TIPS
FROM THE PROS
SUPPLEMENT - HOCKEY TIPS
Glen Goodall & Stan Goodall
PASSING |
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TEAMPLAY |
PRACTICE |
The following hockey tips and quotes are from the series of books 'Tips From the Pros'. Each Link above takes you to exerpts from the full books. To order any of the full books in print form or on disk, click Here.
Quotes of Note
"As it turned out, he just kept getting better and better and he made everybody around him play better and better. As a result we were a better team. And he wanted to perform above the Xs and Os and be the great winner and leader that he was and is..... but I think the greatest compliment you can pay anyone is that he played the game at such a level it was contagious and those around him knew they had to play to the best of their ability in order to remain on the same field with this guy. It made the games feel like they were so easy compared to practices."
"At the end of each season, you get to look back and be proud of what you've accomplished. Everybody strives to be remembered. It's kind of scary that you want to be successful and you think to yourself , 'Was I a little bit lucky last year? Did things just happen to fall into place?' If you don't stay on edge like that and you don't keep focusing on what you're doing, you have a tendency to become complacent." Flutie with Perry Lefko
"I believe that people can make choices and make them according to their own best aspirations. I also believe that people seldom make these choices. Instead, they blame the world, the society and others for their "fate" and waste much of their life complaining" Henri J.M. Nouwen
Once you have made up your mind to be a hockey player, there will be many choices to make. Sometimes the choices are difficult and require much sacrifice. The easy choice is to do nothing towards conditioning and skill building and then proceed to blame coaches, parents, and other players for your poor performance.
"The only way to change bad habits is to replace them with new ones."
"People ask me now, 'Were you scared?' Nearly everyone's motivated by fear in some form. I was afraid that I wouldn't do a good job, that the business would be a complete failure." Michael Dell, Dell Computers
"Could five Wayne Gretzky's beat five Steve Yzerman's? A hypothetical question that is impossible to answer, but I have a sneeking suspicion that the latter would come out on top. Wayne Gretxky may be the greatest offensive player of all time and not too shabby on defense, but when it comes to toughness, he is not at the top of the list. A player should always be striving to become the complete player that all coaches are looking for."
Boasting about your accomplishments will not win you many friends. However, there is a sweet kind, more joyous and good-spirited than arrogant and mean-spirited. Some players use this type of play as motivation to back up their words with their play; if they talk big then they have to deliver big. It is often part of the driving desire to be the best, and the ability of a player to motivate himself and to use any rebuffs, real or imagined, to drive him forward. It is the type of player that you often hear referred to as: "Don't get him mad or he is likely to come back and haunt you."
"The way to improvement is often very difficult, for it is not easy to give up our self sufficiency and to put our trust in the only factor that leads to improvement - conditioning and practice."
"And McCloskey spotted in Rodman a passion to excel that was special. 'That was what drew me, you could look at him and see it - it almost burned in his eyes.' No team was stronger in what Johnny Bach called 'the alligator pond,' the area around the basket, than Detroit was with Lambeer, Mahorn, Salley, and Rodman."
"If you wanted their crown, you had to work harder and you could not look to the refs, because they were not going to give it to you. The more you asked them for calls, the less likely you were to get them. The way of the world was unfair: Champions did not ask for calls, champions got calls.
"Late in the 1994 season, as his (Grant) existing four-year contract was coming to an end, he seemed wary of sustaining any injury that might affect his ability to sign with another team, and he missed a number of games with what the coaches and management thought was the basketball equivalent of the blue flu. His teammates were irritated with him. (You can't blame a player for looking out for his own interest, but you can see it in today's NHL - player's who sign a big contract and then go downhill.)
"Lakers practices were serious business. Everything was scripted, and no time was to be lost. The enforcer was Johnson. He was the first player there every day for practice, wanting to get his own head right sitting there by his locker, thinking of what he needed to do himself, and then checking out the other players. He did not want a lot of noise in the locker room, particularly before a game. He wanted nothing to break his concentration. No boom boxes - if someone wanted music, let him use earphones. The lesson was clear: This was a business office, not a social or athletic club." Playing For Keeps, David Halberstam
"We both recognized that inspiration, like enthusiasm, is extinguished unless it is refueled. Just as you need a balanced diet and vitamins to renew your physical body, you need Vitamin I - Inspiration - for the maintenance of a healthy mind and a healthy attitude." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill
You are not always going to find the praise and inspiration you need from coaches and parents. Inspiration has to come from within - a love of the game and a desire to be the best that you can be.
"How often do you look at those around you and say, 'I could do any of their jobs better than they can if I only had the opportunity,' never realizing the price they have paid and the knowledge they have accumulated to earn the right to hold that position? It's easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback and second-guess the actions of others. But it's far more productive to recognize the contributions of others and give them the credit for a job well-done."
It is common to envy the ice-time of other players, but more often than not they have earned their right to the ice-time. Maybe in the very smallest age groups ice-time is divided equally, but once players reach the 'elite' level, ice-time has to be earned.
"No one can help you overcome a lack of commitment to your own life and improvement. If you don't have it, no one can provide it for you. You must demand it of yourself.
"In fact he (Jordan) did fail to make it as a professional baseball player, but I havent' heard anyone describe Michael as a loser or as a failure. He experienced failure, as we all wo at one time or another, but he moved on with his dynamic life, looking for new challenges. This is why, in the second half of Jordan's basketball career, his opponents frequently talk more about his mental toughness than his physical skills. Michael they say, can beat you through his sheer force of will. One thing Jordan did not fear, obviously was criticism from others. But many people are paralyzed by a fear of being criticized. What will people say? What will they think about me? How can I handle their criticism?
"Those who procrastinate because they have a fear of failure believe that they are better off not trying than trying and failing. You like being stuck because it brings you sympathy. sympathy may be one form of attention, but it is hardly uplifting or inspiring." You Can Make It Happen, Stedman Graham.
"The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the lazy, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing someone grow rich, they say, 'How lucky they are!' Observing another become a renowned scholar, they exclaim, 'How highly favored they are!' and noting the saintly character and wide influence of others, they remark, 'How luck aids them at every turn!'
"They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men and women have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; they have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart."
"Those who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; those who would achieve much must sacrifice much; those who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly."
James Allen: As A Man Thinketh.
Quotes of Note
Whenever you think of giving up in a game or at a try-out camp, think of Terry Fox. He lost his leg to cancer. He didn't give up. He started on a cross-Canada walk.
"He practices but he wasn't committed. He had a uniform and would show up to play, but never with enthusiasm."
"A lot of people are waiting for their ship to come in even though they never sent one out."
Everyone feels that they are immune from the influences of bad company. But experience proves differently. A bad influence is more likely to swamp the intentions of the good, than a good influence is to win over the deviants.
That the mind has a tremendous influence over the body and that much disease can be overcome through the mind is unquestionably true. Likewise with performance in any sport. Peak performance has to begin in the mind. It doesn't just happen through luck.
"Avoid those players who create dissension. Or, for that matter, players who are content to remain in idleness in their 'comfort zone' and who will not work. They are on the way down and would like nothing better than to take you with them."
"We're no worse than anyone else." A poor excuse for lack of accomplishment, and yet, it is the prevailing attitude of many players. When you are comparing yourselves to the average, there is not much hope of rising to the elite.
"Many players have the idea that perfection is an attainable goal. Our perfectionist voice can point us in a positive direction, but it may set such high standards that it's impossible to attain them. We can appreciate our inner perfectionist for its well-meaning attempt to make us perfect, but we must stop expecting ourselves to achieve the impossible"
The above two quotes may seem contradictory, however, the important point is that there is a balance. Neither perfection nor mediocrity, but a striving to be better tomorrow than you are today.
Sometimes the inner motivation comes first, but sometimes external pressures move you into action that may not have come from inside yourself. If we do things only from outer motivation, we lose our inspiration. We have to balance the two. Our primary relationship is with ourselves, and ultimately that's the only one that can provide the foundation for success.
"There are always difficult times. We have to become conscious of what doesn't work before we can become conscious of what to do about it. It's usually when things begin to fall apart that we finally realize there's got to be a different way of doing things. We have to be shaken up. At first it's very frightening. It seems like a disaster, but it opens the door to a renewed effort to find what does work."
"Thomas Jefferson once said that a majority is one man with the courage of his convictions. Prudent bankers have learned that persons of character are always a good risk because they take their obligations seriously while those who spend their resources on the trappings of success should be avoided at all costs."
Players who are only concerned with goals and assists at the expense of concern for the plus/minus ratings are a poor risk. It is just as important to stop a shot on your own goal as it is to create a shot on the opposition's net.
"You may make mistakes occasionally - everyone does - but any action is far better than doing nothing. If you focus on your inadequacies, you will be plagued by fear, doubt, and failure, but when you focus on your strengths, you will find courage, confidence and success. When you start to doubt your capabilities, pause to review your previous accomplishments."
"You cannot maintain a positive, productive attitude if you spend all your time wilth negative people.
The most insidious problem with drugs is that the human body develops a tolerance for them and requires larger and larger doses to achieve the same effect. The same is true with self-pity. The more you allow yourself to indulge in it, the more you will require. Whether you have good or bad luck depends far more upon your reaction to circumstances than to the circumstances themselves." (You can follow the crowd or you can follow your own convictions.) Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill.
In just about every case, the superstars have earned their success. Are you willing to put in the effort in practices and studying the game to deserve your success. You may not be able to achieve everything you'd like, but you won't accomplish anything unless you believe you can. Successful players don't allow themselves to be bored, because they are always seeking ways to do things faster, better, and more efficiently.
"I think what separated me in my time was I had a passion for the game, I was dedicated to it. I prepared myself for each and every game. I really felt like I had never done enough. If I had three goals, I wanted it to be five goals. If I had seven points, I wanted to get the eighth point. so I never stopped playing, approaching each game like it was a Stanley Cup playoff game. Maybe that's why I have the records I did eventually get."Wayne Gretzky
"It becomes easy to excuse our failures and get into a blaming mode, condemning most everything around us. There will always be those people who look for reasons to put you down in order to elevate themselves. It's a fact of life." You Can Make It Happen, Stedman Graham.
"One cannot play decent golf when irritated. It is as simple as that. And I was damned if I was going to let my utterly unreasonable anger prevent me from playing well and enjoying it. What about reasonable anger, however? Am I not right to do so? This anger I have not yet learned how to deal with. It is righteous anger, anger with cause, reasonable anger. But it screws up my game just as much as any other kind of anger, and while I have begun to work on it, I still have a long way to go. Good golf requires a calm mind. There is a vast difference between the absence of emotion and disciplined emotion. It is the latter I need to learn.
"Why such opposing feelings of elation and depression! We humans are creatures with a will of our own living in a world that often doesn't behave the way we want it to. This is frustrating. It means we spend a fair amount of our time being angry." Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck
AN EXERCISE IN DISCIPLINE
"When I shoot, I just want my shot to be on the net." Bobby Orr. It might be added that he has a distinct habit of keeping any shots below the knees as you would see if you watched his instructional video.
I recently watched a game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. It was billed as a 'prospects' game. In other words, players not scheduled to play in the NHL immediately, but possibly some time in the future. As such, the players had high expectations, It was an important game for them, they were trying to impress the many observers in the stands. One thing especially stood out when watching the Oilers pre-game warm-up. When taking the customary shots from out near the blueline, not one shot out of a couple of hundred shots was off the glass. About 95percent of the shots were on the net and below the knees. Contrast this with the majority of other teams and a survey will indicate that as much as 40 percent of shots will be off the net or an easy glove catch for the goaltender. A coincidence? Maybe. But I prefer to think that it was a policy of Glen Sather. With a limited budget, he cannot afford the high-priced superstars, and therefore has to rely on disciplined shooting. There are simply not enough scoring chances in a game to 'blow' one by missing the net.
It takes discipline. The natural movement of the stick when taking a shot is up, resulting in a high shot. You have to force yourself to keep the follow-through close to the ice in order to keep the resulting shot low.
SEEING THE PATH FROM THE STICK
How many games are lost because shots are deflected into the stands or into the defenders
shin pads? Successful defenders play for the deflection or they line themselves up with your stick
preventing the shot from reaching the net.
One of the skills of top goal-scorers is the ability to determine the line of the shot, not
from their body position, but from the blade of their sticks. When they shoot, it is not a hope-and-a-
prayer that the puck will reach the net. They know the line from the stick to the net and they
know when the shot will get through.
You don't have to have a computer brain to make this calculation of the line from the stick
instead of your head position, but some practice will definitely improve your perception. Try it
when going one-on-one in practices. A wind up for the shot will line the defensemen up with the
puck on your stick. At the last moment, stop the shot, pull it back, reach out a foot or two and let
go a wrist shot. The position of the puck for a slap shot is relatively close to the skates. It is not
difficult to stretch the arms out a foot or two to get the puck past the defender.
It would be nice if you could position a 'dummy' on the ice for practicing this move, but
such is usually not available. You will have to use some other obstacles and bring in some
visualization to train your eyes to see the line from the blade of your stick. Top producing
defensemen like Ray Bourque do not get a multitude of shots because they are lucky. They are
able to see the line from the blade of their sticks and make the slight adjustment to open up the
line as they are releasing their shots. They don't necessarily get more chances - they make better
use of their chances.
For defensemen this skill is a must and only slightly less for a forward with any intention
of building up the stats and winning games. Frequently, the 'surprise' element of the shot will
compensate for the slight loss of 'hardness'. As well, there may be a teammate driving for the net
unseen, who will capitalize on any rebounds. You don't have to be on top of the goaltender to
score - anywhere inside the blueline is a scoring opportunity - especially if the shots are kept low.
A blocked shot or into the stands is an opportunity lost.
THE ART OF FOCUSING
Billy Martin was a controversial player, coach and manager in big-league baseball. One thing he said in his book, Number 1, stands out. "He'd make me sit in a restaurant and stare at a wall without blinking my eyes. I'd practice that for hours. Try it sometime. It isn't easy. He had me do that because he felt that when you were up to the plate, the ball would go by so fast that if you accidently blinked, that fraction of a second would be enough of a distraction to make you miss the ball."
Anyone who has watched Patrick Roy closely is well aware of his 'blinking' and head jerking. It seems to contradict the above, but what we are seeing is usually the time between plays. Could it be that he is so focused during the play that he has to catch up on his blinking once the whistle blows.
When the punter 'shanks' the ball 10 or 15 yards off his foot, chances are he's aiming the ball - he's lost his focus. When a golfer 'shanks' the ball into the woods, chances are he took his eye off the ball (blinked?) during the downswing, he's lost his focus. When a hockey player misses the net on a shot or misses the target on a pass (the stick) chances are he's lost his focus.
Being able to 'focus' on the task at hand is a prerequisite for completing the task. Obviously, if you look away from the target when passing or shooting, you have lost focus. A baseball player who glances at the runner on first when the pitch is on the way is not going to hit the ball - he can't re-focus fast enough. In the Book on Faking, we discuss the matter of looking one way and passing or shooting another. Fine and good, but the player has to accept the fact that he will be giving up a high degree of accuracy. The focus is lost.
Whether or not blinking at the wrong time is a factor in shooting/passing accuracy may be debatable; but, I happen to think along with Billy Martin. It would be interesting to see a close-up video of Gretzky's eyes as he stands behind the net looking for a teammate's stick. I would bet heavily that there are not many 'blinks of the eye'. The eyes are marvellous in their design and are able to focus quickly; but when it comes to the fast-paced game of hockey can they focus fast enough without some practice. Through the practice of deep looking, you become free to pick out the small openings through a maze of players to the net or a teammate's stick. It is the difference between sitting on the beach daydreaming, taking in everything, as opposed to picking out the one sailboat out of hundreds in the distance. Everyone can do it; but can you do it fast enough?
Looking deeply does not come naturally; but, when you set your mind to it, it can become a habit. And habits are developed in practice sessions. How many times have you sat on the bench or in the stands and seen the play that the puck carrier should have made. The stars of hockey are able to focus during the heat of the action. Lesser players lose their ability to focus on their surroundings once the puck is on their stick.
Focusing does not mean standing still while the game goes on around you. You become focused with your action - that is the goal.
Quotes of Note
"Bondra's slapshot from a tight angle in the left circle went between goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck's legs to tie the game with 3:55 remaining. Then with 2:57 to play, Bondra beat Vanbriesbourck on the stick side, again from the left circle to give the capitals the lead for good. "It's not a bad play to shoot a puck," said Bondra, "if I didn't shoot, the goal wouldn't be there."
A shot on goal from the blueline is available many times during a game. When a player shoots the puck high - above the knees - he takes away all chances of a tip-in goal. As well, he plays into the two best weapons of the goaltender, his hands. It should also be noted that pucks coming from the blueline above the knees will discourage the most courageous players from entering this zone. Only a fool would drive for the net when there is a chance that a puck will be whistling around his ears.
"In baseball a common adage is, 'Swing for hits, not home runs. Go for the highest batting average rather than trying to hit a home run every time. If your competitor is batting .300, you want to bat .350 or .400. No one's batting 1.000, so you can't worry about it.
"In hockey there is a similar adage. Go for more shots on goal. It doesn't take a big booming slap shot to score a goal. But there is a slight difference in the analogy - shooting percentage is not a meaningful statistic when appraising the top goal scorers. More often than not, they will have a low scoring percentage - meaning that they take a great quantity of shots in relation to the goals produced. Check out the stats, you will find that top goal scorers have poor shooting percentages."
It starts in practices when players have spare time or as part of the regular shooting drills . Over and over again they blast away at the puck striving to perfect the timing of their slap shot. With much time and practice they may succeed in developing a heavy slap shot. But there is a downside. When the game starts, their whole thinking is geared around this impressive slap shot. However, game time is different than practice time. A whole game game could go by without the opposition allowing you the room needed to get the shot away, and do not be mistaken, you need plenty of room to get the shot away. Meanwhile opportunities are missed when players fail to take snap shots, backhand shots, or wrist shots. Watch games closely and you will see the opportunities go by as players are trying to set up for the big slap shot. It turns coaches hair grey.
Always there is the feeling that shots should only be from a position directly in front of the net or close to it. One coach used to say: "I don't care where you shoot from as long as the shot is on the goaltender's pads. You will not score very often when shooting from a so-called bad angle, but you will set up the plays where goals are scored on rebounds and scrambles around the net. You may even score a goal or two through the pads."
The ability to create shots is one of the characteristics that separates the average players from the elite. They use their speed, quickness, and puckhandling ability to gain that little extra time to take the shot or make the pass to a teammate in the clear. As players progress, the defensive abilities of the opposition become tougher and tougher making the player who can create shots on net more valuable.
Even at the NHL level, more one-timer shots miss the net than hit the net. And even those on the net give the goaltender so much advance warning, that he is able to move out and totally block off the goal. A one-timer requires a relatively soft pass and lots of room. If you want to waste scoring chances, make use of the one-timer; but, make sure that you spend hours on the practice rink perfecting the shot. Or, you could spend your practice time developing more accuracy and quick release of other shots with more promising results.
Some teams go so far as to gear their whole power play on developing the one-timer shot. Wouldn't it be better if the team played the odds. Take the pass, move in a step or two, if available, and let go a wrist or snap shot on the net with a chance for a rebound. Only an idiot would remain in the slot area when he knows an uncontrollable one-timer is on the way. When you lose scoring chances while atempting the almost impossible, you may look good on one out of 20 opportunities and a fool the other 19 chances..
"The angle is never impossible when you score."
"I would say there is nobody who has scored more 'bad' goals than Brett (Hull). A bad goal is one scored in the middle of the net half hard." Andy Moog
"Brett could kill you with a lot of different shots." Eddie Johnston
There is no doubt that Brett Hull could shoot hard and get away a blistering slap shot, but so can hundreds of other players in the NHL when they have the time and space to get it away. The secret of Hull's success is not so much how hard his shot is, but that he gets it away in limited space, and very, very, quickly. And, of course, he takes lots of shots and gets them on the net.
"Jagr learned four seasons ago that more shots means more goals. 'I knew I could score a lot more goals than I did and I knew my weakness was (not enough) ugly goals and (not enough) shooting, he said. 'I knew when I was shooting more in 95/96, I had like 400 shots and I scored 60 goals. '
"To be precise, Jagr totaled 403 shots in 95/96 and scored a career best 62 goals. Last season, his totals were 343 shots and 44 goals. That's simply not enough shooting for a player with Jagr's array of shots.
"'His shot is especially great because of how quickly he releases the puck,' said Penguins' goaltender Peter Skudra. 'the goalie really has to be set to make the save.'
"Jagr's first eight goals this season included six laser-like wrist shots, a one-time slapshot from 45 feet and a neat little backhand rebound. He hadn't even scored on one of his patented dekes - and those were virtually all he used to score on.' Penguins assistand coach Troy Ward often feeds Jagr pucks in practice. 'I've passed to every guy on this team for three years now and the quality of his shooting practice is unbelievable.' Ward said. 'The intensity with which he goes at it and the work he puts in is second to none. He's the one guy who could say, 'I'm the best in the world, I don't need to work on this.' He doesn't settle for that. He finds other ways to improve.'"
"Watch any warm up when players are taking shots on the goaltender. Invariably they will be blasting away with their slap shots. Rather, successful players are not trying to score, they are concentrating on getting their shots on net, developing rythm, and using all the shots that will likely be available in the forth coming game."
THE SHOOTING PHOBIA
Why can't a reasonably efficient hockey player hit the net with his shots, especially at a crucial moment in a game? Well, I suppose it is like the golfer faced with hitting his ball over a body of water. He tenses up and hence, fails to hit well, the result is that the ball will head straight for the hazard that he so dreads. It is an example of what psychologists call a self-fulfilling prophecy. Expect trouble, and it is all the more likely to come to pass.
Top goal scorers don't waste many opportunities by missing the net. What is their secret? - not an easy question to answer, but there are some theories. First, the player must realize the importance of shots on the net, and he must realize that 'tensing up' is the greatest problem. Why then do players tense up when presented with a shooting opportunity? The logical answer is that they have not taken enough shots in game-like conditions. Watch any shooting practice - players are given all the time in the world to take their shots. They can get set, take a full wind-up, and aim their shots with precision; but, that is not game-like conditions.
The solution should be apparent. Make any shooting practice more like game conditions where the object is quick release. Even though the time is available in practice, you have to imagine that a quick release is necessary. The faster you get your shot away and on net in practices, the less likely you will tense up in a game situation. Of course, there will be times when a quick release is not necessary; but, this does not defeat the necessity of practicing quick release over and over. When you have done something over and over, you will not tense up when you are faced with a shooting opportunity in a game.
Especially on the power play, there is no excuse for missing the net and yet, tenseness causes it to happen. Players are looking for the perfect opportunity because they are not able to get a shot away with quick release. Unfortunately, players will continue to take their time when practicing their shooting and as a result they will miss the net on that one opportunity in overtime or at a crucial stage in some try-out camp. More often than not, you will not have the time to go through all the preparatory stages for a shot and the opportunity will be gone forever.
You can avoid this shooting phobia by taking any shooting drill seriously, and eliminating the free time as if an opposing player were about to stomp on you. When you do something over and over, it becomes instinct - no tenseness, just an automatic response of taking your shots in a hurry and getting them on the net. And when you can get your shots on net when there is little time, you will have no problem when you do have the time.
THE SLAP SHOT REVIEWED
Any number of tips deal with the necessity to develop all shots; not just the slap shot. Nevertheless, the slap shot is a valuable asset and deserves some attention. By far the two most common faults of the slap shot: trying to drive the puck too hard and looking up too quickly to see where the puck is going. Not unlike the axioms of hitting a golf ball long and straight.
When you swing too hard, you lose your balance to a greater or lesser degree. Indeed, some shooters have been known to swing so hard that they topple over at the completion of the swing. Even though you may not be aware of this loss of balance until the end of the swing, it is present almost from the start and certainly before the puck is contacted.
Because of this unbalance, the face of the stick arrives at an unpredictable angle driving the puck any which way but on target. From the blueline, a slight deviation will drive the puck off the net by six feet or more.
When you look up to see where the puck is going before the stick has come in contact, you unconsciously lift the stick. You fail to achieve full contact, or here again, propel the puck off target. You may have passed the stage where you completely whiff; nevertheless, you will still dub the puck on occasion if you fail to swing easy while keeping your head down.
The big, booming slap shot is a matter of rhythm - getting your whole body into the shot while increasing the stick speed at time of contact. And of course, keeping your eye on the puck until it has disappeared. And finally, the complete follow through of the stick towards the target - high or low as required.
The point of practice is to make a habit of the unnatural. Certainly keeping your eye down longer and your follow through lower do not come naturally. So practice shooting easy while keeping your head down. Practice it over and over and over until it becomes a habit - until it becomes second nature - until it feels unnatural to swing hard and look up too soon - and keep on practicing. Unless you practice correctly and often, in the stress of the moment you will regress to your old ways.
"It is not unusual for golfers to become totally hooked on golf after their very first round solely because they made a single perfect shot out of close to two hundred. A hockey player will score on a booming slap shot that is past the goaltender before he even moves and he will suddenly think that that is the only shot that can score. One booming slap shot on net out of 20 attempts is not good enough. Unless you can get at least half of your slap shots on net it would be wise to forget it until you have done some more practice."
"I was once playing golf with a lady who had a marvellous knack when it came to putting. She did not use any magical ritual, like holding her putter shaft as a plumb line. In fact she putted more quickly than the rest of us. I think of this every time I see a player with a shooting opportunity and he does everything he can think of to delay the execution of the shot. As if, with a little more study, the chances of scoring will be greater. And so goes another scoring opportunity."
"The top goal scorers don't necessarily get more chances - they are shooting for a target; not just blasting the puck. They sacrifice some hardness for more accuracy. For every shot, there is intent rather than just blind luck. Depending on the circumstances, the intent may simply be a shot on the net. With more time, the intent may be left side, right side, or five hole. Or, in those rare instances when there is all the time in the world, they will be going for the opening through a maze of players."
Any great goalscorer is able to get the puck into the top of the net when he is standing in front and the goaltender is down and is using his stick as a paddle. The routine players bang away at the puck driving it into the goaltenders pads. It takes practice to get the puck up high from in close to the goaltender.
Time after time you will see power plays where the team doesn't even record a shot on net. They are so conscious of keeping the puck in the zone that they don't take shots. They move the puck around the periphery of the 'box' as opportunities slip by. They are waiting for the perfect opportunity which never comes. Patience is one thing but you need shots on net to score. Take your shots - the key is puck-recovery after the shot is taken. So what if you have to chase the puck back towards your own end! The idea is to create some havoc in front of the net - your team has the advantage, you should be able to recover the puck when a shot is taken. Puck recovery - a key to the power play - take your shots and recover the puck in a hurry.
"Rationally, I know that a rushed shot will almost invariably be a poor one." But, as many of the previous files state, a poor shot is often better than no shot. The secret is the ability to convert rushed shots into deliberate shots. It comes from the ability to handle the puck and creating the extra moment of time to make a good shot. Many of the tips in the Puckhandling and Passing book of this series provide tips on creating that extra moment in time.
BOOK4 PUCKHANDLING AND PASSING
"Many players have about as much puck sense as a Zamboni. They simply wait for the play to happen and then it is too late. Effective players anticipate the play - they see a loose puck and go for it, they see a slow pass coming and go towards it - in other words, they 'make things happen', they don't allow the opposition to dictate the play. Even when the puck is not around them, they are in the low-profile skating position, ready for that burst of speed that, time after time, makes the difference between success and failure."
"It cannot be repeated enough. When giving a pass, make it a pass, not a shot. Keep the puck flat on the ice - don't give your teammate a bouncing puck. Sure, there are times when it is necessary to put the puck in the air to clear an obstacle, but that is no reason to deliver all your passes in the air."
STICK ON THE ICE
Other files have discussed the importance of having your stick on the ice when expecting a pass. Among the obvious benefits is the fact that the stick becomes the target for the puck carrier. Also, it puts you in a state of 'readiness' for the pass. All well and good, but more important may be the fact that it conveys a message to the passer that you are capable of receiving a hard, crisp pass.
One of the finer qualities of a playmaker is his ability to adjust the hardness of the pass according to the circumstances. For the playmaker, it is not just a matter of team play or getting himself out of trouble - he wants the pass to be received without any trouble. In some situations, he can make a soft, lazy pass with full assurance that the intended receiver will receive the pass whether his stick is initially on the ice or not. But the further you advance in hockey, the more you will realize that the opportunities for the soft lazy passes become less and less. There is always an opposition ready to step in and intercept the pass.
Call it psychological, call it whatever; but the excellent playmakers will not, or cannot, make a hard pass when there is no receiver with his stick on the ice. He needs the stick as a target, not the position of the player or his skates. He needs to know that his teammate is ready. He needs to know that there is a good chance of a hard, crisp pass being received cleanly.
It is often said with regard to certain players that the puck seems to follow them around. Maybe the foregoing is part of the reason. If your stick is not on the ice before the pass is made, or even contemplated, chances are it will end up in your skates or too far ahead. Maybe, through a quick reaction to a hard pass, you will 'stab' at the puck rather than the 'cushioning' effect of drawing the stick back when the puck arrives. Consequently, the puck bounces off the stick out of reach. You simply cannot react to a hard pass fast enough unless your stick is on the ice before the pass is made. And finally, you may never even be considered as an eligible receiver unless you stick is on the ice.
Certainly, playing with your stick on the ice takes more discipline than skating around with your stick waist high or waving in the air for a pass. But isn't this what intensity is all about - being ready for the unexpected. You are not ready for a pass if your stick is in the air. The puck will not come to you as often if you play with your stick in the air. And, if you want to increase your percentage of passes received cleanly, you must play with your stick on the ice.
Study the goal scorers and the players who consistently get the puck - you will find that they play with their stick on or close to the ice expecially when they foresee that the puck carrier is in trouble and looking for a teammate (stick) to make the pass.
If a team can only make successful passes when the opposition allows them the soft lazy passes, they will not advance very far. The high-paced game with worthy opposition demands hard passes on the spur of the moment. It is not just for one or two players playing with their sticks on the ice. For winning hockey it must be a team philosophy - it is the essence of intensity. Notice at the face-offs - all players are lined up with their sticks on the ice - they are intent - they do not know for sure where the puck is going. But once the puck is dropped and possession is gained, what happens? You guessed it - up go most of the sticks and relaxation sets in. Not so with successful players and winning teams.
THE ART OF FOCUSING
Billy Martin was a controversial player, coach, and manager in big-league baseball. One thing he said in his book, Number 1, stands out. "He'd make me sit in a restaurant and stare at a wall without blinking my eyes. I'd practice that for hours. Try it sometime. It isn't easy. He had me do that because he felt that, when you were up to the plate, the ball would go by so fast that if you accidently blinked that fraction of a second would be enough of a distraction to make you miss the ball."
Anyone who has watched Patrick Roy closely is well aware of his 'blinking' and head jerking. It seems to contradict the above, but what we are seeing is usually the time between plays. Could it be that he is so focused during the play that he has to catch up on his blinking once the whistle blows.
When the punter 'shanks' the ball 10 or 15 yards off his foot, chances are he's aiming the ball - he's lost his focus. When a golfer 'shanks' the ball into the woods, chances are he took his eye off the ball (blinked?) during the downswing, he's lost his focus. When a hockey player misses the net on a shot or misses the target on a pass (the stick) chances are he's lost his focus.
Being able to 'focus' on the task at hand is a prerequisite for completing the task. Obviously, if you look away from the target when passing or shooting, you have lost focus. A baseball player who glances at the runner on first when the pitch is on the way is not going to hit the ball - he can't re-focus fast enough. In the Book on Faking, we discuss the matter of looking one way and passing or shooting another. Fine and good, but the player has to accept the fact that he will be giving up a high degree of accuracy. The focus is lost.
Whether or not blinking at the wrong time is a factor in shooting/passing accuracy may be debatable; but, I happen to think along with Billy Martin. It would be interesting to see a close-up video of Gretzky's eyes as he stands behind the net looking for a teammate's stick. I would bet heavily that there are not many 'blinks of the eye'. The eyes are marvellous in their design and are able to focus quickly; but when it comes to the fast-paced game of hockey can they focus fast enough without some practice. Through the practice of deep looking, you become free to pick out the small openings through a maze of players to the net or a teammate's stick. It is the difference between sitting on the beach daydreaming, taking in everything, as opposed to picking out the one sailboat our of hundreds in the distance. Everyone can do it; but can you do it fast enough?
Looking deeply does not come naturally; but, when you set your mind to it, it can become a habit. And habits are developed in practice sessions. How many times have you sat on the bench or in the stands and seen the play that the puck carrier should have made. The stars of hockey are able to focus during the heat of the action. Lesser players lose their ability to focus on their surroundings once the puck is on their stick.
Focusing does not mean standing still while the game goes on around you. You become focused with your action - that is the goal.
Quotes of Note
Ken Dryden, from a speech made to the Open Ice Summit in Toronto, Aug 25, 1999
"But 1979 was a watershed year.....Wayne Gretzky entered the NHL. With his Edmonton Oiler teammates, he would open up the game. For Gretzky, the the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history, was really first of all, best of all, a playmaker. But passing required a person to pass and somebody to pass to - and Gretzky pushed his teammates to skate, think ahead, create, and find open ice, in order to earn one of his on-the-tape passes. Playing this way, they had to become better players - and they did."
"Every player is looking for someone in front of the net for a pass. In Gretzky's case, he slides the puck to the player's stick along the ice. Other less skilled players, panic and 'shoot' the puck to the recipient leaving him little chance to one-time the puck into the net."
"Most players catch glimpses of everything but see nothing." Not so with the players who are able to handle the puck without glancing at it; who have their vision centered on the ice - not halfway up in the stands. They are like the deaf man whose sight is extended.
"But Doug was the smartest one. not only was he a tremendous athlete, but he had the brains to go along with it. That's where he stood out. Looking at the way Larry Bird was with the Celtics, he always seemed to be two plays ahead of everybody. Doug's the same way. He still is. He's always anticipating and thinking ahead. Instead of always reacting to situations, he was always anticipating situations, and his reactions were so much more on the mark because of that." Flutie with Perry Lefko
"It's unfair when a guy has four eyes." You don't need four eyes. You just have to use your whole vision on the ice, not in the stands.
"One-on-one battles are inevitable in hockey. Average players become embroiled in these battles and lose all concept of where the play is going. Watch the successful players. They are able to mix it up with an opponent but, at the same time, they are watching the play. They know when to push-off and go for the puck or the position. It is called intensity, focus - they want the puck and know that they have to get in position for the puck. "
"What stood out in that game was his timing, his ability to see the entire court and to know down to the millisecond how much time he had on each possession to make a decision, pass or shoot. Few players had it. 'I think I have about a half second to a second to make my decision - to put the ball on the floor and beat or split the double-team, or to shoot before the second defender gets there. And if I split the double, then I can go right to the basket. But you want to know what happens next?' Jordan asked. Yes, Albeck said. 'there's a seven footer waiting to challenge me, but I'm going to dunk on him anyway." Playing For Keeps, David Halberstam
In hockey it is called The Threshold of Panic. Few players have it. Granted, the superstars know what they are going to do with the puck before it comes, but they are also aware that there is usually a little more time than other players use to make the play.
There is a statistic that few coaches use to evaluate a player, but that is useful in determining the effectiveness of a player. It is the assist to turnover ratio. In other words, how many of a player's passes are completed versus how many are intercepted or handed over to the opposition. The ratio should be in the neighborhood of 4:1. Watching teams at the bottom of the league, it will usually be noted that they have few defensemen who can make that first pass out of their own end. Their ratio would be around even or even worse. They are playing scared, just driving the puck out of their own end without any consideration that their pass is a 'receivable' pass.
IMPROVING THE WEAK SIDE
Avoiding the backhand pass or shot is a weakness that will cost you. In tennis they call it 'running around your backhand'. What a player would do is to position himself a little bit to one side of the baseline so that he does not have to take any shots on his backhand side. However, there is a huge downside. In hockey, making adjustments so that all shots or passes are made from the forehand side takes away scoring chances and plays. When a player has no confidence, backhand shots are not taken and plays are disrupted.
To overcome the problem, the first step is to realize that what you are doing isn't working to your best advantage; in fact, it is hurting your performance in unseen ways. The second step is to make a conscious decision to change - to make your backhand as comfortable as the forehand. And finally, you have to use your backhand over and over in practice.
Some will think that to spend time working on the backhand will take away from their effectivemess with the forehand, but not so. As your ability with the backhand improves, so will your precision on the forehand. Going back to step two, when you make the decision to improve your backhand, game time is not the place to start. You have to start in practice making backhand passes and shots at every opportunity, and in fact, creating the times when you can use the backhand. Or, you can skate up and down the ice giving and receiving backhand passes from the boards. After hundreds and hundreds of backhand plays, confidence will come and they will automatically become part of your game.
The law of averages says that there are just as many opportunities for passes or shots off the backhand as there is off the forehand. If you must always switch to the forehand, hard-won opportunities will be lost. Any great goal scorer scores a good percentage of his goals from backhand shots. Any great playmaker can pass equally well off the forehand or the backhand. Watch for it in games and you will see how dexterious the stars are and how much the average player misses out by failing to use his backhand.
Consider the following:
- Most goaltenders consider the backhand one of the most difficult shots to stop.
- It is almost impossible to be effective with faking when your moves are only to one side.
- Making the adjustment from backhand to forehand takes time, gives away your intentions, and takes away from the flow of your skating.
- Ability to use the backhand by instinct increases your overall confidence in your ability.
Any dumb fool can spend hours and hours practicing what he does well looking for a 5 percent improvement. Smart players search out their weaknesses where the same amount of time in practice can give improvement of 50 percent or more. Think about your weaknesses and then take steps to improve.
THRESHOLD OF PANIC AND PASSING
We often hear players talking about the threshold of panic meaning the ability to hold on to the puck until the last moment. It is normally considered a good quality for a hockey player but it can be over-played. If waiting until the last moment means that you have to drive the puck, slap at it, or just flip the puck to the intended receiver, it will rarely have the intended result - a receivable pass. Bouncing pucks may get you out of trouble, but just as often, they will put your teammate in a precarious position. To be receivable without losing stride, the pass has to be along the ice and to the stick. Nothing new here, but it is too often forgotten.
When every pass is a rush pass, it indicates two things about the passer. He has no idea what he is going to do before he receives the puck, or he does not have the ability to anticipate a check that is coming at him. Successful playmakers usually know what they are going to do with the puck before it comes and, when carrying the puck, they are able to anticipate the opponent coming at them. Consequently, they are able to give a 'receivable' pass to a teammate when he is in the clear - not wait until the last minute when the receiver has no room to move. Playmakers make 'receivable' passes and only drive the puck as a last resort when they are in trouble; however, they are usually able to avoid trouble by escaping the first checker. They are capable of gaining the time to make a proper pass.
One final aspect of the rushed pass. Every player has heard of the suicide pass - the pass where the receiver is 'creamed' the moment he receives the puck. Nine times out of ten, the puck carrier makes these passes when he is rushed. A moment or two earlier, the receiver may have been in the clear and able to handle the pass, but with the hesitation on the part of the puck carrier, the receiver is put in a vulnerable position. The passer does not intend to do this to his teammate, but in the frenzy of his own problem, he makes the pass anyway - in other words, he does not have any time to consider the receiver.
THE 'STICKINESS' FACTOR
By nature, many parents who have been involved in hockey tend to become pig-headed. They feel that their ideas are best and no one else has any good ideas. I am guilty to a certain degree - my wife does not know the difference between the blue line and the red line. However, when watching the try-out drills at a major junior team, without any foreknowledge of the players, she picked out one and said, "The puck just seems to stick to his stick." Think about it as I did. Anyone can read the stats, then find the star players, and then agree: "Sure they are good," without really knowing why they are good. My wife by accident had picked out the highly-rated, star, player.
On watching this player the puck indeed did stick to his stick. When receiving passes, the puck did not bounce off - it stuck to the stick. When skating with the puck, the stick moved all over, but the puck was attached to it like a yo-yo at the end of a string. When going after loose pucks, it was 'sucked' to the stick as if it were a high-powered vacuum. When watching the drills in practices, watch for this phenomnon. It is a true indication of a player's ability to handle the puck and his future success in game situations.
Needless to say, it comes with practice and is totally dependent on a player's ability to handle the puck without looking at it. Hockey scouts, when appraising player's puckhandling ability, whether they know it or not, are looking for the 'stickiness' factor. It is a sure sign of a player's future effectiveness in game situations where there just isn't enough time to keep having to look for the puck.
Use some the the 'free' time in practices or pre-game warm-ups to work on this 'stickiness' factor, and leave the over-emphasis on the slap shot for a while. It is not something that you do once in a while, but rather, the 'feel' for the puck on the stick only comes with daily practice, and at least some time spent every time on the ice. Unless you are able to develop this 'stickiness' factor, you will never become adept at faking. You have to be able to keep the puck on your stick while you are making the moves with your head and shoulders while moving the puck around. If you work on it, you will be rewarded with huge dividends.
SEEING THE PATH FROM THE STICK
How many games are lost because shots are deflected into the stands or into the defenders
shin pads? Successful defenders play for the deflection or they line themselves up with your stick
preventing the shot from reaching the net.
One of the skills of top goal-scorers is the ability to determine the line of the shot, not
from their body position, but from the tip of their sticks. When they shoot, it is not a hope-and-a-
prayer that the puck will reach the net. They know the line from the stick to the net and they
know when the shot will get through.
You don't have to have a computer brain to make this calculation of the line from the stick
instead of your head position, but some practice will definitely improve your perception. Try it
when going one-on-one in practices. A wind up for the shot will line the defensemen up with the
puck on your stick. At the last moment, stop the shot, pull it back, reach out a foot or two and let
go a wrist shot. The position of the puck for a slap shot is relatively close to the skates. It is not
difficult to stretch the arms out a foot or two to get the puck past the defender.
It would be nice if you could position a 'dummy' on the ice for practicing this move, but
such is not usually available. You will have to use some other obstacles and bring in some
visualization to train your eyes to see the line from the blade of your stick. Top producing
defensemen like Ray Bourque do not get a multitude of shots because they are lucky. They are
able to see the line from the blade of their sticks and make the slight adjustment to open up the
line as they are releasing their shots. They don't necessarily get more chances - they make better
use of their chances.
For defensemen this skill is a must and only slightly less for a forward with any intention
of building up the stats and winning games. Frequently, the 'surprise' element of the shot will
compensate for the slight loss of 'hardness'. As well, there may be a teammate driving for the net
unseen, who will capitalize on any rebounds. You don't have to be on top of the goaltender to
score - anywhere inside the blueline is a scoring opportunity - especially if the shots are kept low.
A blocked shot or into the stands is an opportunity lost.
Quotes of Note
"When I play against those guys - the Bryan Trottiers, the Wayne Gretzkys, the Mark Messiers - I still feel I've got a lot to learn." Yzerman said. "There are so many little things they do so well, things they do day after day, shift after shift. I don't consider myself in that category. I feel I've made important strides but I'm still improving. Trying to anyway."
He could skate and stickhandle and shoot and, most of all, he could beat any defenseman in the league, even those several years older, one-on-one. That's the trait pro scouts always look for. If a junior couldn't beat other juniors one-on-one, he had no chance to advance to the next level. But Yzerman could beat anyone. He understood fully that it was not necessary to 'blow' by an opponent to beat him. All that was necessary was to avoid the checker to buy that extra moment of time to make a shot or make a pass to a teammate in the clear.
"When you play Edmonton, you have to run routes that have double moves on them: You start in and then come back out; you start out and come back in." Flutie with Perry Lefko.
Especially against the best defensive teams, unless you are able to fake not only once, but two or three times, you won't get very far.
There is a saying that is in common usage: "There is power in weakness." Often you will see battles on the ice where there is power against power - no one is winning the battles, but they are both taken out of the play in their effort to win the struggle. But what happens if you give in to the struggle when you are being harrassed in front of the net. The opposing player feels that the battle is won and relaxes, he goes to sleep - you have given him a false sense of security that the job is done. It is then that you can pick your moment to break free and do what is required.
It is stressed over and over again, to be a top offensive player you have to be able to handle the puck without looking at it - not even glancing at it once it is on your stick. The whole art of beating an opponent depends on this skill. Even in the split second that you look down and up, your teammate will have moved or the opposition will step into the line of fire and pick off the pass. Top shooters and playmakers don't have to look down before taking the shot or making the pass! You could almost say that a player's offensive skills could be determined by just watching how often he has to look down at the puck.
While not necessarily a part of faking, the excellent playmakers have two standard ways of making a pass. When skating laterally across the ice, they try to make a pass or shot against the flow. If they are skating towards the left side of the net, they will direct their shot to the right side of the net. If they receive the puck while travelling towards their own net, they will quickly look for a teammate skating towards the opponent's net. Simple, but effective.
"If you watch the players considered as playmakers, you will find that they rarely if ever try to beat an opponent directly towards the net. The key part of this statement is 'directly towards the net'. They respect their opponent's ability to stop them, and any attempt to beat them one-on-one towards the net, usually results in loss of the puck and a turnover. Instead, they rely on tight curls, moving laterally or quick stops and starts to avoid the opponent and gain that extra moment in time for a shot on net or a play to a teammate in a better position.. They always seem to have more time, but it doesn't come from batting their heads against a wall. Maybe if you are an Eric Lindros, at six-foot-two and 225 pounds, it is acceptable to try and barge your way through, but for the less physically inclined players, it is probably better to take the playmakers route. With a fake move towards the net, it is almost always possible to avoid your check for that extra second or two to make the play."
DALLAS IN 99
If you watched many of the games during the 1999 Stanley Cup games, some key points were evident in the play of the Dallas Stars. Whenever the puck was in their defensive end, all 5 skaters were back in deep to pick up loose pucks around the net. It was apparent that they would give the opposition the shots from the blueline, but they would not tolerate a player standing out by the blueline guarding the opposition defenseman when the puck was around the net. It was a matter of priorities. Pucks around the net are dangerous. The defenseman back at the point is not quite as dangerous.
On offense, nothing fancy, just grit and determination. The Stars get cheap points, but they deserve them.
Quotes of Note
There is a huge psychological dilemma towards playing good defense. Everyone has been beaten one-on-one at one time or another. It should never happen, but it inevitably does. Everyone has been beaten one-on-one when attacking the puck carrier. Consequently players hesitate to attack the puck carrier. This hesitation is unreasonable. The fact that one has attempted to do a thing and done it in the wrong way sometime in the past is no reason for not doing it in the right way. Pressure on the puck carrier will prove effective nine times out of ten. Don't let the one time in ten take away your effectiveness through hesitation.
"Power against power becomes a stalemate with no one winning." All the more reason, when two players are battling for the puck on the boards, that a second player arrive to help in the battle. Possession is often determined by the arrival of a second player to settle the stalemate.
On offense, players are told to position themselves in front of the net with their feet spread apart, well bent over at the waist, and their stick on the ice forming a tripod. In this position, it is almost impossible to knock the player down without taking a penalty. However there is no excuse for failing to keep his stick out of the play. If your sole concentration is to knock him down, he will beat you with his stick. Take away the stick and you take away the tripod and upset his stability thereby making it easier to move him out of the goal-mouth area.
"How can one love an insect which never stops stinging. Who can stop a fly from buzzing around his head while he is attempting to do something. It is the essence of defense - persistence! persistence! persistence!"
"Everyone knows that players have to drive hard when returning to their own end after a turnover. Nevertheless, their is always the tendency to take it easy when the situation is clearly a two-on-two or a three-on-three. However, when a player accepts the premise that, at equal strength, the puck carrier has the advantage over the defense, it becomes imperative that there be no 'slacking off' just because their appears to be no threat. Always, the ideal is to attack the puck carrier before he hits the blueline. It is often easier for the player on the return trip to catch the puck carrier than it is for the defenseman to stop him at the blueline. Don't assume that, just because the puck carrier is moving alongside the boards, he is no threat."
"Early in his professional career, Jordan mentioned casually to reporters that he hoped one day to be named defensive player of the year as well as the MVP. Jim Hubbard, then with The Dallas Morning News, wrote that it could not be done, that it took too much energy to play his kind of offense and an equal amount of energy to be that kind of defensive star - no one could have enough energy to do both."
"On certain nights, your offensive skills desert you, but because defense was a product of hard work, it would always be there." David Halberstam.
How wrong were the reporters, Jordan proved that you can, in fact, play superb defensively as well as offensively.
"Don't let the reputation of a dominating player beat you. It is not unusual for the better defensive teams to totally shut down a superstar when the playoffs arrive. It is not enough for the player who is guarding the superstar to play good defensive hockey. The remaining four skaters must also play superb defensive hockey guarding their opposition or the superstar will pick you apart with precision passes to his teammate in the clear. Individual talent can only take a team so far, and when up against a quality defensive team, that is not very far."
The prevailing attitude towards defense seems to be:
No one else is doing their share, why should I bother? What if everyone on the team said, 'I can't do it alone, let someone else do their share!' Sometimes the rewards of unselfish service do not get recognized in the short term, but rest assured, you will feel good about yourself when you not only do your share, but strive to do more than your share. Someone has to step forward and take the responsibility whether or not others follow.
Another common misconception is that playing good defensive hockey means sitting back and waiting for the other team to make mistakes. And that is exactly what happens, the players sit back and wait for the opposition to come at them. It becomes reaction rather than action. And when it is reaction rather than action, the opposition always has that little extra moment in time, to take the shot or make the pass.
And still another misconception, there is the common feeling that penalty minutes tell how tough a player is. This may be somewhat true when the player takes a lot of five-minute majors for fighting. But with the two-minute variety, it may not be a matter of toughness, but rather an indication that a player is constantly finding himself out of position. Usually, when a player finds himself out of position due to lack of foresight or lack of speed, the only way he can recover and make himself look good is by reverting to illegal tactics to stop his opponent. Don't be misled, penalty minutes may simply be an indication that a player is not using his head. When you are playing 'action' hockey rather than 'reaction' hockey, it is not necessary to take a penalty to stop an opponent.
Reaction hockey is basically fear of making a mistake. Fear is contraction, it's a pulling back or a contracting away from, to approach a situation with caution until you understand or see what is going to happen and how to handle it correctly and safely. Action hockey means barging in at the puck carrier, taking away his 'thinking' time. Players avoid the things that they're afraid of because they think there will be dire consequences if they confront them. But the dire consequences come from avoiding the attack. Your opponent may beat you once in a while, but he will beat you more often if you stand back playing the so-called 'safe way'. Time is all the elite players need. Without the time, they will become as other players. And remember, attack is not only on the puck carrier; but, whatever opponent you are covering.
USING YOUR STICK AND ARMS
It is illegal to use your stick to bring down an opponent, or your arms to hold an opponent. But there is no penalty for using your stick or arms to slow down an opponent. It is a fine line between effective defense and a penalty call. Think of your arms and stick as a fence that an opponent must penetrate to get where he wants to go. You are not trying to completely stop the opponent, just slow him down so that he doesn't get in the clear for the pass or a shot on goal - to take away the split second that any player needs to make the play.
When you use your arms and stick as a barrier, it extends your effective range for delaying the opponent by up to ten feet. As a result, opponents must take a wider route to avoid being slowed down. Furthermore, when an opponent is being harrassed in such a way, his concentration is taken away from the developing play as he is concentrating on just getting away from your tactics. Especially in your defensive zone, you can't allow an opponent free skating room. With freedom to roam around at will in your zone, any team can be effective against you. It is not a matter of using illegal tactics, rather using the rules to your advantage. When one player harrasses his opponent, he becomes a more effective player - when all five skaters on the ice are using the delaying tactics, it becomes a team that is difficult to play against - harrassing your opponent whether or not he has the puck.
At the NHL level, there are always attempts to eliminate the holding and hooking that slows down the game. Sure, they are calling more penalties, but they will never eliminate the effective use of the arms and stick to slow down an opponent. Always, there is a tendency to call penalties on an equal basis and failure to use the rules to your advantage will almost always leave your team at a disadvantage.
Remember, the intent is not to destroy your opponent - simply to delay him, to harrass him so that his concentration is lost. You may even be successful in harrassing him enough that he retaliates, and we all know how referees look on retaliation.
AFTER THE CHECK
Defensemen need to be tough. Defensemen need to be able to check an opponent. Defensemen should never be beaten one-on-one. Fundamental facts about good defensive play. But even when a defenseman is effective in all of the above, the job is only half done. Once the puck is dislodged from the opposition, what then? If the puck is simply blasted up the boards, it will simply return a moment later.
Every coach is looking for the defenseman who can skate it out of the zone or make that all-important first pass to a forward who is in the clear or to his partner. All the praise and glory goes to the player who makes the pass to score a goal; but, that first pass that gets the puck out of your own end is just as important to an astute observer. Sure there is risk - you can't afford mistakes in your defensive zone, and driving the puck up the boards seems to be the 'safe' route. Nevertheless, there are many ways to avoid that first check by using the net as a foil against the first checker. As well, with any support from the forwards when the puck is deep in your own end, you will be working with a five-against-three advantage.
To be effective at removing the puck from their own end, a defenseman must have skills well beyond just stopping an opponent. He must be able to give 'receivable' passes along the ice and to the stick of his teammate. He must be able to handle the puck without having to glance at it all the time if he wants any hope of finding his teammate in the clear. When a defenseman's total concentration is on stopping the opposition, he may succeed to a limited degree, but when he has also worked on his offensive skills - puckhandling and passing - he has the ability to become a defenseman that all coaches wish they had.
"One of the secrets of successful defensemen is that they are able to get the puck out of their end with consistency. One of their prime attributes is that they don't give their teammates a 'bouncing' pass when moving out of their own end. They are not just trying to get themselves out of trouble and look good themselves - they know that it is far more effective to give their teammate a 'receivable' pass than it is to drive it hard as if they were taking a shot."
"The reason that defense is stressed so much is that it is much easier to teach, and not least, it is easier to pick out the player to blame. And most coaches and players would rather play the 'blame' game than the 'praise' game. However, few coaches or parents know all the little intricacies needed to create goals."
"In a sense I was like people who put steel bars on the windows of their homes and apartments to keep burglars and muggers out. The problem is, if there is a fire inside the dwelling, those steel bars don't protect them, they trap them inside so that there is no escape from the danger within."
In a sense, the above illustrates a situation where a hockey team puts all their emphasis on defense. Even with the best defense the opposition will score a goal or two and defeat is in the wings unless you can also score some goals.
THE CHANGE OF PACE
"Players with great speed have different gears when they are skating, usually with an overdrive in reserve."
When approaching a defender at full speed the opportunity is there for a quick stop-and-go. At less than full speed, shifting into overdrive will put you in the passing lane. When you are travelling at full speed, the defender is also skating backwards at full speed. If your stop is sharp - I mean on a dime rather than a 'skidding' stop that takesup to five feet - you can't help but lose the defender for enough time to take a shot , make a pass, or, immediately move off in a different direction. Likewise when skating at less than full speed, the defender is also skating at less than full speed and when you shift into 'overdrive' you will have gained that all-important one-step advantage. It is much easier to change speed when skating forward than it is when skating backwards.
Effective skaters, by changing their speeds, always force the defenders into a reaction position. Consider a baseball pitcher. If he only has a fastball, the opposition will quickly adjust. The best and most effective pitchers change the speed of their pitches with curve balls and other means to keep the hitter off guard. Likewise in hockey, if you can upset the 'timing' of the defender, you will make it all that more difficult to defend against you.
Rarely can you beat a defender with speed alone. He is in the same league as you are and has defensive skills as you have offensive skills. The effective playmakers are looking for that 'moment in time' that gives them the advantage, even if just for a moment. It is developed depending on your ability to change your speed either by a quick acceleration, a driving stop, or a quick slow-down. You will be putting the defender into a 'reaction' mode rather than allowing him to force you into the 'reaction' mode where you will make the foolish moves.
Quotes of Note
'Power' skating is not necesarily effective 'hockey' skating. To be effective, go to the library and grab some hockey books on Wayne Gretzky or Bobby Orr and study the pictures. Over and over again you will see their skating position in almost a sitting position. Knees well bent, body well forward of their skates, long strides. It is the old saying: "If you want to play pro, you have to get low."
".....and my legs felt great. I had really quick feet that day, with a lot of bounce in my step." Flutie with Perry Lefko
To get this quick step in your game, try a practice or two with weights on your skates. The 'quick step' is important in the races for the loose pucks or breaking away from a close check into open ice.
There is another reason for skating in the low-profile position. With your feet apart, knees flexed and well-bent over at the waist, you have lowered your center of gravity. In this position it is almost impossible for an opponent to knock you down.
One of the signs of a strong skater is one who keeps his feet moving when in trouble. It is like the football back when approaching the line. If he takes a plunge at the line he may get one or two yards but if he keeps his legs pumping he will get the same one or two yards and maybe a whole lot more. Likewise with a skater trying to beat an opponent. The moment he starts coasting, it is force against force and usually the larger defensemen will win out. As long as the legs are pumping, the advantage goes to the skater. Of course there are times for a fast stop, maybe even a time for coasting when approaching the goaltender on a breakaway, but this may only happen two or three times a season. The times when you need to keep your legs pumping occur many, many times during a game. It would be wise therefore to practice shooting and passing while in full skating motion.
Edmonton has always been known as a team with speed. It is not unusual that in the 98/99 season, they had the most power play opportunities in the league. It is an axiom of hockey that power-play opportunities are created with speed.
The following is taken from a 'Nike' add.
The advantages of speed in hockey are obvious:
1) For decades, skilled players and teams from across the pond have successfully practiced a style of play predicated upon speed, and parlayed it into numerous goals, assists, scoring titles, Canada Cups and gold medals.
2) A certain extremely talented hockey team from Edmonton that won five Stanley Cups in the 80s built its offense around all things speed, quickness, acceleration and pressure on the puck carrier. We have no doubt doing so contributed to this team being extremely talented.
3) When was the last time an awe-inspiring neutral-zone trap made the highlight reel? When, for that matter, was any neutral-zone trap awe-inspiring?
4) Skating fast greatly increases your chance of eluding tall and heavy men with sticks. (This will diminish the likelihood that you'll be the unfortunate recipient of elbows, grabs, clutches, crosschecks and interference courtesy of one of these behemoths.)
By now, it should be fairly clear we believe in speed. It should be equally obvious, since we make skates, we have a skate specifically designed for speed. It's called the Nike Air Ignite 1. For starters, it's light, 948 grams light - that's 200 grams lighter than our last skate. This is a weight loss of Jenny Craig proportions; and, in a game where 30-second shifts demand more explosive skating, the lighter the skate, the better the chance for just such skating.
Of course, it could well be we've taken one too many pucks to the head; maybe speed isn't all that important; maybe a skate like the Air Ignite 1 has no place in today's game.
But before you call us crazy, consider this: If speed isn't important, why do so many slow and large men with sticks go to all that dumping-chasing-clutching-grabbing-neutral-zone-trapping trouble to diminish it? Good question. Nike Hockey
When appraising skating ability, there is one question hockey scouts are always asking: "How fast does he make the turn when he picks up the puck travelling towards his own goal." The average skaters need a big loop to make the turn whereas 'elite' players can make the turn in six feet or less.
"His coaches say that at six he had the 'unexplainable' gifts of anticipation and vision, which set him above all rivals except the ineffable Gretzky. Mario also conceded dominance to Gretzky in two other areas - passing and skating. But not all pundits - or players - even then agreed about the skating. Mario's long strides don't look as quick. But they take him farther and faster than Gretzky's elbow-flapping rushes, players who've shared the same ice surface say. But in the most important quality of their greatness, both Gretzky and Lemieux seem evenly matched. They have 'eyes on their sticks,' as the Oiler GM Glen Sather puts it." Mario Lemieux The Gentle Giant, Jean Sonmor
"How fast do you get going when the puck comes to you unexpectedly? Certainly top players are expecting the puck to come to them at all times, however you will notice times when players receive the puck unexpectedly and stand around deciding what to do. As a general rule of thumb, start moving - the faster the better. If you have to make the turn, make it sharp and fast. In a recent game between two fast skating teams, Florida and Edmonton, it was this factor that stood out. Whenever the puck was intercepted on a turnover, or there was a back pass, the players on both sides immediately took off towards the opponent's goal. They made their passes on the go, not from a standing position. Needless to say, there was great momentum to the game as the play was continuously moving from end-to-end. Other factors will, of course, contribute to a winning team, but when you are fast on the attack, you will leave most teams playing catch-up."
"He simply dominated the play, and he did it not by size but with quickness. Jordan seemed to have what coaches called, for lack of a better phrase, a nose for the ball. Somehow, no matter what happened - a loose ball off the boards, a ball up for grabs in the backcourt - Jordan seemed to get to the ball a little more quickly than anyone else." Playing For Keeps, David Halberstam
On skates it is the same principle. It is not a matter of end-to-end speed, but rather, quickness off the mark when there is an opening or a loose puck.
"He was like a quarterback with too much time, only he was his own offensive line. He fended off pursuers with those tight curls and turns, leaning in with his shoulders, coming out as fast as he went in, his head up, balanced perfectly." Mike Liut, on Wayne Gretzky.
"In every wildlife documentary I've ever seen, the predator always gets the one animal that can't decide which way to run. Have you ever seen a dog chasing a rabbit. The dog may be able to run faster in a straight line, but he is unable to turn as sharply as the rabbit and therefore, rarely catches the rabbit. It is the reason why the big tough defensemen have trouble with the smaller forwards who can turn on a dime and take off in a new direction all in one motion."
"And since our original sin is to be lazy, our natural inclination is to forget to stay on our toes. Yet once again, it is a matter of paradox. We need to relax, but not too much. We need to concentrate, but not too much. Mild competition spurs me to remember all the things I know about golf but tend to forget. With such competition, I am helped to stay on my toes, not just literally but in all the other respects that the game requires of me to play at my best." Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck
Boxers, sprinters, and many other sports situations require players to play from the balls of their feet. Hockey is no different - you must play from the balls of your feet. In fact, when approaching a defender, the whole idea is to catch him flat-footed.
"Nonetheless, I found it reassuring when a caddy once explained to me that while they can move very fast - far more rapidly than humans - they are very clumsy at turning. When you're trying to escape from an alligator or crocodile, he told me, 'don't run away in a straight line. Just zigzag and you'll be fine.'" Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck.
It is why coaches use all those cross-over drills - to provide the ability to turn sharply and get away from the hooking and holding of a pursuing checker.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES - THE REFUSAL TO QUIT
"Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit." Napoleon Hill
"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats." B.C. Forbes
Consider the following examples:
Woody Allen, Academy Award-winning writer, failed English at New York University.
Clint Eastwood told by Universal Pictures, 'You have no talent.'
The Beatles were told, ' We don't like their sound, groups of guitars are on the way out.'
Elvis Presley, 'You ain't going' nowhere...son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck.'
Alexander Graham Bell, 'That's (telephone) an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"
Terry Fox, after his leg was amputed due to cancer, started on a cross-Canada run.
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely and was handicapped with a paralyzed left leg. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running. Eventually this little girl, who was told she would never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals. 'My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.'
Franklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed by polio at the age of 39. He was elected president of the United States four times.
Louis L'Amour successful author of over 100 western novels, received 350 rejections before he made his first sale.
General Douglas MacArthur was turned down, not once but twice for admission to West Point.
And consider the following three anecdotes with a lesson:
In 1952, Edmund Hillary attempted to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain then known to humans - 29,000 feet straight up. A few weeks after his failed attempt, he was asked to address a group in England. He said in a loud voice, 'Mount everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time becaue you've grown all you are going to grow...but I'm still growing!'"
"When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, 'I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process.'"
"When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reporter threw him the following question, 'Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?' Mr. Casals answered, 'Because I think I'm making progress.'" From the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul
STEVE YZERMAN - A CLASS ACT
Some quotes from the book, Heart of a Champion, will illustrate the point. It was written during the dog-days of the Detroit Red Wings, before the Stanley Cup years.
"He never ducked the media. He always spoke to us, no matter how difficult things were for his hockey team. You could see the pain in his eyes and hear it in his voice. One more empty summer. One more summer of soul-searching. What went wrong? How can it be changed? Will the pain ever go away? You had to lean in close to hear him. The words were barely audible at times. They put their microphones against his lips to pick up every syllable. Those of us in the back of the mob around his locker stood on our toes and turned our heads sideways to listen to him. The words were always there - soft, sad and sentimental. He is not a wordsmith, but a hockey player, and he did his best to help us. He never blamed anyone for the troubles of his team."
Offense, defense.....it doesn't matter. He does it well and he does it for his team, and so there is little wonder that today he really is the Detroit Red Wings. If he has been booed - and I guess he has because everyone (except Barry Sanders) gets booed in this town, I have not been there to see it. This makes me one of the lucky ones because this man is one of the pure athletes of our time - a man who does it all for his team and does it without complaining." Joe Falls, The Detroit News.
"I'll never forget when Steve stood up in the room during the playoffs last year, " Lapointe said, rubbing his chin. "It was against Colorado. He told us what we needed to do. He's so well-respected. Every time he talks, people shit it down and listen. And the thing with Steve is that he doesn't use any extra words. I think it's typical to look at players who are boisterous and vociferous and say they smack of leadership. That's not always the case. Steve isn't either of those."
"I'm not a big believer in standing up and giving a big speech. I think it's overrated. I think it's for the movies. It's easier to stand up and say something in front of a group of people than to pull someone aside and say something to them. That's what's most difficult to do." Steve Yzerman.
And from Nick Polano, one of his coaches, "A good leader is a guy who's self-motivated, a guy a coach doesn't have to work on every day. Steve practiced hard, he played hard. I've found that usually the guys who practice hard are your best players. This was a guy who worked extra all the time. The coach needs someone in that locker room who can almost be another assistant coach. I know Mark Messier does it and I thought Steve could do it."
"When I play against those guys - the Bryan Trottiers, the Wayne Gretzkys, the Mark Messiers - I still feel I've got a lot to learn." Yzerman said. "There are so many little things they do so well, things they do day after day, shift after shift. I don't consider myself in that category. I feel I've made important strides but I'm still improving. Trying to anyway."
He could skate and stickhandle and shoot and, most of all, he could beat any defenseman in the league, even those several years older, one-on-one. That's the trait pro scouts always look for. If a junior couldn't beat other juniors one-on-one, he had no chance to advance to the next level. But Yzerman could beat anyone. He understood fully that it was not necessary to 'blow' by an opponent to beat him. All that was necessary was to avoid the checker to buy that extra moment of time to make a shot or make a pass to a teammate in the clear.
DALLAS IN 99
If you watched many of the games during the 1999 Stanley Cup games, some key points were evident in the play of the Dallas Stars. Whenever the puck was in their defensive end, all 5 skaters were back in deep to pick up loose pucks around the net. It was apparent that they would give the opposition the shots from the blueline, but they would not tolerate a player standing out by the blueline guarding the opposition defenseman when the puck was around the net. It was a matter of priorities. Pucks around the net are dangerous. The defenseman back at the point is not quite as dangerous.
On offense, nothing fancy, just grit and determination. The Stars get cheap points, but they deserve them.
Quotes of Note
"The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the lazy, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing someone grow rich, they say, 'How lucky they are!' Observing another become a renowned scholar, they exclaim, 'How highly favored they are!' and noting the saintly character and wide influence of others, they remark, 'How luck aids them at every turn!'
"They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men and women have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; they have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart."
"Those who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; those who would achieve much must sacrifice much; those who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly."
James Allen: As A Man Thinketh.
In the end, a team in which individual players do not feel an obligation toward one another is a team in which each player will feel alone and unsafe. In the words of the Jewish sage Hillel, "If I am not for myself, who will be, but if I am only for myself, what am I?"
One can elevate oneself in whatever way one wishes, but it is unethical to do so by diminishing the worth of another.
"Greed or envy only get the best of me when I'm competing in a sport. I was raised to perform to the best of my ability and envy gets the best of me when I'm not #1 at what I'm doing. It's a fault that I'm trying very hard to overcome. But, every so often, when somebody beats one of my scores and I'm having a bad night, my frustration mounts and my performance gets even worse." Laura Schlessinger
"In a sword match with live blades, the person who cannot sense what is coming next will lose. It doesn't matter how hard the opponents can cut. What matters is how sensitive they are to what is going to happen next."
In hockey it is called anticipation - the ability to see a play or two ahead. The superstars have this skill in abundance. When a whole team is able to work on this philosophy, they will usually have control of the outcome. It doesn't matter how big you are or how much skill you possess. It is the difference between action and reaction. When Wayne Gretzky says that he goes where the puck is going, he doesn't mean just following the puck around the boards. He is anticipating the play - What the puck carrier is going to do with the puck.
The Golden Gate Bridge and all its traffic is held up by a massive cable made up of a multitude of minute wires. Each wire is powerless, but when wound together with thousands of other wires they become indestructable. Like a team, wind and twist them together and they become unbeatable.
"Everybody tells you which games are going to be important, but the bottom line is the next game is the most important one. Once it's gone, just move on to the next one. Winning and losing the championship is the only thing that matters. You talk about Labor Day games. You talk about the home opener. Whatever it is, the next game is always, for one reason or another, the most important game in the world."
"Our kicker, Mike Vanderjagt, tried a 50-yarder but was just short. Don (Matthews) told the media, 'If your team has to rely on a 50-yard field goal on the last play of the game, you won't win a lot of games.'"
"That's the way it is in those big games. Say we were to have lost it at the end, for the rest of Jimmy's life he'd be sitting there wondering about that dropped touchdown, whether or not that would have made the difference in the game. When you put yourself out there on a limb, you're taking risks. Everybody looks at the glory of it, but what about a guy like Scott Norwood who missed a field goal that could have won a Super Bowl. He was All-Pro kicker that year. You miss a kick or throw an interception or misplay a ball at the wrong time. Billy Buckner had a ground ball go through his legs that could have ended a World Series - and you get labeled for the rest of your life for those things." Doug Flutie from the book Flutie with Perry Lefko. No matter what Steve Smith accomplished before or after, everyone remembers the goal he put in his own net in a final game with Edmonton against Calgary. Sometimes you wonder if it's worth the risk to go out on the ice.
"It was only the first game of the year and no big deal, but John Hufnagel and I both learned not to be conservative. No matter what the score, no matter what the siutation, you've got to stay aggressive and try to score as many points as you possibly can. We took that attitude and blew some people out during the course of the year. We took some criticism at times for running up the score or leaving me in a little too long or things of that nature. It's the same philosophy Don Matthews has with the Argos: No lead is a safe lead in the CFL. I think it was a lesson well learned that opening day in Saskatchewan. (They blocked a kick for a touchdown, scooped up a fumble for a touchdown and scored a touchdown on the last play of the game.) Result a loss 22-21."
Maybe even management does not to run up the score for box-office reasons, but once players are playing from Major Junior up, there is too much depending on their personal stats for anyone to expect them to slack off with a lead.
"Nothing ever happens according to plan. And after it is all over, the coaches invent logical causes for the uncomfortable position they find themselves in. The truth is that victory and defeat are determined to a large extent by the morale of the players. But it is a rare coach who will take the blame for the poor morale of his troops."
It is a far cry from theory to practice.
"A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It is all a matter of pride." Nancy Lopez, Pro golfer.
"The thing that makes for greatness is determination, persisting in the right direction over the long haul, following your dream, staying at the task. Just as there is no such thing as instant failure, neither is there automatic or instant success. But success is the direct result of a process that is long, arduous, and often unappreciated by others. It also includes a willingness to sacrifice. But it pays off if you stay at the task. In our world of instant everything, these thoughts are not very popular. If we really want to soar like an eagle, we must keep on continually pursuing - we must keep on seeking."
"Being accountable is resisted by the majority. Those with fragile egos can't handle it. And prima donna types won't tolerate it. They have a greater desire to look good and make a stunning impression than anything else. People who really want to soar above mediocrity appreciate periodic reproof (or criticism) and say so. 'If someone is keeping an eye on me, my behavior improves.'"
From the book Living Above the Level of Mediocrity by Charles Swindoll
Players who are accountable by their own choice - accountable to coaches, teammates, parents, fans - are players who are looking for improvement. They are not afraid of criticism, of making mistakes, of not looking good. While they will never reach perfection, they are always seeking it.
Daigle done in by work ethic!
"Guys like Alexandre are more interested in things outside the game than the game itself. They never work hard to make (themselves) better. They play the way they practice. They can't fool their teammates. He isn't a drinker or have any of those kinds of problems. But for every good game he would play, there would be 10 nothing ones." Flyer's GM, Bob Clarke
"Leon Spinks had shocked the world, and Ali finally found out what it meant to be on the wrong side of his favorite expression. Someone in Ali's dressing room shouted 'robbery' in reference to the decision. But Ali knew he had lost fairly. 'Shut up,' said Ali. 'Nobody got robbed. I lost the fight'.
One hockey player used to say, "When I go after the puck with a passion, coincidences tend to happen; when I don't, they don't."
Edmonton has always been known as a team with speed. It is not unusual that in the 98/99 season, they had the most power play opportunities in the league. It is an axiom of hockey that power-play opportunities are created with speed.
"But again, as was the case in Boston on Saturday, it was the Rangers themselves who seemed to be the most distracted by all the hoopla. (On the night of Gretzky's retirement) They started extremely slowly, perhaps feeling that with both Gretzky and Mark Messier in the lineup there was no need for a full team effort. But even though both were playing well, neither is good enough to win single-handedly." Over and over it has been proven that having a superstar on the team is no guarantee of a winning season. Winning seasons are the result of full team performance, not the result of one or two star players.
It was a typically strong game by the Penguins and a spotty performance by the Rangers, who have looked brilliant at times and awful at others.
"Are we out of shape?" Campbell asked. "Are we lazy? You've got to ask yourself questions like that after a game like that."
Life, as John F. Kennedy remarked, is unfair, but remember: sometimes it is unfair in your favour.
"The trouble with the players who live for revenge is that they're never quite sure when they've had it - and so, to be on the safe side, they go on and on endlessly seeking retribution. Is it any wonder that referees more often than not call penalties on the retaliation while ignoring the first offense?"
It is impossible to elevate yourself by knocking another player down. In your own mind you may succeed in equalizing yourself with your teammate; but, at a level of mediocrity. In the minds of impartial observers, you will have succeeded only in lowering yourself.
It takes courage to stand and fight; but, it also takes courage to back down for the sake of the team.
"Any team that emphasizes defensive play only, is gearing itself for only one-half the game. It forces players to play as if protecting their ass, no one takes a chance, everyone plays it safe, players are always looking for someone to blame when things go wrong as they inevitably do.. When players are keyed up for defensive play only, they will tend to take needless penalties making it an absolute necessity that they have a flawless goaltender. It is the game that needs to be emphasized, not offense or defense, but the total performance. It is a hunger for the puck, to take the thinking time when the opponent is in possession, and to retain possession when we have the puck."
It is a well-known fundamental of hockey that driving for the net creates goals. What is not so well-known is that driving to the net, with or without the puck, draws penalties. Referees are more prone to call penalties when a scoring chance is taken away with a foul than one-on-one scuffles where there is no chance of a play.
"There is a huge disparity between players that play to win, and players who are playing for the applause of the crowd. Are you posing for effect or are you playing with the intensity needed to go beyond first or second effort and not settle until the job is done?"
"Happiness and success depend so little on circumstances. It really depends on that which happens inside a person. The true competition is the competition of the player with himself; his present seeking to excel his past."
"In hockey, there is only winning and misery." Mark Messier
"It's not that pride in and of itself is a bad thing - it's wonderful to be proud of what you do every day and the company you do it for. But when taken too far, pride can create a false sense of security. Feeling invincible, people assume that success begets success with little new effort - or even worse, that success happens all by itself. Even if something seems to be working, it can always be improved.
"As one of my colleagues likes to say, 'We're a bunch of entrepreneurs who work as a team.'" Michael Dell, Direct From Dell
After the game (63-point play-off record) he (Michael Jordan) told reorters, 'I'd give all the points back if we could have won the game. I wanted to win so badly.' Years later, when people brought the game up, expecting him to go on about it with some degree of nostalgia, he quickly changed the subject. 'It's not one of my favorite games,' he would say, and then quickly add, 'Because we lost. That fact never changes.'"
"'Larry (Bird) thought he owed Boston a winner, and Michael felt he owed Chicago a winner. That was part of their job, part of their contract,' Ford said. 'I'm afraid not a lot of people feel that way today.'"
"Worse, they (Chicago Bulls) were losing to teams they should have beaten, and they were failing at something that was critical for championship teams: They were failing to finish out close games. The trademark of champions - the trademark of the Bulls for much of this decade - had been to dominate other teams in the last few minutes when the game was on the line. Somehow, they were losing that knack. Other teams sensing blood in the water, were coming at them and having their way."
"The deeper they went in the playoffs, the more likely they were to find formidable defensive players who were finally going to limit what one great player could do. It might not be a bad idea, he even suggested, if Jordan did not win the scoring title, as he had for the last two years. The better defensive teams emerging in the later rounds of the playoffs would figure out ways of shutting him down. Individual talent, no matter how unique, could only take them so far in this game.
"Veteran coaches and players know that the margin of difference comes more than anything else from superior mental toughness. Quality players on great teams know how to win, how to finish a game, how to block out a hostile crowd on the road; they speak of the ability of great teams to bend the will of lesser teams to their own."
"Winning brought its own special set of pitfalls and ever greater expectations. The more you won, the more the pressure against sustaining success grew - not just from other teams that wanted what you had and came at you with greater determination, but from the forces on your own team produced by that very same success. Success in contemporary sports does not, as some might imagine, create greater harmony. It almost always creates a greater need for individual recognition. Everyone wants a greater share of the glory."
Playing For Keeps Michael Jordan and the World He Made, David Halberstam
"The longer you go on a winning streak, the harder it becomes to win the next game. It is much more difficult to sustain the proper level of motivation and concentration."
THE TRANSITION GAME
When watching championship teams, no doubt, they have a good collection of talented players; as well, there is one aspect ot their team play that stands out. It is called the transition game - the ability to switch from defense to offense and vice versa. It is not a matter of waiting until the puck changes possession. Successful teams anticipate the loose pucks and turnovers. It is not a matter of only one player making the switch; but all five skaters must be thinking ahead to either start the rush sooner on offense or begin the retreat on defense. Anticipation is not easy to teach, but when players are keyed on making a fast switch, it is not hard to take the initiative.
When switching to offense, a quick transition provides the greatest opportunity to catch the opposition off-guard and flat-footed. Likewise when switching to defense. There is the greatest opportunity to stop the play before it develops. Sure, it takes more skating, but that is all the more reason that championship teams deserve their success. they don't wait for things to happen - they make things happen, most often in their favor. It is action versus reaction.
"Where do you draw the line between honest feedback and destructive criticism? Unless somebody asks for feedback don't automatically give it. If you have feedback for a teammate, it's good to ask first if that player would like to hear it or not.
"But in looking at what doesn't work, don't overlook the things that do work. Consciously remind yourself to pay attention to the positive things and acknowledge yourself and other players for the things that are being done well." Shakti Gawain
"You cannot unite a team by force. It must be the free response of willing hearts - persuasion rather than demands."
"Every shift on the ice in the NHL a player must demonstrate courage...and determining which players measure up on that scale is the ultimate scouting challenge." Dave King
INTENSITY OF THE MIND
Ask hockey players the meaning of intensity and you will find varying answers. Regardless of the answers, most players treat intensity as an intensity of the body rather than intensity of the mind. If you look closely at the word you will note that the word tense is preceded by 'in' meaning inside. Now tenseness of the body is counter productive to playing any sport well. You do not want the hands so tense on the stick that you are unable to feel the puck. You do not want your legs so stiff that they can't react fast to a breaking opportunity. What we do want is intensity of the mind which is as different from intensity of the body as night is to day. It is the discipline of action before the fact.
What is intensity of the mind? It is looking ahead for the expected pass and being ready to make your break at the precise moment that the passer is ready to make the pass. On offense, knowing what you are going to do before the puck comes. On defense, knowing where the pass is going and attacking the receiver before he has full control. It is thinking ahead so that you can act spontaneously without any instruction to do what is required. It is thinking what your opponent in the face off circle is trying to do before the puck is dropped. Great quarterbacks say that they can "see" the proper receiver get open and catch a pass before it is even thrown. You see the possibilities with your mind.
But as with any premonition, acting on what you see to be happening involves risk. More often, when thinking ahead, you will forsee correctly, but when you are wrong, nine times out of ten you will be able to recover quickly and the other time your teammates will pick up the slack. Especially in your offensive zone, misjudgments still leave a lot of space before the opposition reaches the danger zone. Doing nothing and waiting for the action to take place is almost always a misjudgment. Thinking ahead and taking action makes thing happen, usually for the good.
How quickly you act when the puck moves, or sometimes even before the puck moves, can set an individual apart. When it is a premise by which the whole team plays, it is the difference between sitting in the dressing room with heads down versus celebration. Without intensity of the mind, you are almost defeated before you start. With intensity of the mind you become a player or team that is tough to play against.
"It is not how much ice time you have, but how intense you are with the ice time given - Even when the puck is not around, you have to be thinking ahead. When you act rather than react, you automatically have a one-step advantage over your opponent. However, few players fail to make use of this one-step advantage because they fail to think ahead of where the play is going."
"Our society has a strong belief system that we should be able to do everything for ourselves. We ought to be totally self-sufficient. Most of us have really bought into that mind-frame and feel guilty for needing other people. We try valiantly to appear strong and self sufficient. Yet it is impossible for a player to advance very far in hockey with this attitude. He will be hesitant to take instructions well and will try to win the game alone. To succeed, a player needs a deep connection and interdependence with his teammates.
"Living life to the fullest is a lot like shooting the rapids in a rubber raft. Once you've made the commitment, it's difficult to change your mind, turn around, and paddle upstream to placid waters. But it's the excitement and adventure that make it all worthwhile. If you never make the attempt you may never know the depth of despair, but neither will you experience the exhiliaration of success." Napoleon Hill.
More and more you see it in the NHL. Players will sign a huge contract and fail to come even close to the performance level that earned them the big contract in the first place. In their minds, they are guaranteed enough to live on for the rest of their lives regardless of their performance. They have lost their motivation, they have lost their commitment to the hard work that it takes to stay on top.
"Do not allow yourself to be lulled into complacency by the masses who believe mediocrity is an acceptable alternative. Focus on the possibilities for success, not the potential for failure.
"When you take the initiative in any situation, others will follow simply because they like to associate with people who know where they are going. In order to lead, however, you must first be willing to discipline yourself. The first rule of leadership is never to ask others to do what you are unwilling to do yourself. You can lead only by example.
"Defeat is never permanent unless you allow it to be so. When you have a positive attitude, you will recognize failure for the imposter it is and realize that it is really a learning experience, a valuable lesson that will help you succeed with the next attempt.
"Don't wait for something to happen - make it happen." Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas says, "A little initiative will improve your luck nine times out of ten."
"Julius Caesar had long wished to capture the British. He sailed to the British Isles, quietly unloaded his troops and supplies, and gave the order to burn the ships. He then called all of his men together and said, 'Now it is win or perish. We have no choice.' With that single order, he guaranteed the success of his campaign. He knew that people who have no other alternative - or will accept no other - always win." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill
Successful players are those who have learned to swim against the current, to do the things that others refuse to do.
"Courage is what Ernest Hemingway described as 'grace under pressure.' When you can demonstrate good sportsmanship in the face of defeat, you have taken the first step toward earning the respect of your peers and preparing yourself for the next victory. Don't take yourself and your situation so seriously that you cannot give a smile of sincere congratulations to someone who has temporarily bested you. Wish him or her well, then rededicate yourself to improving your own ability - and stay in the game."
"If you look a little closer, you may find that appearances are deceiving. The chances are good that they've had just as many problems, setbacks, and failures as anyone else; they have just dealt with them differently. They don't allow themselves to lose hope simply because they have had an unfortunate experience."
"Self-realization would not be achieved one by one, but all together or not at all." W.E.B. Dubois
We have an impact on the lives of those around us. It is up to you to ensure that this impact is a positive and supportive one.
We did so well not because we had a lot of great individual players, but because we had a great team. There were other teams with more talented players; in fact, some of them had too much talent. On the teams loaded with good players, everybody wanted to be a star, rather than trying to fit in with their teammates.
We had a group of guys who were willing to do what was good for the team and our shared goals, rather than worrying about their individual statistics and achievements. Each of us trusted the other to do what was good for the team as a whole. Each of us worked to earn that trust in order to prove that we deserved to be part of the team. As a result, we achieved more together than we ever would have achieved if we each had played merely for personal glory or his own selfish purposes. We were all bound together by mutual trust and respect and common goals, and so we were not only a basketball team; each of us was part of the support team for the other players."
There is a huge difference between the forced camarderie that has been bred into hockey players since they were youngsters, than the genuine feeling of true team spirit. When there is true team spirit, there is no need for preaching - players are genuinely interested in the well being of their teammates.
LOOKING GOOD VERSUS PERFORMANCE
Having studied hockey players for years, I have always looked for the reasons that make the superstars. For the wrong reasons, one player stands out - few will remember him, Thomas Steen of the former Winnipeg Jets. He had all the individual skills - puckhandling, passing, shooting - of the superstars, but only once did he have more than 20 goals in a season. Usually his assists to goals ratio was 2:1 and his shooting percentage was no different than the superstars, but he simply refused to take shots unless the situation was perfect. Time after time there would be a shot available and he would refuse the shot looking instead for the perfect play. Compared to the superstars, he took on average less than half the amount of shots and yet I am sure he had just as many opportunities. Certainly he was a player that could play on any team, but he never achieved the success that his skills could have achieved.
Frequently, his skills would develop scoring chances but he would make that one extra pass, or try to beat that final player before shooting. Obviously he was looking for the perfect play, the perfect goal that would make the highlight tape. No one ever said Thomas Steen was selfish with the puck, but sometimes a player has to be selfish to play effective hockey. You need to have the skills to develop scoring chances, but you have to take advantage of those scoring chances.
For some players, watching the highlights of games, they come to feel that a goal is only a goal if it is a 'pretty' goal and yet, most goals are not 'pretty'; they come from unexpected shots, scrambles, and rebounds. These are not exciting enough for the highlight tapes. The hooking and holding in today's hockey, not to mention the defensive abilities of all players, makes it almost impossible for players to make the 'pretty' plays.
You can check the stats of the effective players and you will find that they have low shooting percentages, in other words, they take lots of shots. Also, they are usually at the top of the lists when shots on net are recorded.
In the final analysis, effective players are those who produce results. You can watch the superstars, Gretzky, Jagr, Yzerman, Fleury etc. and they may not seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary; but, all of a sudden a goal is scored and they are on the scoresheet. In fact, they make mistakes - bad passes, missed shots - but they recover fast and simply make more good moves than bad. Furthermore, they usually play 'plus' hockey knowing that 'cheap' goals will be scored against them when they are on the ice; in reverse, they need to get their share of the 'cheap' goals to stay ahead of the game.
For those who are only concerned about 'looking' good, they would do well to consider that the spectators scream just as loud for a 'flukey' goal as they do a three-way-passing play. And very little cheers go up for a four-way-passing play that goes astray on the final pass.
"We're going to do this job right and we're going to have fun along the way." Crew of Apollo 12
"To surrender means to admit defeat. In a minor way it is what we do whenever we go out on the ice with the fear of failure."
"He has always had that desire to be the best. When he was younger, he was a little misunderstood. He was cast as pouty or immature or selfish, but once you got to know him, you realized how fierce his desire was to be the best." Ron Francis on Jaromir Jagr.
PLAYING THE 'TRAP'
Since New Jersey won the Stanley Cup playing what is referred to as 'the trap', there has been mcuh talk about this defensive style of play. What is the trap?
"Aside from being the monster that has been blamed for choking the life out of hockey, it is a defensive scheme whereby the defending team sends one forward into the offensive zone and it's his job to funnel the attacking team up one side of the rink. While he performs his duty, the other two forwards drop back into the neutral zone (between the bluelines) and clog up the puck carrier's passing and skating lanes, leaving the offensive player very few options." Mike Brophy
To beat the trap, it takes two key ingredients - speed and patience. The speed part is obvious: When there is a change in puck possession, the team gaining possession must bust it out of their zone before the defending team sets up. While a team sits around waiting to set it up for the offensive rush, the defensive team is allowed time to set up the so-called trap. You can't stop and let the other team set up the trap. The idea is to catch the other team while it's in a transition. Another factor is for puck movement directed north and south. As soon as you start going side to side, you play right into the trap.
A Bruins assistant coach and teammate of Jacques Lemaire who is credited with the trap has said: "They gave the monster a name (circa 1993) and suddenly everybody was talking about it. It was there for years." A team with quick transition and speed should have no trouble beating the trap and advancing the puck into their offensive zone.
All coaches are looking for the two-way players. Sandis Ozolinsh of the Avalanche is known as a great offensive defenseman; but he has often been referred to as an 'equal opportunity defender', meaning that he created scoring chances at both ends of the rink. Not a good phrase to apply to any player.
"What I miss the most is the interaction with my teammates, being at practice, on the bus, being there after a big win. I miss the game more than the game misses Wayne Gretzky.
"I miss the game days, I miss every day. It's a special bond when you're not part of a team, you're on the outside looking in."
"I think what separated me in my time was I had a passion for the game, I was dedicated to it. I prepared myself for each and every game. I really felt like I had never done enough. If I had three goals, I wanted it to be five goals. If I had seven points, I wanted to get the eighth point. so I never stopped playing, approaching each game like it was a Stanley Cup playoff game. Maybe that's why I have the records I did eventually get."Wayne Gretzky
Recently when the two bottom teams were playing against each other they showed a statistic for how many games the teams had won when the other team had scored the first goal. It was dismal. Something like 1 win out of 24 games when the other team scored the first goal. But think back to the Edmonton years. It didn't matter much who scored the first goal - they never quit believing that they would come out winners in the end. It shows the real character of a team when they can come from behind.
"We need to be good; but we also need to be lucky. Consistency and routine will bring us luck." Jerry West.
It is interesting to note that he said good before lucky which is according to the old cliche: "You need to be good to be lucky."
"While building your support team, I urge you to also become part of the support team for someone who may be a few steps back, or just starting out behind you. Do not become so focused on your own journey that you cannot stop occasionally and help others along the way. Do good deeds without looking for rewards, and the rewards will probably find you anyway.
"There is a traditional African proverb that says, 'If it is to be, it's up to me.'" You Can Make It Happen, Stedman Graham.
"You know,he commented mildly, 'We have an expression in golf: One hole at a time. And the wisdom of the famed AA saying, 'One day at a time.'"
In the game of hockey we could say, 'One shift at a time. Sitting on the bench and preparing for the next shift is the time to focus on making things happen rather than going out there and reacting against what the opposition throws at you.
"Life is a 'flow', and if you will be in harmony with it, you will need to shift or flow; if you are rigid and unable to adjust, you will quickly and forever be 'out of sync' or 'out of the flow'. It is that feeling on a particular night when you are in the groove, you have the feeling that everything you touch will turn to gold. Smart coaches are looking for players from the start of the game who are 'in the flow' and add to their ice-time accordingly.
"Many places that are created to bring people closer together and help them form a peaceful community have degenerated into mental minefields. Students in classrooms, teachers in faculty meetings, staff members in hospitals and co-workers in projects (Members of a hockey team) often find themselves paralyzed by mutual hostility, unable to realize their purposes because of fear, suspicion, and even blatant aggression.
"Those who kissed each other on the stage were tempted to hit each other behind it, and those who portrayed the most profound human emotions of love in the footlights displayed the most trivial and hostile rivalries as soon as the footlights had dimmed."
"So give encouragement to one another, and keep strengthening one another...(1 Thess. 5:2-11) Reaching Out, Henri J.M.Nouwen
BOOK9 CONDITIONING AND PRACTICE
"As it turned out, he just kept getting better and better and he made everybody around him play better and better. As a result we were a better team. And he wanted to perform above the Xs and Os and be the great winner and leader that he was and is..... but I think the greatest compliment you can pay anyone is that he played the game at such a level it was contagious and those around him knew they had to play to the best of their ability in order to remain on the same field with this guy. It made the games feel like they were so easy compared to practices." Flutie with Perry Lefko
"When Moon (Warren) was with Houston, was asked about me breaking the record, he said: 'Flutie's talents are tailor-made for the CFL. It doesn't surprise me. I'm glad it's somebody who works hard both on and off the field." Flutie with Perry Lefko
But why should I work hard in practice? There are no spectators and very few parents. Why then exert myself? Obviously for the joy of it, the participation with a group of other players all striving to better themselves. It is a time for team development and team spirit by encouraging others to strive for higher goals.
Most coaches live by the philosophy: "If you're willing to work, I'm willing to work with you." And, of course, the reverse is true. If you are not willing to work hard in practices, don't expect any amount of help from the coach. At the higher levels, you will be cut from the team. At the lower levels, you will be ignored or harrassed.
"When your legs feel like rubber and won't work anymore, your mind won't work either. Get off the ice and recuperate your strength for the next shift."
"The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the lazy, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing someone grow rich, they say, 'How lucky they are!' Observing another become a renowned scholar, they exclaim, 'How highly favored they are!' and noting the saintly character and wide influence of others, they remark, 'How luck aids them at every turn!'
"They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men and women have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; they have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart."
"Those who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; those who would achieve much must sacrifice much; those who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly."
James Allen: As A Man Thinketh.
DEVELOPMENT OF HABITS
No one disputes the value of the switch hitter in baseball, nor the hockey player who can deliver accurate passes from the backhand. Try the following little test:
Fold your arms in front of you in the habitual way you have folded them since you were a child trying to appear good. Nothing to it! Now look at your arms and notice whether your right fingers are on top of your left, or vice versa. Now uncross them and refold them in the opposite way. If your right fingers were on top before, the left ones will be now. Keep folding back and forth between the habitual way and the new way. Which is more comfortable? Which is more familiar? Which feels more secure? If you are anything like myself, there will be confusion, but the more you continue, the easier it becomes.
It is like that with passing from the backhand, carrying the puck with the opposite hand, or even shooting while reversing the hand position. The law of averages says that a backhand is required as often as a forehand pass or shot, making the ambidextrous player much more effective. If you never step out on a limb and try it, it will never become a habit. To become more ambidextrous and thereby effective, you must do things in ways that were awkward and unfamiliar. The more you try it, the sooner you will be able to take advantage of all the opportunities that come your way.
It is like swimming. If you know how to swim and you jump in a cool green lake on a hot summer's day, your body will recall what to do, even if you haven't been swimming for thirty years.
Quotes of Note
MARIO THE GENTLE GIANT
"I always make them work very, very hard physically in practice, They didn't know any other way to play. In the games, the intensity of the practice showed. " Ron Stevenson, Mario's coach from age 10 to 14.
Stevenson once asked Mario how he'd known who he was passing to when he dropped the puck behind him. "I could tell it was Stephane by the sound of his skates," Mario replied.
Stevenson never remembers Mario missing a practice or a game in four years.
As they moved up through bantam and the cheap shots and physical abuse got nastier and more determined, Stevenson watched his star struggle to keep his cool. "Once in a while I'd have to calm him down. I'd tell him to get control of himself and have him miss a couple of shifts. Just like now, it was the opposition's game plan to get him off his game.
Mario could see very clearly that by losing control he was bowing to his opponents, and that, in his lexicon of behavior, was forbidden. He was also being told by a man who'd never led him wrong that it would do his career good if he showed more respect to people both on and off the ice." From Jean Sonmor's book, Mario Lemieux The Gentle Giant
It is often said that the games become more fun when effort has been put into the practices. In any endeavor, the final result is largely dependant on the preparation. There is no fun coming out of a game on the losing end when you have been beaten by a team with lesser talent. Enthusiasm, drive and intensity will often overcome superior talent. It must start in the practices before it can be carried out at game time.
"Nothing is more dangerous than discontinued labor; it is habit lost. A habit easy to abandon, difficult to resume." Victor Hugo
Well-conditioned athletes get into a groove. Their conditioning is habitual. Possibly with the exception of a couple of weeks off after the season, it is a continual process without allowing complacency to set in and destroy their routine.
And from Nick Polano, one of Yzerman's coaches, "A good leader is a guy who's self-motivated, a guy a coach doesn't have to work on every day. Steve practiced hard, he played hard. I've found that usually guys who practice hard are your best players. This was a guy who worked extra all the time. The coach needs someone in that locker room who can almost be another assistant coach. I know Mark Messier does it and I thought Steve could do it."
"When I play against those guys - the Bryan Trottiers, the Wayne Gretzkys, the Mark Messiers - I still feel I've got a lot to learn." Yzerman said. "There are so many little things they do so well, things they do day after day, shift after shift. I don't consider myself in that category. I feel I've made important strides but I'm still improving. Trying to anyway."
Daigle done in by work ethic!
"Guys like Alexandre are more interested in things outside the game than the game itself. They never work hard to make (themselves) better. They play the way they practice. They can't fool their teammates. He isn't a drinker or have any of those kinds of problems. But for every good game he would play, there would be 10 nothing ones." Flyer's GM, Bob Clarke
".....and that his tremendous hand and foot speed were the first signs of future success. There was one aspect of his approach to boxing that no one could criticize. It was his dire commitment to training. He did not drink or smoke and eschewed unhealthy food prior to fights. when it came to training, he was the first one at the track and the last one to leave. The same thing at the gym. He'd be there an hour before everyone else and leave an hour after everyone else. He loved to train. He was the most focused person I ever met." Petros Spanakos talking about Muhammed Ali.
Do not take the above in any way to encourage fighting in hockey. The important aspect to take notice of is: 'His tremendous hand and foot speed.' Both are absolutely essential qualities of a hockey player. Any conditioning program that does not address this need - fast stops and starts in skating, quick release of shots -
One can either take the attitude that conditioning is a form of punishment by the coach or he can take the proper attitude, that it is a necessary prerequisite for playing elite hockey. But as is so often the case, what comes easily is of considerably less value than that which comes hard, earned over time and with a struggle. Success does not come easily when so many others are seeking the same success as you are. You have to earn it, and one sure way of being in a position to earn your success is to get yourself in top condition. It is not a matter of luck, but rather, a matter of persistence and hard work. And if you can find a way to turn the thought of hard work into fun, the battle is 90 percent won.
Instead of always grieving for what might have been, you have to make the start.
It was a typically strong game by the Penguins and a spotty performance by the Rangers, who have looked brilliant at times and awful at others.
"Are we out of shape?" Campbell asked. "Are we lazy? You've got to ask yourself questions like that after a game like that."
When a team lacks consistency, it is often a sign of poor conditioning. The brilliant games may come when the team is well-rested, whereas the poor games may come when they are playing back-to-back games on following nights.
"As they moved up through bantam and the cheap shots and physical abuse got nastier and more determined, Stevenson watched his star struggle to keep his cool. 'Once in a while I'd have to calm him down. I'd tell him to get control of himself and have him miss a couple of shifts. Just like now, it was the opposition's game-plan to get him off his game. Mario could see very clearly that by losing control he was bowing to his opponents, and that, in his lixicon of behavior, was forbidden.' Certainly then as now, Mario often needed to withdraw and be alone. Perhaps it's that process that allows him to provide the explosions of magic that have always characterized his game." Mario Lemieux The Gentle Giant, Jean Sonmor
It is interesting to note that another superstar who preferred solitude and quiet before a game or practice, was Michael Jordan. It was their way of preparing themselves mentally for the task at hand.
"Or we may speak of the sacrifices an athlete makes in training. for the greater good set before him in the future, he forgoes present ease and leisure. An athlete may think that he is doing the right thing watching his sport on TV. It may be somewhat helpful, but it will never replace getting out on the playing field. Watching a hockey game on TV may provide you with an example to follow, but you will never be able to follow unless you get out on the outdoor rinks and try it."
The idea that there is a price to pay for everything that we desire is fundamental to success. In hockey we often hear the phrase, "He has redeemed himself." You will hear it after a poor performance, or a bad mistake followed by a superior performance. In other words he has paid the price. Conditioning and practice is the price you have to pay to perform at a superior level. The superstars didn't get there through superior luck, they paid the price.
"Every player has dreams of what he wishes he could be. Once he establishes the relationship of conditioning and practice to success, everything seems possible. Whatever the disparity between what he was and what he wished to be, it is the only way that dreams can become reality."
"The only real reward for toil is the pleasure in toil itself. There is nothing to be gained in the short term, only the increased performance somewhere down the road. This viewpoint makes the means more important than than the end. You have to find your own ways to make any conditioning program interesting."
"While you are increasing your strength, endurance, and quickness, the opposition are doing likewise. The questions is, Are we doing more than those we are trying to beat?"
"When you are learning to play music, you must play scales first. Then, as you master the scales, you become spontaneous in expressing your own feeling and improvising, allowing the spirit to flow through you. Expecting ourselves to behave in some perfect way or to attain perfect results is not realistic. We're constantly beating ourselves because we don't do everything exactly right and because we aren't already perfect. It hurts to live that way. If you're beating yourself up, you can't learn."
Handling the puck without looking at is comparable to the scales in music. All offensive skills, shooting, passing, and puckhandling, are based on this one ability. It must be practiced day after day until it is mastered and then worked on every time on the ice.
"There was a tendency in games like this (shinny), when there were no coaches around, for players to resort to what they did best, to reinforce their strengths and avoid going to any part of their game that was essentially weak. But Jordan was constantly working on the weaker part of his game, trying to bring it up. It was one more sign of his desire to be the best."
"When his coaches sometimes wondered aloud if he was being too hard on his teammates, he would answer correctly, that if they could not take the pressure in practice, how were they going to take it during the playoffs?"
"At the first day of practice each year, Daly told the players that they would get their minutes based on how hard and well they played in practice. Everyone practices hard."
"Pippen was the harbinger of the next championship tea, Daly was sure. He was not there yet, but he soon would be. All he needed was mental toughness, and that, for someone who played against Michael Jordan every day in practice, would come soon enough." Playing For Keeps, Michael Jordan and the World He Made
Your game is an ongoing work in progress; you're always improving and defining it. If you avoid the things that you are afraid of because you think there will be dire consequences, you will not be improving very fast. It is the law of diminishing returns. Working only on your strengths, you may find improvement of that skill in the range of five percent. The same amount of time spent on improving your weakest skill may improve that skill by fifty percent.
"Jagr learned four seasons ago that more shots means more goals. 'I knew I could score a lot more goals than I did and I knew my weakness was (not enough) ugly goals and (not enough) shooting, he said. 'I knew when I was shooting more in 95/96, I had like 400 shots and I scored 60 goals. '
"To be precise, Jagr totaled 403 shots in 95/96 and scored a career best 62 goals. Last season, his totals were 343 shots and 44 goals. That's simply not enough shooting for a player with Jagr's array of shots.
"'His shot is especially great because of how quickly he releases the puck,' said Penguins' goaltender Peter Skudra. 'the goalie really has to be set to make the save.'
"Jagr's first eight goals this season included six laser-like wrist shots, a one-time slapshot from 45 feet and a neat little backhand rebound. He hadn't even scored on one of his patented dekes - and those were virtually all he used to score on.' Penguins assistand coach Troy Ward often feeds Jagr pucks in practice. 'I've passed to every guy on this team for three years now and the quality of his shooting practice is unbelievable.' Ward said. 'The intensity with which he goes at it and the work he puts in is second to none. He's the one guy who could say, 'I'm the best in the world, I don't need to work on this.' He doesn't settle for that. He finds other ways to improve.'"
"Lakers practices were serious business. Everything was scripted, and no time was to be lost. The enforcer was Johnson. He was the first player there every day for practice, wanting to get his own head right sitting there by his locker, thinking of what he needed to do himself, and then checking out the other players. He did not want a lot of noise in the locker room, particularly before a game. He wanted nothing to break his concentration. No boom boxes - if someone wanted music, let him use earphones. The lesson was clear: This was a business office, not a social or athletic club.
".....and its rising star was Michael Jordan. He was as driven as ever, the hardest-working player on the team in practice. If he thought his teammates were not working hard enough, he would get on them himself, and on occasion he pushed the coaches to get on them."
"It was the kind of thing that happened ten or twelve times during the season, the power of his (Jordan) will triumphing over the exhaustion of his body." Playing For Keeps, David Halberstam
THE SHOOTING PHOBIA
Why can't a reasonably efficient hockey player hit the net with his shots, especially at a crucial moment in a game? Well, I suppose it is like the golfer faced with hitting his ball over a body of water. He tenses up and hence, fails to hit well, the result is that the ball will head straight for the hazard that he so dreads. It is an example of what psychologists call a self-fulfilling prophecy. Expect trouble, and it is all the more likely to come to pass.
Top goal scorers don't waste many opportunities by missing the net. What is their secret? - not an easy question to answer, but there are some theories. First, the player must realize the importance of shots on the net and he must realize that 'tensing up' is the greatest problem. Why then do players tense up when presented with a shooting opportunity? The logical answer is that they have not taken enough shots in game-like conditions. Watch any shooting practice - players are given all the time in the world to take their shots. They can get set, take a full wind-up, and aim their shots with precision; but, that is not game-like conditions.
The solution should be apparent. Make any shooting practice more like game conditions where the object is quick release. even though the time is available in practice, you have to imagine that a quick release is necessary. The faster you get your shot away and on net in practices, the less likely you will tense up in a game situation. Of course, there will be times when a quick release is not necessary; but, this does not defeat the necessity of practicing quick release over and over. When you have done something over and over, you will not tense up when you are faced with a shooting opportunity in a game.
Especially on the power play, there is no excuse for missing the net and yet, tenseness causes it to happen. Players are looking for the perfect opportunity because they are not able to get a shot away with quick release. Unfortunately, players will continue to take their time when practicing their shooting and as a result they will miss the net on that one opportunity in overtime or at a crucial stage in some try-out camp. More often than not, you will not have the time to go through all the preparatory stages for a shot and the opportunity will be gone forever.
You can avoid this shooting phobia by taking any shooting drill seriously and eliminating the free time as if an opposing player were about to stomp on you. When you do something over and over, it becomes instinct - no tenseness, just an automatic response of taking your shots in a hurry and getting them on the net. And when you can get your shots on net when there is little time, you will have no problem when you do have the time.
"How do you go to a distant city? You begin by taking a first step. One step! All great achievements have simple beginnings:
'You begin to fly by lying on your back studying the gulls at Kitty Hawk. The Wright brothers
'You begin to invent the automobile by running a bicycle shop in Dearborn Michigan. Henry Ford
'You begin to discover the theory of relatively by memorizing your multiplication tables. Einstein
'You begin to write Hamlet by learning to write. Shakespeare
'You begin to compose the Fifth symphony by practising your scales. Beethoven'" Charles Templeton, The Third Temptation
You begin your journey as a hockey player by learning the fundamentals and having fun in the process. If practices are a bore, you are not destined for greatness.
"The daily grind of practicing discourages the faint of heart. The light flickers out and enthusiasm goes down the drain. "
"NFL All-Pro lineman Brian Holloway recalled that when he was playing for the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Raiders, there wasn't a single day when he didn't feel like giving up because the road was too rough and the sacrifices were too great. He didn't quit, of course, he was willing to pay the price because he was determined to succeed. True thoroughbreds never quit."
"Just as the physical body becomes strong through regular exercise, so does the mind require regular use to remain strong. Your imagination and visualization skills come through reading. As you read, your mind translates the words into images that help you better undestand the concepts about which you are reading. Become a voracious reader." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill.
Many hockey players attribute a large part of their success to reading instructional books and hockey biographies. It is one thing to practice on the rink, but it is quite another to know what to practice.
"In fact, fitness instructors often talk about 'going for failure.' Now that sounds like fun, doesn't it? Let's go fail! What does that mean? In weightlifting, to go for failure means to push yourself to the limit; to lift as much as you can as many times as you can until you can't lift any more. Why do you do that? Fitness experts say that in order to build muscle, you first break it down, exhaust it, and then build new strength into it. By going for failure, you are preparing your muscles for greater success.
"Commit to success by earning it and knowing that you deserve it. Prepare yourself so that when success comes, you are comfortable with it. Learn to celebrate your successes and acknowledge your defeats, but then move on to the next opportunity and challenge. And unless you start making the right decisions, you will be stuck. You get stuck by forgetting that life is a process of continual striving and challenge, of pushing your talents and knowledge. Sounds like work, doesn't it? That's why so many people get stuck. If you skip your workout today, remember this: You snooze, you lose. Scheduling your time is a commitment you make to yourself. When you schedule yourself to do something by picking an exact time to do it, it motivates you to get the task done." You Can Make It Happen, Stedman Graham.
As a word of caution, the above is not recommended for players until they are well into their teens.
"A wise man watches his faults more closely than his virtues; fools reverse the order." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill.
If you can't stand criticism, if you can't face your own weaknesses, there is little chance for you to improve. You have to face up to your weaknesses in order to work on them in practice.
IMPROVING THE WEAK SIDE
Avoiding the backhand pass or shot is a weakness that will cost you. In tennis they call it 'running around your backhand'. What a player would do is to position himself a little bit to one side of the baseline so that he does not have to take any shots on his backhand side. However, there is a huge downside. In hockey, making adjustments so that all shots or passes are made from the forehand side takes away scoring chances and plays. When a player has no confidence, backhand shots are not taken and plays are disrupted.
To overcome the problem, the first step is to realize that what you are doing isn't working to your best advantage; in fact, it is hurting your performance in unseen ways. The second step is to make a conscious decision to change - to make your backhand as comfortable as the forehand. And finally, you have to use your backhand over and over in practice.
Some will think that to spend time working on the backhand will take away from their effectivemess with the forehand, but not so. As your ability with the backhand improves, so will your precision on the forehand. Going back to step two, when you make the decision to improve your backhand, game time is not the place to start. You have to start in practice making backhand passes and shots at every opportunity, and in fact, creating the times when you can use the backhand. Or, you can skate up and down the ice giving and receiving backhand passes from the boards. After hundreds and hundreds of backhand plays, confidence will come and they will automatically become part of your game.
The law of averages says that there are just as many opportunities for passes or shots off the backhand as there are off the forehand. If you must always switch to the forehand, hard-won opportunities will be lost. Any great goal scorer scores a good percentage of his goals from the backhand shots. Any great playmaker can pass equally well off the forehand or the backhand. Watch for it in games and you will see how dexterious the stars are and how much the average player misses out by failing to use his backhand.
Consider the following:
- The goaltender consider the backhand one of the most difficult shots to stop.
-It is almost impossible to be effective with faking when your moves are only to one side.
-Making the adjustment from backhand to forehand takes time, gives away your intentions, and takes away from the flow of your skating.
-Ability to use the backhand by instinct increases your overall confidence in your ability.
Any dumb fool can spend hours and hours practicing what he does well looking for a 5 percent improvement. Smart players search out their weaknesses where the same amount of time in practice can give improvement of 50 percent or more. Think about your weaknesses and then take steps to improve.
"There are many hockey players who do not seem to be self-learners. They are constantly looking for coaches or other players, seeking some new tip from on high. Nothing wrong with this; but, you also have to find your own tips by watching what the successful players do in given situations. You will find tips from outside sources; but, in the end, you have to be able to figure things for yourself."
"Well I hate to practice. I think it is generally in our nature to detest practice, and I believe we can thoroughly overcome this natural disinclination only when we feel called to excellence in some particular endeavor. Let me make it clear right now that God is not calling me to be a pro golfer, and I doubt He is calling you that way either. I play golf primarily for fun. Nonetheless, we are more likely to enjoy golf - or to have fun in any other field of human endeavor - when we know what we are about. And like it or not, that takes practice." Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck.
"What I miss the most is the interaction with my teammates, being at practice, on the bus, being there after a big win. I miss the game more than the game misses Wayne Gretzky.
"I miss the game days, I miss every day. It's a special bond when you're not part of a team, you're on the outside looking in."
"In practice I give it everything I've got whether the rest of the team is into it or not."
"Everything I judged about their behavior was during training sessions. Hockey is the essence of life." Anatoli Tarasov, Russian Coach
Quotes of Note
"One thing is apparent when watching the true team players. They are not afraid to get in front of the net to set up a screen for someone else doing the shooting. Three players especially come to mind: Fleury, Yzerman, and Forsberg. They are not afraid of the traffic in front of the net even though they are not big players by comparison. Very little credit is given for this type of action, but it is one sign of a true team player. They are able to anticipate when a shot is coming and drive to the front of the net where the action will be."
Unfortunately, there are coaches who approach their own players as if he were at war with the whole human race, as if he had a deep well of hatred, as if he were of those who are perpetually avenging themselves, who accuse everybody about them of the misfortunes that always happen, and are always ready to pass the blame on to the closest player available. Such coaches are ruining themselves, if ruin is possible at zero.
They must rule, they desire influence and to attract the attention of others, but often in the process them make themselves laughing-stocks.
You can't 'will' a garden to grpw. The plant grows with nurture. Likewise with hockey players. You can't force them to greater performance through your will-power. You have to nurture them along until they grow on their own.
One of the secrets of the great offensive players is that they know when to push off. When battling in front of the net, they are watching the play develop and at the precise moment when a teammate is in a position to make a pass, the player pushes off from the defender to gain a little free ice to be in a position to receive the pass. Often you can lull the defender to sleep by pretending to do battle until the moment when the puck carrier is ready to make the pass.
"Flying at 600 feet elevation, an eagle can spot an object the size of a dime moving through six-inch grass." A hockey player will never be able to spot the openings unless he gets his focus on the playing surface. He must get his vision out of the stands and onto the ice. It starts with the low profile skating position, scanning the ice for the loose pucks, players in the clear for a pass, openings for a shot on goal. Eddie Balfour has been called 'The Eagle' because of his ability to pick out the pucks coming at him. Unless a player's vision is trained on the game, he will never be much of an offensive threat.
Obviously the choice of stick is one of the most important aspects of good offensive play. And yet, few players approach this choice with much thought. There are two important factors to consider. Firstly, the choice should be made on skates or on a platform to compensate for the height difference when skates are put on. There is not much point in choosing a stick in runners and then putting on skates which will increase your height by two or three inches. For the second factor we have to consider the common hockey axiom: "If you want to play pro, you have to play low." Therefore it is necessary to be in the low profile position (well-bent over at the waist) when choosing your stick. Most players have no trouble getting in this position when driving for the net or setting up to take a shot. In either case, if you do not take the proper precautions, the lie of the stick will be off just enough to cause problems. You want the right lie when you are driving with the puck or setting up to take a shot. You do not want the lie that suits you when you are in runners standing tall in a sporting goods shop.
"Turnovers don't just happen, they are created by aggressive fore-checking in the ofensive and neutral zones. (If you don't believe in aggressive checking in your defensive zone, you don't belong in the game.) Everyone knows that aggressive checking takes away the puckcarrier's 'thinking' time and without this time to take a look around and make the play, he will make mistakes. Anybody can make a good pass if he has the time to set up." It is the situation where an aggressive attack on defense makes the offense more effective.
There is a saying that is in common usage: "There is power in weakness." Often you will see battles on the ice where there is power against power - no one is winning the battles, but they are both taken out of the play in their effort to win the struggle. But what happens if you give in to the struggle when you are being harrassed in front of the net. The opposing player feels that the battle is won and relaxes, he goes to sleep - you have given him a false sense of security that the job is done. It is then that you can pick your moment to break free and do what is required.
STRATEGY OF THE DUMP-IN
The object of the dump-in (shooting the puck into the offensive zone from outside the blueline) is to obtain possession or gain a face-off - not to show how hard a player can drive a slap shot. Rarely does a hard drive into the zone achieve the objective and frequently results in an odd-man rush against your team. You can increase the odds with a 'soft' dump to the corner or a high, looping, basketball-type shot into the corner or on the net. In both cases, more time is provided for the forwards to get on the puck or apply pressure to the goaltender forcing him to hold the puck for a face-off. It is not unlike the hang-time recorded for football punts. The more time the kicking team has to move downfield, the less chance there is for a return on the kick.
Especially when 'dumping' the puck to provide time for a line change, the soft dump will give you that time more readily than driving the puck hard into the zone. The question to ask when you see a player driving the puck hard, "Are you playing for 'show' or are you playing to win?"
THE ESSENCE OF TEACHING
Leo Tolstoy spent a great deal of his time developing a school for teaching the children on his estate. His educational system was founded on total freedom - of the teacher in relation to pupils, and the pupils in relation to their teacher. Only those who wanted to learn. If they did not feel like working nobody forced them. The teacher's moral authority should be enough to keep the class under control. Education must be a joyful pursuit. Who imagines he can guide and cultivate children's minds with rules and precepts? They brought no books or notebooks with them - nothing at all, save the desire to learn with self-imposed discipline, and that the teacher must not smother the child under the weight of learning, but must help him, little by little to shape his own personality. Let it be established that there is only one criterion in teaching: freedom.
Once a student leaves the confines of public and high schools, the coddling ends. At University level it is left entirely up to the student as to whether or not he is able to motivate himself. A hockey team is not much different. The desire to learn and improve has to come from within each and every player. A coach would be well-advised to work towards keeping the fun in the game and striving to develop his player's desire for improvement.
"How can one love a fly that will not stop tormenting one."
"There is an excellent player in him, but sometimes he is asleep. Inconstancy, hesitation, laziness, those are my enemies."
"They have blocked the door to success for others and won't go in themselves. Players cannot move any faster than the crowd to which they are bound. They are held back by the environment created by the few."
"When a man has something to say he must try to say it as clearly as possible, and when he has nothing to say it is better for him to keep quiet."
"A coach without a diary and a notebook is not thinking too far ahead. How else is he to remember all the good things players do during a game so that he can give them praise and recognition. It is the fuel of a hockey player -recognition for the good - the feeling that it is not just the bad moves that get noticed." And we should all remember that age-old axiom of teaching: "What gets noticed gets repeated."
AFTERTHOUGHTS THE TEAM GAME
Offense versus Defense - a controversial topic, be it hockey, football, baseball, or soccer. But let's be realistic. In hockey, forwards are geared to offense and defensemen are primarily concerned with defense - it goes with their positions. Let us assume that players are highly motivated - forwards are giving their all to score goals and defensemen are working hard to prevent goals. While there is always room for improvement in each of the respective areas, there may not be much room for growth. What is needed is more defense from the forwards and more offense from the defensemen. Here there is room for great strides motivating players towards the team goal of winning games.
Let's start with the forwards. For some reason they don't get serious about defending until the puck is in their defensive zone. And yet, in the big picture, a missed check in the offensive or neutral zones is just as important as a missed check around their own goal. Three-on twos and two-on-ones do not start in the defensive zone, but in the offensive and neutral zones. No defense can continually stand up to a barrage of odd-man rushes by their opponent. And frequently, when returning to their own end, it may not be possible to catch the puck carrier; but, it should always be possible to catch the odd-man in the rush. while there is not lack of intensity when going for a goal, the same intensity is needed when going for the puck carrier, going for the loose pucks or covering your man to render him incapable of receiving a pass. Too many players have the mistaken attitude that if they devote too much of their energy towards defending, they will lose their effectiveness when the puck comes their way. But more likely their offensive prowess will improve as they improve their ability to regain possession of the puck.
For the defensemen, what can they do to improve their offensive abilities? In many cases defensemen ignore the basic offensive skills such as passing and puckhandling. Once they get the puck in the defensive zone, their only concern is to drive the puck up the boards and out of danger. Not necessarily a bad move; but, not always the best move. What is needed is the ability to give 'receivable' passes - to the stick and along the ice - in other words, a pass, not a shot. And of course, in the offensive zone, the job is not simply to keep the puck inside the blueline. Here again, this is necessary, but more effective are shots on net - they don't have to be booming slap shots, just on the net and low.
For both forwards and defensemen, there has to be an underlying philosophy put into practice. "We have the puck and want to keep it or, they have the puck and we want to get it." "We won't give up the puck without a shot on net and we won't allow a shot on our goal." that is the target - it won't always be reached, but the effort and intensity must be there for end-of-season success as a team.
When a coach is continually asking for 110 percent effort, he is asking for everything and nothing. The message goes in one ear and out the other. But, when he is asking forwards to increase intensity on defense by 10 percent and for defensemen to improve their passing and puckhandling by 10 percent, he is asking for the possible. There is always room for these types of improvement or as one hockey expert has put it: "We expect five skaters on offense and five skaters on defense."
"...it is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us." Isaac D'Israeli, 1834
"Being different is costly, especially when most are satisfied to blend in with the majority. There aren't many magnets on earth stronger than peer pressure. Even though all of us have only a few years to spend on the little planet in space, rare are the ones who decide to ignore the 'average' and fight against the pull of the mediocre magnet. Face it - it's tough!"
"We live in a negative, hostile world. The system that surrounds us focuses on the negatives; what is destructive, not what is constructive; what cannot be done, not what can be done; what hurts, not what helps; what we lack, not what we have. Ten saw the problem; two saw the solution."
"I have not become the King's first Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." Winston Churchill during World War II. Hitler laughed at Great Britain. But Churchill and the Britions had the last laugh. He appealed to the intrinsic motivation of the people of Great Britain.
".....in a shop where the vast majority were members of the local union. It didn't take me long to realize that the maintenance of a mediocre standard was one of the unwritten laws of that shop. Pressure was applied to anyone who worked unusually hard or produced more than the lower-than-average quota. Why? It made all the others look bad, and there was no way they would tolerate such a thing! Mild suggestions, if unheeded, would be followed by gentle nudges. Then, if still unheeded, the nudges would be followed by direct confrontation. If that was ignored, there were stronger measures taken to maintain the level of mediocrity. They would have no part of excellence. Conform or else!"
It is no different on hockey teams or in the school system. The mediocre would rather put down the player or student out in front rather than pick up their own level of performance. As a coach, beware of the ones who want everyone to be equal. Without restraint, they may succeed in making everyone equal; but, at the level of mediocrity.
"Eagles represent independence, responsibility, strength, freedom, keenness of vision, rarity, and a dozen other admirable traits that we wish to emulate."
"He (albert Schweitzer) was not concerned about the attainability of perfection; he was concerned however, about the pursuit of perfection. He considered the desire to seek the best and work for the best as a vital part of the nature of man."
"Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard." Hesiod, 700 B.C.
The above quotes taken from Living Above the Level of Mediocrity by Charles Swindoll.
The eternal question...Why??? Why don't my players respond? Why don't we get our share of the 'breaks'? Why are we filled with complacency? When you ask Why? three things happen:
-You are questioning the way life is. There are no easy answers to this question.
- Every time you ask why, you are admitting vulnerability, and building up bitterness. You are wallowing in self-pity with a chip on your shoulder.
- Every time you ask Why? you are coming up empty every time. Nobody hears or reacts to the question. They don't hear you.
Don't ask Why? Ask What:
-What must I do to infect my players with an urgent desire for improvement.
-What must I do to promote a system where the 'breaks' will come our way?
-What must I do to create enthusiasm, first in myself, and then in the players?
When you begin asking the right questions, the answers will begin to come.
"Try eating a teaspoon of lard, flour, or salt. Ughh!!! But mix them together.....cookies. It is like a team. One player playing for his own glory is distasteful; but, mix several players together working for the good of the team and winning combinations are developed."
"You smile a smile out of a baby. Pat a dog and it will lick your hand; kick it and it will bite you. Love and you will be loved; hate and you will be hated. It's the law.
"Many pray for success but won't put in the hours and effort that is required in any field. Many a father prays for his children's well-being but won't spend quality time with them. Many a student prays for straight A's but won't hit the books." Charles Templeton
Unfortunately, when any request from a leader to a follower degenerates into little more than a duty, a weekly obligation, it becomes a bore, with little chance of being carried out.
Complacency is a danger both when a team is on a winning streak or a losing streak. Players are not susceptible to change and are content to keep things the way they are and go on as before. It is the coach's job to upset the status quo and plan new strategies for overcoming the roadblocks to change - new drills, new strategies, new approaches to motivation towards improvement of every player on the team.
You can always pick out teams that are playing out of fear. They simply get rid of the puck too quickly. Passes are too hard and off the ice, shots are not taken, the opposing team is given too much free ice when they have the puck. Fear can be a useful defense mechanism, but when a player is always on the defensive, it becomes debilitating and self-defeating.
A player might be able to practice and build up his skills alone, but he can't play the game alone. Pressure on the puck is a team concept, not an individual concept. When a player goes after the puck carrier aggressively, he is taking the thinking time away from the puck carrier which leads to mishandling and mistakes. But unless another player is there to cover up when the aggressive player finds himself out of position he won't remain aggressive for very long. As well, when he is successful, there needs to be teammates to take advantage of the rushed passes or mishandled pucks. The whole essence of pressure on the puck is all five skaters working as a team.
"Have you ever heard a coach blame himself or his assistants for a lack-lustre performance on the part of his team? Don Cherry is one who comes to mind, but coaches who are prepared to even share some of the blame are few and far between. Certainly motivation and preparedness are a huge part of a coach's responsibility, but rarely will they take their share of the blame. Sad but true.
On the other hand, many coaches are able to raise their team to a fever pitch and then find that the players cannot satisfy their passions. They leap just as quickly from elation to despair the moment something goes against plan. Enthusiasm is great, but it needs a grounding in fundamental skills to be effective.
"He was appealing to the team for calm and his face was frozen in terror."
"If a man shouts, his words no longer matter. Those with the weakest voices often have the best ideas."
"The trouble with the players who live for revenge is that they're never quite sure when they've had it - and so, to be on the safe side, they go on and on endlessly seeking retribution. Is it any wonder that the referees call penalties on the retaliation while ignoring the first offense?"
Phil Esposito, a Hall of Famer, once said: "The NHL draft is like a crap shoot." In selecting players in the annual draft, it is impossible to guarantee their future success in the NHL. Only in the rarest of cases is an 18-year old ready to play in the NHL and as a result there has to be continual improvement from year to year. Some players don't peak until they are in their thirty's while others seem to peak as early as twelve years old.
A broadcaster once said referring to Al MacInnes: "He just keeps getting better from year to year." While it is the job of the individual player to keep searching for improvement, there is much a coach can do to keep this improvement on an upward track. Once complacency sets in, a player is sitting on a tobaggan at the top of a steep hill. The fall is, more often than not, much swifter than the climb
A common saying among coaches to defensemen is: "Stand him up, stand him up." There is a common axiom in hockey: "If you want to play pro, play low." Needless to say, the successful forwards will be coming at the defensemen in a low-profile position. If the defenseman can force the forward to change to an upright position, half the battle is won. The forward's control of the puck is lost and his center of gravity is raised making the forward much easier to defend against. At the same time he is advising defensemen to 'Stand him up!' he should also be advising all players to play in the low-profile position.
One coach has said: "Training camp starts in September and ends in May."
"You can find something wrong with everything and everyone. The question to ask, Does the good outweigh the bad? When appraising players, Do you want to find the good or the bad plays. It is more productive to rally around the good moves in an effort to find them repeated more often in game situations. Idealistic? Maybe."
"Leaders are only as powerful as the ideas they can communicate. The leader's basic philosophy must be: "We have seen what this organization can be, we understand the consequences of that vision, and now we must act to make it so. A vision cannot be established in an organization by edict, or by the exercise of power or coercion. It is more an act of persuasion, of creating an enthusiastic and dedicated commitment to a vision because it is right for the times, right for the organization, and right for the people who are working in it. A vision for the future is not offered once and for all by the leader and then allowed to fade away. It must be repeated time and again. It must be incorporated in the organization's culture and reinforced through the strategy and decision-making process. It must be constantly evaluated for possible change in the light of new circumstances."
"Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together. It cannot be mandated or purchased; it must be earned."
"All leaders face the challenge of overcoming resistance to change. Some try to do this by the simple exercise of power and control, but effective leaders learn that there are better ways to overcome resistance to change. This involves the achievement of voluntary commitment to shared values. Very simply, those who do not learn do not long survive as leaders. People have a stake in an idea if they participated in its creation; then they'll work much harder, in a much more dedicated way, to bring it to success." Leaders The Strategies For Taking Charge, Waren Bennis & Burt Nanus
"It has been said that if players are not making mistakes, they are not trying hard enough."
"The real work of the team is done by the players in it, just as the music is produced only by the members of the orchestra. The great coach, like the great orchestra conductor calls forth the best that is in the organization."
And nothing shows our weakness more than to be so sharp-sighted at spying other men's faults; and so purblind about our own. They have a right to censure, that have a heart to help: the rest is cruelty, not justice." Benjamin Franklin
"Although Johnston would later say this was a grandstand play by the agents, it was pure Mario. The principle was important. He does not like to be pushed. As he says, 'If somebody yells at me to hurry up, I slow down. I don't like being yelled at.'" Mario Lemieux The Gentle Giant, Jean Sonmor
To get away from the tendency to relax when a team is up by two goals, I once heard a coach's advice to his players: "OK we have a two-goal lead and we have worked hard for this two-goal lead. We have deserved the lead. Now we need an undeserved goal - a 'flukey' goal. Forget the fancy passes and get your shots on net!" Always there is the tendency to play it fancy when a team is up by two or more goals. They figure there is room to take it easy and look good rather than execute and be good. They begin looking for the perfect play.
"Enthusiasm is not a thing which one "loses", we merely cease to shape our lives by it. A thought that all coaches must remember is the question that all players are always asking: 'Does the coach himself drink what he hands out in the practices or the pre-game pep talks?' A coach is not worth believing if he does not practice his convictions."
"Parents will always be interested in those who are interested in their children. Any coach who can get the parents on his side, will go a long way towards getting their boy on his side."
"Players recoil from the great proclamations of a coach who does not provide a sufficient reason - the all-important Why - behind any directions."
" Some coaches fail to realize that there are various stages of development and not all players are at the level of high performance every game every night. Isn't it possible to let things grow and have some respect and love for the players who are in previous stages of development?"
Defense is hard work. Defense is necessary for winning hockey.Defense is more a matter of 'I Will' rather than 'Ican'. However there is a downside when a coach emphasizes defense above all else. "When anyone stops us from doing something we want to do, or from getting something we want to have, we are always tempted to be angry. And if we have set our heart on that thing our anger can be terrible to behold."
Hockey players love to be in on the scoring of goals and if there is no praise or credit given for the offensive part of the game, they will soon become angry and lose their enthusiasm. This is not an attempt to denigrate defensive hockey, only a warning to approach the subject with care and caution.
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do." Dale Carnegie
"I wasn't even thinking about making a lot of money or being famous. I was only thinking about getting better at coaching."
"Some of these solutions may not work for you, but I doubt they'll hurt."
"Nobody can wholeheartedly do anything unless he believes that his activity is important and good. If you don't provide the direction, and praise what is good, players will find their own activities and look for ways to justify their actions."
"It is usually not age that destroys a player's performance, but the spirit within him."
"Unless we have confidence in the intended source of help, whether it be a coach or parent, we will not normally benefit from it. Just about every player who made it to the top had a mentor of one kind or another, but you can be sure that he had confidence in his ability to teach the subject."
"Mistakes will always happen - Any dumb fool can spot them. Many coaches go a step further and are able to tell players 'What' to do. They will holler out, "Get your shots on the net!!" But only the select coaches will take the time to demonstrate to players the 'How' to do it. You need to impress on players the techniques for developing accuracy in their shooting. To eliminate mistakes, you have to eliminate the causes of the mistakes
"Make sure your practices explain , demonstrate, and teach what you preach."
A question a coach should always be asking, "Are we getting our share of the 'flukey' goals - the so-called 'garbage' goals? These are the goals that are the result of hard work - second, third, and fourth efforts, getting into the scruffs around the net - not the pretty goals that come from three-way passing plays. It is the only way a lesser team has any chance of beating a team with more skilled players. Even a very skilled team needs their share of the garbage goals to become a consistently winning team.
"Everything rises or falls with leadership, simply because followers eventually become like their leaders. One power-hungry coach can ruin the development of players for years to come.
"It is a common occurence for a coach to blame the team for his inadequacies in teaching the game of hockey, or just as bad, to sterotype all players for the lack of discipline on the part of one or two players."
"Simply put, the best way I know to establish and maintain a healthy, competitive culture is to partner with your people - through shared objectives and a common strategy. You have to find people who can do one job well while simultaneously growing into a new one. It's the best way we know to create meaningful new jobs that more precisely match an employee's skill set. There is no added value in expecting people to be supermen or superwomen. In that case, you might as well expect them to fail. It's about people who are thoroughly invested in each others growth.
"Mobilize your people around a common goal. Cultivate a commitment to a common goal. Get involved. You need to engender a sense of personal investment in all your employees - which comes down to three things: responsibility, accountability, and shared success.
Make failure acceptable as long as it creates learning opportunities. There's no risk in preserving the status quo - but there's no profit either. The way we've successfully maintained our edge is by setting stretch goals for ourselves. They're not your basic 'Let's strive to improve by 20 percent' goals; they're big. We keep raising the bar."
The above is from the book, Direct From Dell by Michael Dell. In case you haven't heard, Dell Computers is one of fastest growing companies in history. Simply by changing the perspective from employees to players and coaches, you have a framework for running any team.
"There was the constant problem of getting the maximum from Jordan (Michael) and not inhibiting his God-given instinct to take over a game, but at the same time preventing him from diminishing the instincts, abilities, and egos of his teammates, both on and off the court. Great players came with great egos." Phil Jackson, Coach Chicago Bulls
The following tidbits are taken from the book, Playing For Keeps, Michael Jordan and the World He Made, by David Halberstam. It is a review of his time at the University of South Carolina under Dean Smith.
"The next thing was how brilliantly and carefully organized it (practice time) was, with a schedule posted each day that outlined how each minute of practice would be used. Everything in the Carolina program had a multiple purpose: respect for team, respect for authority, respect for the game, respect for opponents. Smith's players were never to do anything that would diminish an opponent.
"It was probably one of the things his players liked about him - his consistency and the fact that he never played with their emotions. Rather, Smith clearly believed that from those to whom much more had been given, much more was expected. As the other players saw the inherent fairness of the program, the lack of favoritism to the favored, and as they learned that the coach's loyalty to them had nothing to do with their point-per-game production, almost all of them bought in, the great ones as well as the lesser ones, knowing deep inside that it was better for them to be pushed than to be catered to.
"The players bought in because the purpose of it all became obvious: The rules existed to make you a better player and a better person, not to make Dean Smith more famous or richer or to get him a job coaching in the NBA. The more you sacrificed for a goal - the higher the price you paid in personal terms - the more it would one day mean to you. That which came too easily would never be valued.
"It was sometimes hard for pro scouts to tell how good Carolina players were because the program at once made certain players look better than they really were - they became the beneficiary of the system, their strengths magnified, their flaws hidden, or at least partially hidden - and at the same time it often suppressed the talents of great individual stars who might average ten or fifteen points a game more in another system. What you saw in college might be all you got, he thought, and in fact it might be less than what you got."
SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND
Steven Covey, in his book, the Seven Habits of Successful People discusses in depth the Habit: 'Seek first to understand; then to be understood'. In the world of hockey, it is not hard to find coaches who are so opinionated and expect no one to challenge their opinions. Such a shame! They are missing one of the greatest tools for improving their knowledge and their relations with their players. They spend more time arguing their position and all the while are missing some valuable imput from their associates and players.
If a coach would only take the time to listen to his coaching associates, parents and players, truly listening, not just waiting to barge in with his own thoughts, wonderful things can happen.
Read the book! You will find many interesting applications towards coaching a team made up of twenty individual players and all the interactions that go with coaching.
PROVIDING THE TOOLS
A prime task of parents or coaches is to provide the tools necessary for a player's development. The need for equipment is self-evident and will not be discussed here. What we are talking about is those little extras that allow a player to hone his skills and become the best that he can be. Certainly a player needs all the ice time he can get, but this is not always feasible. If you want your players to shoot accurately and handle the puck without looking at it, two suggestions are quite possible. (For more on the value and importance of handling the puck without looking at it, refer to the book in this series on puckhandling).
Set up a shooting gallery. Most of the top shooters in the NHL had some facility to shoot pucks off-ice. It is not hard to figure that with a shooting gallery, a player can shoot up to 10 times more shots in the same time period. All that is required is a smooth arborite-like surface (arborite glued on to 3/4 inch plywood to provide stability) about 4 feet by 8 feet and a hard backboard or wall to shoot against.
As for puckhandling, the same 4 by 8 surface can be used to develop a player's 'feel' for the puck and moving it around without looking at it. From this skill comes the ability to spot the teammate in the clear and make the pass to the stick. some say that handling the puck without even glancing at it is the most valuable offensive skill a player can have and it is the reason why some young players are able to jump out in front of the pack from the earliest years of development.
In both cases, there remains a very important addition - a platform to stand on to compensate for the difference in height when skates are put on. It is said that Darryl Sittler, when practicing shooting in his back yard did so while wearing an old pair of skates. A platform could achieve the same results when practicing in runners. There is no point in perfecting a skill and then changing the parameters. Usually an old door with some support will provide an adequate platform when practicing in runners. There is not much point standing behind the bench or in the stands and shouting at the player to "Get your shot on the net", or "Pass it! Pass it!" Without providing the tools, you are whistling in Dixie.
As the saying goes: "If you build it - they will come. It will get used." Think what you would have if the team was made up of 20 players who could shoot accurately and handle the puck without looking at it. To the superstars, the latter skill is the skill that opens up the whole ice for them.
And finally, don't forget to provide some instructional hockey books and hockey biographies. Hopefully, the players will begin thinking hockey. As a bonus, they are books that can be used for book reviews at school.
"You can't cry injuries all the time as an excuse for poor performance. All teams go through their period of injuries. Eventually, the players you send out on the ice have to go out and get the job done."
"It may not be necessary for a coach to stand behind the bench shouting instructions. However, when he can get his players talking it up on the ice, he is on the right track. In a fast moving game like hockey, without a huddle to plan the play as in football, players need all the help they can get. There is nothing to stop players from developing their own set of instructions to pass on to each other much like a quarterback in football calls audibles at the line of scrimmage depending on the circumstances. The list of instructions that players can pass on to each other is endless.
A visionary coach could have an hour barnstorming session with all the players to come up with ways in which players can pass on useful information in the heat of the action. When players participate in this way, you could have 20 players buying into your philosophies and barking out instructions to their teammates. It is a great inspirational tool when players are devoted to helping one another."
Many years ago when the Russian teams were at their prime, they could go almost a whole game without an offside or an icing call against them. They were disciplined and they knew the application of the rules. Do your players know the rules? There is no use raising your eyes to the rafters showing your dismay when a rush is destroyed by a needless offside call if you have not taken the time to explain the rules and some of the applications. Consider the following:
-Forwards should not cross the center red line until they see that the defenseman in the defensive zone has room enough to proceed over the blue line.
-The defensive player in the defensive zone must get his stick across the blueline before making the pass.
The above two points will eliminate a lot of the two-line offsides that destroy the rush and bring the puck back deep into your own zone and a possible loss of possession. But the most important thing to consider is the psychology of the referees. If it is at all close, they will blow the whistle. They do not want to be embarrassed by a goal scored on a close call - better to fail by stopping the play. Make sure your players are not trying to be too 'fine' when it comes to line calls. The slight advantage they may gain by keeping one skate one inch on the line is not enough to offset the offside call that will inevitably result.
You work hard for possession of the puck. Faceoffs resulting from offsides give the opposition a 50 percent chance of regaining possession with little or no effort on their part. It takes discipline and a knowledge of the rules.
"You cannot unite a team by force. It must be the free response of willing hearts - persuasion rather than demands."
"You can be truly strong only to the degree that you've accepted and embraced your weakness or vulnerability. In order to be a great teacher you must also be willing to learn. You must be willing to look at the negative sides of yourself."
"There's a basic human need to feel that we are serving and making a contribution to the team in some way. It is only then that a player can feel fulfilled and satisfied with his play."
"They may think they are fooling the boss, but they are only fooling themselves. An employer may not know all the details of every job or every task an individual performs, but a good manager knows the results of effort. It is a foregone conclusion that you will never reach great heights of success if you perform at high levels only when others are watching you. (Watch any practice when a coach requests a series of push-ups. You will note the players who cheat when the coach's back is turned. Who are they cheating?)
"There may be some disagreement, but all an astute coach needed to evaluate a player's offensive skills was to watch three or four possessions. Very quickly he can determine whether or not the player plays in a low-profile position, whether he can handle the puck without having to glance at it and whether he can accelerate the moment the puck arrives. As for defensive skills, much is determined by watching the player when the puck is not in his vicinity."
"Remember that every time you go the extra mile, you place someone under obligation to you. Someone once said that no one can really motivate anyone else; all we can do is motivate ourselves and hope it catches on.
"There are those who say, 'when this company (team) decides to pay me what I'm worth, then I will do what they want me to do.' The second is the person who says, 'I'm going to be the best I can be because that's the kind of person I am.' You may be able to drift through life if you never do more than you are required to do, but you will never know what you might have achieved if you had only been willing to give a little more.
"They will follow your lead when they have confidence in you and when they know they will share in your success." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill
"The 'loneliness at the top' that senior officials often feel comes from the certain knowledge that they alone are responsible for the failure or success of the organization. They may share their authority with associates, but not their responsibility. When an individual sports franchise suffers a losing season, the general manager and the coaches are held responsible. They are responsible for the failure of the team, not the individual players; the team merely followed orders. When you become the leader, when you set the course, you must accept responsibility for the outcome."
"It is also imperative for you to realize that knowledge in itself is not power - it is only potential power. Successful people realize that we all face adversity in our lives and that those who achieve great success are those who know we can't always control events, but we can control the way we react to them."
"Most people who fail after receiving a promotion do so because they fail to rise to the challenges the new position offers. Instead of making a commitment, we make up an alibi." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill
A Good Manager Knows the Results of Effort! If all you notice is the goals and assists, you might be hard pressed to achieve results. Recognizing and praising effort will encourage repeat performances and the next time it may produce a goal or an assist.
"It is virtually impossible not to transmit your doubts and insecurities to others through body language, tone of voice, inflection, word choice, and other subtle characteristics. When you show by your actions that you lack self-confidence, other people also begin to doubt your ability to perform.
"The people who complain the loudest about never having an opportunity in life are usually the ones who always have a ready excuse for their failures. Nothing is ever their fault; they are victims of their heritage, their environment, insufficient education or any number of other factors that they perceive as placing them at a disadvantage."
A coach who is always saying, 'If only I had better players,' is failing to take any responsibility. His job is to make the players he has better. After all, Isn't that the definition of a coach?
"Business, political, and civic leaders (and coaches) have learned that ordinary people will perform exceptional tasks when they are asked - not ordered - to do so." Players have two basic questions about their coaches. They are: Can I trust you? and Do you really care about me?
"Consciously or unconsciously, good mentors know that it is far more their task to empower than it is to teach. Or perhaps they know that the best way to teach is through empowerment."
Teaching pros need not be great or even good players themselves. Often they are not. There is a long tradition in many sports of 'nonplaying coaches.' But they do need to love the game, whatever it may be."
"They (workers in any field) would clearly be expected to work on improving their job performance and be rated accordingly. In no way would they be exempted from any of the company's rules. If they failed to improve, they would not be promoted despite their longetivity of employment, and should their performance decline in any sustained fashion, their 'handicap' would in no way exclude them from being laid off." ( Not hard to relate to hockey. Always the coaches greatest demand should be for improvement - not the elimination of mistakes.)Golf and the Spirit, M.Scott Peck.
It is a little like the story of teaching a person to fish rather than providing him with the fish to eat. Providing a hockey player with the tools to work on his practice sessions is empowering him. Handing out orders of 'what to do' is providing him with food that he probably won't digest.
"You don't need many players who spend their ice-time circling around looking busy when in fact they lack the urgency to go to the net or go into the corners. You need more players who possess the overall gritty approach and who take on the challenge every day to prove that they belong on the team."
"I have a dream!" Most will recognize this quote from Martin Luther King Jr. Successful coaches also must have a dream. Whether it is winning the Stanley Cup, the Memorial Cup, the Air Canada Cup, or whatever cup. The dream must be there and then it is the coach's job to convey that dream to the players. In doing so, he must get them to buy into the steps necessary along the way to overcome the obstacles. Firstly winning enough games to get into the playoffs, winning up to four rounds and then the final games. It takes preparation and discipline every step of the way - from the start of the season to the end..
It is good for a coach to read books on hockey, but if he stops there his effectiveness as a leader will be hampered. There are literally hundreds of books out there on developing leadership skills and managing a team. You might not find specific hockey books on the subject, but it is not difficult to relate managing any group into hockey parallels. One suggested book is, Tips For Teams, A Ready Reference for Solving Common Team Problems from McGraw Hill publishing. There is not one mention of hockey, but there are hundreds of tips on running a group environment. Leadership is a skill just as hockey involves skills. The idea of leadership is to imprint the idea of improvement in all players so that they will step out on their own looking for ways to improve themselves.
"Do you ever sit back and wish you had an Orr, Gretzky and a Coffey on your team? While it is obviously not possible, it is possible to obtain their videos and replay them in a team environment. Learning comes from watching and then getting out and trying to emulate
"Neither Kierkegaard nor Sartre nor Camus nor Hammarskjold nor Solzhenitsyn has offered solutions, but many who read their words find new strength to pursue their own personal search. Those who do not run away from our pains but touch them with compassion bring healing and new strength. In our solution-oriented society it is more important than ever to realize that wanting to alleviate pain without sharing it is like wanting to save a child from a burning house without the risk of being hurt."
Are you for your players or are you for yourself?
"If there were no students constantly asking for good teachers, there would be no good teachers." Reaching Out, Henri J.M.Nouwen
BOOK12 GETTING A BOY THROUGH HOCKEY
"I had so many things happen to me - good and bad - because of football and yet I still love the game and want to keep playing as long as I'm healthy and can make a contribution. I never expected any of this. I just played football because it was fun."
"Once my dad saw Bill's (brother) interest in sports and athletics, he took a definite interest. He started checking out books from the libraries, reading up on coaching, figuring out what is the correct way to do things. He started coaching Bill the next year in Little League."
"I always worry more for him than me. (Brother Darren) I watched him in his high-school championship games and stuff and I was a nervous wreck on the sideline. I always want him to do well. In my own mind I can control what I do, but I can't control what Darren does. I have to have faith in his ability." Flutie with Perry Lefko
"To form the mind of a young girl, all the nuns in the world are not equal to one mother."
Victor Hugo To develop the attitude of a hockey player, all the coaches in the world are not equal to one father who cares and takes the time. There is something much more than mere duty.
"But his father never thought of him, and his mother did not love him. He was one of those children so deserving of pity from all, who have fathers and mothers, and yet are orphans." Victor Hugo
"Most players are imprisoned behind walls and masks by the fear of their own inadequacy. No one can believe in his or her unique worth unless there is some recognition of that worth by others."
"What is strong or weak in players is motivation. Motivations sets wills into action. It is the fuel of desire that moves us. On every team there is a group called the underachievers. They have all that is needed except the drive or incentive to use their gifts. They are waiting for the coach to inspire them. But three out of four coaches are simply not inspiring. it's the law of averages. When we become involved in something, our very activity generates further enthusiasm. And enthusiasm feeds on itself. It naturally increases and multiplies. Stretching overcomes our inertia, and from there on we gradually become self-motivating. And without self-motivation, you will suffer the Charlie Brown syndrome: "The greatest suffering in life is to have a great potential."
"Many parents are too busy to parent at all, so they settle for being a buddy to their child. They forget their responsibility to teach them." Kids don't need more 'buddies. They will find them on their own. What they need from their parents is leadership.
"There is a trend today in schools and athletics to remove all incentives and rewards for excellence. We will achieve the ultimate society in which no one has to challenge himself or herself morally or academically because everyone is the same no matter what you do."
"We competed for grades, for athletic distinction, for popularity, for membership in the 'in' groups. In competition everyone loses. There are certain 'dead ends' that look attractive but lead nowhere"
As Charlie Brown once put it, "the greatest suffering in life is to have a great potential."
"A woman who teaches in a Montessori preschool once told me a not so surprising story. The school sends out a registration form to the parents of prospective preschoolers. One of the questions asked is this: 'Is there anything we should know about your child before the beginning of class?' Some of the parents answer, 'Oh, our child is just wonderful. You will really like our child.' The teacher explained to me, 'We have learned to expect peak performance from these children. They are self-confident, assertive, and always seem to enjoy themselves.' Of course, many of the parents write that their children are easily upset, have tantrums, and cry very easily. My Montessori teacher friend shook her head sadly. 'They act out their insecurities as predicted. They become the self-fulfilling prophecies of their parents."
"We learned to explain away our failures on the grounds that we did not have the right materials to work with, or we even pleaded that 'our stars were not in proper alignment; the moon was not in the right house.' The essential sadness is that blamers are not in contact with reality. As a result they do not get to know themselves. They do not mature. They do not grow. It is a sad fact of life: Growth begins where blaming ends. We know what would happen if parents insisted on making all the decisions for their children until those children were twenty-one years of age. The result would be some seriously immature twenty-one-year-olds. Letting children lean on you or hitchhike on your strength is not loving them. It is keeping them weak and dependent.
'I must help you to use your own strength by urging you to think and choose for yourself.' This is the task of encouragement."
"Conditional love is threatening. I was always walking on egg shells. I knew that if I ever failed to meet your requirements, you would treat me as a smoker treats cigarettes. You would use me up, grind me out, and throw me away." On the other hand, unconditional love, "challenges you to be all you can be. Not bully you by anger, a loud voice, or tears. It is kind and is always for you, on your side. Not making you prove yourself again and again."
From, Happiness is an Inside Job, by John Powell
"But seriously, the more you know about 'Why' something works, the more likely it is to make sense. Therefore, I'd be delighted to share what I've discovered about why these two steps help." Coaches are not always capable of explaining 'Why ' something should be done. 'Just do it' is usually as far as they go. Since knowing the 'Why' of any endeavor is one of the most important factors in learning, the job of explaining is usually left up to the parents. Take the time to explain - it will pay huge dividends towards motivating.
"When you overload the cart, the horse just stops, he can't pull anymore!" Tolstoy
"Unfortunately the NHL has been priced out of the range of many budgets. But maybe that is not so bad. More and more it is being called the 'billionaires waltz'. Try taking your boy to some Major Junior games or games of the Elite teams in your town. There you will see some real enthusiasm and love for the game."
AFTERTHOUGHTS GRETZKY AND TIGER(WOODS)
Any hockey parent is well aware of the father-son relationship between Wayne Gretzky and his father, Walter. In the world of golf, another father-son relationship has become prominent. In a recent TV documentary showcasing the rise of Tiger Woods, it was evident that his father played an important role. Surely an abundance of practice time was a key component, but there is another factor that could be just as important.
Talking about his son, Earl Woods described the inner strength of Tiger - his ability to focus and concentrate on the immediate task at hand. Surely the hours of practice developed the ability to make great shots - many players can make great shots - but could they make the great shots when it counted. It is one thing to make great shots on the driving range but quite another to make the great shots with all the pressure from the gallery and competing players. Earl talked about how he would work with Tiger adding obstacles until Tiger was about at the breaking point and then he would back off before starting over again. Long before he won the Masters, there was no doubt that Tiger had the mental toughness to always focus and concentrate on the one shot in front of him in spite of overwhelming pressure.
We can likewise picture all the obstacles that Walter set up on the backyard rink. There is not much chance of improvement if you are doing the easy things over and over. In both cases these athletes proceeded with a directness of purpose which paid no attention to those stumbling blocks which constitute overpowering obstacles in the path of the average players. What is the constant? It is the sheer joy of improvement - being better tomorrow than today - and the will-power to overcome any obstacles put in front of them.
It would be easy to say that great athletes are lucky or that they had certain circumstances in their favor. In the case of both Wayne and Tiger, they did not have the size that goes with the usual competitors in their field. But they had a more important asset - mental toughness - that ability to face adversity and overcome it while proceeding directly to their object - improvement.
For most of us the great dangers are within ourselves.
"That's the thing I struggled with probably more than anything. the problem was I had no mentor. I had nobody to keep me accountable, to tell me I was wrong. The greatest lesson I've learned is that too many of us don't want to suffer, and we let people back us down from what we believe in." Reggie White, NFL player.
"Those who aim high are strong-willed types who refuse to be bothered by the negativism and skepticism of the majority. They never even use the words, 'Let's just quit!' they are the same ones who believe that mediocrity must be confronted. And that confrontation must first take place in the mind - the seed plot of endless and limitless possibilities."
"Napoleon Hill, who studied the lives of many successful people, stated, 'I had the happy privilege of analyzing both Mr. Edison and Mr. Ford, year by year, over a long period of years and therefore the opportunity to study them at close range, so I speak from actual knowledge when I say that I found no quality save persistence, in either of them, that even remotely suggested the major source of their stupendous achievements."
"Convictions are a matter of choice, not force. Parents of growing, learning children keep this in mind. Remember there is nothing like the magnet of a model. You can shout and scream. You can discipline and punish and threaten. But there's nothing those kids will remember like the model you leave them."
"All things being equal, if you run with bad company, you will be corrupted. The good will not rub off on them. Their bad will rub off on you. It's like putting on a pair of white gloves on a muddy day and picking up that mud amd mixing it around in your hands. Interestingly, the mud never gets 'glovey', but the gloves get muddy."
A little story comes to mind. A fly was buzzing around and noticed a group of other flies dancing around on some brown paper. Just before landing a bee zoomed by, saying, 'Don't land there, stupid! That's flypaper!' But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, 'don't be silly. Those flies are dancing. There's a big crowd there. Everybody's doing it. That many flies can't be wrong!' Well, you know what happened. He died on the spot. Some of us want to be with the crowd so badly that we end up in a mess. It takes courage to think alone, to resist alone, to stand alone - especially when the crowd seems so safe, so right.
The above quotes from Rising Above the Level of Mediocrity by Charles Swindoll.
"You smile a smile out of a baby. Pat a dog and it will lick your hand; kick it and it will bite you. Love and you will be loved; hate and you will be hated. It's the law.
"Many pray for success but won't put in the hours and effort that any field requires. Many a father prays for his children's well-being but won't spend quality time with them. Many a student prays for straight A's but won't hit the books." Charles Templeton
Unfortunately, when any request from a leader to a follower degenerates into little more than a duty, a weekly obligation, it becomes a bore, with little chance of being carried out.
"Have you ever heard a coach blame himself or his assistants for a lack-lustre performance on the part of his team? Certainly motivation and preparedness are a huge part of a coach's responsibility, but rarely will they take their share of the blame. Sad but true.
On the other hand, many coaches are able to raise their team to a fever pitch and then find that the players cannot satisfy their passions. They leap just as quickly from elation to despair the moment something goes against plan. Enthusiasm is great, but it needs a grounding in fundamental skills to be effective.
"Not all abuse is active and violent. One form of abuse is neglect. Some abused children are never beaten or physically tortured. They are simply ignored by parents who provide the good things of life; but, avoid the necessary personal attention to make a house a home. This is common in households where both parents are caught up in their own careers and hobbies."
What do these people have in common: Robert E. Lee, George Patton, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, John Wesley, Abraham Lincoln, Franline roosevelt, George Washington, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, C.S.Lewis, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Albert Schweitzer? Each of these famous people was home schooled. Home schooling isn't right for all children and every parent. But if you are qualified, and if you desire a strong bond between yourself and your child, home schooling may be rewarding for both your child and you." Tough Talk About Tough Issues, Bob Larson.
No baby-sitter will ever take the place of a parent interested and participating in their child's activities.
"I still hear the father saying: 'Son, whatever will happen to you in your life, whether you will have success or not, become important or not, will be healthy or not, always remember how much your mother and I love you."
"And people want to be blessed! This is so apparent wherever you go. No one is brought to life through curses, gossip, accusations or blaming. There is so much of that taking place around us all the time. If we have already yielded to the temptation of self-rejection, then every form of misfortune only deepens it. Just as athletes who experience great pain as they run the race can, at the same time, taste the joy of knowing that they are coming closer to their goal." Henri J.M. Nouwen
"It has been said that if players are not making mistakes, they are not trying hard enough."
"Children have a stake in an idea if they participated in its creation; then they'll work much harder, in a much more dedicated way, to bring it to success."
"We are too apt to love praise, but not to deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love the conditioning and skill building that makes for success. Therefore, be not fond of praise but seek the difficult tasks that lead to praise."
"Molinari uses Gustave Flaubert's injunction to be 'orderly and regular in your daily life so you can be violent and original in your work' to describe Mario's (Lemieux) life-style. Molinari accepts Mario's belief that he must husband his immense talent to perform at the level he's expected. He's watched Mario avoid the party scene that so adversely affected Pierre Larouche, another Quebec phenom slated to save the franchise. In Pittsburgh, it's well known Mario avoids the bar scene and speaks out against drugs and alcohol." Mario The Gentle Giant, Jean Sonmor.
"I wasn't even thinking about making a lot of money or being famous. I was only thinking about getting better at coaching."
"They may say they do all this (long hours at work) for their families but their families usually just want them, not more money."
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do." Dale Carnegie
"Some of these solutions may not work for you, but I doubt they'll hurt."
"Nobody can wholeheartedly do anything unless he believes that his activity is important and good. If you don't provide the direction, and praise what is good, players will find their own activities and look for ways to justify their actions."
"Unless we have confidence in the intended source of help, whether it be a coach or parent, we will not normally benefit from it. Just about every player who made it to the top had a mentor of one kind or another, but you can be sure that he had confidence in his ability to teach the subject."
"Television has helped to create a society of watchers. Watching a game on TV will never replace getting out on an outdoor rink, or reading about the game of hockey. Biographies or instructional books on hockey force the hopeful player to think and develop strategies for his improvement."
"Many of us have the idea that perfection is an attainable goal. The critic was born from receiving criticism in childhood. A harsh critic who constantly tells us what's wrong with us and how inadequate we are perpetuates low self-esteem and lack of confidence. Let the critic know that you appreciate its point of view, but that you will no longer be run by criticism. It's that part of our minds that can recognize ways to improve, but it doesn't have a heavily judgmental quality. It's our ability to learn from what we do and to make useful distinctions among behaviors. 'Hey, you're doing great. Look how much progress you've made.'" Shakti Gawain.
"Baseball manager Tommy Lasorda once noted that there are those who watch things happen, those who wonder what happened, and those who make things happen. Strive to be one of those who make things happen. If you show others what you can do, they will respect you far more than if you had simply told them what you'd done. Anyone can quarrel with words, but actions speak for themselves.
"You can provide children with all the physical advantages of a good childhood, but unless you strive to set a good example for them to follow, you will know only dismay as they reach adulthood and blossom into purposeless drifters."
"They may think they are fooling the boss, but they are only fooling themselves. An employer may not know all the details of every job or every task an individual performs, but a good manager knows the results of effort. It is a foregone conclusion that you will never reach great heights of success if you perform at high levels only when others are watching you. (Watch any practice when a coach requests a series of push-ups. You will note the players who cheat when the coach's back is turned. Who are they cheating?)
"A fundamental principle of leadership that has not changed over the centuries is: Share the credit for success with others, but take the blame for failure alone.
"Making life 'easy' for children usually makes life 'hard' for them in adulthood.
"It's easy when you are part of a group to 'go along to get along,' but when you are able to maintain your own highest standards of integrity - regardless of what others may do - you are destined for greatness.
"How easy it is to have one set of rules for ourselves and another for everyone else. Hope is the outgrowth of preparation. When you examine the possibilities in a spirit of positive achievement, hope is the inevitable result. When you experience delays, setbacks, and temporary defeats, hope gives you the courage to persist until you overcome the doubts and fears that plague us all from time to time." Positive Action Plan, Napoloen Hill
Margaret Wolfe Hungerford said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." it was her way of saying that we see what we wish to see in others. If you believe someone is good, you will find good qualities. If you don't, you won't. It's easy to spot another's shortcomings, but when you identify the good in others and congratulate them upon their positive achievements, you will make friends on whom you can always depend - both in good times and bad.
(It is one of the problems parents face with boys in team sports. It is easy to see the mistakes of other players and overlook the mistakes of your own boy.)
"But the real driving force, friends of the family thought, was Deloris Jordan. She was the parent who kept raising her expectations for her children, letting then know in different ways that the more that was given to them, then the more that was expected from them. They were not to be defeated by chance obstacle or momentary anxieties. (Often boys look on coaches who are driving them hard as being unfair. In fact it may be that the coach knows that they are good players, but that they are capable of much more with a little more effort.)
"Remember, every time you go the extra mile, you place someone under obligation to you. Someone once said that no one can really motivate anyone else; all we can do is motivate ourselves and hope it catches on.
"There are those who say, 'when this company (team) decides to pay me what I'm worth, then I will do what they want me to do.' The second is the person who says, 'I'm going to be the best I can be because that's the kind of person I am.' You may be able to drift through life if you never do more than you are required to do, but you will never know what you might have achieved if you had only been willing to give a little more.
"They will follow your lead when they have confidence in you and when they know they will share in your success." Positive Action Plan, Napoleon Hill
"When do I offer them unsolicited advice if I see them headed in an apparently wrong direction - advice they will only resent? And when is it proper for me to withhold such advice, not only fearing their resentment but also knowing full well that I cannot - and should not - live their lives for them?" Golf and the Spirit, M. Scott Peck It is the age-old conundrum of parents everywhere.
"And Swedish hockey develops players much better than the NHL, which hardly develops anyone. The NHL only looks for finished products."
The same could be said for just about any league where there is a price of admission to the games. They are looking for players who can step in immediately and perform. They rarely have the time to wait until a player becomes the player they are looking for. As a parent you can search and search for a team that is going to make your boy into a hockey player, but he has to have the desire to develop his own skills. Consider the following quote:
"He has always had that desire to be the best. When he was younger, he was a little misunderstood. He was cast as pouty or immature or selfish, but once you got to know him, you realized how fierce his desire was to be the best." Ron Francis on Jaromir Jagr.
When a player sets his goal on being number one, is he a failure if he only reaches number two? Certainly not if he started at number ten. Without the drive to excel, he probably would have remained at number ten. It is up to you to instill the attitude where he constantly puts pressure on himself to fuel his fire to succeed. When Michael Jordan or Mohammed Ali seemed to be boasting about their goals, they were in fact talking to themselves to increase their motivation to succeed. When you talk about what you are going to do, you had better go out and do it.
"The temptation is, and always remains, to cling to our children, to use them for our own unfulfilled needs and to hold on to them, suggesting in many direct and indirect ways that they owe us so much.
"Teaching situations in which students as well as teachers are deeply affected by fear of rejection, by doubt and insecurity about their own abilities, and by an often-unexpressed anger toward each other are counter-educational. Nobody will show his most precious talent to those whom he fears.
"I have learned much, but the time has come to realize that neither parents nor teachers nor counselors can do much more than offer a free and friendly place where one has to discover his own lonely way." Henri J. M. Nouwen
"Young people don't join gangs because it appeals to them more than a career in medicine or more than the life of an environmental engineer. They join gangs because that is all they see for themselves. Their vision for their lives is severely limited. They join because they have no other source of validation, no greater vision. No plan. No dream. Gang membership gives them an identity that they have not been able to establish elsewhere - in school, at home, in athletics, or in the job market. But this is a form of identification that, in the end, leads nowhere."
"It's ironic, but mostly sad, that prisons are full of people who, early on, made the decision that no one was going to tell them what to do, and so they ended up in a place where the only option is to do what they are told to do. Very few of them will ever admit that they are in a prison as a result ot their own decisions, their own actions. It is always the fault of someone or something outside of their control."
"The important thing is to keep goals ahead of you at all times. I advise you to do that, but I also want to make it clear that goals are not the ultimate reward. The reward is in pursuing the dream."
A caution to parents, rich or poor, if your kids don't find identification - a feeling of importance - in the home, they will find it somewhere and the somewhere may not be to your liking. It is not money spent, but rather, time spent.
"Harvard, Yale, and USC were among the schools that recruited me, but I did not visit their campuses. I knew I could play basketball at those schools, but I had no confidence in my ability to make it there as a student because I hadn't built up a base academically in high school, where I was an average student. I felt that I could be above average as a student but I hadn't developed my learning skills. My limitations were self imposed." You Can Make It Happen, Stedman Graham
There is no sense setting your sights on your boy playing hockey at an 'elite' university if he does not have the academic skills to handle the Program. He may well be a superior hockey player and able to make the hockey team, but if he does not have the learning skills - learned in high school - to handle the university-level program, the best university in the world is not going to make him a top student.
"But Michael Jordan once said, 'If there was a most likely to succeed, I was the least.' The truth is that people who succeed sometimes make it look easy because they have worked so hard to develop their skills to extraordinary levels." Stedman Graham
So much for being born a superstar.!
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