Reply To: Good Habits at Practice? The Art of Coaching!

[hockeygod]

Regarding habits – I am a firm believer in the Spartan Way.

According to history, the Spartans practiced warfare realistically and with an incredible discipline. From being old enough to hold a weapon, they trained harder than they would ever experience in war. (They had to start young with the 10,000 hours principle as the infant mortality rates were much higher and overall life expectancies were shorter…) Their enemies feared facing them as the Spartan's had a well-deserved reputation as the most skilled, fiercest fighters in the world. They competed to the death! So when they went to war, relatively speaking, the conditions were much better – food, water, treatment, etc. – they looked forward to the 'break' from their high levels of training and the actual fighting seemed like an afterthought.

I am not trying to minimize the people who have served in the military; rather using an analogy here to make my point. Sport does have it's roots in ancient times as a means for one country to compete against another – as a slightly more peaceful way of settling disputes.

Here is how I see the Spartan Way when put into sport terms:

A. Develop the basic skills (skating, puck control (passing, receiving, dribbling), shooting, checking). Repetition is king!

B. Refine the skills – ensuring the head is UP – and while moving.

C. Increase the speed or pace at which the skills can be executed (no other pressure.)

D. Now add increasing amounts / forms of pressure – time, space, obstacles, conditions, etc. (You are working towards making the situation HARDER than what is experienced in a game!)

E. Now expect the skills can be carried out successfully AT SPEED, UNDER PRESSURE, ON DEMAND!

Your practices should be more mentally and physically taxing than games… so when it comes time to play, it seems like a vacation in comparison. Your players will thank you for it. Winning will take care of itself. Personal bests, exceptional individual and team performance are what the players should be striving for! After all, people can only control themselves… (performance) – not the scoreboard (outcome.)

And that is the Spartan Way!

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