Inter-Season
Our last season ended with a tournament in Ocean City Maryland towards the end of March. For the most part Brendan stayed off the ice over the spring and summer, although we dropped in on a couple stick and puck sessions at the rink, as well as a couple of skating clinics to prepare for the next season. Spring and Summer were a transition to tennis, which both Brendan and his sister Sabrina play. I am a big believer in raising kids to be multi-sport athletes under the premise that focusing on one too early in life will lead to burn out, but also under the theory that kids should become overall athletes and that each sport feeds into the skills development of others. In his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein carries this premise using multiple examples such as Roger Federer who didn’t start focusing on tennis until he was 12-years old. There are those who will contradict this thesis and insist that kids need to focus on one sport from an early age, but typically these people have a self-interest to promote this perspective. I’m happy to report however, that Brendan and Sabrina’s tennis season was a resounding success, as they practiced all season and did better and better in their weekend tournaments.
13 September
This Monday night marks our first practice of the season. As Brendan and his teammates move up to squirts there are some major changes from mites. First, we are now skating full ice. At the 8U level kids played games on half the ice sheet, which meant no icing, and there was always a possibility of a goal when one of the kids blindly threw the puck to the other far end. The ability to score five or six goals a game with blind shots from behind your own net no longer exist. Second, the age for squirts is 9- and 10-year-olds. Older 8-year-old kids born early in the year had the potential to play against other kids nearly three years younger than them in mites, which is a huge time of physical and mental growth. The competition is a little more even this year. Games will have referees who call icing and send kids to the penalty box, rather than coaches on the ice managing the game flow. Finally, the buzzer doesn’t ring every two-minutes to signal a line change. Teams and coaches must manage that themselves.
For practices, we added twenty-minutes to each session, going from 60 to 80-minute practices. This is helpful in that we can add some tactics and instruction to our practices while still ensuring the kids get in enough skating and skills development which is still the most important aspect at this level.
15 September
It’s only the second practice of the season and yet we have our first casualty on the ice. One of our kids wipes out and slides feet first into the boards breaking his leg in two places. When it happened, we had no idea of the extent, but the screams of pain were intense. Another coach and I help the player off the ice and his parents take him to the hospital for his X-Rays. We learn of the diagnosis the next day. I feel horrible and take the time to talk to Brendan about it.
Seeing a teammate go down with an injury provides somewhat of a life lesson. The initial reaction is to feel sorry, and extend sympathies, and they genuine feelings. But there is the second level where after the player is carried off the ice we go back into our drills to prepare the team for the season. Injuries happen in sports and life continues. The backup comes into the game, the coaches adjust the plan, and the players still on the ice get over their initial feelings to continue to compete. Moreover, one players injury can serve as another players opportunity, just ask Tom Brady who owes his career to Mo Lewis and devastating hit on Drew Bledsoe. Drew goes to the hospital, the referee blows his whistle to start the play clock, and the team moves on.
This is also a lesson I learned in the military. Overseas units take casualties, and we remember with a ceremony and prayers by the chaplain, then the unit, be it a squad, platoon, or company gets back to the mission, and often has resumed the mission before the remembrance ceremony takes place. Sports teams and military organizations that rely on specific individuals for success are brittle and a recipe for long-term failure.
20 & 22 September 2021
Scott, Seth, and I generally run the practices taking turns designing each session. We try to keep practice interesting, fun, but also competitive and filled with hard work. We vary our warm-ups with skating and footwork drills followed by small games and stations. The limitation of our practice is that we only have half of the ice, thus must make creative use of the space we have. Squirts are still physically small, which helps mitigate the impact of half the ice. Leading up to the first games we are focused on skating as well as passing and shooting skills. We agree to hold off on tactics until the season begins as we want all the kids to get their hockey legs back under them.
How much to focus on game tactics versus skills development is tightrope we will walk all season. Squirts are still 9 and 10-years-old, thus we won’t fill practice with overly complicated drills that demand precise execution. Further, the tactics we teach are more in line with basic positioning and getting the kids to understand that they can’t chase the puck up and down the ice, rather they need to skate to space and let the puck come to them. Other aspects of tactics include teaching some of them the basic premise of offsides which was not something we had to think about during the season in mites. So when I say we are going over tactics, the definition of tactics
Preparing for each practice takes time. We are not professional coaches watching film, but we do take the time to sketch out various drills (we use hockey share) and to continually progress through the season. For each practice session I would estimate that we spend about 1-2 hours thinking about and designing the practice. It’s a rough estimate, we’re volunteer youth coaches not lawyers billing by the hour.
27 September 2021
Hockey practice today is for the most part uneventful, but as our first game approaches it provides an opportunity for the coaches to talk about our goalie issue. With 22 players we can divide the squirts into two teams (P1 and P2), but alas we only have one goalie. Our goalie will have to rotate between teams. We acquire a second set of goalie gear, and will use volunteers from the skaters to rotate who will play goal week to week. At the 10 and under level we can still compete using various players in net on a non-permanent basis I was skeptical of the concept last year but came around when I witnessed how each kid enjoyed their opportunity to try playing goalie. Brendan played goalie twice and offered some great insights from his time between the pipes.
Playing goalie over the week’s practice and in the weekend game gives each kid an chance to see the game from a different perspective. After his first game in goal Brendan explained to me how he saw skaters bunching up and chasing the puck instead of spreading out and moving the puck around. In this sense, playing goalie made him a smarter hockey player. The second aspect of playing goalie is that kids who played goalie never criticized a goalie again. Playing goal allowed them to appreciate the difficulty and the courage it takes to stand in front of the net and to have pucks shot at you on a continual basis. They also learn how difficult it can be to stay engaged and pay attention the entire contest as goalies don’t get to rest on the bench.
29 September 2021
In our last practice before our weekend intersquad match, we use the time on the ice for some small games and scrimmages. Scott and I leave the ice for about 30 minutes to meet with the parents of our players which provides an opportunity to discuss our coaching philosophy for the season. Before I explain the philosophy, I introduce myself using a little bit of the Red Team Who Am I? technique, letting everyone know where I am from, what I do for a living and other aspect of my personal life. It’s a good technique to break down perceived social barriers when getting to know someone.
Each parent gives a brief introduction, which I think is important as last season parents did not have a true opportunity to get to know one another. COVID-19 protocol limited the number of parents that could attend and limited the time everyone could spend inside the rink. This season offers more hope that we can build the relationships and friendships that are central to youth sports.
Scott and I then use the remaining time to offer our thoughts and philosophy for the season. I begin by telling them where I want the team to be at the end of the season, because as the Cheshire Cat once explained, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” I explain that first and foremost by the end of the year I want the kids to want to return and play again next year. If we can instill a love and passion of hockey in each kid, then I consider the season a success.
Our second goal is for the kids to begin life-long friendships with their teammates. As I approach my mid-40s, I find that the people who I maintain contact most from my childhood are those who I played youth sports with. I was lucky to grow up in a town with a unified sports program. That is everyone from our hometown played in the same youth sports league which was large enough for multiple teams in sports such as little league baseball, and where we had the ability to field competitive teams in football. My teammates remained largely the same from the third grade to senior year of high school. Brendan had his first taste of this aspect of friendship over the summer. The hockey team had its own birthday party circuit, where kids attending each other’s parties were mostly (but not totally) hockey teammates. Brendan still invited a few friends from school, and having a diverse set of friends is important.
After describing our objectives, Scott and I talk about how we will run our practices and the games. I tell the parents that I would rather a player miss a game than a practice. It is practice where the kids get their ice time and while they are on the ice they will skate more, touch the puck more, pass more, and shoot more times than they will in a game. Practice is where they will develop as hockey players at their respective level. At the professional level, Allen Iverson was probably right in his diatribe “We’re talking about practice.” But in youth sports, practice reigns supreme. I explain my thoughts on how practice means the kids get better by small increments over the course of the six month season and come the end of March each kid will be a completely different hockey player than at the start of the season.
The second aspect we talk about is how we intent to run our games. Scott and I coach in a house league and in a house league everyone plays. Winning is fun, and there is an element where kids need to win often enough to want to keep coming back to the rink night after night, week after week. We intend to balance our lines the best we can to ensure we remain competitive in each contest, but no players are sitting out, nor are any players going to do iron-man hockey simply because at 10-years old they are better skaters than others.
Third, we talk about positions. For the most part my intent is to have every kid play each position throughout the course of the season. Learning the responsibilities of each position (defense, center, wing) is a crucial part of player development. When they get older or play for elite travel teams they can focus on one position or another, but building better hockey players means having a broad understanding of the game.
We then talk some administrative issues. We explain that the only ones who should talk to the referees are the coaches. We ask parents not to complain to the refs during games and to stress to their kids not to argue with the officials. The hockey community is small in Southern Virginia, and as such Scott and I happen to play men’s league hockey with most of the referees in the league. We have personal relationships with them that go back nearly a decade. As we explain this nuance, I can see the message resonate in the meeting. Referees make mistakes just as often as the rest f us do in life. We can only hope that bad and missed calls even out over the course of the season. In some ways its another lesson that life’s not fair, and when the calls go your way its often at the expense of someone else. But I stress that the guys who are officiating a squirts hockey game at 7AM on a Saturday morning aren’t doing so in pursuit of generational wealth. Rather, they are out there for the same reason the coaches and the kids out on the ice…a love of the game.
Refs show up at 7AM on a Saturday for a 10U game because they love the game
Scott and I then talk equipment reinforcing the importance of neck guards and mouthpieces and the necessity of showing up early enough to get dressed before the game and on the ice for warm-ups. We also ask the parents to let us know ahead of time if they plan to miss a game. For a coach, there is little more that is frustrating than showing up ready for a game and missing half the team.
When Brendan and I get home from practice I reflect on our discussion with the parents and begin to craft my own coaching philosophy. Back in 2006 - 2008, I was a company commander in Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. Commanders publish their own command philosophies. Since that time I joined the faculty of the Joint Forces Staff College and wrote out a teaching philosophy to guide my actions in the seminars and classrooms. Why it never occurred to me to think about and write a coaching philosophy is beyond me, but something I hope to finish later this month. I doubt many will read it, but the act of writing forces you to reflect, and often forces you to make decisions where your thinking might contradict itself. So writing this out is probably something I should do.
2 October 2021
Our first game of the year is a contest between the two Prowl Squirt Teams (P1 and P2). Along with the P2 head coach, we agree to match lines to keep ensure a competitive game, and that kids don’t wind up playing an entire period without touching the puck. Overall, the concept works as our P1 team narrowly escapes with a 5-4 victory. For the most part the game is back and forth, and neither team dominates the ice one shift after another. Skating one shift after another without ever touching the puck can frustrate any hockey player, and when there is a clear size and talent mismatch on the ice, kids can quickly become frustrated with games and soon find themselves in a position where they dread showing up to the rink early on a weekend morning.
A competitive first game
After the game Brendan and I go to a nearby diner for breakfast. Breaking bread with my son is perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of coaching and being a hockey parent. I did the same over the summer when Sabrina and Brendan competed in their weekend tennis tournaments. I found that breakfast (or brunch) after a match was a time when my kids were happy, and generally open to talking about hockey, tennis, school, or just about anything else that’s on their mind. I find that as my kids get older they are more hesitant to open conversation with me, not in an awkward manner, but in the way that kids can be uncomfortable sharing thoughts and feelings with their parents. Eating pancakes or French toast after a hockey game is the perfect time to talk when their adrenaline is still rushing through them.
The time after games isn’t the only meal Brendan and I share. Typically following practices on Monday we drive to a local Mexican restaurant up the road from our house. It was a tradition we started last year and genuinely is an event we both look forward to. Over the summer Sabrina and I did our own meal following her weekly guitar lessons, and again I found that breaking bread, even with your own kids is a way for us to let our guard down and open up to each other in ways we normally don’t get at the house. As Ferris Bueller once said, “life goes by pretty quick…’ you have to seek out the time and place to slow it down.