Diary of a Season 2011-2012: The Plan

[hockeygod]

rcmat wrote:
(1) We already have tryouts coming up for my Tier II mite team. I would prefer the luxury of picking the team in September, but that is the nature of our organization. (2) As for picking a team, one thing I noticed last season is that, among the kids who had already been playing for at least two years, the best skaters improved the most during the season and the weakest skaters improved the least (everyone improved a great deal, though, thanks to the ABCs method of running practices). This surprised me, but most of the experienced coaches on this board, even at the elite levels, appear to put a priority on skating. (3) So, I will be picking a team primarily based on skating ability and on their performance in small area games. As for the season, I intend to keep a heavy emphasis on skating and increase the emphasis on stickhandling with the head up.

(4) Any luck on finding those checklists, Dean?

What is the age of mites?

1) I find your comment about "I would prefer the luxury of picking the team in September, but that is the nature of our organization" interesting. In Calgary, we pick our hockey teams at the end of summer (start tryouts maybe late in August to mid-September) with the elite teams (obviously) finishing their selections first (choose the best first and then the trickle-down effect happens) by late September; but all teams are done by early October. My friend Anthony in Hamilton ON coaches rep or AA / AAA and they choose their teams in May I believe – then they train throughout the summer and start playing exhibition games in September. From my perspective (late choosing teams), it would be neat to try the early way; and for you, it would probably be neat to try it later. Then compare notes to see which is the best way. I am sure there are pros and cons to each. Not sure which is best without experiencing both – and it would be different depending upon the age of the athletes (where they are on the LTAD spectrum).

An early start gives you more time to learn your players personalities / strengths / weaknesses – build team chemistry and gives you a longer time to practice / develop. A later start time allows for individual growth spurts and maturity changes – perhaps this would change the outcome of the team selection process (early vs. late maturers?)

2) I imagine you are using a subjective / anecdotal analysis regarding your determination of who improved more at skating (and which 'elements' of skating are you talking about)? In this case, you are saying the gap is widening between the best and the not so good's… Do you run a battery of timed tests at the start to establish a baseline; then mid-way through the season; then at the end to definitively back this up? (If you don't perhaps consider it this year to see what the results are. Prior to going in, rank your kids from top to bottom – best skater to weakest skater – then run the baseline, midpoint and final tests, then see how the scores compare to your earliest impressions. If you want some ideas / protocol for tests, ask me and I can help you.)

Not saying it doesn't happen or isn't happening; maybe your perception is misleading you? Or maybe the better skaters see they are more successful, so their motivation and self-confidence is greater – leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy? (Could the opposite could be said of the not so good's?) I don't know… you would know best. Just looking for clarification.

The reason I am curious about your statement is because of something called the 'Ceiling Effect' which says that the more proficient one gets, the tougher it is to make progress or the longer it takes to make that progress (experience more plateau's) as we have a 'Ceiling' where we can't ultimately can't get any better / faster / stronger (or it is pretty imperceptible – physiological limitations.) Those who are really bad, stand to have more room to improve, so if they practice the same amount with the same intensity as the better players, they should improve 'more' over the same time period.

3) I like your philosophy on player selection. Prioritize a couple of things you feel are key to 'playing the style' of hockey you believe will lead to success.

How will you evaluate (a) skating ability and (b) individual performance in small area games… and thereby rank players? Curious to hear your thoughts on evaluation. I have been working on this idea for years and would love to hear your insights! Do tell…!!

Remember my mantra: "Execute skills – with the head / eyes up (peripheral vision) – at game speed (use overspeed to go beyond failure so one breaks through their comfort zone) – under pressure (time / score / checking, etc… reward the winners and hold the losers accountable to ensure healthy competition) – consistently (no difference in outlook or performance from practice to games. Compete everywhere, all the time.)"

4) Haven't looked for the checklists. I moved last May and I still have 20 banker's boxes of binders to unpack (actually, I will probably recycle them), but even if I found them, I would have to scan them. My wife has been on my ass to get this done; I must admit, it ain't even on ANY of my numerous lists at this point. Perhaps Tom has a copy that is more readily at hand? (Not to say I won't EVENTUALLY get around to it, but I am swamped right now with 'real life' stuff!!!! If I do, you will be the second to know – my wife will be the first as a guy can always use Brownie Points!)

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

[Robert Mattson]

What is the age of mites?

1) I find your comment about "I would prefer the luxury of picking the team in September, but that is the nature of our organization" interesting. In Calgary, we pick our hockey teams at the end of summer (start tryouts maybe late in August to mid-September) with the elite teams (obviously) finishing their selections first (choose the best first and then the trickle-down effect happens) by late September; but all teams are done by early October. My friend Anthony in Hamilton ON coaches rep or AA / AAA and they choose their teams in May I believe – then they train throughout the summer and start playing exhibition games in September. From my perspective (late choosing teams), it would be neat to try the early way; and for you, it would probably be neat to try it later. Then compare notes to see which is the best way. I am sure there are pros and cons to each. Not sure which is best without experiencing both – and it would be different depending upon the age of the athletes (where they are on the LTAD spectrum).

An early start gives you more time to learn your players personalities / strengths / weaknesses – build team chemistry and gives you a longer time to practice / develop. A later start time allows for individual growth spurts and maturity changes – perhaps this would change the outcome of the team selection process (early vs. late maturers?)

2) I imagine you are using a subjective / anecdotal analysis regarding your determination of who improved more at skating (and which 'elements' of skating are you talking about)? In this case, you are saying the gap is widening between the best and the not so good's… Do you run a battery of timed tests at the start to establish a baseline; then mid-way through the season; then at the end to definitively back this up? (If you don't perhaps consider it this year to see what the results are. Prior to going in, rank your kids from top to bottom – best skater to weakest skater – then run the baseline, midpoint and final tests, then see how the scores compare to your earliest impressions. If you want some ideas / protocol for tests, ask me and I can help you.)

Not saying it doesn't happen or isn't happening; maybe your perception is misleading you? Or maybe the better skaters see they are more successful, so their motivation and self-confidence is greater – leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy? (Could the opposite could be said of the not so good's?) I don't know… you would know best. Just looking for clarification.

The reason I am curious about your statement is because of something called the 'Ceiling Effect' which says that the more proficient one gets, the tougher it is to make progress or the longer it takes to make that progress (experience more plateau's) as we have a 'Ceiling' where we can't ultimately can't get any better / faster / stronger (or it is pretty imperceptible – physiological limitations.) Those who are really bad, stand to have more room to improve, so if they practice the same amount with the same intensity as the better players, they should improve 'more' over the same time period.

3) I like your philosophy on player selection. Prioritize a couple of things you feel are key to 'playing the style' of hockey you believe will lead to success.

How will you evaluate (a) skating ability and (b) individual performance in small area games… and thereby rank players? Curious to hear your thoughts on evaluation. I have been working on this idea for years and would love to hear your insights! Do tell…!!

Remember my mantra: "Execute skills – with the head / eyes up (peripheral vision) – at game speed (use overspeed to go beyond failure so one breaks through their comfort zone) – under pressure (time / score / checking, etc… reward the winners and hold the losers accountable to ensure healthy competition) – consistently (no difference in outlook or performance from practice to games. Compete everywhere, all the time.)"

4) Haven't looked for the checklists. I moved last May and I still have 20 banker's boxes of binders to unpack (actually, I will probably recycle them), but even if I found them, I would have to scan them. My wife has been on my ass to get this done; I must admit, it ain't even on ANY of my numerous lists at this point. Perhaps Tom has a copy that is more readily at hand? (Not to say I won't EVENTUALLY get around to it, but I am swamped right now with 'real life' stuff!!!! If I do, you will be the second to know – my wife will be the first as a guy can always use Brownie Points!)

Thanks for the reply and comments. Mites are 7-8 y.o.'s (the same as Canadian novice), which is a important piece of context that I left out of my post.

1. Given the young age and other interests/sports, we do not begin training until the third week of August. (This season, I plan to throw in some off ice training sessions including some floorball and some simple routines for practicing stickhandling and shooting on their own.) So, in general the advantage of picking early, in my opinion, is lost to some extent on kids this young. It would be interesting though to try each, though, as you point out, to experience the pros-cons of both. I suspect that the kids would attend more camps and spend more time shooting pucks in the garage over the summer if the tryouts were later. Also, there is the maturing factor that you point out.

2. That's very perceptive — Yes, I am relying on subjective / anecdotal analysis, and I had already planned to test whether my perceptions had any basis in fact by getting a baseline at tryouts, testing again during team photo day, and again at the end of the season. Basically, there were certain skills that some of the players just couldn't perform, like a two-foot hockey stops on both sides, pivoting from forward to backwards both directions, or skating backwards proficiently. Subjectively speaking, the most agile players at the beginning of the season seemed to improve the most throughout. I don't think the ceiling effect came into play because I think all of them still have a massive capacity for improvement. I think the better athletes/skaters were more comfortable and willing to push themselves to the edge of the envelope and beyond in practice, whereas the lesser skaters were more tentative, perhaps worried about their peers and parents seeing them fall. Also, note that I qualified my statement with skaters that already had a few year's experience — some of the less good's only had one year of hockey experience but still had huge gains.

As for a battery of tests, I would love to have your suggestions.

3. For the evaluations — and keep in mind that I have only coached for three years — I will basically be looking at who the puck tends to gravitate to (SAGs seem to amplify the tendency for the best players to end up with the puck) and who is able to make moves / pass the puck (no one can pass the puck well unless they have the presence of mind to look up). We did a lot of full-ice scrimmaging last year for evals, but it wasn't so helpful as no one plays their position and everyone tries to make end-to-end rushes. Any suggestions or pointers you have would be appreciated. Your mantra / the ABCs made the 2010-11 season a great success. I got a lot of complements from parents and opposing coaches how my players would settle the puck and look before they passed — something I attribute to a lot of SAGs with modified rules.

I eagerly await your advice on the battery of tests, but I was thinking along the lines of timed skate from goal line to blue line (timed), hockey stop on both sides (subjective), and cross-overs around the circles (timed).

4. No worries. At my wife's urging I finally threw away bankers boxes that had been unopened for three moves.

[Tom Molloy]

I got an email today from a coaching friend who is starting evaluations. He asked me how I would do them. Based on my work with some associations and running some evaluation camps for college here is my reply.
————-
Hi ………….,

Good to hear from you.

I am doing some spring hockey with younger kids and still doing my 12-14 yr. skills group twice a week for a school………………………..

When I evaluate I like to look at skating and how they play in the 3 game situations and 4 playing roles.

0 – loose puck, do they get there and win those battles for the puck and rebounds

1- Offense
Role 1 – individual offensive skills – puck handle, pass, shoot, take a pass. See the ice, make the easy play right away.
Role 2 – team offensive skills – face the puck, give a target, get open, give and go, create 2 on 1's, go to the net, D join the play.

2- Defense
Role 3 – ind. defensive skill – play from the defensive side, angle with stick on the puck and body on body, stick in the lanes, shinpads in the shooting lanes, back check, tie up sticks in the slot, etc.
Role 4 – team defensive skill – play from the defensive side, recongnize who to cover, head on a swivel, communicate, etc.

I like to rank players in groups according to their last season. i.e. group of 40

– Break them into 8 groups of 5 with at least 2 evaluators watching each group and only that group. Rank them group 1-8.
– players have numbers.
– evaluators must constantly move players up and down during the practice (on ice coaches or players know nothing of what is happening). So in group 2 one player must be moved to group 1 and when this happens group 1 must move one player down to group down to 2.
– everyone turn in the new groups to the head evaluator who compiles them for the next practice and makes new teams.
– head evaluator should flag a players name if it seems like the evaluations are putting a player way above or below their previous ranking (is it improvement, illness, injury or politics)
– at least 4 practices are needed.

Tryout Pracitces should incluce warm up drills, shooting and passing,
– SAG's (I have had as many as 4 games going at once with 2 nets on each goal line and a tournament)
– Transition games where you can watch the entire play starting with a continuous 1-1 where the F has to compete for the loose puck and D must make the breakout pass. Move to up to a continuous 3-2 if you have at least 8 D and 12 F.
– Full ice games of 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 with a whistle going every minute. Players pass back to the goalie and change on the go. (this gives about 50" shifts)

Not scientific but that is how I would run the tryout. All the age groups can do basically the same thing. Rotate which group the evaluators do each time so they see all the kid's and the evaluators could do a report card on their group of 5 the last 30 min.

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

[hockeygod]

rcmat, I emailed you… hope to talk to you middle to end of next week.

Tom, thanks for this. Next beer, we will discuss this evaluation plan in more detail… this has been a Holy Grail for me for many years… amongst others!

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

[Aberdeen]

Tom (or anyone)
can you show continuous 1-1 and continuous 3-2 drills??

Saw Toms post about tryout evals.

Thanks

[Aberdeen]

Side note
In Philadelphia/New Jersey area tryouts are going on now (April) will Tier I tryouts completed already. Thats so fast considering seasons just finished. The Top Tier I program had tryouts the same week their season ended.

[john]

I finally registered 🙂

[Tom Molloy]

Aberdeen go to the top right corner of thes site. Type in continuous 1-1 and it will give lots of links with explanation. Also if you go to the file section I have put pdf's of all the transition games there. they are coded DT (D is games T is transition)

Good luck

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

[Kai K]

Update,

This is great! We are working in cooperation with local (american)football club and gymnastics club.
So we have one football practice and one gymnastics practice per week.

Still working with the translation Dean.

Kai

[Robert Mattson]

hockeygod wrote:
rcmat, I emailed you… hope to talk to you middle to end of next week.

Dean, thanks for the tryout tips. The 1 v 1s were extremely effective at exposing strengths and weaknesses. There were not enough goals scored to really use goals as an objective measure, but it was easy to see who could win a battle and make a move with the puck. I also did some 1 v 1 v 1 where all three players went out at once against each other and could shoot on either goal. That required some extra stickhandling and kept fewer players standing in line. After making subjective evaluations based on the 1 v 1, 2 v 2, and limited 5 v 5 scrimmage, I looked at the times that my helpers recorded for skating drills, and that data matched perfectly with the performance in the competitive drills/scrimmage.

[RookieCoach]

Kai,
Hey great topic. I am new to this site and love it. My only complaint is that I can't leave my computer now. Endless drills and videos.

I currently for the past six or seven years have only been running and helping coaches with their practices from local league and Rep to Bantam and Midget AAA teams. I am a non parent coach. It is A passion of mine to help young players develop and coaches also.
While I am still learning every day , I find one thing that I strive for in the beginning of every year.

Gain the repect from each and every player and coach by showing them that I am prepared and giving 100 % comittment to them . If the players pick up on this , they will strive to please their coach , on and off the ice.

I usually have a team structure and systems drawn up on Drill Draw which can be made into booklets for each player.
Like to have classroom time to go over these structures.

Sructures such as – Defense zone , Neutral zone , Offensive zone , tracking (backchecking) , forechecking , PP and PK , also faceoff options for each zone.

Also I have use of the Coachesclub from Hockey Canada. There are many video clips available for players to view or that I can show them during classroom sessions.

. Many practices are only 50 mins per week. It is hard to work everything.
I like to start with my Defensive zone first. Work on checking from the inside out.
Start with showing winger presentation on breakout. Open face pivots always keeping eyes on the puck
Work drills showing center support in D zone.

Early in the year I like to run high flow practices , lots of passing and shooting. Battle drills and small area games.

Many coaches between drills have [players skate two hard laps of the ice.

This is where I work on skills , such as reverse pivots , edges , puck protection, battles between the bluelines , stickhandling , quick foot speed drills at each circle, shift changes on and off the ice . etc. But this is usually done with high intensity.

Tom , this is a FANTASTIC site . It is great that you and others give knowledge to other coaches such as myself.
I strive to be the best coach possible , so in return this information can be passed on to young players.

Thanks Again !

[hockeygod]

rcmat wrote:

hockeygod wrote:
rcmat, I emailed you… hope to talk to you middle to end of next week.

Dean, thanks for the tryout tips. The 1 v 1s were extremely effective at exposing strengths and weaknesses. There were not enough goals scored to really use goals as an objective measure, but it was easy to see who could win a battle and make a move with the puck. I also did some 1 v 1 v 1 where all three players went out at once against each other and could shoot on either goal. That required some extra stickhandling and kept fewer players standing in line. After making subjective evaluations based on the 1 v 1, 2 v 2, and limited 5 v 5 scrimmage, I looked at the times that my helpers recorded for skating drills, and that data matched perfectly with the performance in the competitive drills/scrimmage.

Great to hear… I was wondering how tryouts went. You will have to report on how your team does this season! All the best.

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

[hockeygod]

RookieCoach wrote:
Kai,
Hey great topic. I am new to this site and love it. My only complaint is that I can't leave my computer now. Endless drills and videos.

I currently for the past six or seven years have only been running and helping coaches with their practices from local league and Rep to Bantam and Midget AAA teams. I am a non parent coach. It is A passion of mine to help young players develop and coaches also.
While I am still learning every day , I find one thing that I strive for in the beginning of every year.

Gain the repect from each and every player and coach by showing them that I am prepared and giving 100 % comittment to them . If the players pick up on this , they will strive to please their coach , on and off the ice.

I usually have a team structure and systems drawn up on Drill Draw which can be made into booklets for each player.
Like to have classroom time to go over these structures.

Sructures such as – Defense zone , Neutral zone , Offensive zone , tracking (backchecking) , forechecking , PP and PK , also faceoff options for each zone.

Also I have use of the Coachesclub from Hockey Canada. There are many video clips available for players to view or that I can show them during classroom sessions.

. Many practices are only 50 mins per week. It is hard to work everything.
I like to start with my Defensive zone first. Work on checking from the inside out.
Start with showing winger presentation on breakout. Open face pivots always keeping eyes on the puck
Work drills showing center support in D zone.

Early in the year I like to run high flow practices , lots of passing and shooting. Battle drills and small area games.

Many coaches between drills have [players skate two hard laps of the ice.

This is where I work on skills , such as reverse pivots , edges , puck protection, battles between the bluelines , stickhandling , quick foot speed drills at each circle, shift changes on and off the ice . etc. But this is usually done with high intensity.

Tom , this is a FANTASTIC site . It is great that you and others give knowledge to other coaches such as myself.
I strive to be the best coach possible , so in return this information can be passed on to young players.

Thanks Again !

Rookie Coach, Glad to have you aboard. You will find lots of great stuff on this site. Keep asking questions and posting comments! Good luck!
———————————————–
RookieCoach; I am glad you are joining us and look forward to your input.
Tom

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

[Kai K]

Ok Dean,

Here is the base of my plan translated ( there can be some erros but i'll hope that I got the terminology right 😳 )

Attachments

• 97 1.pdf (139 KB)

Kai

[hockeygod]

Thanks Kai!

Nice job! A few things I wasn't sure about the translation… ie:

What is large motion "storage"? I think you are referring to "muscle memory"?

What are "themed games" and "off-ice games"? Looking for examples of both to make sure I understand.

What is "versatile training"? Do you mean "cross training"? Examples?

Thanks Kai!

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

[Author]

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