Reply To: The Art and Science of Coaching

[DaveM]

Good stuff guys – Tom, after we pick captains their first job will be to come up with a covenant as a group. Eric, thanks for sharing your info. We have been doing lots of 1 v 1 work and introduced the DZ coverage, but it's time to add layers and this looks like a great way to do it. Dean – we are a young team, especially on defense, so making mistakes and learning from them will have to be our mantra this year.

In general, I like to do some work with F and D separate from each other, but not all. Things like DZ puck retrieval after a dump-in, pulling the puck off the boards with deception and speed, hinging and support to transition all over the ice are done with just the D, while forwards work on shooting in-stride, cycling etc at the other end. I too like to start team play with DZC, face-offs & transitions then move forward one zone at a time. The team covenant and team building will be new for us this year. I'm excited to see how it goes.

Dave
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Good luck with it Dave. Make sure you tell them that the covenant will map the direction the team wants to go and that you will follow what they want. By doing this they can never think that you tricked them into saying a bunch of pie in the sky things.

If you play you want to win, you want everyone to buy into the sytem, you want to have fun. It would be unusual for a team to agree to be crappy and undisciplined. If they say that you would be in for a long season.