Diary of a Season 2011-12

[Tom Molloy]

Diary of a Season 2011-12

A couple of days ago I agreed to coach a U18 female AAA team in the Alberta midget league. The teams are spread across the Province and the winner plays for the National Championship. The league executive called me from Calgary when I was doing a hockey camp in Jasper. It is the highest level for high school aged girls and most of them want to get scholarships at the college level and play in the CIS, NCAA or ACAC.

After coming back from Europe I coached in the WWHL for two seasons. It is called a professional women's league and the players come from the college ranks but it is hard to attract players when they don't get paid. So many of the top players just play rec hockey and the ones that do play aren't very committed to practices or even games. The league folded and now there will be one team that will play in the CWHL vs the 3 teams in the Toronto area and the team in Boston and Montreal. I was surprised the Minnesota team isn't part of the league as they were very good and had many USA players. The league is trying to get sponsorship from the NHL like the women's pro basketball league did with the NBA.

Planning for the Season:
I haven't met with the executive yet by this is the info I have so far from our phone calls.
1. There is a general tryout of all the girl's in the age group.
2. There is a draft and you can protect a certain number of players who played for the team last year.
3. You keep 15 skaters and 2 goalies and have affiliates.
4. Travel is by chartered bus and the trips are from 1 to about 9 hours. You only make a few long ones.

Staff:
I select my own staff which is very important to me because an assistant with an agenda is poison for the team. I also need someone who understands and believes my coaching philosophy. I have contacted one girl who played goal for me in 2 championship seasons. She is considering it. I asked a friend who played pro for 10 years in Europe is going to coach his sons team.

Practices and Games:
Practices are Tuesday and Thursday before dinner and they have 2 games a week. I am not sure of the game days.
With 2 practices we will work on Offense Roles. Day 1 – individual offensive skills and team offensive skills. On Day 2 we will focus on Defensive Roles 3-4, checking the puck carrier and covering away from the puck.

I want to have dryland and classroom sessions once a week. Hopefull on the same day.

I will use the drills and games that I have posted in the files section for the on ice activity.
https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/downloads/

A-skating and puckhandling.
B-individual skils such as puck handling, shooting, passing.
C-team play situations such as 2-1 or breakouts.
D-games and SAG for skill and game understanding.
DT-transition games to practice game situations such as a 2-1 using on puck and completing the play.
E-shootouts and contests.
T-coach directed training for team play.

I can't attach word documents here but if you go to the site below there are live links to the A-B-C-D-TD-T- E drills and games. Click on the doc file at the bottom of the posting.
http://hockeycoach.com/group/hockeydrills/forum/topics/diary-of-a-season-2011-12

Attachments

• Diary of a Season 2011-12.pdf (277 KB)

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

[hockeygod]

Tom good to hear you have the opportunity to coach a team. The players will be lucky to get you!
_______________

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

[Tom Molloy]

I got an official update about what happens in August and will have my first face to face meeting with the other coaches and the administrators next week.

The most effective goalie I had at the college women's level, i.e. the one who played best in big games, has agreed to work with my goalies.

I am also talking with a player I coached last year, who is on the National Team, about being an assistant coach. Her schedule is really tight. It would be great for the girl's to have a model to look up to who has been a NCAA All American and played in the World Championships.
————————————–
Agenda for next weeks coach meeting sent to me.

A couple of important dates upcoming:

1) sometime in the next week or so, I need to meet with you and the other coaches to finalize the draft procedures for the upcoming tryouts. I have attached a preliminary doc that we are currently working on. Please review and let me know what questions and suggestions you have. Please note, this is a work in progress so some points may yet be revised.

2) Aug 15-19: GHC s hosting its first ever AAA midget prep camp. We have 2 groups of 22 skates and 4ish goalies that you and the other 2 midget AAA head coaches will be working with on the ice in a conditioning camp format. I have asked all 3 coaches to work together and run the camp. The camp is 1.25 hours long. The idea is to run the girls through drills for the first 50mins and then let them play pond hockey for the remaining time.

3) Aug 22-28: Midget AAA Tryout camp: This will be where you get to sit and watch the girls play to determine who you want to try and draft to be on your team.

4) Aug 29: Midget AAA Draft

5) Aug 30th: First team practice

6) Sept 11: Roster cut day

7) Sept 16: League play begins.
———————————————————————————-
I still have to call the coach from last years team and ask who he would protect before the draft and get info on the league and how he approached it. Considering he had the top Calgary team and is a former NHL player I am sure he has many worthwhile insights.
————————————————————-
A note concerning Women's Hockey.
Mrs. Snider has donalted 2 million to help develop female hockey. They just oppened a 4 plex that has 3 practice rinks and a 3000 seat arena and female hockey will get priority booking and it will be the home rink of Team Alberta, which replaces the 4 team league I coached in the last two seasons. They will have a permanent dressing room and play 3 game home and home series with the 5 teams in the east. 3 in the Toronto area, 1 in Montreal and 1 in Boston.
The league is trying to work out a deal with the NHL similar to the one the Women's BBall association did with the NBA to help it become viable.

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

[koala]

I think this is a calgary goalie you might be looking at this year

————————–
Conditioning camp next week and tryouts the week after followed by a very complicated draft.
I want a goalie who stops pucks that should be stopped so the team knows how to play the rush. If she shows she can do that and is available I will choose her.

[Tom Molloy]

We had our coaches meeting tonight and found out about the ice times for the conditioning camp that starts next week as well as how many players we can protect and how the draft will run. It seems to be very well thought out. 2 practices a week for 3 weeks and 3 practices one week per month plus one dryland session.

Games start in the middle of Sept. and are on the weekend. We travel by charter bus.

I was asked to run the two practices on Monday night. There will be two groups of 22 skaters and 2 goalies and they have a 75 min. session. So starting Monday things will get busy for the next 6 or 7 months.

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

[Tom Molloy]

All of the players trying out for the AAA midget league have a week of conditioning before next weeks tryouts. I am running the first pactice and have attached a pdf of the practice plan.

Attachments

• Aug 15 AAA practice.pdf (430 KB)

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

[Kai K]

Hi all,

I've been quite busy with hockey and playing father to my 3 years old daughter. But I'll try to be more active in the future.

So it's the start of the fourth week on-ice practicing. First two weeks was skills focused and now last and this week we'll work more on the defensive skills and individual tactics and some team tactics too. attachment includes our todays practice. Team is U15 team.

——————————————

Looks like a good practice plan Kai. How did it go?

Tom

Attachments

• drill 8_15.pdf (95 KB)

Kai

[hockeygod]

Hi Kai,

Yeah it's lots of work being a dad! My son is almost 3.5 years old and my daughter turned 1 in June.

I hope to head over to the rink to watch some of Tom's practices tonight.

We are on holidays from Aug 20-Sept 1, then I start with the teaching when I get back, so will post more then.

Dean

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

[hockeygod]

Watched part of Tom's conditioning camp practice last night and then we discussed the drills / games he used. About 21 skaters and 2 goalies. Tom has some good ideas about how to increase the number of weekly practices available to these midget AAA girls by working together with the other 2 Calgary based teams / coaches – I hope it works. Regardless, Tom will help improve the level of understanding of his players – those girls whom he chooses in the draft will be fortunate to have such an experienced coach…!

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

[Tom Molloy]

Tonights practice is the 4th day in a row on the ice. We will do skills for 30 minutes and competition for 45 minutes.

I made a little change and substituted the 3rd perry pearn for a full ice game where they had to pass at least once in each zone. Gr. one played 10-10 and group two played two shifts of 6-6.

Attachments

• Aug 18 U18 Girls Conditioning.pdf (337 KB)

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

[Kai K]

Kai K wrote:
Hi all,

I've been quite busy with hockey and playing father to my 3 years old daughter. But I'll try to be more active in the future.

So it's the start of the fourth week on-ice practicing. First two weeks was skills focused and now last and this week we'll work more on the defensive skills and individual tactics and some team tactics too. attachment includes our todays practice. Team is U15 team.

——————————————

Looks like a good practice plan Kai. How did it go?

Tom

Thanks Tom,
Practice was okay. The challenge with this group is the huge gap between the best player and the weakest player and planing practices that develop both players.
Last two practices we worked more with offensive plays from the DZ.
———————————————————
Kai the talent gap on youth teams is a pretty common problem. I think you have to always do some skill work at the start of practice to develop a good technical foundation and simply ask the more talented players to challenge themselves to do everything at top speed, while the less talented are developing the fundamentals.

Attachments

• 8_19_11.pdf (107 KB)

Kai

[Tom Molloy]

The league had it's conditioning camp and now 75 players have been put onto 6 teams. Two teams on each night. They start with a skills practice tonight and then M-T-Sat have scrimmages – 3 a night. On Friday the goalies have a session with goalie coaches.
The three teams can protect up to 8 players and one goalie from last years roster. The remaining player play a full game on Sunday and then the teams draft until they have 15 skaters and 2 goalies.

Paul Pozzi has planned tonights on ice session which is run by neutral coaches while the coaching staffs watch. There will be 3×75 min. on ice sessions tonight with 2 teams in each. They have different coloured jerseys with numbers.

It seems like a well thought out plan to give a fair evaluation for the players.

Attachments

• DOC082011.pdf (1 MB)

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

[Tom Molloy]

Paul planned a good session for evaluation. Lots of competition to identify players.

————————
As far as a good chance to show the coaches how you play this tryout is about as fair as you can get. Monday they started a tournament. There are about 12 skaters on each team. There are six teams and each played a game of 2x25min. stop time periods. They do this again tonight and Saturday. Friday is a goalie only practice.

I have to submit between 4 and 8 players who were on last years club as protected players today. I only have 6 returning and they all can play at this level so I will protect everyone.

On Sunday all the non protected players have a game followed by a draft of goalies first and then skaters. I can protect one of the 2 returning goalies. There is a 30 min. window after the draft to make trades. It makes the NHL draft seem simple.

The draft has a rotation of 1-2-3, 2-3-1, 3-1-2 so it is probably an advantage to chose second because then you get the 4th overall. A former NHL D is one of the coaches and his daughter, who is the strongest draft eligible D, is in the draft and is automatically his first pick. Draft order is by picking straws. So it will be a challenge to get the kind of players a coach wants.

At first glance it looks like there are enough good players for two strong teams, we have only two U15 teams supplying 3 U18 teams and some of them end up going to sports schools. So it is critical that the last 3 forwards and the last 2 D can skate and compete hard. So that is what we are looking for. We have 4 F and 2 D returning so must pick 5 F and 4 D as the roster limit is 15 skaters and 2 G.

The top Calgary team finished with a 50% w/l record last season, the other two were under.500. So it will be a challenge. If you have a few scorers and the rest buy into the system and compete hard you can do well.

Attachments

• Prep Camp 5.pdf (2 MB)

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

[unknown]

Was a good first tryout last night. This year will be awesome.

[Tom Molloy]

This draft process is fun for coaches. You have to figure out what your team needs and predict what the other teams need and the connections they have made etc.
Tonight was the prospects game with 30 non protected skaters and 4 Goalies playing a full game.

The draft followed. I won the lottery and had the choice to draft one, two or three. There are 3 Calgary teams.
We could protect up to 8 skaters and one goalie. I have only 6 skaters returning 4F and 2D and protected all of them plus one of the two goalies.

We had a ranking list of F, D and goalies and our game plan was to draft at least 3 scorers who compete hard and they rest had to compete hard and be able to skate.

Draft order was 1-2-3, 2-3-1, 3-1-2. I chose to draft 2nd. The third pick was automatically one of the other coaches daughters, who is the top D in the draft. So I got the 2nd and 3rd picks and chose 2 scorers. I picked another scorer in the 9th spot and then we took 2 D, A scoring forward, 2 D, a checking forward a D a F a D and 1 more F.

I think that works out to 11 F and 7 D. We have to get down to 15 skaters by sept. 11, so 3 skaters have to be send down.

We again won the lottery making it 3 for 3 for the goalie picks. I traded picks so a girl could stay in the league and another team could draft the two goalies they wanted. I think we ended up with the best goalie in the draft and probably the two best goalies.

So we ended up with an older team with some scoring, a lot of competitors, a top set of D and great goaltending. So it is a good start. I have no idea how good the rest of the league but the top Calgary team ended with a 50% w/L record last year. Lets see what this group can do.

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

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