The Power of a Coach

There’s no denying that youth hockey coaches have a tough job. Not only is their job physically demanding, but it also requires them to have a lot of patience and to deal with kids who sometimes don’t have the best attention spans or attitudes.

However, coaches also have a lot of power, often more than they realize. All coaches should strive to understand the great importance of their job and the ability they have to impact their players for life.

Motivation   

Perhaps one of the greatest “super powers” a coach has is his ability to motivate players. Motivation is an amazing thing. It can take a player with zero confidence and turn him into a champ in no time at all.

For this reason, coaches should strive to be encouraging of their players. This means praising what they do right and offering constructive criticism when improvement is needed. Coaches should also strive to motivate their players not just to win but to achieve their personal best and to continue growing and improving both on and off the ice.

Teaching Life Skills

People often think that a coach’s main job is to teach hockey skills. However, coaches do a whole lot more than that. They also teach basic life skills.

Leading by example and with their words and encouragement, coaches teach things like responsibility, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, the importance of hard work, self-belief, and never giving up. A good coach understands that hockey is about more than just skating and shooting. It’s about building character and teaching kids skills that they can use throughout their lives.

With great power comes great responsibility. No one should realize the truth of this statement more than a coach. Coaches must remember how important their jobs are and should use their power in positive, helpful, and responsible ways. After all, they hold their players’ futures in their hands.

Tips for Providing Feedback to Young Hockey Players

There are lots of good youth hockey coaches out there, but even the best coaches can sometimes lose control over their players and fail to get through to them effectively. When this happens, more often than not it is the result of poor communication between the players and the coach, but it doesn’t have to mean that things have to stay bad. No, there are many ways that coaches can improve their communication skills and thus develop better rapport with their young players.

First things first, it is important to understand that good communication with players stems from a place of trust. Players have to feel like they can trust their coaches to have their best interest at heart and to treat them fairly. Thus, if coaches can gain their players’ trust and respect, they become better, more effective communicators by default.  

So, how do coaches earn trust and respect? Well, to start with, they need to share their ideas, feelings, and intentions honestly and openly but in a way that is always constructive and never critical just for the sake of being critical. They need to go out of their way to make their players feel valued and cared about. If they can do that, then their young players will listen to everything they have to say.

Positive communication, thus, is really the key. Positive communication is uplifting, reinforces a job well done, and, above all else, is consistent. A coach can be nice and constructive 95% of the time, but players will remember that 5% of the time they lose their cool or say something hurtful to their players. Thus, coaches have to make it their job to use positive communication at all times, not just when it’s convenient or when they’re having a good day.

Coaches should also be aware that their communication doesn’t just come in the form of verbal communication. Their body language also conveys a message to others. Coaches should be mindful not to show aggression or frustration through their gestures, their facial expressions, or their general posture/stance and body language. Young players are very perceptive, and they will see negative body language if it’s there.

It may seem like coaches are expected to be “perfect” at all times, but this is not the case. They are allowed to get tired or frustrated with their players…but they really shouldn’t make it obvious to them. Coaches need to focus on providing positive feedback and motivating players through constructive words, rather than destructive ones. If they can master this, they can master communication and gain or regain control over their teams.

A Yelling Coach

As the parent of a young hockey player, you may be under the impression that a “yelling coach is a caring coach.” This is an old adage that has been passed down for a long time…despite the fact that it’s really not true.

So many people see a yelling coach as one who really cares about the game and his players,  who is always trying to improve young athletes, and who believes in “tough love.” Really, though, in the world of youth hockey, yelling is not necessary, nor is it healthy or good.   

Truly good youth hockey coaches don’t yell and berate…ever. They plan ahead, they do their coaching in practice and only offer constructive advice and encouragement during games, and they spend lots of time in the video room seeing where everyone can improve.

Screaming coaches are only making their players fearful and nervous, which rarely leads to success and ,in fact, can make things worse during a tough game. Furthermore, all of that screaming can be confusing for young players who just aren’t capable of playing and concentrating on the game and then concentrating on what the coach is screaming about at the same time.

Good coaches know to make notes of any bad plays or moves they see and to talk to the players, calmly and quietly, about them later. So, don’ t buy into the hype that a yelling coach is a good coach. He’s not…or he is at least a coach who needs to rethink how he does things and how he interacts with his young players.

As a parent, if your children have a coach who is always yelling and who could stand to be more supportive and encouraging, it might be time to look into finding a new team for your kids, one where they will be nurtured and respected, not yelled at.

The Qualities of Great Hockey Coaches

If you’re a youth hockey coach, then you undoubtedly have a desire to be great at what you do. Let’s face it- youth hockey coaching cam sometimes feel like a thankless job, one that involves all the work of coaching but none of the praise or high salaries that pro coaches enjoy.

Obviously, if you coach youth hockey, you do it because you love it, and if you love it, then you’ll want to be good at it. While there’s no one particular personalty or coaching approach that makes a coach great and while every youth coach is different and unique in his own special way, there are some common qualities that tend to make for great coaches.  

Read on to see which ones you already have and which ones you can stand to work on a bit.

Quality #1: Disciplinarian

A good coach can be nice and friendly with his young players, but at the end of the day, he still has to discipline them! As a coach, your job is to discipline the players individually when they do something wrong or need direction and to discipline the team as a whole. Don’t hesitate to demand a lot- such as unwavering respect and good attitudes- from your players. They’ll still like you if you enforce rules and policies, and more importantly, they’ll respect you too! When you’ve stated consequences, follow through on them. Teach your players that playing a sport is a privilege and that they need to treat it as such. Not only will your team be more manageable, but your players will learn valuable skills that they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Quality #2: Encouraging

Good coaches seek to inspire confidence in their young players! As a coach, everything you do should come from a place of encouragement. Even when you’re mad that your players really bombed a game, find something positive to say. Reward and praise your players non-stop. When you build them up - and remember, for some of your players, you may be the only one to ever do so-they’ll grow in confidence and perform to the best of their abilities.

Quality #3: Fun!

While being a disciplinarian, as mentioned above, is definitely important, it’s also important to remember that you’re coaching kids. Children!! And children want and deserve to have fun. If you can discipline your players, then you can afford to cut loose from time to time and let them have some plain old fashioned fun. Whether it’s just having silly skating races or taking a break to eat pizza as a team one day, a little fun and the ability not to take yourself, the sport, or winning TOO seriously makes for a great coach. Plus, coaches who have fun are generally players who remember what it’s all about- personal growth and skill building!

So, do you have these three terrific traits? If not, don’t worry; you’ve probably got lots of other great ones too, and there is always, always room for improvement, which is something every great coach realizes; good coaches are coaches who, like their players, never stop trying to grow and learn. Be that coach if you’re not already; your players will thank you for it.

Related articles

• High Expectations for Youth Sports {Cubs, Mets Show Way} (baseballcoachingtips.net)

The Trouble With Coaches

Youth hockey coaches come from all kinds of backgrounds and have all different levels of experience with the sport. In general, though, most hockey coaches were, at one point in their lives, hockey players, who were coached themselves.   

And, because most coaches were coached players at one time, it’s only natural that many coaches coach in much the same way they were coached as youngsters. Unfortunately, though, this isn’t always a good thing.

A lot of coaches were skilled players as kids and, if they were lucky, later on went on to play minor and/or college level hockey, and, if they were really lucky, minor pro hockey or beyond. As such, a lot of these players don’t know what it’s like to be just an “average Joe” player or to do much more than mimic what they were taught.

Players of yesteryear were drilled and hounded but also mentored, and it’s good for today’s coaches to mimic those skills. However, coaching has become a true art form and lots of advancements have been made within the coaching field, which is why it’s smart for coaches these days to receive training for actual coaching and not simply coach based only on what they learned as players. 

Coaches who receive actual training in coaching know how to do real, modern coaching. Through training, they can learn how to create effective drills, communicate with parents and players, serve as great managers, take care of technical issues, and more.

Even if a coach is just a volunteer, doing coaching on the side for fun, training can be rewarding and extremely helpful for everyone involved. The bottom line is that coaches today need to be trained as teachers, team managers, and more, not just hired or recruited based on their playing experience alone; being a great hockey player at one point or another doesn’t necessarily make someone a great coach.

Related articles

• Tampa Bay Lightning owner to spend $6 million on kids hockey (goerie.com)

No Excuses

As a youth hockey coach, you undoubtedly want your players to be the best they can be. You want them to win as many games as possible and to reach all of their dreams. Those kinds of wonderful outcomes, however, don’t just happen by chance. They happen to people who work and push for them, and as a coach, it’s your job to mold your young players into those kinds of people. 

While there’s no magic formula for a winning person, there is one attribute that successful people tend to have in common: not making excuses! When you allow your players to make excuses, even legitimate ones, for why they didn’t play their best one day or why they lost a game, you allow them to rationalize their defeats. That’s not to say you should make them feel bad when they aren’t perfect, but you should encourage them to own up to their shortcomings and then to strive to improve upon them.

Another thing that’s just as bad as making excuses is blaming others, which is really just another form of excuse-making. Players and their parents are often guilty of blaming referees, other players, or even the weather on their mistakes. That’s never the way to go. Blaming doesn’t help anyone, so don’t allow or encourage this behavior in your players, and be careful you don’t do any blaming of your own. Players learn a lot from parents and coaches, so everything you do and say should be considered carefully.

You have more control over your players than you can ever know. Even when you’re not purposefully trying to teach or show them anything, your actions do the talking...and the teaching. Demand excellence, no excuses, and full ownership of actions from your players and yourself, and everyone will benefit.

Where's the Focus?

Everyone likes to win. That’s just a fact of life. However, there is such a thing as being too focused on winning, and unfortunately, a lot of today’s youth hockey coaches fall into that category. While many parents support and even look for this “play to win” attitude in coaches, it can actually do more harm than good to young players by causing their confidence to take a major hit after a loss.

One of the big problems with a “winning focus” is that it often leaves out kids who aren’t as skilled as other players on the team. A coach who is focused only on a win is not going to put in less skilled players. Getting no playing time makes young players feel like they lack value and, instead of propelling them to succeed, it often causes them to give up on the sport and on themselves.

Another big problem is that win-driven coaches often forget to focus on fundamental skills, teamwork, and the general life skills that should be an added bonus of playing sports. They care only about the win and forget about all the lessons that should be learned along the way.

You also have to consider a coach’s reaction after a loss. If a coach is determined to always win, what will he do when a loss inevitably occurs? Some coaches show their anger and disappointment outright, which can be devastating to young players. Others do their best to hide their true feelings, but kids are perceptive and pick up on them easily, leading to those same negative feelings.

If you feel that your child’s coach has lost sight of the true focus of the game- building skills for life and having fun- it may be time to have a talk with him. Do it privately and quietly at first, and if nothing changes, then you may want to bring in some other parents who share your feelings. If your coach still doesn’t heed your advice, it may be time to look into another team for your young player.

Do keep in mind, however, that the fault doesn’t always fall on the coach. Parents are sometimes just as guilty, if not more so, of pressuring their young players and making the game all about the end result. If you’re guilty as charged, don’t beat yourself up. Just work on changing your behavior. Support and praise your child after a win or a loss and focus on the other positive things, besides winning, that come from playing this great game.