Re: UNH WildcatS 2012-'13: The Dawn of New Prominence
From today's blog entry
Practice Rules
SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 BY COACH MAC 0 COMMENTS
Open season and practice is on! I love it. The energy in the players step, the razor sharp focus, the eyes on fire and those contagiously intense faces all over the ice. It’s a coaches dream.
There is a wonderful tension in our world of practice. Coaches strive to manage that tension, encouraging failure without fear and success without ego. It’s a dance, a balancing act and a play all in one. There is a sort of chaotic flow to it. In short, the players rehearse their lines, but prepare themselves to constantly improvise. In the process they manage to reach a little further, think a little faster and jump a little higher attempting to win battle after battle.
I’m a huge believer in ownership. Rules are burdensome, regulations often get in the way. Here’s the only rules I want our players to live by:
Show up on time, early when possible- Rule #1.
Work hard every day. Throw yourself at every challenge with a hunger to learn. Rule #2.
No quit. Ever. Persistence is the key to success. Rule #3.
That in a nutshell is how we operate day in, day out in Wildcat Country. The icing that we spread all over everything we do: Have Fun. Enjoy the ride every step of the way.
An athlete’s fundamentals and skill sets can really improve with regular repetition and consistent execution. In the college arena athletes discover quickly how difficult it is to have success without a degree of consistency. Highly competitive situational games and drills reward those who do and punish those who don’t. Execute. Repeatedly. Again and again.
The toughest skill to impart to our players? The answer might surprise some of you since we are referencing women. It’s talking. Communicating. It never occurred to me that I’d be pleading with women to talk when I took this position! But that’s exactly what we stress throughout the first half of the season. The repetitive use of situational drills/games works to get our players comfortable and familiar with being each others eyes. Sport is the one classroom where you strive to get your students talking in the middle of every exercise. In ice hockey this is more critical than most team sports because we don’t have multiple time outs, we don’t huddle except between periods and we can’t stop the action whenever it suits us.
I especially love to watch our players communicate ‘during’ the games when the emotions and tensions are highest. The norm for many of us is to draw inward or shut down when the action heats up. But learning to talk while competing in the most intense situations is exactly what we work to effect. It’s essential if a team desires to have success. Our players simply must get comfortable communicating non stop, shift to shift throughout the game. Great teams talk; a lot; in fact all the time. Communication is the oil that keeps the engine running smoothly.
“You Hear, You Forget; You See, You Remember; You Do, You Understand.” Any coach of any sport can vouch for the veracity of that saying. It’s simply the truth.
I’ve been known to talk too much! But on ice, it’s not exactly speech, more a series of phrases. I’m constantly urging our kids on in practice with these two word, three word and four word phrases. Some players think it’s a bark, but they get used to executing while hearing the phrase. Certain phrases we use over and over to cement pictures in their minds eye of what we’re working on, the fundamental concept or key to execution. But the most critical thing we do is put our players “into action” dozens and dozens of times in every situation that they’ll eventually encounter in the games. They learn the most through doing. And it’s only through doing that a coach can determine if their athletes truly understand. I’m reminded every year how vital it is to keep the activity level of our players high. My phrases become background urgings that stress getting it right. Some of the best parents I know would admit to being “helpful nags”. The same is true of good coaching- getting your athletes to focus on doing the little things day in, day out.
Another adjustment that athletes make at the collegiate level is learning to go hard all the time… It’s what Mike Babcock references as the critical “everyday commitment” versus the “good enough” meter that so many leave running. Teaching themselves to hone their execution skills with intensity and under plenty of pressure and chaos. They have to think with people coming at them hard all the time.. Great teams create an environment where they push each other relentlessly over the course of practice. That turns each day into a win/win regardless of who had the success they hoped for on any given day.. It’s the collective group that’s winning each day that our players challenge one another with the best they’ve got.. We stress this simply because that’s what we understand is needed to put our team in a position to win every time out.
One final challenge that our athletes face is learning to see things through their coaches lens. It’s our job to be honest with our players, to provide important feedback. But not every athlete can handle the truth. A good coach understands how critical it is for players to confront certain difficult truths. But they also encourage them to seek alternative solutions to individual and collective challenges. Video is one tool that allows coaches to help players see themselves in a more realistic light while helping them improve. I view video as a positive reinforcer, a means to ‘see’ so they can remember. Combining seeing with doing can accelerate a teams ability to take big steps, especially early in the season. As we jump into formal competition, we’ll have a lot of opportunities to teach our players by combining the two.
We open up in two days time. Are we ready? Coaches rarely feel their teams are fully prepared, but this group is ready to be challenged. We need this opening game the feedback it’ll provide to help us learn about ourselves. I’m excited to see them in action and begin the grind that will hone this group going forward. The attitude, work ethic and comraderie have been terrific. Every day I see examples that this group understands that what lies ahead is going to be a major challenge. But they seem to be embracing it and reaching out to help one another improve. It’s only week one but all of our coaches see the potential for this group to bring the Blue and White back into championship contention. Rise Again Cats.. Rise Again..
