You’ll often catch me saying that my students and players have gained a lot from my studying star athletes. For example, when it comes to hockey stars, younger students benefited from my dissecting Denis Savard’s spinarama, and then teaching it in several very easy steps; while my studies of the great Ovechkin have surely helped…
Okay, the above graphic is one I’m also using elsewhere right now. But, let me tell you a little story behind that graphic… Throughout my years in the game, I’ve had countless youth coaches ask me if I’d design a lesson plan that they could use for their season ahead. Needless to say, I’d be…
This is obviously an older video, but it was inspired by my ongoing conversations with a sport psychologist many years. She was a coach and college professor, and she specialized in parent-athlete communications. And, we surely hit it off when I told her about my experiences in that area. Now, I’ve pretty much described the…
If you didn’t know by now, there is a lot of bad — or misguided — information out there, when it comes to off-season training advice. Most hockey seasons are winding down right now, so I thought this a good time to offer my two cents worth. Really, I have some great stuff planned…
As I finished typing the above title, it struck me how much of my hockey coaching — and problem solving — has relied on the use of video. This brief aside… My first paid coaching gig was at a rink that owned one of the first video recorders and players ever made. And, while…
A lot of years ago — actually, before USA Hockey changed to that name, I did a lot of work with their forerunner, AHAUS. And one of those jobs — back when video was very new — included being in on the designing of some instructional tapes to share with their membership. (I mean, the…
I’m sure I sometimes sound a little snobbish — like today in social media when I posted: “I got so tired of watching current day hockey coaches teaching backward skating wrong — and I mean REALLY wrong, that I decided to start a video on that subject for my Mastermind Group. Ugh.” Truly, guys, I…
This might be the second most important teaching principle any hockey coach, parent or player could know. In a nutshell, what it says is that a drill loses its effectiveness once a player (or group of players) has mastered the drill. In a way, my old prof was telling us that we would be…