Taking on Just One Level at a Time

I have an awesome video (down to the right) I’d like my hockey friends to explore; it’s something I created a few years ago, and it’s aimed at teaching young players how to be goal-scorers.  If you haven’t yet viewed it, please do — you’re going to love it. But then, there’s more stuff I feel compelled to explain…

As I’ll tell you in that video, I’ve worked with guys right through to pros.  Yet, even though I know all sorts of high level tricks, I don’t show them to my younger students.

As an example, I’m thinking right now about one trick a pretty nifty professional player once shared with me.  However, the interesting thing about that trick is that it would only work against a really experienced goaltender.

What I’m getting at is that the exact same move that pro described would hardly ever work in youth hockey.  And, I’m betting it wouldn’t even work at the high school level.  The reason?  It’s because elite goalers tend to think differently than younger ones.  Appreciate that the challenges they face in games are far different than those experienced by their younger counterparts.

So, why waste time teaching these kinds of things to younger players, especially when they have plenty of more important problems to worry about?

As a matter of fact, I want to remind my good friends to heed some of the advice covered in earlier posts…  For example, don’t forget to stick with a slow, methodical approach to each skill’s progressions.  Don’t forget that jumping ahead on progressions is sure to cause a player at least some frustration.  And, I’m sure we’ll agree that confidence suffers when a player becomes frustrated.  Yes, in a way, the frustrated player is feeling that he or she is not good enough.

All that said, here’s what I’m really getting at today…  A Mite is basically competing against other Mites.  And, so is a Pee Wee competing against other Pee Wees.  So the secret to helping a player feel REALLY good is to help him or her succeed against their own age group.  Plain and simple.

In fact, I think that last suggestion — about just competing against the current age group — makes the whole thing easier to focus upon, and subsequently very do-able.

Now, I’ll suggest that learning just 3 basic moves will get a player through traffic and to the net.  Then, once at the net, my video will provide a couple of great ideas for beating a goaltender IN THAT AGE CATEGORY.

Finally, as you get to know me, you’ll likely appreciate that there’s little I do without good reason.  Said yet another way, I’m hoping you really dwell on the points I’ve made today, because this line of thinking is truly going to help any coach-player or parent-player relationship.