Taking on "Head Coach" position for upcoming houseleage season....

[Cams 7]

Well, first off, I have been around the game of hockey since the day I was born. Learned to skate at about 3 yrs old, and have played since I was 5 or 6. I have some previous experience as an assistant at differenct houseleague levels (including one season as an assistant with a girl h/l team). Last year I was an assitant for my daughters team. I have some concerns/questions for any of those on here with coaching experience, especially at the house or maybe travel coaches can lend some insight as well....

Basically here is the story of how I took on the head coach position: Last year my daughter and wife were kind of pushing me to take "my own team". I did not feel I was ready for it then. Luckily, I was able to get on with my uncle and his staff (one of the most sought after staffs in the peewee div.). We had a fun year, and i really enjoyed helping out the kids, etc. Unfortunately, playoffs did not work out well, after finishhing tied for first in regular season (only won the last round robin game). About 1/2 way through the season, my daughter and wife were again suggesting a take a team this season - I honestly really did not want to at first, because of a confidence thing I guess you could say. I talked to 2 other kids fathers, and they agreed to be part of a coaching staff for this upcoming, but neither wanted the "head" position. I agreed to take to job.

I will doing an "Intermediate" level coach clinic in a couple weeks, that will be good for 3 years, and is paid for my my local association. I would have been happy with the basic clinic, but this one is good to coach travel as well. I have done the Hockey Canada basic "Coach Stream" way back, and I honestly didn't like it that much. I understand why, us coaches have to take it. I will take it, as it's free! I will be coaching Bantam level (13-15 yr olds ('98 & '99 birth year)).

Here are some of the concerns I have, and hopefully my fellow MSHers can help set my mind at ease...

A) I am generally a quiet, keep to myself, reserved type personality - not one to bark out orders, etc. So, this might be an adjustment I have to make. I think this is one of my biggest concerns. I would definately not make a good school teacher.

B) I am very knowledgeable, and coming from a great staff last year, so I know I have the knowledge to pass on. Assuming I know a lot of the kids I will end up drafting, I really hope that I would get the respect a coach should get. Hopefully no "class clown"s - know what I mean????

C) Should I have all my practices planned out for the entire season ready for when the season starts? Our coach last year did - How do you know, when you aren't even sure the skill sets of the kids you will be drafting? You don't want them too easy, yet not too hard either. You want to keep the kids interest....

D) What drills (out of the hundreds out there) do I incorporate into "C" above...? I don't want to just use Hockey Canada's cookie cutter practices/drills... Plus, what are Bantam level drills that I should consider?

E) The last thing is - the warmup before practice starts. Usually both teams skate around together and do 10 minutes of skating drills together, then split up into their respective halves of the ice. Should these be the same type of drills used at the lower levels I have experience with?

I guess it is mostly "rookie" jitters that are kind of scaring me. In my mind, I am better assistant, than a head coach. I know my staff will help me out, and we'll be more like a 3 assistant coach staff, versus head and assitant(s).

[Chadd 916]

A: You will have to be confident in what you say, that doesn't mean you have to yell. Strong, loud and in control is what you should strive for. Don't waffle, be decisive.

B: You need some amount of levity and fun on the team, just not so much that it distracts. Having someone that can take the pressure off at the right time is very important. You will have to earn their respect with your actions and words.

C: Some flexibility is a good thing, but know what you want to accomplish.

D: Don't use ten different drills every practice or you waste time teaching the drill and not the skill. Choose the drills that give results with your group, regardless of who else uses them.

E: I would use that time for full ice skating/conditioning much more than anything else.

[chk hrd 164]

A: You will have to be confident in what you say, that doesn't mean you have to yell. Strong, loud and in control is what you should strive for. Don't waffle, be decisive.

B: You need some amount of levity and fun on the team, just not so much that it distracts. Having someone that can take the pressure off at the right time is very important. You will have to earn their respect with your actions and words.

C: Some flexibility is a good thing, but know what you want to accomplish.

D: Don't use ten different drills every practice or you waste time teaching the drill and not the skill. Choose the drills that give results with your group, regardless of who else uses them.

E: I would use that time for full ice skating/conditioning much more than anything else.

Very sound advice. I never planned out practices for the entire year. I always set timeline goals and developed practices to reach them. At the age and level you are coaching I always started out with basic power skating drills for about 10 minutes. Develop fun games that work on skills so the kids don't realize they are actually working hard while learning. Last, don't sweat the small stuff, you will always have some A Hole parents, players, coaches an refs, nothing you can do about it. One thing we always taught...coaches coach, players play and parents watch. If you can get this understood it can make life easier and helps everyone as they get older and play at higher levels.

[Allgood 0]

My $.02

The fact that you are concerned and asking question means that you are a good coach.

A You don't need to bark. You need to educate, however you get that accomplished. The best coaches I have worked with have figured out the best way to teach the skills and concepts (prepractice chalk talk, on ice examples, one on one conversations) and then let those skills come come out during games. "Success is when preparation and opportunity meet"

B "Respect is earned, not given or taken" Learn who the kids are on your team and then organize and communicate with them in a manner that you both respect each other. You are their leader, Be positive, be fair, and be firm about your expectations.

C "Proper Prudent Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance" I don't know how you can prepare an entire year ahead of time without know the skills of the team. You do know you are working with a Bantam House and can make a reasonable guess to what their skill will be. Plan the first few weeks to be able to assess the individual skills at the same time as building (reinforcing) basic skills. As you learn the team, plan practice to excel strengths and overcome weaknesses you discover in the team.

D Find drills and activities that every skill level can do and higher skill level kids can work advancing their skill, (most passing drills fall in this category). Play small area games A LOT splitting the team into smaller groups so that every kid gets more reps.

E Warm ups are just that, Movements that use the muscles to get them pliable and avoid injury. I never understand why some coaches use this time for conditioning, You end up with kids huffing and puffing and can't focus on instruction then perform the next drills poorly and the coach can't figure out why his team isn't progressing. Work with the other coach(es) on the ice to have a plan on the purpose and what is going to happen during the warmup. I personally like establishing 8-10 warmup drills and then writing 2-3 of them on the coaches board and having a player lead them team. It gives the coaches time to set up for practice and helps the team feel that they can be responsible and you can find the natural leaders on the team.

Some other items.

1. Communicate, with players, parents and other coaches. The worst thing you can do in establishing your leadership is losing credibility by being unorganized and not letting other know what you plans and goals are.

2. Establish a code of conduct with players and parents. Don't let your team self implode because you didn't tell a parent or player what you find unacceptable.

3. Let your assistant coaches cover your weaknesses. I'm like you more quiet and reserved, I have another Coach do the pregame Rev-up, he has a knack for pumping them up and easing the tension of the Big Game.

Be careful of your last statement "we'll be more like a 3 assistant coach staff, versus head and assitant(s)" In my eyes this not a good idea. There will be hard decisions to make and there will not be time to discuss them. You need to make them confidently and swiftly, you will have to stand behind them and defend them. If you delegate the responsibility to another you need to support their decisions and be willing to make a change if it doesn't work.

Coaching is not easy and few are willing to take it on. It is a learned skill as I said at the beginning the fact that you are willing to take on the challenge and are asking for help means to me you are willing to learn and if you continue to learn you will be a success.

Good luck and have a great season, Jason

[Law Goalie 147]

Never forget that it is house league.

This, above all: to thine own league be true.

I'm in a funny position with respect to coaching. Like Cams, I wanted to be involved, but I didn't want the hassle and politicking of running a team; my solution, much less brave than his, was to become a specialist (goalies only) and pointedly ignore every attempt to change that role. Even so, I've had the opportunity to see kids from Tyke houseleague up to provincial junior on their own and interacting with their teams, so I've got a peculiar perspective on this.

At any youth level, and especially house league, coaches have essentially two jobs: teaching kids to love hockey as a sport, and talent identification. The first is by far the most important. Why do we teach skills?-- so they can enjoy playing more. Why do we teach defensive positioning?-- so they can understand how the game works, and love it even more. Love of sport is an Aristotelian good (obsession with sport, however...), and is to be fostered for its own sake; it has lots of wonderful benefits - personally, psychologically, physically, etc. - but as important as those are, they are and must always be secondary concerns to teaching the sport.

Talent ID is far, far less important, but it's still of interest. The obvious part is finding kids who have potential and encouraging them to improve, getting them into complementary sports, and generally helping them to develop and move beyond you. The more difficult and interesting part is figuring out how to help the kids who are struggling, and spotting the small things that may be holding the middling ones back.

Sometimes it's stupidly easy. I had one kid who couldn't stop a puck or follow a demonstrated movement to save his life... "Do you wear glasses at home?"-- "Yeah, all the time, can't see without them." No glasses on the ice. Huh. Another kid couldn't catch; checked out his glove, and his idiot father had cranked the straps down so tightly he couldn't close it. And with pads, that happens without fail every time a kid's parent puts his pads on him. You'd be amazed how often little diagnostic stuff makes a big difference: a hesitant skater whose skates don't fit, or are laced too tightly; a kid who can't shoot who's stuck using a cut-down senior stick as stiff as rebar with a blade the size of an oar in proportion to him.

Now, on to the stuff you actually asked.

A/B) This one I know. Teachers who bark orders get two things, and two things only: tuned out, and drowned out. If you try to shout down a roomful of kids, you're effectively asking for a yelling competition that will last the rest of the season. You can win it, potentially, but then you're only listened to if you're screaming. If you're quiet and reserved, be that: your authority will be thoughtful and intense, and when you do speak, they'll listen. The trick with clowns is to acknowledge and dismiss them: the old "Thank you, Marvin; and now..." manoeuver works wonders. Clowns want to be appreciated, and to know their place in the room: thank them and move on, and they get it.

C) By all means, have a draft curriculum: just realise that it's never going to last. It's a great place to start, from which you'll rapidly diverge, and to which you can return from time to time. For the first few sessions, anyway, you should be focussing less on teaching and more on talent ID: design drills that help you get to know the kids, their strengths and weaknesses, and that let them get to know you. Once you know what you've got, start adapting your original plan and working off it on the fly.

D) A lot of Hockey Canada's drills are, as you say, cookie cutters -- and dull ones. The main thing is variety. Too many small area games, they won't use the whole ice; too many full-ice drills, and they'll wander around aimlessly; too many skill stations, they won't learn to put it together; too many everyone-doing-the-same drills yields too much standing around. Steal anything that looks fun and interesting, from anywhere you can get it. For instance, any goalie-specific drill involving a shot and rebounds is also a goal-scoring drill, but one of the best ones involves having a guy stand at the hash-marks throwing (or more precisely, cricket-bowling) pucks down at the ice in front of the goalie to generate crazy bounces, with four guys there to whack rebounds -- and, if you like, a D or two trying to fence them out. Totally silly, but it actually simulates tipped point-shots very well, and it's unbelievably fun.

E) A skating warmup is great -- for a while, I had a couple of teams doing (and used myself before beer-league games) entirely puckless warmups, where all the shots and passes were imaginary. That was a bit extreme - and lead people to question my sanity with very good cause - but it was incredibly effective. Just don't forget about your goalies in those skating warmups: doing laps and circles will get their heart and respiration rates up, but it won't tune them up for their in-game movements; they can skate with the team for a bit, but then they need to go off and do some specific skating and movement drills on their own.

[trtaylor 3]

You've received all good responses so far. I'll add mine:

A.) Don't try to be anything but yourself. Kids will see through it. If you feel weak in an area, find someone to help who is stronger in that area. Doesn't have to always be an adult, If you are coaching bantams, see if you can interest a midget player with helping you.

B.) Be fair. Set reasonable expectations for behavior and hold the team accountable. This, with A. above, will earn the team's respect.

C.) You should have a general plan for the year, and for sure a specific plan for an individual practice. Don't take the ice unprepared. You will make adjustments during the course of the season, but don't get side tracked into trying to solve every little problem you notice your team has. Try to be smart about what things you can let go and what things need to be addressed.

D.) Drills have a place, but they are not perfect. Make up your own drills, Try to replicate game conditions (pressure) in each drill. Let them play lots of small area games (SAG). A good resource for you is www.hockeycoachingabcs.com

E. Do a 10 minute dynamic warmup before taking the ice. Don't waste ice time with warmups.

Good luck!

[chippa13 1844]

As far as drills are concerned, conditioning drills are best done near the end of practice. It gets them used to digging deep and will work wonders late in games. With skating drills, do as many of them as you can with pucks. This will teach them to get their heads up and will get them used to going full speed with pucks.

[Cams 7]

Thanks for all the input everyone. Being a person who has always been more of a follower, as opposed to a leader, I think it's more nervous anticipation that is "concerning" me. I just spoke with my 2 other coaches and trainer this weekend, and we are going to be having a get together to go over things in a couple weeks to be prepared for the HL ratings, and draft, and of course the season. This is where we will make sure we are prepared with drills, etc. ahead of time. I find it's a delicate blancing act between having drills that are too advanced, and those that are too mundane, especially at the HL level. I guess I won't know much the first week, and want to take the first practice or to, to identify skills of my kids. Generally, what they are doing now is that first practice, will be followed by 5 exhibition games, to see if they need to even out the teams. I kind of don't like this, as you get zero practice time as a team, before the games start counting.

I am participating in a Hockey Canada 2 day, intermediate (D1) coach clinic this weekend. My association recommended this, as it will supposedly cover everything I need, and will be certified to coach travel (if I choose), plus it is no upfront cost to me, as they are paying for it (ie. I don't have to pay ahead and be re-imbursed). Plus I will certified for 3 years!