The Importance of Recovery in Youth Hockey

Sometimes, a hockey team just doesn’t perform well. Despite all the best coaching and hours of practice, sometimes a team just falls flat, leaving the coach and the players wondering what went wrong.   

The answer to this question isn’t always simple to determine. But, a lot of the time, the problem lies in the fact that the players just aren’t “feeling it” that day. On some days, the energy seems to be down, those perfectly-practiced moves aren’t executed smoothly, and everything seems to go wrong. There are many reasons why this happens, but one of the big ones is not having fully recovered from the last game or practice.

When players are still exhausted, physically and/or emotionally, from the last game or ice time, nothing in the world is going to get them hyped up and ready to play well in the game at hand. This is why proper recovery and “down time” after a big game or practice is necessary before young players dive into the next big hockey event.

The Secret to Real Recovery

So, how should young players properly recover from a big game or practice?

While it might be tempting to just sit around relaxing and icing sore muscles, there should be more to it than that.

The key- the secret if you will- to real recovery for young players is individualized recovery. Coaches need to figure out what it is that each player requires to recharge.

For some, it could be a simple fun hockey game, something they can play with no pressure to get back into the fun of hockey and carry that with them as they head out onto the ice again. For others, it’s time to recharge emotionally- time to forgive themselves for past errors and build themselves up for strong performances in the future.

In short, if you get to know your players and understand their needs, you can then come up with effective, individualized strategies to help them recharge and recover so that the right energy will always be there when it’s time to step out on the ice again.

Youth Hockey Team Culture

Every youth hockey team has a “team culture,” which is basically just a way of defining how a particular team and its members interact with one another. Good team culture is defined as a team that gets along and that is focused on the well-being and improvement of each individual player and a team where the coaches are supportive and encouraging of each player and where he or she currently is on the journey. A bad team culture is one where the players are selfish and overly competitive toward one another and where a coach has favorite players or objectives beyond just helping each player to be the best that he or she can be.   

Coaches are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the team culture. While there will always be one or two players who don’t fall in line with the culture of the team and who are only out for themselves, the coach still has a big role in how the majority of the team acts. Coaches set the standard for what types of behaviors and attitudes are acceptable and unacceptable, and they are ultimately in control of how the team acts and functions.

As such, one of the most important things a coach can do is to carefully balance the “want to win” with the true goal of youth sports: building confidence and skills in young players. Everyone wants to win, and there’s nothing wrong with that want, but when you make it your main focus and neglect the other objectives of youth sports, you’re making a huge mistake- one that can ultimately be harmful to your players.

The parents of youth players also play a role in building team culture. You can preach your beliefs and values to your players all you want, but if they aren’t being reinforced at home, they’re not going to be realized. That’s why it’s so important to make your values known to parents and players and to encourage everyone to work together to achieve the same goals. The key to getting everyone on the same page is having values that are realistic and that everyone can get behind. It’s important to plan these values ahead of time and to provide them to players and their parents formally. Some good values to strive for include:

l  Giving all players, regardless of current skill level, the chance to play and improve

l  Teaching life lessons through sports

l  Practicing skills before performing them in a game setting

l  Encouraging fun, not just competitiveness

l  Demanding maximum effort from players while realizing that effort and skill are not always equal

l  Requiring good sportsmanship at all times and to all players

l  Creating team rituals that will serve as positive bonding experiences for team members

l  Communicating regularly with parents

l  Discussing problems and concerns openly and honestly

l  Providing constructive criticism to players with the goal of helping them to improve

When you voice such positive goals as these and consistently reinforce them with the team and parents, you can build and maintain a strong, positive team culture that will carry your team farther than any amount of practicing.