When Will New Hockey Skills Kick-in?

I don’t doubt that many hockey parents and coaches get frustrated, waiting for certain new skills to kick-in with their players.  (And I don’t doubt some adults wonder the same thing when it comes to their game.)

So, since I recall trying to infuse a bunch of new plays into the games of both my AA Mites and AAA Bantams, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the subject.

– Dennis Chighisola

I begin here with a story that might just frustrate some members…

Some 30-plus years ago, I happened to be coaching a local Mite A team in what was billed as the Massachusetts Mite State Championship.  We were probably the least known of all the teams there, but we were peaking at just the right time.  Little did I know then that I was also coaching a couple of kids amid those 7- and 8-year olds who would go on to play quite a bit of pro hockey.

Honestly surprising to me, we managed to knock-off each opponent in the preliminary round, we won our semi-final match, and then found ourselves facing an undefeated “big city” team in the tournament finals.  Even more surprising to me was that we flip-flopped the lead with the tourney favorites — either leading or trailing by a goal throughout the 60-minutes of regulation play.

Okay, so here’s the more interesting part…  With only minutes to play in regulation, my top scorer sent the game into over-time with a beautiful “wrap around” goal.  Man, did our fans go nuts.  Shortly after that kid scored, I found him sitting in front of me on the bench, and I kinda thought out loud to him, suggesting, “That was a beautiful goal.  Over the summer, though, you ought to practice faking towards one post on that play, and then quickly coming back and tucking the puck in on the other side.”  My thinking was that the goaltender would go all-out to protect against the initial move, and never have time to react back to the other side.

You know what I’m thinking here…  The summertime was the right time to add something new to a youngster’s game.  I’m even thinking now that I was out of line distracting an 8-year old from the unbelievable pressures at hand.  I mean, we were heading into OT in what was probably the most exciting atmosphere my little group of country kids had ever experienced.

Still, if you haven’t guessed it already…  That youngster found himself with the puck behind the enemy net on his first over-time shift, he makes a mad dash towards one post, the opposition goaler dives to make the stop, and my little guy comes back to tuck the tournament winner into an almost empty net.  Un-be-lieve-able!

Now, I tell that story as an example of the exception, definitely not the norm.  Few mere mortals would have been able to clearly think like that in what I’ve already described as a pressure cooker.   Just imagine.

At the same time, I’ve elsewhere in these pages described Wayne Gretzky and a few others as being so highly skilled that they could think on a different plain than most others.  In other words, while most 8-year olds in the above described game were in varying degrees of panic mode when they touched the puck, my young forward skated and lugged the biscuit with such confidence that he was able to devote more energy to thinking things through out there.  Or, as you’ve probably often read about some top performers in numerous sports, the game probably slowed down around him, and he was actually able to relax and think at a level most other youngsters couldn’t.

Then, having suggested the above story might frustrate many of you, what I meant is that we coaches and parents can’t usually expect the same kind of results with all our kids.  No, for most it’ll take time to bring a new play into their game.

Okay, what got me on this subject is that it was relatively early in the season for my young Mites and Bantams.  And, back in practice, each group was working on a number of plays that I wanted to ultimately kick-in to their games.  Actually, a lot of what we were doing back at practice was planned in this way.  However, knowing you’d like a hint at some of these, well…

A couple of times per week, I’d have a Mite puckcarrier move back and forth behind a net, while a teammate moved similarly out in front — stick down in readiness for a pass.  You can imagine how sloppy my kids looked in our earliest practices, but how much better things were clicking in later attempts.  Still, no one came close to trying that play in a game.

There are two things that quickly come to mind when I’m thinking about my older Bantams…  I’d given them several attack plays to use on 3 on 2 rushes, and I also had a special play I liked to use with older defensemen on our breakouts.  (I called the latter play the “drop-off”, because one D would swing behind the net to draw an enemy forechecker, and then he forcefully dropped the puck back to his partner who was swinging in the opposite direction.)

I said earlier that none of my Mites came close to using their special play in a game.  Well, that’s only partly so.  One point, one of my little guys did carry the puck behind our opponents’ net, but he either ignored or didn’t see his teammate waiting out front for a pass.  So, when he returned to the bench, I asked him if he had a better option in that situation, to which he responded, “Pass to the guy out front?”  Bingo.

And I’ll suggest that the little discussion with that forward is one of the natural steps on the way to all of my kids ultimately getting it.  In other words, that forward just might remember to look for an open teammate the next time he holds the puck in that situation.  Or, it might be another kid I talk to who finally nets us a big goal.  And, when that happens, I’m going to make a really big deal of it.  My hope is that other kids will see it, and likewise make the connection between our practice drill and the live game action.  Of course, they’ll also be looking for me to make a similarly big deal out of their play.

Of course, I was attempting to do the same thing for my Bantams.  I mean, we’d do certain drills countless times in practice, I’d talk to them as games were played — trying to connect the practices to their games, and I’d make a big deal out of the earliest times the plays finally did kick-in.

And that’s pretty much how things work for most players.  For sure, the more individual skills they have on automatic, the better they’ll be able to think during the heat of battle.  However, I always saw my role as a coach being to teach all of my kids, not just the advanced ones.

Again, the progressions were kinda natural, meaning that I had to just stick with the repetition, keep talking to the kids — before, during and after games, making a big deal out of the times when the plays started working, and then move on to new plays.

Lastly, while I’ve mostly described this process through the eyes of a coach, I’ve also used this method as a hockey parent and grandparent.  Consequently, I’ve never been impatient at all as I watched my own work on something at home in hopes of having it later kick-in during a game.  I know it will come, so long as I just allow the natural process to play out.