Hockey Gains Come When You Least Expect Them

I have a nice young lady to thank for this entry.  For, you see, my video on “Incredible Stickhandling” made it just about around the world — even to a  lady hockey player over in the United Kingdom.

Sometime near when she purchased and downloaded those videos, she messaged me to express some concerns.  (I think she was praying they’d work, and she was even hoping they worked quickly enough for her next game — gulp, I hate that  kind of pressure!)

Anyway, checking in with her a few days after, just to see how she was doing, I sensed she needed just a little more advice — and maybe some support — to go along with what was in those videos…

Now, I know I could take care of this subject with just one very old and time-worn expression, as in, “Rome wasn’t built in a day!”  Ya, that would do it.  But, not really well enough for me (or my young UK  friend).

Actually, my brief conversation with her on Facebook caused me to think back to some times long ago, when I came to sense the title of this post was true, in that “hockey gains come when you least expect them”.

The most memorable of the events had to do with a hockey mom and dad who came to me one day all excited about the play their son had made in a recent game.  Paraphrasing the way they explained it to me, I guess their boy went on a rush, got tripped-up, fell to his knees, he kept stickhandling while down on the ice, he ultimately recovered to his feet, and then he fired a nice shot into the opposition net (which is kinda my description of a highlight reel goal).

I tell this story because the drill we use for practicing dribbling while on the knees was one of probably 25 I used regularly in my weekly skills clinic.  Again, it was just one of a bunch of drills, and it probably only received about 4-minutes of attention each week.

As an aside…  That particular drill happens to be in my regular collection for a lot of reasons, beyond helping a player with the possibility that he or she might fall to the  ice and need to keep puck possession.  I mean, it’s one of those I group under “asymmetric drills”, in that it forces a player to deal with numerous physical challenges at once (a lot like our game demands).  And I also use it to teach puckhandlers to keep adjusting their hands and arms so that their stick-blades stay flat on the ice no matter what  posture they’re in.

What I’m really getting at by bringing-up this old story is that I had absolutely no clue if and when that young player would ever get to apply that stickhandling-on-the-knees skill in a game.  And I mean that.  For, you know, “gains come when you least expect them” 

Next, I often tell another long ago story about my mom’s lifelong want to reduce her body weight.  Ya, and knowing her oldest son kinda knows his stuff in that area, she was forever calling me for advice.  However, the problem has always been that mom wanted the weight off NOW.  So she’d starve herself for about 2-days, only to be disappointed when the bathroom scale told her she was the same as before, or she’d even gained a pound.  By about her third call to me for help, I’d tell her to hide the dawgoned scale, continue her exercise and diet, and only go by how she was feeling on a given day.  I probably also told her about the building of Rome, or how “gains come when you least expect them”.

I had a similar (but less frustrating) exchange with a young hockey playing guy not long ago, this having to do with his strength program.  I  sensed that he was as concerned about how he looked as how much strength he gained.  However, when he asked whether just sticking with his program — and not worrying about day to day results — was the right approach, I answered, “Absolutely!”  And I can tell you that I went overboard to promise him that, “Gains come when you least expect them.”

Going  back to the kids in my skills courses, no matter the level, I can assure you that even I never knew exactly when our work on skills would kick-in for their games.  Nor did I know how long it would take for my High School Prep team’s powerplay or forecheck to gel.  There just isn’t a scientific law for this kind of thing — like it takes 3 practices for high school guys to learn their defensive zone coverage, it takes 4 clinic sessions for my little guys to master their snowplow stops, or it takes 6 sessions at home for my young UK friend to suddenly toast an opponent with one of those “incredible stickhandling” moves.  (Actually, as a coach overseeing all these players, I don’t have any expectations — beyond the fact that those “gains WILL come when we least expect them”.)

Oh, another aside did just come to mind  here…  For, almost every year or so I run across a player with unique capabilities.  I mean, there are the rare athletes who can almost immediately incorporate a new skill into his or her game.  (I once suggested to an 8-year old on a game bench that he might try practicing a new move when he returned home from our tournament.  He was one of those rare ones, though, because seconds later he jumped over the boards, grabbed the puck, and executed that very move right there in the game action.   Wow.)

As for the rest of us (mere mortals?), all that I can absolutely promise is that sticking with a given discipline is going to ultimately bring about the desired results.  Again, there’s no time-frame; it’s just going to happen when the athlete’s mind and body decide so.

In  fact, here’s a tip I ultimately shared with my far away student…  Actually it comes from my late-dad’s bag of coaching tricks (he was a very successful baseball coach).  For, dad always said, “Work hard in practice, and then forget everything you learned when you enter the games.”  Of course, baseball and hockey are very different sports.  However, I can buy his idea of removing too much thinking during a game;  it’s far better that a player practice and practice and practice, and then allow reactions — or  spontaneity — to dictate once the puck is dropped for real.

So, I suggested that my UK friend work at home on those “Incredible Stickhandling” exercises, with little concern for when the different skills will creep into her game.  And I’d further suggested that she go to her games to just have fun, to just play on her instincts, and just allow nature to take its course.  For, as I’ve explained to my mom (ugh), to my students and  players, and to young athletes who want to get stronger (or better looking), “gains come when you least expect them.”