Articles

[hockeygod]

Or… "How to build a team and use what could easily slide into "professional jealousy"… as positive motivational fodder… by Blake Nill."

Even though this is an article about CIS Football, there are some interesting comments from Blake Nill, head coach of U of C, who lost again to Laval. I have talked to Blake on many occasions as he joined U of C my last year I coached there… I like how he talks about elevating the level of play in this article – rather than complain about how good the other team is. (I know there are whispers of payments / incentives to play football on the Laval team… I have heard it happens in other sports at other schools too. But the CIS is a toothless entity… anyways, I don't want to get off-topic. Also interesting to read the last edition of Sports Illustrated – the lead story is about a sports agent who went on the record declaring he had paid players to use him as an agent – even when they were in school. "The truth will set you free" – his comments were met with a lot of people distancing themselves; having convenient memory lapses; or discrediting him and his comments altogether!)

Anyways, Blake has some neat comments on trying to get the program / team better. He has moved the program forward in a short time (and they do have money – a very large, organized alumni with open wallets. They 'fundraise' an amazing amount of money each year. Good for them!)

It does take a few years to turn a program around. I think 3-5 years to fully put one's stamp on it.
—–

Dinos coach concedes Laval has set new standard

By Allen Cameron, Calgary Herald November 27, 2010

Good teams reach championship games; great teams win them, and the University of Calgary Dinos got a convincing reminder of that Saturday afternoon.

The Laval Rouge et Or, 29-2 winners over the University of Calgary Dinos in the Vanier Cup for their sixth national title since 1999, are Canadian university football's richest program thanks a wealthy private backer and unparalleled fan and corporate support.

But if other teams want to play at their level, suggested Dinos coach Blake Nill after the game, they have to follow the same model.

"I don't expect them to slow down," said Nill. "It's a matter of other teams sincerely wanting to get up there. They have to keep raising the bar.

"We need someone stepping up and saying, you know what? I'm prepared to spend this because that's what football means to us. If you look at this right here, tell me what CIS team wouldn't want this at their university. Laval said, 'We want it.' Now, other teams have to decided if they really want this or not."

But it goes beyond financial support; at the end of the day, all the money in the world means nothing if you don't have the players, and Nill had an early clue prior to Saturday's game that those players were ready.

"I was watching them warm up and I didn't see one of their guys drop a ball in the warm-up," he said. "I was watching for that; I was sitting there going, 'Geez, at least throw a poor pass.' But not one dropped pass that I saw.

"It just shows you that their plan and the model with which they run their team has superseded the rest of the country. Every now and then, a team gets close and every now and then they lose, but the consistency with which they've won just makes it difficult (for other teams)."

Which isn't to say the Dinos can't reach those heights; since hiring Nill, the Dinos have reached the final four in Canada three straight years, and lost the last two Vanier Cups.

As well, there is promising talent in the system. Offensively, the quarterback reins will be passed from Erik Glavic to Eric Dzwilewski, who was named the country's top rookie earlier this week. Running back Matt Walter may be back for a fifth year, while Steven Lumbala continues to improve in leaps and bounds.

The defence looks terrific next season with youngsters such as linebacker Sam Hurl and defensive back Doctor Cassama.

"I'm a realist," said Nill. "I think we can beat these guys, and there are other teams that can beat them. But the teams have to get better, that's all it is. It's do-able. I told my kids after the game that in five years we've come so far. And we will keep going. We're going to lose a couple key guys, but that's part of it. You have to keep building and rebuilding.

"I told my coaches (after the game) that the best team won, there's no doubt about that. We're a good football team, but you can see the difference right now. We just have to keep trying to get better, getting better athletes, train harder, and we'll be back some day."

acameron@calgaryherald.com

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Dinos+coach+concedes+Laval+standard/3894849/story.html#ixzz16cTTYWyN

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

[Tom Molloy]

Dean I believe it is all in the attitude. I played in two national final fours in college and coached in 3 with the U of Calgary. In Bemidji Coach Peters stated at a dinner with eveyone present that "we are here for the whole apple and not for the apple sauce." there was never an option of not winnig but most importantly not do eveything it takes to win. This was drilled on us from day one. When we scored or they scored we all knew why the goal happened. Clarity

All three times we went to the final four when I was asst. coach at the U of Calgary we were ranked #1 in Canada and we never won. In my opinion as a former player I thought we changed everything so much when we got to Toronto that the players were not comfortable and all three time underachieved.. (just my thought and I could be full of sh—).

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[hockeygod]

Good insights Tom. (I don't think you are full of sh1T!) It would be interesting to talk to the other members of the coaching staff to get their feelings. Did you guys debrief as a group? Do you have any other recollections of why you didn't win with the group at U of C?

What about while at Bemidji? Reasons?

I love the comment about "the whole apple" in relation to the "applesauce." Clarity – define the goals / culture and then hold the team / players / staff accountable to that standard. Attitude is SO important.

I think a quote attributed to Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or can't… you are probably right!"

(Hmmm, this stuff maybe should go under "The Art of Coaching" thread…)

PS Dinner with Olli and his family was very nice. Some good discussion surrounding the teaching systems in Finland, Canada, and abroad.
———————-
Dean in Bemidji Coach Peters started talking about winning the Championship from Day one. At that time hockey didn't start until October and we did 6 weeks of off ice training which consisted of a lot of running intervals. In my first year it finished with a 10 mile run around the lake and after that it was 20 miles, 10 around the lake and 3 times around the golf course. I think the 10 was better because it was doable for hockey players. This set the tone for the entire season. There was clarity in how we played in all situations. By todays standards the practices were primitive and every week was the same sequence as the last. (better than when I played in the AJHL and we would scrimmage while our coach drank a bottle of wiskey with the owner and then stagger onto the ice and bag skate us for 20 or 30 minutes to end practice.) Two of our D played for the silver medal winning USA Olympic team in 72; so that helped as well.

In 90 at U of C we got unlucky. We were leading 4-2 with 2 min. left and 2 players from the Hat wouldn't come off. The winger near the boards changed 3 times. Finally exhausted one of them tried to sit on the puck and they picked it up and bankded it off one of our D with 1:52 left. They got another off two shin pads after Bracko had gone end to end and put it in the far corner only to hit the knob of their goalies stick. We went to OT and they won with a tip in off our D's stick when he tried to block it. Willy was coaching.

In 95 and 96 we played our worst games of the season at the Nationals after sweeping the U of A. The team core was recruited by Willy before he went to Japan to coach. We got about 8 top major junior players in the 93-94 season and enticed them with a 3 week tour of Scandanavia that I arranged. Jason K still holds the record for most pp goals in major junior hockey. I never sensed the same committment to hard work at Calgary as there was and still is at Bemidji.

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

[hockeygod]

The Pros and Cons of the Tutor Stampede
By ALINA TUGEND
Published: October 22, 2010 NY Times

I’M well aware that many parents in my community assume that hiring tutors — whether to help their children with learning difficulties or to bump up already high scores — will be as much a part of the cost of school as backpacks and calculators.

But I was somewhat surprised this summer when I found out that several boys on my son’s travel baseball team had instructors who gave them individualized lessons throughout the year.

Private batting instruction for Little League? I somewhat self-righteously told friends that this had all gone too far. What about those who couldn’t afford it? Are they going to get squeezed to the bottom of the Little League ladder?

And what about just letting our children figure things out on their own? I agreed with a friend who wondered what was next — hiring a tutor to make snowmen in the winter?

Then, a few weeks later, I accidentally ended up having some private tennis lessons, when other members of my class failed to show up. And while I’m not off to Wimbledon, my tennis did improve remarkably.

Seeing how helpful some one-on-one lessons were for me, my husband and I offered to pay for a few individualized batting lessons for our younger son. And guess what? He also improved — and even more important, understood the mechanics of batting far more than he ever had.

But I still questioned whether those of us in affluent communities — not just in the New York area, but across the country — had gone too far in the tutoring arena. Besides expanding the ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots, are we also turning every activity into an intensive training session rather than an opportunity to simply have fun?

I don’t know what Americans spend on private music and art and sports lessons, but according to Edward E. Gordon, president of the Imperial Consulting Corporation and one of the authors of “The Tutoring Revolution” (Rowman and Littlefield Education, 2006), they now pay about $15 billion collectively on academic tutors. That’s a lot of money.

So I talked to a few people, some of whom have thought about how much children have to do today and some of whom have written about what it takes to perfect skills in any area. Daniel Coyle, author of “The Talent Code” (Bantam Books, 2009) has written extensively about how people get to the top in a given field.

“I’m very ambivalent” about private instruction, Mr. Coyle said. “A whole industry has risen up where there wasn’t one before, and the irony is, as effective as a lot of it is, all this machinery of coaches and tutors can increase skill, but decrease motivation. The kids can end up losing ownership.”

But Mr. Coyle agreed that there were certainly times when such instruction could be helpful.

“There’s a lot of upside to listening to an expert,” he said. “Coaches and teachers have a lot to offer. I would just hate losing that amateur spirit.”

What about piling more and more on children, many of whom are already running from one activity to another?

“Over-scheduling is a real problem,” said Alvin Rosenfeld, co-author of “The Over-Scheduled Child,” (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000) and a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “But this is a separate and very different issue.”

“If your kid wants to be better at a sport, why not get private instruction?” he said. “I’ve seen kids who are clumsy on the soccer fields and with five to six lessons, it gets them up to an adequate level.”

The crucial point, however, is that the push should come from the child, not the parent. And everyone needs to be realistic about the goal.

Before rushing into three days a week of lessons and an intensive summer camp, “parents have to get an idea of the statistics,” Dr. Rosenfeld said. He noted that “some 440,000 boys will play in competitive basketball games in the fourth grade.” But, he said: “About 4,000 will play in college. And about 30 will get into the N.B.A.”

It is also critical, he said, to separate the good instructors from the bad. And to know what your child needs: a tough taskmaster or a gentle encourager?

Vicki Abeles, director of the recently released documentary “Race to Nowhere” about stressed and over-programmed students, does not see tutoring and private instruction so benignly.

“I’m not saying it’s all bad or all good, but it bears looking at,” she said. “Academic tutoring used to be remedial, but now the vast majority is doing it because parents and educators want students to be competitive.”

She also wondered whether hiring tutors and instructors whenever a child faced difficulty might mean “we’re sending the message that they can’t do this on their own.” She added: “They don’t learn to struggle. I’ve talked to college professors who say kids still send their essays home or to tutors to be looked at.”

I decided to talk to Ralph Vasami, who helped improve my son’s batting average, to get his take on all this. He played baseball at the University of Pennsylvania and now along with his brother, Chris, coaches many children in our community for around $75 an hour and $40 for half an hour.

“The first thing Ralph and I do, before the kid even takes a swing, is ask what the goal is,” said Chris Vasami, who plays in the minor leagues for the New Jersey Jackals. “Most people are pretty realistic. They want their son or daughter not to be afraid of the ball, or not be afraid to swing and miss.”

Some of the Vasamis’ students want to make the high school team or have a shot at a college team, the Vasamis said, but both the parents and students have to realize how much they will have to work outside of the private lesson.

“It’s like someone can sit in class and take notes, but are they equipped to take the tests unless they study in addition?” Ralph Vasami said.

Mr. Gordon, who has been writing about tutoring for years, said he believed the majority of parents who hired someone to help their child with academics did it because the child was struggling, not to increase already high scores.

“That may be very true in Manhattan, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of what goes on in the American landscape,” Mr. Gordon said.

The most important thing a tutor can do is “help a child learn how to learn,” he said. And parents have to realize that teaching and tutoring involve different skills.

“Tutoring is precise individual instruction,” he said. “A tutor should give some understanding of the child’s issues — not just that he has trouble in English or math, but why they exist.”

It’s also important to remember that “tutoring should not be a lifelong crutch for a child,” Mr. Gordon said. “The purpose of tutoring is to help a child learn how to go about the learning process. If a child does wonderfully with a tutor, but terribly in a classroom, what’s the point?”

The use of tutors and private instructors has certainly increased over the years, but Dr. Rosenfeld recalled that he received the help of a great tutor in preparing for the SATs back in the early 1960s.

“He taught smart Jewish kids from Brooklyn who wanted to get into the elite schools,” said Dr. Rosenfeld, who did well enough to attend Cornell University and then Harvard Medical School.

The name of the tutor? Stanley Kaplan.

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

[hockeygod]

The Many Errors in Thinking About Mistakes

By ALINA TUGEND
Published: November 24, 2007 NY Times

OF the many mistakes I have no doubt made over the last few weeks, two stand out: One cost me money and one cost me some pride.

I made an error in an article, and of the thousands who read it, a few gleefully e-mailed me about it.

I corrected it, although I sheepishly admit my first — though fleeting — instinct was to avoid owning up.

In the second case, in a flurry of zealous organization, I sent in a check to cover a bill for my husband’s monthly train pass. It turns out that he pays by direct debit. I canceled the check.

Then we got a notice that we were being charged $20 for a bounced check.

Neither mistake was on the scale, with, say, amputating the wrong leg or causing two planes to collide.

But they bothered me and made me consider how we are taught to think of mistakes in our society.

“I think it’s a very difficult subject,” said Paul J. H. Schoemaker, chairman of Decision Strategies International and teaches marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “There’s a lot of ambivalence around making mistakes.”

On one hand, as children we’re taught that everyone makes mistakes and that the great thinkers and inventors embraced them. Thomas Edison’s famous quote is often inscribed in schools and children’s museums: “I have not failed. I have just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.”

On the other hand, good grades are usually a reward for doing things right, not making errors. Compliments are given for having the correct answer and, in fact, the wrong one may elicit scorn from classmates.

We grow up with a mixed message: making mistakes is a necessary learning tool, but we should avoid them.

Carol S. Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, has studied this and related issues for decades.

“Studies with children and adults show that a large percentage cannot tolerate mistakes or setbacks,” she said. In particular, those who believe that intelligence is fixed and cannot change tend to avoid taking chances that may lead to errors.

Often parents and teachers unwittingly encourage this mind-set by praising children for being smart rather than for trying hard or struggling with the process.

For example, in a study that Professor Dweck and her researchers did with 400 fifth graders, half were randomly praised as being “really smart” for doing well on a test; the others were praised for their effort.

Then they were given two tasks to choose from: an easy one that they would learn little from but do well, or a more challenging one that might be more interesting but induce more mistakes.

The majority of those praised for being smart chose the simple task, while 90 percent of those commended for trying hard selected the more difficult one.

The difference was surprising, Professor Dweck said, especially because it came from one sentence of praise.

They were then given another test, above their grade level, on which many performed poorly. Afterward, they were asked to write anonymously about their experience to another school and report their scores. Thirty-seven percent of those who were told they were smart lied about their scores, while only 13 percent of the other group did.

“One thing I’ve learned is that kids are exquisitely attuned to the real message, and the real message is, ‘Be smart,’” Professor Dweck said. “It’s not, ‘We love it when you struggle, or when you learn and make mistakes.’”

As we get older, many of us invest a great deal in being right. When things go wrong, as they inevitably do, we focus on flagellating ourselves, blaming someone else or covering it up. Or we rationalize it by saying others make even more mistakes.

What we do not want to do, most of the time, is learn from the experience.

Professor Dweck, who wrote a book on the subject called “Mindset” (Random House, 2006), proved this point in another study, this one of college students. They were divided into two camps: those who did readings about how intelligence is fixed, and those who learned that intelligence could grow and develop if you worked at it.

The students then took a very tough test on which most did badly. They were given the option of bolstering their self-esteem in two ways: looking at scores and strategies of those who did worse or those who did better.

Those in the fixed mind-set chose to compare themselves with students who had performed worse, as opposed to those Professor Dweck refers to as in “the growth mind-set,” who more frequently chose to learn by looking at those who had performed better.

Mr. Schoemaker would agree. He was the co-author of a June 2006 article for the Harvard Business Review called “The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes.” Among its theories is that there is too much focus on outcome rather than on process.

If businesses and people are not making a certain number of mistakes, “they’re playing it too safe,” he said.

The resistance to making mistakes runs deep, he writes, but it is necessary for the following reasons, which he outlined in the article:

¶We are overconfident. “Inexperienced managers make many mistakes and learn from them. Experienced managers may become so good at the game they’re used to playing that they no longer see ways to improve significantly. They may need to make deliberate mistakes to test the limits of their knowledge.”

¶We are risk-averse because “our personal and professional pride is tied up in being right. Employees are rewarded for good decisions and penalized for failures, so they spend a great deal of time and energy trying not to make mistakes.”

¶We tend to favor data that confirms our beliefs.

¶We assume feedback is reliable, although in reality it is often lacking or misleading. We don’t often look outside tested channels.

Of course, there are mistakes and then there are mistakes.

“With children, you want them to make mistakes, but not end up in prison or in a wheelchair,” Mr. Schoemaker said. One also has to weigh the consequences. We want people who run nuclear power plants or fly planes to avoid mistakes as much as possible.

But most of us are not holding people’s lives in our hands and can stand to take a few more chances.

“Unfortunately, the people who most need to make mistakes are the ones least likely to admit it, and the same is true of companies,” Mr. Schoemaker wrote.

Of course, there are stupid mistakes, or what Stanley M. Gully, associate professor at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, called “unintelligent failures.”

After all, nobody wants a worker who keeps making the same mistake, and “if we fail and don’t learn from it, it’s not an intelligent failure,” he said.

Professor Gully and other researchers have looked at ways of training people to do complex tasks and found that in some cases encouraging them to make mistakes works better than teaching them to avoid them.

Those who were good at processing information, open to learning and not overly conscientious were more effectively trained if they were persuaded to make mistakes.

“We get fixated on achievement,” he said, but, “everyone is talking about the need to innovate. If you already know the answer, it’s not learning. In most personal and business contexts, if you avoid the error, you avoid the learning process.”

But old habits die hard. I want to be more open to — or less afraid of — making mistakes. But if you catch an error in this column, do me a favor. Keep it to yourself.

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

[hockeygod]

For the ethics file…

Toronto Star

Hockey coach faces ban for opposing racial slur

December 03, 2010

Kate Allen

Coach Greg Walsh pulled his Peterborough minor league hockey team off the ice after an opposing player hurled a racial slur at one of his teenaged team members and no one apologized.

Two weeks later, Walsh is watching his house league team from the stands while he serves an indefinite suspension from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). Meanwhile, the player who used the taunt and his two coaches received three-day penalties and are playing again.

Because of a Hockey Canada rule on “refusing to start play,” Walsh could be barred from coaching for up to a year.

“I acted in the best interest of the kids I represent as coach of the hockey team, and I’m prepared to accept any punishment that was given, he said. “Whether it’s fair, whether its not . . . that’s not my decision.”

Others are less diplomatic. “We’re supposed to be in it for the kids, but we’re just running into hurdles of bureaucracy,” said John Gardner, president of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL).

The target of the slur, Andrew McCullum, 16, is simply angry. “He wanted to make a statement that he does not tolerate racism,” McCullum said of his coach.

The incident occurred at a Nov. 15 game between two Peterborough Minor Hockey Association teams. McCullum, who has played for Walsh’s NAPA Auto Parts team for years, and a boy who plays for the Austin Trophies got into an on-ice confrontation.

They were sent to the penalty box for two minutes, where “we were chirping each other,” McCullum recalled.

The other boy then called him “the N-word.” The referee didn’t hear it, so couldn’t impose a penalty.

The Austin Trophies coach benched his player for part of that period. But when the boy was put back on the ice the next period without offering an apology, Walsh was furious.

“In order for us as a team to protect our player from that, we said that we weren’t going to play and we went to the dressing room. Simple as that,” he said.

Walsh’s players were changing out of their uniforms before the referee’s two-minute window for the team to reconsider was over. “They seemed pretty angry,” McCullum said.

According to the Hockey Canada rulebook, any official responsible for a team withdrawing from the ice and failing to return may be suspended for up to a year. Walsh is prevented from coaching until a hearing to determine the extent of his punishment for breaking that rule.

OMHA executive director Richard Ropchan said that while Walsh may not be suspended for an entire year, he expects the coach will suffer some penalty. “He has breached the regulations, and that’s suspendable, so I don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

Ropchan agreed the rule is “harsh,” but added: “It’s really clear on what happens if you remove a team from a game, for whatever reason.”

The OMHA merely enforces the rules set by Hockey Canada, he said, adding Walsh didn’t have to force the game to end for the Austin Trophies player and coaches to be punished.

Other coaches have suffered suspensions under the same rule for removing their team from play when kids have been injured by much larger players on the opposing team, according to another OMHA official.

Todd Jackson, a senior manager at Hockey Canada, said the regulation “allows the minor hockey associations to deal with different situations on a case-by-case basis.”

Walsh knew he could face suspension for the decision, and the referee warned him about the rule at the time. Asked whether he thinks the outcome fair, he laughed. “Under the circumstances, certainly not. But a rule is a rule.”

But the GTHL’s Gardner said that “we can be over-regulated.” He added, “I always say, if you want to do well in Ottawa politics, get into hockey for a year or two.”

McCullum said it’s the second time in two seasons another player has used the same slur against him.

Following a Star investigation into racism and violence in minor hockey last year, this season the GTHL changed the penalty for discriminatory taunts to an indefinite suspension — up from a three-game suspension like the one McCullum’s opponent received.

Carl Friday, a senior GTHL referee, said he thinks those penalties should be applied everywhere. “If every league were to go to that, it would show a unified decision,” he said.

Gardner agreed that “you’ve got to speed up in order to catch up with the times.”

Austin Trophies coach John Welsh said the offending player is a good kid who deeply regrets the incident. A letter of apology has been written and McCullum will receive it soon, he said, adding he thinks Walsh’s suspension is taking too long to be resolved.

Walsh’s team continues to play without a coach but still stands behind his decision, said manager Tracy Groombridge.

“We just want to play hockey.”

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

[hockeygod]

Ongoing discussion between Major Junior and NCAA

College hockey becoming bigger pipeline to NHL

By Kevin Allen, USA TODAY
December 3 2010

The NHL, once resistant to having an abundance of former college hockey players, could soon reach the point where one of three players has an NCAA background.

According to the NHL, 225 of the 789 players (28.5%) who have played at least one game this season are former college players. That list doesn't include New York Islanders regular Kyle Okposo, a former University of Minnesota player, and a few other ex-collegians who have been hurt all season.

"I think you are going see that number hitting at least 35% in the next few years," said Paul Kelly, executive director of College Hockey Inc., a marketing arm for the sport.

The primary feeder system has always been Canadian junior hockey, which best mimics the NHL's style of play and schedule length. That program continues to produce many top NHL stars, including Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty.

But Central Collegiate Hockey Association Commissioner Tom Anastos said it's not unthinkable that the college player representation in the NHL could grow beyond 35%

"I wouldn't be surprised that someday that we would see 35% to 40% of NHL players coming out of our system," Anastos said. "I don't know if it would take another 10 or 15 years, but the number is going to continue to grow."

Kelly says the loss of Russian players to the Kontinental Hockey League and the reduced number of quality players coming out of Slovakia and the Czech Republic are contributing to college hockey's rising stature.

Over the past three years, 34.6% (218 of 630) of all draft picks were college players or players who had committed to play college hockey. NHL teams own the rights to about 200 players still in college.

"The number of signings of college free agents has also trended upward over the last few years," Kelly said. "The late bloomers … Tyler Bozak, Christian Hanson, Casey Wellman, kids that weren't drafted at age 18."

Kelly says 20 to 25 NHL scouts usually are at Merrimack College games to look at undrafted center Stephane Da Costa.

"I think … college hockey has become more of a realistic option if you have dreams of playing in the NHL," said Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jack Johnson, who played for Michigan. "There are more college programs becoming more competitive across the country. It's not just a select few."

The NHL outlook has come a long way from the 1980s, when college players would arrive at training camps knowing they had more to prove than Canadian juniors.

"It was just a harder climb up the hill if you were from college," said former NHL player Tom Laidlaw, who went from Northern Michigan to the New York Rangers in 1980.

Laidlaw said college players back then had to prove they were willing to fight through injuries and would battle for their teammates.

"I was Canadian so it was a bit easier," Laidlaw said. "It was worse to be an American college player back then because the perception was that an American hadn't lived the game like a Canadian had."

St. Louis Blues defenseman Erik Johnson, who played college hockey at Minnesota, said the indication of change to him is that a lot more Canadians are starting to go to college.

"The only downside is that college doesn't let you go to NHL training camps," Johnson said. "If college would let you go and try out for the pro teams, it would be a more ideal destination for more players."

Canadian juniors continue to be the biggest pipeline to the NHL, claiming 50% of picks in the last three drafts. But as Nashville Predators general manager David Poile said, "We will and do go anywhere to find players."

"Junior is still very good," he said. "But college hockey is very good. European hockey is very good. We have players now from Denmark, and Anze Kopitar is Slovenian."

The college influence has even climbed into management ranks. Ten NHL general managers hold college backgrounds.

"Our development system is as good as there is in the world right now," Anastos said.

By the numbers

A breakdown of college representation among NHL players. The list of colleges on the left includes anyone who has played one NHL game this season. The list of teams on the right includes active players and those on the injured list.
College
Players

Team
Players
Wisconsin
18
Colorado
11
Boston College
17
Los Angeles
11
Michigan
17
San Jose
11
Boston Univeristy
15
Florida
11
North Dakota
12
Tampa Bay
10
Michigan State
11
Chicago
10
Minnesota
11
New Jersey
9
Clarkson
8
Pittsburgh
9
Ohio State
7
St. Louis
9
Maine
6
N.Y. Islanders
9
Colorado College
5
Buffalo
8
Dartmouth
5
Anaheim
8
Denver
5
Vancouver
8
Miami (Ohio)
5
Calgary
6
Notre Dame
5
Edmonton
6
Princeton
5
Ottawa
6
Vermont
5
Carolina
5
Harvard
4
Columbus
5
Massachusetts
4
Detroit
5
Michigan Tech
4
Minnesota
5
Nebraska-Omaha
4
Montreal
5
New Hampshire
4
N.Y. Rangers
5
Providence
4
Toronto
5
St. Cloud
4
Philadelphia
4
Western Michigan
4
Washington
4
Alaska-Fairbanks
3
Atlanta
3
Bowling Green
3
Boston
3
Colgate
3
Dallas
3
Cornell
3
Phoenix
3
Minnesota State-Mankato
3
Nashville
2
Minnesota-Duluth
3

Northern Michigan
3
St. Lawrence
3
Yale
3
Alaska-Anchorage
2
Lake Superior
2
Massachusetts Lowell
2
Bemidji State
1
Ferris State
1
McGill
1
RPI
1

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

[hockeygod]

Heard about this fellow on Jim Rome's daily sports radio show. He apparently recently gave up his position at Ameritrade to become an assistant coach in NCAA football – his intent is to become a full-time coach! Wow! I am sure he is financially well off so the career change is something he can pursue without worrying about financial repercussions… I am jealous! (The article below is over a year old – I think Joe has stepped away from Ameritrade and was volunteering his time for free this past year…) I think his business experience will be a solid asset to the student-athletes he is involved with – acting as a mentor to prepare for life after football. I think to a large degree, we fall short on this piece in hockey – we have blinders on while we help kids pursue the dream – and there is a much more important world out there – waiting to be discovered once the hockey career is over!

Courtesy: NU Media Relations Release: 07/16/2009

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=204762446

TD AMERITRADE Chairman Moglia NU's New Life Skills, Leadership Consultant

The Nebraska Athletic Department today announced that beginning July 29, Joe Moglia, chairman of TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation, will work under the direction of Nebraska Associate Athletic Director Keith Zimmer and will be the life skills and leadership consultant for football.

Moglia will join Nebraska’s nationally prominent Life Skills Department, which provides services in the areas of personal and team education on societal issues, career counseling and education, and community outreach to the University’s current and former student-athletes.

In this role, Moglia will help encourage student-athletes to focus on career aspirations after football, whether immediately following college or after a career in the National Football League or another professional athletic organization.

Moglia is donating his services to the University in his new position and remains chairman of the board at TD AMERITRADE. He will help Nebraska student-athletes better understand their unique leadership roles and how they can best exemplify the responsibility of being ambassadors for the University of Nebraska.

Prior to his career in financial services, which most recently included eight years as chief executive officer of TD AMERITRADE, Moglia coached football for 16 years. He was the defensive coordinator when Dartmouth College won back-to-back Ivy League championships.

As defensive secondary and special teams coach at Lafayette College, his players set national and school records. He also turned two high school programs around, authored 11 articles in national coaching journals, wrote a book on football, and has since been inducted into two high school halls of fame.

Nebraska Reestablishes His Career in Football

“Joe is well-rounded in the financial world and has experience at the highest level on Wall Street, but he also has a real passion for football,” Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne said. “He was a very effective coach and has always wanted to get back into it. Now that he’s moved from CEO to chairman, he has more time, and this gives him the opportunity to reestablish his career in football.

“Joe is organized, systematic and has the ability to get things done,” Osborne said. “I’ve known him for three or four years and had the opportunity to become better acquainted with him the past six months. While he will not be coaching, he’ll be very active in life skills. He can interact with student-athletes in all of our sports programs and teach them the fundamentals of finance and how to invest.

“Working with Nebraska and seeing how a top program operates administratively is a good way to reconnect with football,” Osborne said. “With his background and track record, Joe could be leading any number of major corporations, but he wants to be here to learn how we operate and show how he can contribute.”

“We’re delighted that Joe will support our student-athletes in football,” Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini said. “It’s not every day that the only person in the world who’s written a book on both football and investment strategies wants to volunteer his expertise. We appreciate what he’s accomplished, and we’re looking forward to working with him.”

Moglia is the author of “The Perimeter Attack Offense” and “Coach Yourself to Success: Winning the Investment Game.” Under his leadership, TD Ameritrade has become the world’s largest online discount brokerage firm (in terms of the number of retail online equities placed each day).

Despite his business accomplishments, “I suppose people will say this guy hasn’t coached for 20 years, so what can he do now?” Osborne said. “That’s why he wants to learn how we operate and bring some leadership abilities of his own to the table. I don’t know where it all will lead, but I think Joe would be a good coach.”

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

[hockeygod]

20 questions with the Golden Jet, Bobby Hull

By Sean Fitz-Gerald, National Post December 4, 2010

One of the most gifted goal-scorers in National Hockey League history had not eaten, by his estimation, in almost a day. Bobby Hull looked tired, shuffling slowly down a hallway, sparking to life only midway through an interview, and again to the annoyance of a ringing cellphone that interrupted his afternoon.

"Jesus," he said, fumbling with it.

"Hello?"

Hull, now 71, had accidentally disconnected.

"Isn't that awful? This is the worst goddamn … I opened it, and I just happened to touch something, and the goddamned thing…" he said. "Oh, I can't wait until I can go out in the middle of Lake Michigan, to the deepest hole, and throw these goddamned cellphones in there."

It had already been a long day, promoting his new book, The Golden Jet, featuring 200 glossy pages of his career in photographs. Hull had risen to the NHL through the ranks of legend, from smalltown Ontario by way of hard manual labour, muscles carved from all forms of stone, and a slapshot that defied conventional understanding.

By the time he was finished, Hull had led the Chicago Black Hawks to a Stanley Cup title (1961), while assuring himself a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame with 610 career goals and 1,170 points. His son Brett followed his path and plowed even further, finishing his career with 1,391 points.

That is the storybook part.

The other side of the story includes a bumpy transition to the nascent-and-doomed World Hockey Association, a bitter and very public divorce from Brett's mother, Joanne, and an estrangement from his prodigal son. There have been scrapes with the law, including one guilty plea for trying to punch a police officer in suburban Chicago in 1986.

Hull's life, as he admits, is a combination of narratives.

He has been married to Deborah for almost 30 years now, and they live in Sarasota, Fla., at least when he is not on the road, which is often.

Hull works as an ambassador with the Blackhawks, the defending Stanley Cup champions, and wears a championship ring on each hand — one from 1961, and one from earlier this year, a cherished symbol of his homecoming.

Hull stopped by the National Post for a round of 20 questions earlier this week, covering everything from his family history, his health and an alternate nickname to "The Golden Jet."

1 Composite or wood?

BH I never, ever used a composite stick. Northland, the company, made my sticks. But when I'd be at Brett's games, he'd have three or four sticks made up out in the rack. And I used to just salivate when I grabbed those sticks.

2 How did you curve your first blade?

BH Poured hot water on it, from a tap, until it got soft and lithe. And then I'd shove it under a door at the Chicago Stadium and put a chair up, underneath the handle, and left it there all night. When I came back in the morning, it was just like this– [cups hand, like the letter 'C'] — and then it was "top corner," or "second balcony." [chuckles]

3 What is the secret to getting a puck onto the street from inside Chicago Stadium?

BH Oh. [laughs] That was in the old Stadium. If you stood at right about the red line, against the boards in between the two benches, there was an exit diagonally across the rink. There was an exit that went out into the main corridor, on Madison Avenue, and there were glass doors on the other side of the corridor. Just a few of us could get that puck over the glass in the corner, and then out through that exit, where it would bounce and hit those glass doors — and break the goddamn glass in the doors. [laughs]

4 The Winnipeg Jets gave you a $1-million signing bonus…

BH [interrupts] It wasn't the Winnipeg Jets. It was the World Hockey Association. There were nine teams in the league at that time, when we first began, and they all divvied up $110,000 or whatever it was. And the million came from all nine teams.

5 More than 400 players will earn more than $1-million this season. Do today's salaries drive you crazy?

BH Isn't that something? Oh, god. Just to give you an idea, when I broke in, in 1957, I made $6,500. So you're saying 400? Isn't that something? Making $1-million or more? That is unbelievable … that, to me, is out of whack. The Ovechkins and the Malkins and the Crosbys and the kid in Tampa and the Kanes and the Toews, they all deserve to be paid royally because they entertain royally. But, there are a lot of those players that you talk about–making a million or more — that should be making basic rates, according to their ability to draw people into the building.

6 Which opponent drove you the most crazy on the ice?

BH Um, likely, [Bryan] Bugsy Watson. He was with Detroit. He was put out there just for the sole purpose of getting me off my game. When I look back on it, it wasn't really his doing, because he didn't know any better. It was guys like Sid Abel, who was coaching at that time, who would put these people out there for the sole purpose of getting me off my game. Then you'd have to whack 'em, and the blood was flying. When I look back on it, I would just like to have been able to play just one season being treated as just an ordinary left winger … Of course, if you wish in one hand and sh-t in the other, you know which one will fill up first. [laughs]

7 What was your view of Glenn Hall's legendary habit of vomiting before a game?

BH Ohhhh, I tried to get the trainers to change his seat right over by the sh-thouse door, but they said, "No, that's his seat, and that's where he's going to sit.' And, oh god, I'd hear it– 'whoop, whoop'–and then, all of the sudden, up he'd jump. And, 'clump, clump,' with all of his equipment on, heading toward the washroom. Then you'd hear, 'blurb!' Then you'd hear [Stan] Mikita: "Atta boy, goolie! Get good and sick because the sicker you get, the better you play!"

8 What would the 71-year-old Bobby Hull tell the 33-year-old Bobby Hull about leaving the Chicago Blackhawks for the WHA?

BH Um, I would have to say, "You're backed in a corner, son. Go to it." That's exactly what happened. [Chicago] backed me into a corner, they never offered me a contract while they were off floating around in their 110-foot ship in the Caribbean. They didn't seem like my 15 years of blood, sweat and tears for them made any difference. They pissed me off, a few years before that, on a number of occasions.

9 Does Winnipeg deserve another NHL team?

BH I don't think they could afford it. It's not that they don't deserve one, but I don't think they have enough fans, enough corporate businesses, to fund a professional franchise of that magnitude.

10 Who is more like the old Bobby Hull: Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews?

BH [chuckles] No one has faster feet than Patrick Kane, or faster hands. But I think Johnny is, if you're going to compare, more like me. He's a 22-year-old in a 50-year-old man's head. He never does anything wrong, never says anything wrong. And what a leader he is. I would love to have him on my team, and he'd be the captain of my team, as well.

11 Have you ever been known by a nickname other than "The Golden Jet?"

BH [chuckles] I can't recall them calling me anything, except in Detroit. They called me "The Sweathog," because they didn't like me there. Some of my greatest games were played in the old Olympia [Stadium], head-to-head against [Gordie] Howe. I used to fill the tanks the night before with a little bit of fire-brewed Stroh's [beer]. And when I warmed up, I'd sweat it out, and my red jersey would snap in the breeze as I'd be flying around the ice. And that's what they knew me as: "The Sweathog."

12 On page 8 of your book, you say the Hamilton Tiger-Cats said you likely could have played defence for them. Could you hit harder than you could shoot?

BH Likely as hard. I loved to play. I was centre linebacker and fullback. I used to love the body contact of people coming through that line.

13 How are you feeling these days?

BH Sometimes good, sometimes not quite so. A few years ago, I was walking around with pneumonia, walking pneumonia. And my heart went into A-fib [atrial fibrillation]. Your heart goes, 'lub-dub, lub-dub.' Well mine goes, 'lub-bllbb, lub-bllbb.' It doesn't beat true, and it doesn't fire the blood where it should go as quickly as it should. I had a stent put in, and I have a pacemaker. I'm sure as hell not half the man I used to be.

14 Getting to the…

BH [interrupts] I can't sleep through the night. Of course, my shoulders are worn out and I need a new knee. But I'm such a goddamned chicken, I'm afraid of the knife. I could lay and get stitches all night, but the thought of them going into my flesh with a scalpel, I don't relish it.

15 In 1980, you told a reporter: "I have nothing left, just my sanity, my health and my memories." What do you have now?

BH [chuckles] That was just to make people feel bad, those who were a–holes. I have everything that I need, except health. I'd rather have that Bobby Hull that I remember back as a 30-, or 40-year-old, but my wife and I are very happy, and financially sound. In the last couple of years, she's got a little puppy dog, and when I'm away so much, he is just the greatest little pup that ever was. A cross between a Shih Tzu and a poodle. He is the smartest little sucker there ever was.

16 How did you feel, when Brett signed with the Flames in 1986, that he said, "It's mostly because of my mother and my stepfather that I am where I am?"

BH Brett Hull was not going anywhere when he was 16, and he came to a game that I was doing for Hockey Night in Canada. I took he and his buddy out after the game and bought him dinner and a couple of beers. I said, "Are you going to school?" "No dad." "Are you playing hockey?" "No dad." "Are you playing baseball?" "No dad." So I said, "Brett, with a little bit of intestinal fortitude and hard work, you could solidify your future in a couple of short years. Get your ass doing something. If you want to play hockey, go and play hockey."

17 On page 158 of your book, there is a picture of you smiling with a young Bobby, Blake, Brett and a woman identified only as "their mother." How have you reconciled that part of your past?

BH Put it behind me. It happens. We're two people who tried to make a go of it, and it doesn't work. I regret not being able to be with the kids all through their childhood and into their teens and into college. But just to stay with a person that you're not getting along with — and when the kids are getting bad vibes and hearing bad things from both — I don't think you should stay together.

18 In the late '70s and early '80s, there were a lot of really nasty allegations. Are you a different person now than you were when those allegations…

BH Same guy. Same guy with the same attitude toward life. You only pass this way one time, and if you don't have fun, you'll go to the grave, and you'll have missed a lot. I think I've mellowed a lot, as far as that's concerned. Where I think that my wife is a better wife now than when we got married, and that was 28 years ago.

19 You're not talking about Joanne …

BH Oh, Christ, no. She's not my wife. As my kids would say, "Dad, how come you call your ex 'our mother?' " And it's just because I don't need it. I don't want to think about it. But she goes as Joanne Hull Robinson. I said, "You don't f—king like me, what are you doing using my name if you don't like me? Forget about the Hull in the middle." But that's neither here nor there.

20 Write the first sentence of a story you would write about Robert Marvin Hull.

BH They were the best of times, they were the worst of times. Doing a little plagiarism from A Tale of Two Cities. And they were. It was the greatest time of my life. I've really never, ever had a job. I played hockey. And if you like what you're doing, it's not a job. And there were times in there when everything didn't go my way, but no one ever said that life was all a bowl of cherries.
© Copyright (c) National Post

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

[hockeygod]

Coach's game day

Inside look at coach Molleken on Blades' game day

By Cory Wolfe, The StarPhoenix December 6, 2010

It's a Saturday afternoon in the Okanagan Valley and Saskatoon Blades head coach Lorne Molleken is going through his usual game-day routine.

He's been coaching hockey for 26 consecutive winters, so his life sometimes resembles that Groundhog Day movie where Bill Murray's character wakes up to repeat the same day over and over.

Molleken relishes the rituals, though.

He always draws up a game plan in the morning and shines his shoes in the afternoon. And even though pre-game meals of pasta and chicken get monotonous long before the end of a 10-day road trip, Molleken never complains. He used to eat hard-boiled eggs on game day, but that was in his previous hockey life as a free-spirited goaltender.

Now 54, Molleken has the respect of some of the biggest names in hockey. Twice in the past two years, NHL general managers have offered him coaching jobs in the American Hockey League, but Molleken turned them down. He's got security as the coach and general manager of the Blades and he enjoys working with young players.

A few of his current proteges have a chance to become NHL stars. It's no surprise, then, to see Carolina Hurricanes talent hawk Bert Marshall grilling Molleken in the lobby of the Coast Capri Hotel. The two were in the New York Islanders' system together in the late 1970s.

"That guy," Molleken says later, "used to block more shots than the goalie would stop."

Time to get to the rink.

4:45 p.m. — The Blades' bus departs right on time. Molleken always rides shotgun, occupying the two front seats to the right of driver Pete Smith.

As the bus rumbles towards Prospera Place for the Blades' 7 p.m. date with the Kelowna Rockets, another hockey team rolls into view.

"Vernon Vipers," says Molleken, reading the side of their white bus as it passes in the left lane. "They're the Centennial Cup champions, aren't they?"

Then he catches himself, realizing that Canada's national junior A championship is no longer known as the Centennial Cup. It's been the Royal Bank Cup for 15 years.

"Or whatever you call it," he says.

4:53 p.m. — The bus arrives at the rink.

Molleken saunters toward the coaches' room where Tim Hortons coffee is already brewed thanks to trainers Steve Hildebrand and Graham Watt. The coach hangs his grey sportcoat on a hook, adjusts his navy necktie, and returns to the hallway.

"Les, are you ready?" Molleken says to Les Lazaruk, the team's play-by-play man.

Time to tape an interview for the radio broadcast. Molleken stands with his back to the cindercrete wall and rehashes the previous night's 4-3 overtime win in Kamloops.

"It wasn't our best game," he says into Lazaruk's microphone, "but we had spots throughout the game where I thought we played extremely well and it's been a trademark of this team all year that we've been able to find a way to win a hockey game."

5 p.m. — Assistant coach David Struch stands in the corridor under the stands.

With a blue marker, he scribbles numbers and arrows on a dry-erase board. The diagram resembles a weather map, but it's actually the team's power-play strategy.

5:06 p.m. — A WHL official, dressed in a black blazer, brings a copy of the lineup to the coaches' room.

Molleken checks it over and makes one addition: Ayrton Nikkel, a 15-year-old Kelowna defenceman who's making his WHL debut tonight.

"So," Molleken says, "No. 55 is . . ."

Trainer Stever Hildebrand finishes the sentence.

"Ayrton? Yup."

"OK," says Molleken. "Now how do you spell his name?"

After receiving a few conflicting suggestions, Molleken checks the spelling in his BlackBerry.

"A-Y-R-T-O-N," says Molleken. "N-I-K-K-E-L"

"It better be N-I-K-K-E-L," mutters Hildebrand. "That's what's on his jersey."

5:30 p.m. — Players wander in and out of the coaches' room, which doubles as a storage area for tape and equipment. Precisely 90 minutes before game time, Molleken tells defenceman Duncan Siemens to herd the players for a pre-game meeting.

Siemens' exclamation — "Meeeeting!" — breaks up a game of hacky sack in the hallway. The players' chatter stops, and like children at storytime, they huddle around Molleken's diagram board in the locker-room.

The coach outlines the game plan. Much of the briefing focuses on how to defend Rockets defenceman Tyson Barrie, Kelowna's offensive catalyst.

Assistant coach David Struch stands ready with a towel to clear the marker from the board and give Molleken a fresh canvas for the next diagram. Within a few minutes, all angles have been covered.

"Now let's have a real good warm-up," says Molleken. "Let's get our legs moving and get ready for a big win here tonight."

The players hoot and holler.

Molleken is gone quicker than Struch can wipe the board.

5:45 p.m. — At the Blades' bench, centre Marek Viedensky begins arranging pucks to spell the word "WIN" on the ledge of the boards. It's a game-day ritual he inherited from Travis Toomey, who was traded to the Seattle Thunderbirds in September.

Viedensky has barely completed the task when a stern, young rink attendant starts dismantling the project. Viedensky protests, along with Molleken and Hildebrand, but the attendant gathers the pucks into a bucket and dumps them into the webbing on top of the net.

Soon after, Kelowna Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton happens by. Molleken relates the rink attendant's actions and jokingly threatens to bring up the issue at the next board of governors meeting.

"Hey, we have a tradition here where we put the pucks up on the boards," says Molleken. "That kid comes by and tells us we can't do that because one might go in the Zamboni."

"That's right," says Hamilton, whose son Curtis plays for the Blades.

"You gonna flood the ice again?" asks Molleken.

"We might," Hamilton replies with a shrug and a half-smile. "You guys who play in public buildings play by their rules. When you come to private buildings, you play by our rules."

The rivals share a laugh.

6:25 p.m. — The players hit the ice for warm-up.

Molleken seldom watches. Even during his playing days, he wasn't much for warm-up. Winnipeg Clubs coach Muzz MacPherson once called out Molleken for his lacklustre approach, but the free-spirited goalie simply replied: "When the clock starts tickin', I start kickin'."

MacPherson had a more lasting influence on Wayne Gretzky. It was MacPherson who convinced a 16-year-old Gretzky to wear No. 99 because a teammate had already claimed Gordie Howe's No. 9.

6:40 p.m. — Molleken is pacing.

"It doesn't get easier," he says after a nervous exhale.

Molleken's assistant, Struch, stands in front of the mirror and adjusts his tie.

"Strudel," hollers Molleken. "We should be able to play that kid (Nikkel). You can move him around. Just make sure we have Duncan (Siemens) and Stef (Elliott) against their top line."

6:52 p.m. — Molleken sits in a corner of the coaches' room: Head down. Hands clasped. Knees bouncing nervously.

6:58 p.m. — The coach stands and marches out of his concrete bunker. Struch follows. They cross the corridor into the Blades' locker-room and Molleken speaks:

"OK, guys. Let's make sure we're the aggressors (but) I want lots of discipline in all areas. Let's be physical and let's play (expletive) Blade hockey for 60 minutes!"

Then Molleken turns to the Kelowna-raised kid, Curtis Hamilton. The coach's voice booms with intensity.

"It don't get any better," roars Molleken, "than a Saturday night in Kelowna, eh Hambone?"

The players erupt and Molleken marches back across the hall to the coaches' room.

7:02 p.m. — At last, it's game time.

Molleken claps his hands once and says, "Let's get 'er done."

Assistant coach Jerome Engele is already up in the press box, but Molleken's other deputies fall in line behind him: Struch, Hildebrand and Watt. They march out to face a packed house of 6,100.

7:41 p.m. — At the first intermission, Saskatoon leads 2-1 on goals by Stefan Elliott and Darian Dziurzynski, but Molleken wants to see more shots than the nine his players fired in the opening frame. They're trying to be perfect instead of throwing pucks on net and pouncing on rebounds.

8:32 p.m. — The tide turns in the second period. Kelowna scores three quick goals — in a span of 2:19 — to take a 4-2 lead. At the intermission, Molleken demands more effort. Too many freeloaders, he says.

9:27 p.m. — The buzzer sounds on a 6-3 Kelowna win. Playing a fourth game in five nights, the Blades' fatigue shows.

9:28 p.m. — Molleken enters a sombre locker-room.

"Every game that you guys play, you know you're going to get challenged — every game," he says to his first-place team. "The difference tonight was that we didn't counter what they threw at us in the second period. OK? You know they're going to come hard and we have to be ready to play. 'Compete' is what it was all about here tonight and we didn't do a very good job. That's why you lose a hockey.

"Keep your heads up and get ready for (expletive) Tuesday night (in Prince George)."

cwolfe@thestarphoenix
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

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

[hockeygod]

Why Hay said no to Oilers' offer and stayed in the WHL

By Ed Willes, The Province December 8, 2010

This is what Don Hay turned down at when he was offered the associate coach's post with the Edmonton Oilers this offseason.

The job, for starters, was an entree back into the NHL, which meant considerably more money than the Vancouver Giants could pay and a closer proximity to a head-coaching position in The Show.

It also represented a chance to work with Oilers head coach Tom Renney, with whom Hay had worked in Kamloops in the early '90s. Finally, and this can't be stressed enough, it meant an end to the interminable bus rides that Hay has endured for the past seven years.

Hay considered all this, then opted to stay with the Giants. We'd ask why, but the more pertinent question might be: Just who is this man's career counsellor?

"I said, 'Geez, Don, you're leaving an awful lot of money on the table,' " Giants owner Ron Toigo said. "He just said, 'I've never coached for the money and I'm not going to start now.' "

But the buses, Hayser????? The buses?????

"The rides do seem to get longer," said the 56-year-old Kamloops native. "I keep bugging Ron to put a La-Z-Boy in the front."

He pauses.

"Edmonton was a good opportunity, but it's got to be a really good offer because of the relationships I have here. I'm happy. That's important."

So maybe the man knows what he's doing after all.

Tuesday night, before their meeting with the Kamloops Blazers, the Giants honoured Hay for his 500th career WHL win, putting into focus a career that started as a part-time assistant in Kamloops 25 years ago and now has him fourth in all-time wins among WHL coaches.

Think about that for a moment. Think of what that number represents. Now think of the lives that have intersected Hay's career.

There's Stanley Cup-winner Ken Hitchcock, who coaxed Hay out of the Kamloops fire department to become a full-time assistant with the Blazers in '85. Hitchcock, who was there on Saturday night when Hay joined the 500 club, offered his new assistant a $7,000 pay cut to join his staff 25 years ago.

"Try selling that one to your wife," Hay said.

Then there was Giants co-owner Pat Quinn, who congratulated Hay.

"That was special," he said. But so was hearing from former players like Evander Kane, an NHL first-rounder in '09, and Dave Chyzowski, an NHL first-rounder 21 years earlier.

All this caused Hay, who isn't exactly given to moments of introspection, to reflect on his career. True, that reflection ended with the Giants' first neutral-zone turnover on Tuesday night but, if you were wondering what keeps bringing him back, well, it isn't the bus rides.

"Coaching isn't about wins and losses," he said. "It's about the process of building your team. I believe in what we do here."

And that belief is at the core of what the Giants have built during Hay's seven years.

This year the Giants have lost 150-man games to injuries, and Hay says it's been the most challenging season of his tenure.

But, in the next breath, he talks about the excitement of teaching, of reaching these young kids, the way he's reached so many others over the years.

Craig Cunningham, by way of example, is the captain of this year's team. This is his fifth season with Hay and the Giants. In his first campaign, he scored, roughly, zero goals in 48 games. Last summer, after Cunningham had a 97-point season, the Boston Bruins took him in the fourth round.

It's kids like Cunningham who keep bringing Hay back.

"It was really emotional for me at the end of last year," Hay said. "James Wright, Lance Bouma and Craig were all 20 and graduating. [Cunningham chose to return as an overager this season.]

"They were with me for four years. You see them come up as 16-year-olds, then you watch them grow.

"You feel like they're your sons."

And over the years he's had a lot of sons.

"Each year is different, but it's also the same," says Hay.

"You watch them grow as people and players. When they're ready to leave, our job is done.

"You're really excited for them. But you're also sad because you're not going to be part of their lives any more."

Except that Hay will always be a part of his players' lives and that's just one of the things that's more rewarding than a fatter paycheque.

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

[Kai K]

Here's article from thetalentcode.com by Daniel Coyle

How to Light a Fire: The Keith Richards Method

Passion is the nuclear reaction at the core of every talent. It’s the glowing, inexhaustible energy source. It’s also pretty darn mysterious.

Where does intense passion come from? How does it start, and how is it sustained? How does someone fall wildly in love with math or music, stock trading or figure skating?

Most of us intuitively think of passion as uncontrollable — you have it or you don’t, period. In this way of thinking, passion is like a lightning strike, or a winning lottery ticket. It happens to the few, and the rest of us are out of luck.

But is that true? Or are there smart ways to increase the odds?

We get some insight into that question from none other than Keith Richards, whose book Life just came out. My favorite part of the book (and that’s saying something) is the part where Keith tells how he fell in love with music, and specifically with the guitar. The process went like this:

Step one: Keith’s Grandpa Gus, who was a former musician and a bit of a rebel, noticed that Keith liked singing.

Step two: whenever young Keith would come over, Gus placed a guitar on on top of the the family piano. Keith noticed. Gus told him, when he was taller, he could give it a try.

Step three: one momentous and unforgettable day, Gus took the guitar down from the piano, and handed it to Keith. From that moment, Richards was hooked (his first addiction). He took the guitar everywhere he went.

As Richards writes:

“The guitar was totally out of reach. It was something you looked at, thought about, but never got your hands on. I’ll never forget the guitar on top of his upright piano every time I’d go and visit, starting maybe from the age of five. I thought that was where the thing lived. I thought it was always there. And I just kept looking at it, and he didn’t say anything, and a few years later I was still looking at it. “Hey, when you get tall enough, you can have a go at it,” he said. I didn’t find out until after he was dead that he only brought that out and put it up there when he knew I was coming to visit. So I was being teased in a way.”

Reading it, I couldn’t help but think that most parents and teachers — me included — do precisely the opposite. We don’t put things out of reach — in fact we put them within reach. We go fast, not slow. We try to identify passion, not to grow it. We don’t take the time to make the nuclear reaction happen on its own.

For me, the lessons are these:

Don’t treat passion like lightning. Treat it like a virus, one that’s transmitted on contact with people who already have it. Grandpa Gus loved music. He noticed Keith liked singing.

Create a space for private contact with a vast, magical world. The guitar was totally out of reach. It was something you looked at, thought about, but never got your hands on.

Give time for the ideas to grow. And I just kept looking at it, and he didn’t say anything, and a few years later I was still looking at it.

Know that it’s never about today, but rather about creating a vision of the future self. “When you get tall enough you can have a go at it.”
For parents and teachers, Gus provides a useful model. Because Gus didn’t hover. He didn’t push. He didn’t even try to teach, beyond some rudimentary chords. But he did something far more intelligent and powerful. He understood what makes kids care. He carefully put the elements in place, sent a few pointed signals at the right time, and let the forces of nature take their course.

Smart man, that Gus.

And I can’t help but wonder: are there other Gus stories out there that might be instructive? How do we take the Gus Method and apply it to schools, or sports, or math?

Kai

[Kai K]

Here's more Daniel Coyle.

Advice That Changed Your Life

When it comes to developing our talents, we all hear a lot of good advice. In fact, there’s never been a moment in the history of the world when we’ve had such an incredible bounty of good advice – a teeming ocean of it, provided by teachers, coaches, parents, the Internet.

For example, pick up a golf magazine. Each page brims with dozens of perfectly sound, smart tips; it’s a cornucopia of good advice. But does all that good advice actually make you better? (Judging by the historical average of golf scores, the answer is a resounding no.) It’s the same with other sports, music, art, math, business, you name it.

This surplus creates a uniquely modern problem: with good advice so plentiful, how do you know when you’ve located truly great advice – the rare, powerful ideas that really matter? How do you know when you’ve found advice that might change your life?

For instance, here’s one of the the greatest pieces of advice I’ve heard. It’s from the late John Wooden, and it goes like this: You haven’t taught until they’ve learned.

That’s it.

You haven’t taught…until they’ve learned.

I know what you’re thinking. Because I thought it when I read it for the first time a few years back. My thought was, no kidding, dude.

But then one day shortly afterward I was coaching my Little League team, trying to teach them to field grounders. I was, as usual, putting my attention into my coaching – saying the correct words, showing them the correct form – and presuming if they picked it up, that was their responsibility.

Wooden’s words hit me like an avalanche. I wasn’t really coaching, because they hadn’t learned it yet. I wasn’t teaching, I was just talking. And no matter how wisely I talked, no matter how brilliantly the drills were designed, it didn’t matter until they actually learned it. That was the only yardstick.

His advice showed me that it really wasn’t about me at all—it was 100 percent about them, about doing whatever it takes to create a situation where they learned. It seems strange to say now, but that was a titanic realization, and I still find myself thinking about it a lot.

I think this kind of advice–truly great advice–tends to follow a distinctive pattern.

It seems super-obvious at first, then gets deeper as you live with it.
It expresses a basic scientific truth about learning.
It jolts your perspective and leaves you somewhere new.
And so here’s the next step: I think it would be good and useful to start to gather some of these jewels of great advice in one place. Namely here, on this blog.

What’s the single greatest piece of advice you’ve ever heard? What’s the one that changed your life? It could be anything – something you heard or read or saw – all that matters is that it works for you.

You can write them in the comments section below, or email them to me at djcoyle@thetalentcode.com and I’ll start a master list to use and share.

To get things going, here are a few gathered from a peanut gallery of friends:

–Practice on the days that you eat

–If you want to get better, double your failure rate

–Do one thing every day that scares you

Kai

[hockeygod]

How NOT to Develop Your Talent: The 3 Deadly Habits
Daniel Coyle – Nov 3 2010

We spend a healthy amount of time here trying to identify good habits for building skill. In fact, we do it so much that I can’t help but wonder: what if we turned the question on its head? What if we tried to identify the worst, most unproductive, most deadly habits? What habits are skill-killers? What’s the fastest way to slow down your talent development?

Let’s start with a well-established truth: many top performers are obsessive about critically reviewing their performances – either on videotape or with a coach or teacher.

A good example of this is Bill Robertie, who’s a world-class poker player, world champ in backgammon, and a grand master in chess (and who’s written about by Alina Tugend in her soon-to-be-released book Better by Mistake). Robertie reviews every game obsessively—even the ones he wins—searching for tiny mistakes, critiquing his decisions, breaking it down. The same is true of many top athletes, musicians, comedians, and (I can vouch) writers.

Which leads us to Deadly Habit #1: Thou Shalt Ignore Your Mistakes.

* In order to develop your talent slowly, you should never, ever review your performance. You should regard errors as unfortunate, unavoidable events, and do your best to immediately hide their existence or, even better, erase them from your memory.

Another general truth about top performers is that they love rituals. Whether Rafael Nadal prepping for a serve or Yo-Yo Ma prepping a sonata, a lot of top performers are addicted to idiosyncratic, persnickety rituals that seem, to the neutral observer, insanely detailed and RainMan-esque. They tie their sneakers just so, they place their violin case at a certain precise angle. These behaviors are usually described as a superstition, but I think that misses the point: their ritual is their unique way of prepping themselves to deliver a performance.

Which brings us to Deadly Habit #2: Thou Shalt Avoid Ritual.

* In order to develop your talent slowly, you should approach each practice and performance as if you’ve never, ever done it before. You should be casual. You should avoid any repetition of actions, thoughts, or patterns of any kind, and instead make every day completely different.

A third commonality of top performers is that they are thieves. They are incurable shoplifters of ideas and techniques, constantly scanning the landscape for something they can use. As Picasso said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”

Which gives us Deadly Habit #3: Thou Shalt Not Steal.

* In order to develop your talent slowly, you should regard your talent as your own private creation, and your challenges as private challenges that only you can solve. Don’t look elsewhere for guidance; certainly not to other performers.

It’s interesting to note that each of these deadly habits is not a big thing. They are small, nearly innocuous-seeming patterns that we can all fall into. We’ve all ignored past mistakes, avoided ritual, and failed to find guidance in the experiences of others. But here’s the real point: perhaps these little habits are a lot bigger than we might think.

This point is underlined by a fascinating paper I just bumped into called The Mundanity of Excellence, by Daniel Chambliss. Chambliss makes a powerful case that top performers aren’t great because of any overarching superiority, but rather because they do a lot of ordinary things very well. They pay attention to detail. They make each repetition count. They seek small, incremental improvements one at a time, every single day. And these little habits, over time, add up to great performance.

As Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Mary T. Meagher puts it, “People don’t know how ordinary success is.”

Of course, these three habits aren’t the only ones. What other deadly habits are out there? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

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

[Tom Molloy]

Kevin Sullivan just sent me this link. This week the coaches discuss developing speed in practice. It is a really good coaching site.

http://www.lightthelamp.flexxcoach.com/

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

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