Jul 15, 2015 | Kim Rasmussen | 1884 views
"Real Winning"
Our (Coaches of the Minor Bantam AA) Coaching Philosophy on “Real Winning”
Having fun playing hockey by playing a game, having a physical workout, interacting with teammates and creating new friends is usually a basic goal for the players on any team, and their parents, no matter how many games the team wins and loses.
But having this kind of “fun” is not our only goal for our players and their parents.
For most players and parents, developing physical and mental hockey skills and winning games go hand-in-hand with having fun. And besides, having fun, many parents recognize one other most important dimension that in part comes from playing a team sport like hockey even though the value may not be apparent to the players at the time. This is the player’s personal and character development, including self-confidence and self-esteem.
This dimension is however very important to most parents and for the players too when they look back on their minor hockey experiences. Hopefully players as they go through their lives will utilize and pass on some of the good things they’ve learned while playing hockey in non-hockey situations. And with any luck they will understand and not buy into some of the bad things that are in the game today.
So “real winning” for a player in the short and longer team includes having fun, feeling good, getting exercise, making friendships, winning games, learning sportsmanship, playing with the rules, developing physical and mental hockey skills, developing character and personality, learning how to be a team player and dealing with winning and losing games with respect for the oppositions and officials.
Therefore, one of our goals as coaches is to deliver all aspects of “real winning” to the team and each individual on the team. Personal and character development are nurtured largely from the “mental” side of playing hockey, although developing self-confidence, self-esteem, and respect for rules, teammates, coaches, and officials comes from all aspects. Our goal is to take those mental skills that are nurtured and include them when learning more about the following aspects of the game of hockey:
“Strategy” – understanding that planning ahead in broad terms with systems and goals gives the team a better chance to succeed.
“Tactics” – understanding that the detail is important in what you need to know to execute the on-ice strategy
“Thinking” – understanding you need to do this to execute the tactics at the right time and in the right circumstances
“Listening” – understanding you need to do this when you are trying to learn something and it is more important than talking
“Communicating” – understanding that to plan and execute plays with your line-mates is just about impossible with some kind of communication on or off the ice
“Positioning” – understanding that in a team game everyone has their important role and that being out of position to fulfill an individual goal hurts the team
“Team puck control/possession” – understanding that a team can succeed in keeping puck possession a lot longer than any individual can
“Hard work” – understanding that with great effort no very much will be accomplished
“Tenacity” – understanding that when you relentless and don’t give up easily, much more is usually accomplished
“Anticipation” – understanding that the opposition’s actions can be reasonably predicted under certain circumstances if you bother to think and understand them
“Desire” – understanding that a lot starts with simply wanting to get the puck
“Passion” – understanding that new levels of achievement can sometimes be attained if you care enough about accomplishing the goals that are set
“Discipline” – understanding that sometimes for the betterment of the team you have to dedicate yourself to do things that you really don’t want to do but need to do to get better
“Courage” – understanding that you have to overcome your fear of failure of physical contact sometimes to accomplish what you want or you team needs.
So, we as coaches will try and instill “real winning”. We will then be contributing to much more than just winning hockey games, but it will give the boys a better chance of winning those games.