This story will help you no matter what level you are and by using software that most of you already have on your computer.
Creating a “playbook” for your team is important, but where to start? This story will help you no matter what level you are and by using software that most of you already have on your computer.
The idea behind this is to allow coaches to, firstly, have a guideline of how to create a “playbook” and help coaches who hockey might not be their full-time job, to have a better idea on how to prepare themselves and their team with systems/structure/concepts, so everyone is on the same page. We won’t begin with a 400-600 page playbook, similar to football. But we will start somewhere, and from there, you will be able to add whatever you feel comfortable with.
Let’s dig into this Part 1 of creating a “playbook.”
Where to start?
If you are like me, starting from a blank page is a nightmare. I wouldn’t say I like it, but you have to start somewhere and somehow.
- PowerPoint can be your best friend, and most of you already have access to it. It might be tricky in the beginning, but with practice, you can build everything within the software and present it to your players.
- Finding a practice/drill software that allows you to have a diagram of a rink, save your systems and be more professional. If you don’t have the resource for it, don’t worry, we can also use PowerPoint.
- Find pictures from your team that you could add to your playbook to make it more personal.
- Have/create a cloud base or YouTube account, making it easier to upload parts of your playbook and share them with your players.
Be sexy
I know, I know, you might think you don’t have the artistic touch in you, but one thing I’ve noticed is that if your playbook is not appealing, you will not be able to catch the eyes of the players. Your front page should have a wow factor. PowerPoint allows you to add colours, pictures and different fonts. You can always use the Internet, and if your job has access to Canva, you will have more options. On my end and in my free time, I spend a lot of time tweaking with the art work, and I always try to come up with something new every year, but that’s just me.
You need a cover page to start your playbook:
A front page for every title you will have:
A typical page for your drawing/writing:
Drawing is everything
Now, if you are like me, you still use a lot of pen and paper for your drills and keep your old stuff in a binder. As I said, there are many different drill programs you can subscribe to and start using for your playbook. But if you don’t have one, don’t worry. I still use PowerPoint for this. The only issue is that you have to create a template of everything you need before you start. You only have to copy/paste your drawing, making your life easier. I will share the setup for PowerPoint with all the tools you might need at the end of the playbook series. Lastly, ensure you have three types of rinks with you and not always draw on an entire rink, especially if you want to show in-zone stuff, a diagram of half a rink makes it easier to visualize and see as a player.
Video or not?
Not everyone has access to NHL games or any online video platform to clip videos. But again, I got you. It’s always nice to show some highlights from Makar or McDavid (most of them can be found on YouTube, btw). What I highly suggest here is to use your previous year for your videos. Players love to relate to the NHL/World Championships/Olympics, but it’s even better to see it from players they probably played with/against and that it was possible to do it in the same league. I suggest adding video for most of the systems you are showing to your players. Not only will you talk about it, but you will also have a picture to show it and video to back everything up. You don’t need five minutes of video for everything, that’s too long. Three to five clips should be enough for your systems, unless you want to do a more in-depth break down.
Quality of the video
For the last topic in Part 1 I’ll discuss is how good does the quality of the video need to be? You can do it in three ways, and I’ll show you below. It will depend on your knowledge and budget, because there are a couple of options. You can do a standard video and you will pause it and talk it over, or you can do beyond that.
You use a video without any drawing. Stop where you want to show/teach something to your players. Talk over, and when it’s done, you press play. For many coaches, that’s the way to do it, and it’s perfect.
Stopped drawing:
A lot of video software allows you to draw circles, arrows and more on your video. In this one, the video will automatically stop for “x” number of seconds with your drawing on it. You are making it more understandable for the players, and you can do it with Adobe Premiere Pro.
Tracking video
Who doesn’t like watching an NHL game intermission, listening to the commentators talking about what they saw, seeing circles around a player, and following him on the ice? This one is even better and adds a plus value to your video. Most hockey video software has this option, and some online software allows you to do that with any video. You can always use Adobe After Effect, but it’s way more complicated and time-consuming.
This is it for Part 1. You have everything you need to start building your playbook and where to head. Make sure to watch for Part 2. I’ll show you how you can create the whole thing and what not to forget inside the playbook.
