Reply To: Game Intelligence / Decision Training

[hockeygod]

Last night we had both ice rinks humming… I worked on one side with another instructor (John was training the NTC U18 soccer players at another site) and only two of the local MHA coaches showed up (we were expecting 6-8 MHA coaches total); so we modified our plan to include more activity / games (we had 40+ kids). Once we finished this 75 min session (skating and puck control were the themes of the evening), we jumped over to the other rink for two more sessions. We had 5-6 year olds for the first two sessions; then 7-8's and 9-10's for the last two. We had more MHA coaches for the last ones, so the sessions went even better. We used three stations to play warm-up games at the start for 10-15 minutes; then we broke into 5 stations to work on skills / challenges in small areas. From the coaches I spoke with during and after, they really enjoyed the sessions and learned lots. Tonight and Thursday night, John and I will take the lead with our Game Intelligence Training / Creativity themes for the rest of our sessions.

On top of our private groups and school groups for hockey and soccer, we now have a request to train high school football too. This afternoon, I spoke with an NHL team and they are interested in meeting with me to discuss our Game Intelligence Training. John spoke with a CFL team a few weeks ago and they want to talk more about something next year; so we will see if these conversations lead anywhere… but it is heartening to hear people are open-minded toward our approach to training team sports.
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Dean back in 72 when the Russians came calling for the Paul Henderson series (why isn't he in the Hall of Fame; in the biggest month of hockey history he was the best player) everyone watched them train with the circuits and lots of flow. Our practices were terrible at that time. Everyone wanted to be like the Russians and we have been pumping out drills since. We forgot that half of their practice was games and we stopped doing them (it always used to be controlled scrimmage) and went to the drill and practice model that they threw out of education in the late 60"s. Sport has been trapped in this time warp.

You can teach Game Playing Roles (ind. offensive and ind defensive skills) using drills but because they are robotic and repetitive you don't gain game understanding and you better not be creative during a drills. Game playing roles 2 and 4 (team offense and team offense) require decision making that drills don't provide. and that is why Game Intelligence Training is the missing component to developing the "Complete Player."

That is why this site is here. So keep beating the drum and maybe if you get the right tune coaches and associations will start listening. It is getting better but we have a long way to go.

I have filmed about 12 games from our on and off ice practices this week. I will post one a day. Many havebeen uploaded already but I haven't done the description and diagram yet. (they take me about an hour each)

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."