Let's talk about that sweet spot between the end of training camp and the start of your regular season. It's bonding time.
Let’s talk about that sweet spot between the end of training camp and the start of your regular season, that special time when optimism mingles with ambition because no one in the league has lost a game yet. Your roster is manageable, you can begin forging real relationships with new players and building on relationships with returning players.
For me, this is the time when the word rookie is retired for the season. Prior to training camp there’s a rookie camp, and that’s fine – rookie camp is focused on prospects competing with their peers and the chance to participate in main camp. But once that’s over, there are no more rookies, only first-year players and returning players. Everyone will be a unique and important contributor on the journey to come.
This is one of the most exciting times of the year, and if you navigate it right and create an indestructible foundation through team building, then every player, trainer, coach, and staff member will have a base of strong culture to which they can return to when the journey inevitably gets bumpy.
This is the final post in a six part series called Training Camp Exceptional. Here’s the criteria we used:
Age Groups
As the range of contributing coaches demonstrates, we made a distinction between training camp and tryouts. This series is generally intended for junior hockey and older, though many elements will no doubt apply to U18 and younger.
Content
Each post will cover the bones of training camp, from the planning, implementation, and fall-out. Hopefully you’ll get some inspiration or knowledge to help you run your next camp.
- Training Camp Exceptional Part 1: Schedules, volunteers & extras
- Training Camp Exceptional Part 2: On-ice training camp options
- Training Camp Exceptional Part 3: Pre-game guidance and communication
- Training Camp Exceptional Part 4: Training camp evaluation
- Training Camp Exceptional Part 5: Exit meetings
- Training Camp Exceptional Part 6: Post-camp teambuilding
An Exceptional Foundation
The culture of your team is like a compass. When its hands are pointed in the right direction, you’re on course and you’re making good time, learning and developing at an efficient pace. Everyone marches in a straight line, even though perspectives along the way are unique to the individual experiencing them.
If the line is tight, the leadership is strong, and everyone believes in the direction of the compass, you’ll get to where you’re going eventually.
Rapid City Rush head coach Scott Burt takes care to navigate time following training camp’s conclusion at the official start of the season.
“Even when players are moving on, everyone knows everyone else. It can be a tough transition. So once the final intersquad game is finished, I make sure there’s time that night and the next day to say goodbyes and get plans in place. After that we can exhale and get excited as we head into the first meeting with the team. It’s exciting, this will be the team that’s going to start the season together. We’ll talk about expectations and the season plan moving forward, and follow that with a team building event which could be a golf outing, a BBQ, or something fun that lets the team get to know each other.”
- Scott Burt, Rapid City Rush
Team Building
If training camp is like Christmas, then team building opportunities are like New Years. As Scott says, it’s a chance to collectively exhale, players and staff alike, and start nailing up the scaffolding of the foundation.
Hockey is a game best played when there’s trust in every aspect of the program. When coaches trust each other and the message they are conveying, there’s more willingness to engage with players. When players trust each other, there’s more willingness to take chances in a game because they know a teammate will back them up or be in the right spot for an outlet pass or in coverage. An individual’s development rarely follows a straight line, but it’s through trust and encouragement that a player builds confidence and poise, thereby contributing to the team at a greater rate throughout the season.
The result is that we can draw a straight line in permanent marker from team building to winning hockey games. Team building is fun, scoring goals is fun, winning is fun. The players are happy, the coaches are happy, the fans are happy, ownership, sponsors – you get the jist. Investing in team building after training camp is like investing in a low-risk, high reward clean energy penny stock that pays weekly dividends.
Just make it fun.
“My fifth year guys are all over me, stopping in the office multiple times, sending texts late at night, asking what we’re doing for teambuilding. The veterans know that part of it is so important, they’ve totally bought into the culture that you and I started years ago. They can’t wait to show off that culture to their new teammates. Once camp is over it’s not about the x’s and o’s at that point, it’s about the culture and coming together as a family, and that pays off on the ice in the long run. It’s something my current assistant and I are working on right now, we want to do as much off-ice bonding as we can.”
- Sven Butenschon, UBC Thunderbirds
Kickstart Your Team’s Identity
The way you implement your team builders and the early days of practice will go a long way toward shaping the identity of your team. Put something on the line and watch the competitive fire burn. A simple beach volleyball tournament or baseball game that rewards the winners can turn legendary quick.
An additional benefit is the identification of leadership. If you give ownership to the players then leaders will inevitably emerge. Hopefully it doesn’t devolve into a Lord Of The Flies situation, although in that case at least you know early. Sometimes the last person you expect will take charge of teams, or the score, or the refreshments – whatever the details are, look for the helpers. That’s a universal statement that applies to society now more than ever, but it won’t always be the loudest voices that are pointing the compass in the right direction. The leaders of your team will be vital when the score counts and the moment is intense. Look for poise.
On-Ice
The practice before a teambuilding event is often wildly different from the practice after a team building event (for various reasons), but it will always be accompanied by a tighter vibe. Players will branch out and talk to new people and there will be excitement in the room along with the camaraderie.
So it’s the perfect time to smash that camaraderie together on the ice. Confident players who work as hard as they can demand the same of their teammates. The stretch before the season starts is the perfect time to ignite that competition on the ice. Small area games designed with purpose can extract that competition and teach systems play at the same time. Capitalize on the eagerness of the players to set the tone for the season and build your opening night lines and pairings based on that early pace.
I have a folder bookmarked with purposeful game videos which includes these excellent presentations from Derek Lalonde and Dave Starman:
Culture is a Process
“I’m just excited for what lies ahead for our group and growing together throughout the process!”
- Kris Mallette, Kelowna Rockets
Since we’re building lines for game 1 of the regular season, that must mean we’ve reached the end of Training Camp Exceptional. Taking a bird’s eye view of the project, one thing that really resonates with me is how methodical we can be as coaches when we’re building this type of experience.
- We’ve kept the players organized in focused in part 1.
- We’ve engaged the players on the ice in part 2 and part 3.
- We’ve trained our eyes and our minds to evaluate in part 4.
- We’ve said our goodbyes with tact and welcomed new players with enthusiasm in part 5.
- And in part 6 we’ve welcomed a new team and set the tone.
I didn’t think about lines once as we went through this series, part by part, which I think is because, in my brain at least, it’s impossible to predict the winning formula without first going through the process. We all brainstorm our lines and our special teams units throughout the summer before camp starts, but there’s no replacement for the results of competition throughout training camp. Seek exceptional results by creating an exceptional training camp experience and you’ll attract exceptional players and people to your program as a result.
Just in time to drop the puck.
