As in any endeavor and maybe more so in sport, confidence plays a huge role in performance. If you constantly tell a person they can't do it, eventually they can't. If you encourage them and tell them they can, most will. Obviously you need the knowledge and skill to perform but I don't believe any of these guys would be there if they didn't have some degree of knowledge and skill. I truly believe the most important and probably least focused on, aspect of sport and life in general is the mental aspect. When you see athletes that are "in the zone" it is usually because they are confident and positive that they can perform. The wrong type of coaching, feedback, etc. can zap confidence in a hurry and result in poor performance. Most top professional athletes have a professional sport psychologists to keep them focused on the positive aspects of their game, often times to help them flush the coaches negativity, pressure, etc. Unfortunately most college athletes can't afford their own psychologist and teams don't have them on staff so the athlete is left to manage the mental aspect of the game on their own.
In team sport where you have more players than positions there will always be someone that is not "as good as the next guy". This assessment is not always a fair one and may be based on scholarship vs no scholarship, drafted vs un-drafted (in professional sports), to a lesser extent pedigree (parents are former players, alums, donors, etc.). I believe to be a very successful coach you must find a way to keep all players positive and feeling good about their game. Coach em up, not beat em down and/or lop off their heads if you will.
Without being part of the locker room, on ice in practice or on the bench in a game it is hard to know for sure exactly what kind of Coach Shawhan is but from the tone of a lot of his pre and post game interviews, JSH's etc. he sounds like he focuses a lot on the negative. Do you focus on the one leaker that the goalie gave up or do you focus on the other 30 great saves he made and build off of that, coach him up. Do you focus on the one time the defenseman made a bad read and skated in to traffic or the 20 times he made perfect, quick outlet passes, coach em up. Do you focus on the forwards one missed assignment that cost you a goal or the rest of the game where he covered perfectly and applied good offensive pressure, coach em up.
I guess the point of my rambling is, you said Kero played well this weekend, coach him up, put him in again and build his confidence.
On another note, what's going on with Brice? I thought he made great strides last year and expected him to be a regular this season. I guess I am a little partial to the local guys.
Go Huskies!
