Coaching insights & hockey tips
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10,000 Pucks - Final Results
The results are in for the 10,000 Pucks 2010 contest. In this year's contest, we had 527 players logging shots from around the world. The total shot tally for this season was an impressive: 1,922,853. Not only did we surpass our goal of seeing 1 million shots logged, we almost broke the 2 million mark! Now, the moment everyone's been waiting for....the player results.
NHL Proposed Rule Changes
In Mid-August the NHL held a camp for prospects where the league tried out lots of new rule adjustments. Lots of hockey people have very strong opinions about the league messing with the rules, but I think there are some very legitimate ideas proposed at the camp which could benefit the game .
Over-speed Training & Drills
Over-speed training simply means pushing yourself beyond a speed where you are "comfortable." Going through the motions at a comfortable pace won't help you progress as a skater. Many of the coaches I talk to seem a bit overwhelmed by the subject of over-speed training, thinking it is a grandiose topic that's over their heads. While there are great depths you can take the topic, you can begin to incorporate over-speed training into your practices with just a good grasp on the fundamentals of skating.
Bad Habits to Eliminate
"How you do anything is how you do everything." -source unknown This is a great quote, and one relevant to everyone in the hockey coaching field. With so much happening on the ice, it's often easy to overlook small bad habits that creep in to teams. Eliminating these habits will not only make you a stronger team, but also help form players with better character.
5 Tryout Tips for Coaches (Part 3 of 3)
In part 3 of 3, we cover tips for coaches during tryouts. It's no secret tryouts can be one of the most stressful points of the season. With a few well-planned parts to your sessions, you can eliminate a lot of the difficulty typically associated with this time of year.
5 Tryout Tips for Parents (Part 2 of 3)
This post is part 2 of a three-part series revolving around tryouts. These posts will cover tryout tips for players, parents, and coaches. This focus is on tips/thoughts for parents. Parents have one of the most difficult parts of the process - they're utterly helpless, everything is in the hands of the player and coaches.
5 Tryout Tips for Players (Part 1 of 3)
During the tryout times, I get a lot of players who ask me about the tryout process. Over the past year or so, I've written several pieces about tryouts, but I wanted to give players (hopefully some of my own trying out as well) a couple quick tips for entering tryouts.
10,000 Pucks Update
Well, it's official - this year's contest topped the charts with over 1.2 million shots logged from around the world! Wow - I would have never guessed a few years back when we started running this it would ever get this big! Great to see everyone working so hard to reach their goals....which is the true purpose of this contest.
Pins & Needles
As I sit in the lobby observing about a hundred kids coming in (some I've coached, some I've coached against), one thing is very apparent....everyone is on pins & needles. This is the final tryout camp for one of the teams in the North American Hockey League. Players enter with the hopes of making a high-level US-based junior team. Parents wait nervously in the stands and lobby, sometimes pacing back and forth, chain smoking, or just sitting there fidgeting. It's fun hockey to watch because every player on the ice is competing.
Penalty Kill Handout (User Submission)
Harry from Kingston was kind enough to share a recent penalty killing handout he distributed to his Peewee team.
10,000 Pucks Contest Update
As the first month of the contest draws to a close, we've seen a record 740,000 + shots logged in the contest from over 480 participants across the world (yes, we even have some over-seas participants). It's great to see everyone so dedicated to improving themselves. Keep up the good work!
Coaching to Develop Players
Minnesota Hockey puts out a great newsletter every month with lots of great resources. In the most recent article, they put out a brief article on Coaching to Develop Players, and the importance of stressing fundamentals.