Amy de Bree has been learning and teaching hockey and the skills it requires for more than 20 years. She is currently the Head Coach of the Greater Vancouver Comets female U18 AAA team.

During her Virtual Hockey Summit presentation, de Bree discussed the ways coaches can help players increase their creativity in game play, touching on skill development, drill selection, and the role of the team environment.

“Athletes these days aren’t watching games like they used to, a lot of them are watching highlights and seeing small snippets of the game,” she explained. “They’re practicing what they see over and over again and what’s happening is they’re practicing, but it’s not necessarily showing up in the games.”

Bring that creativity into game-play is de Bree’s goal in her presentation. The 27-minute chat touches on the importance of having a solid team environment, featuring mistakes based learning, how best to give feedback and when, skill acquisition and how our brains and bodies learn skills, and building practice that helps your athletes. 

The role of stress on players is also discussed, and practice drills are shared.

de Bree’s hockey resume includes two seasons as the Video Coordinator for the UBC Women’s Varsity Hockey team and 10 seasons of coaching with the Vancouver Thunderbirds Minor Hockey Association; she has also been heavily involved in the U18 Team BC program.

de Bree holds a Master of Education in Coaching Studies for the University of Victoria and is a High Performance Level 1 Coach. She is also the Owner and Operator of Athletetransitions.ca and the Women in Sport Speaker Series.