READING THE GAME: Hockey Sense Starts with Knowing Your Game (2:8)

By Coach Barry Jones IIHF Level 3 High Performance | USA Hockey Level 3 Performance | Head Coach Perth Inferno AWIHL

Hockey Sense Starts with Knowing Your Game

Strengths, constraints, and how players experience time and pressure

Hockey IQ doesn’t begin with systems or tactics. It begins with self awareness.

Before players can recognise opportunities in the game, they need to understand who they are inside it, and just as importantly, how the game responds to them.

This isn’t about labels. It’s about action capabilities.

Players Don’t Enter the Game the Same Way

Every player enters the game with a unique set of constraints.

Speed. Strength. Size. Reach. Coordination. Confidence. Experience.

These constraints do not limit intelligence. They shape how intelligence shows up.

What a player is capable of doing determines what information stands out, which opportunities become visible, and what actions remain stable under pressure.

Strengths Shape Perception, Not Just Action

A player’s strengths don’t only influence how they act. They influence what they notice.

Speed tunes players into separation and timing. Strength tunes players into contact and protection. Skill tunes players into deception and manipulation. Reach tunes players into spatial control.

Hockey IQ develops when players learn to lean into these tendencies, rather than override them.

Affordances Are Personal, Not Universal

Affordances are opportunities for action that emerge from the relationship between the player and the environment.

A passing lane that exists for one player may not exist for another. A delay that creates time for one player may collapse it for someone else.

Hockey IQ grows when players learn to recognise which opportunities fit their game.

Constraints Are Information, Not Flaws

Weaknesses are better understood as constraints or rate limiters.

They don’t indicate a lack of intelligence. They indicate where action possibilities narrow under pressure.

A slower player experiences time differently. A smaller player manipulates space differently.

When Strengths Collapse Under Pressure

Many players understand their strengths in low pressure environments, but struggle to access them when time collapses.

This is not a confidence issue. It is a psychological constraint of time and pressure.

If players have not experienced this compression in training, their strengths disappear when the game speeds up.

Why Traditional Development Often Misses This

Many development models focus on what players should do, but leave little space for players to discover which strengths hold up under pressure and where time becomes a limiter.

When learning is coach centred, players rehearse solutions before understanding how they function under constraint.

Self Awareness Before Skill Expansion

Before players can expand their Hockey IQ, they need clarity.

Where do I create time? Where do I lose it? What situations suit my strengths? What situations collapse them?

This awareness emerges through interaction with the game.

Where We’re Going Next

The next article will explore time and pressure as central constraints in Hockey IQ development, and how learning environments can be designed to expose athletes to these demands safely and effectively.

Author Bio: Barry Jones is an IIHF Level 3 High Performance Coach and USA Hockey Level 3 Performance Coach. He currently serves as Head Coach of the Perth Inferno (AWIHL) and leads the Blaze Development Program. His work blends ecological dynamics, nonlinear design, and athlete-centred leadership to build adaptive teams that thrive in uncertainty.

Time · Pressure · Perception · Options · Action. Hockey IQ