiple studies, she demonstrated that students who are praised for their intelligence often underperform and lack the ability to overcome adversity. However, students who are taught a “growth mind-set” – a mindset that emphasizes the process of learning and growing, despite the end result – are better positioned to do well and outperform their peers.

In hockey, the best kids in each association and at each level are often praised for their talent. Parents can be overheard describing a player as a “great athlete” and “incredibly gifted.” When we overemphasize talent, we implicitly tell young players that ability is a fixed trait. A player who scores a lot of goals and is told how great an athlete he is comes to believe that his success is because of who he is, not what he does. The problem with this mindset is that the inverse is also true – when faced with adversity and failure, this same player will naturally conclude the result is because of who he is.

Especially in youth hockey, players develop at such different rates that elite players today can — and often do — lose their competitive edge tomorrow. We want these players and those that are maturing less quickly to all understand that their performance is a result of mental and physical preparations. It is not the result of an inherent ability or inability to play the game.

Some schools, seeing the amazing long-term academic performance of students with a growth mind-set, have begun implementing programs that teach students how the brain works. Students learn that as they study, their brain becomes stronger and smarter. Students embrace challenges, despite the odds of failure, since they understand it is the process of learning that matters.

We should strive to communicate this same message to our players. Their muscles and athletic abilities can be improved through effort and dedication. Skating technique and speed are not fixed attributes. And challenges that ultimately result in failure are not negative – they are positive because they push players to develop quicker feet, better passing, and softer hands.

So next time your player comes off ice after a practice or game, don’t praise them for who they are, but rather what they’ve done:

“You worked very hard today”, “Your passing is much better”, “What a great shot, buddy, that practice in the garage is paying off!”, “Wow, your stick-handling has improved. If you keep up the hard work and keep doing your stick-handling circuits, just imagine how much more you’ll improve”

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As coaches, we have a constant urge to take control, correct mistakes, and improve our players. When someone is doing something wrong, we want to intervene and demonstrate the proper technique.

In many cases this is what we are supposed to do. But when it comes to teaching teamwork and leadership, players need the opportunity to step up and take control. This often requires coaches to step back and give more ownership to their players, a tough thing to do especially when they are making some mistakes.

Our job as hockey coaches can be made even tougher because of the hockey culture we operate in. Coaches are supposed to design the rules and enforce them. But what is the responsibility of the player?

When one of his teammates is being bullied by another teammate or even by a non-teammate at school, should there be a rule (or rather an expectation) that he will step up and intervene? When a teammate is taking cheap shots in practice or constantly trying to check his weakest teammate as hard as he can, do others tell him to knock it off?

And when a meaningless personality conflict erupts, are the players expected to find a resolution? In all of these cases, do we really only expect the coach to do something?

Players do have a responsibility to protect their teammates and resolve conflicts amongst themselves.  Just imagine a bunch of a young peewee’s teammates telling a bully at school to stop messing with their teammate or a high school captain who doesn’t allow some of his senior buddies to try to check the weakest skaters as hard as they can at captain’s practice.

Of course, there are instances when coaches should step in, resolve a problem, and discipline their players. But in many cases, players can and should be encouraged to take ownership of a team problem.

They will often need some guidance as to how to do so, and even with advice may fail. But that’s okay.  Practice and a culture that expects players to take responsibility for their team will ultimately lead create better teams and hockey.

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My general rule is that the most affordable training tends to be the toughest and the most advantages. Like any rule, there are exceptions and certain training like skating technique work can be very beneficial for youth hockey players. However, I often find players paying a lot of money to do more glamorized training, but spending little to no time doing the real tough stuff. Below is a checklist of simple, affordable, and incredibly effective training techniques. Are you using them?

• Stick-handle in the garage. It’s too easy. Get a good stick-handling ball, make creative obstacles out of anything you can find, and play away. Buy a PVC pipe, roughly 1.25 inches in diameter, cut it so it’s about 6 inches in length, place on the stick, and hold with your bottom hand. This forces you to use the top hand and learn the proper technique. Make a goal for the season, place a piece of paper in the garage, and mark off how many times you complete a 15 minute stick-handling circuit. It’s just a numbers game. Do it enough times and you will have some amazing hands.
• Shoot pucks. Get together with some buddies, order a pizza, and shoot for a few hours. I generally like to start by shooting for accuracy – aim for the corners. You can also have a buddy call out a number one through four, with each number representing a different area on the net. Make sure to get both back-hand and fore-hand shots in. You should also just work on getting your shot harder. Don’t worry about accuracy when practicing to improve shot speed. You can shoot into the middle of the net. But focus on proper form and proper synergy between the legs, core, and upper body.
• Run Sprints. Find a hill, track, or soccer field. Pace out anywhere between 20 and 60 meters. Get some buddies that are about as fast as you and race each other like it is the Olympic qualifying round every single time. Make sure to take plenty of rest. During each sprint you must hit top speed. You’ll never get faster going 99%.
• Calisthenics. Getting knocked off the puck too often? Well, wall-sits, front planks, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, and many other exercises can be done at home. Of course, they don’t shine like the barbells in the weight room, but they do provide great athletic benefits.
• Use Development Ice. Many rinks have development ice in the morning for very low cost. It’s practically free ice. Ask your coach what you need to work on and then go work on it. Go online and find great edgework drills. Perform figure eights on both the inside and outside edges. Do it going backward too. Shoot pucks and work on puck control.
• Have a pair of rollerblades? Use them when the weather allows. Put on your rollerblades, find a smooth and safe area, and work on your stride. No need to do all out sprints. It’s tough with rollerblades anyways to do quick explosive starts. Instead do 20-30 second skates with decent rest between each set. Focus on full stride recovery and full leg extension. Work on getting into the perfect hockey squat by exaggerating your knee bend.
• Do Agility Drills. Use a colored tape to create an agility ladder on the ground in the garage or driveway. Grab some cones and create movements you do on the ice at a soccer field or in your backyard. Sprint left, cut backward, stop, start, accelerate, decelerate, etc. Be creative, take plenty of rest, and make sure to do every drill at 100% of your physical potential.

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