At TCS Live '24 in Ann Arbour, Gardiner MacDougall paused and asked who was coaching a new team this year. I was surprised to see how many hands went up in the auditorium, but it makes sense. Hockey is a transitory sport - the players usually last one or two years on any given team, and the coaches are never too far behind. There are a thousand reasons why, but I think one of the most important ones is that coaches carry so much passion and invest so much energy every season that they ... I don't want to say get burned out, though there's certainly truth in that idea ... I think coaches want to learn and know it all. They put their heart and soul into a team, and that energy only lasts so long. It can last forever if you're on cruise control, but that's not fun or fulfilling. Gardiner MacDougall coached the University of New Brunswick Reds for precisely one century but even he turned the page in 2024 to take a job with the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats. And hey, if you last long enough you'll probably get fired so you won't have a choice, it's new team or no team!

You can bet that Gardiner's first meeting with a new team is going to be electric. I want my own approach to coaching to mirror Coach Mac's. I'm not the strongest coach in the room when it comes to systems, although I'm certainly organized, but I believe I bring energy, passion, and the sass on a daily basis. MacDougall is simply being himself when he gives his JGS presentation, and I have boat loads of respect for that. I want to follow that lead when my next training camp opens up and hit the team with a first meeting that knocks their socks off. 

How do we do that? 

Start With the End in Mind

For me, I want the players to take ownership of their development. It's called the privilege of personal responsibility. We're still a team though, so I want every player to imagine what they can do to help the team. Only when we find tasks that everybody can perform can we find our team identity. This is what I want my first meeting to capture: the aspect of team over self, the belief that as a group we can overcome so much than we can as individuals. 

I'm fired up just thinking about it!

For this we're going to do a teambuilder to help us create the best year ever. To create the best year ever we have to be purposeful - and this is coming straight from Coach Mac's presentation, but the teambuilder we're going to do is mine: Teambuilder: Create Your Team's Default Setting, Your Team Identity

Check out this snippet from MacDougall's presentation and view the full video here a membership to The Coaches Site.