You Might Be The Coach That Actually Teaches Them How to Play

It’s absolutely crazy to think, say it out loud or even write this, but there’s a high probability that you might be the coach that actually teaches players how to play the game. 

Can’t imagine a young coach reading that for the first time, and that’s some really messed up pressure if you think about it, but in this era of skill development and individual talent many young players have no clue how to fundamentally play or think the game. 

Players have all the talent and individual skill in the world, but they have no sweet clue how to apply all that skill in a game setting. They don’t know how to process it, they sure as hell don’t know how to pass or use their teammates. 

Players these days can go through an obstacle course or have all of the bells and whistles on the ice for “skills practice” and look great, but once the puck is dropped, they’re lost. For years or even decades, it was the compete opposite. I know the game as changed and the players have as well, but in the past players would arrive knowing how to play the game and various positions and coaches at the new level would potentially teach a new system or even more skills and refine the ones they possessed and there would be a big jump in their development. Obviously, that’s just not the case anymore. They are arriving with a tremendous individual skill set but are lost when it comes to applying those in game and breaking down an opponent. 

More Questions Than Answers

Probably thousands of posts and articles have been written about this topic over the last five years or so when “individual player development and skill development” has become even more prevalent in the sport. We can talk about this stuff all we want, but what are minor hockey coaches on the frontlines of this doing? 

How the hell would you coach a team of players that are skilled, but have no idea how to connect the dots and play the game?  

Are coaches ignoring it? 

Are coaches promoting a “team game” or “team first” mindset? 

Are coaches trying to supress the issue in hopes that players will figure it out on their own and still keep winning hockey games? 

With so many “skills coaches” in the mix right now, who does the player trust or listen to? How do coaches get these types of players to buy in to a complete team game or to become a complete player when there’s so much emphasis on “individual skill” development? 

We all know we are in the “highlight reel” era of the game and that potentially a decade’s worth of players don’t watch hockey and don’t see the value of sitting down and watching NHL hockey. It’s easy to point the finger at technology for the cause of that or getting the quick fix of notifications and instant satisfaction of watching a 30 second clip of an amazing play or goal, on their phones, but what does all that mean to player and game. 

I’ll never forget the day after Sid the Kid, scored a Michigan with the Penguins, I had young high school players, sophomores to be exact whose shot wouldn’t hurt a fly trying to pick the puck up like Crosby did. I didn’t want to be the one to stifle their creativity, but I remember looking at them and saying, “Cripes almighty guys, go work on your shot, when in the hell are you going to use that in a game.”  

You see the player these days can see the value in being skilled, but the vast majority of players can’t see the value in learning how to process and play the game the right way. Players are so fixated on or driven by trying to do something spectacular or game altering, that they have no idea that the little things or details of the game gets them noticed more than being on some highlight reel scoring your 5th of the season while you have no concept how to play in traffic, compete, battle or let a lone pass the puck. The defensive side of the game is like foreign territory for them. It’s not much wonder why these types of players live on the outside or the perimeter of the ice. It’s not much wonder why we see so much entitlement now in the game given that mindset; “Well, that’s not my job, I’m skilled, I’m suppose to get the puck when I want it, where I want it so I can score goals.” 

“But The Game Is Supposed to Be Fun”

Remember growing up and going to practice. Remember how fun practice to use to be. It wasn’t work or it didn’t seem like that at the time. Of course, we knew when practices were going to be tough especially when we didn’t play well, but practices were always fun. They were fun because we worked on things, we worked on individual stuff and team stuff because those aspects were built into the vary fabric of every practice. Everything we worked on growing up in practice had purpose, it meant something whether it was to improve individually or as an entire group.

I’m not sure when all that changed, but it definitely did. Perhaps it came about when some coaches started to implement systems at too young of an age. Trapping and setting 1-3-1’s up in Atom and Pee Wee become common place because that’s you win hockey games, right?

Perhaps all this “skill development” started as a quiet rebellion against those “old school” defence first coaches out there. Maybe, just maybe coaches saw where the game was going or had some foresight that things were going to open up and that “skill” was going to become everything in our great game. So, when did this monumental paradigm shift start?

I don’t anyone in their right mind would say this era of players aren’t as skilled as players in the past, but where does hockey sense rank amongst “individual skill” these days?

From a scouting perspective I know where I rank hockey sense and it’s pretty damn high on my list.  

Did the pendulum swing too far? Did the advent of systems, create systematic hockey playing robots? Did that create the “skill development” utopia that we are presently experiencing in the game?

The game might be better than ever, but how the vast majority of players play it, isn’t. It’s almost like a delusionary sense of awareness or a trance that players and parents have now when it comes to skill acquisition and skill development. They would do and pay just about anything to acquire it or question it from every conceivable place in hopes of that being the great separator on their journey in the game.

Is the game better with increased skill? Of course.

Is the game in a great place right now? Yes, but the hockey collective still have to have some insight on where the game and players are trending in order to see the forest for the trees.

We didn’t want systematic hockey playing robots, but we don’t want ultra skilled players that have no clue how to play the game either. The pendulum swung and some might say it’s still swinging. Now it’s up to coaches to figure things out and what to promote or instill as valuable or essential for the player develop and thrive at the next level.

You might be the coach that actually teaches them the game. You might be the coach that they remember and credit for teaching them the game, not the coach that gave them all the skill to go through an obstacle course.