State of Hockey High-Performance Coaching Summit

After playing 13 years in the NHL and have been through several changes to the game, this past weekend was an eye-opening experience. Attended the State of Hockey High-Performance Coaching Summit, showcasing CoachThem and came out of it excited but confused. It's not like I was doing it wrong but there is a better way to teach.

ADM Analytics

Ben Frank, Toronto boy who found USA hockey 

Erik Anderson of Eagan Hockey Association and an Ambassador of CoachThem has been using this model for the past 7 years.

Here is his experience.

Our association tentatively adapted the ADM model of cross-ice and station-based practices in 2010.  There were some naysayers and we were not completely sold but we used it at the 8U level for the first two years.

In the summer of 2014, USA hockey invited me to a Hockey Directors meeting where they shared best practices with hockey directors from all of the US and beyond.  These were top-level coaches from NCAA, Pro and Europe showing how they use station-based practices and focused on developing skills and habits, rather than systems.  This is also where I saw Ben Frank from Toronto speak.  Like Ben, I was blown away.  I realized that this was not just for 8U and under, it really was a better way to train all our hockey players.
I returned to our association and convinced the rest of our board to be PLAYER focused.  Not PARENT focused.  If we're honest, players get better in practice so we reduced the number of games and increased the number of practices.  That's a big change.  We also reduced the amount of solo ice that teams had, instead we put two teams on the ice for practices 90% of the time.  That too was a big change, especially for our Bantam coaches.  

To do this, we had to help our coaches to learn how to offer fun, dynamic, world-class practices where the kids will learn, have fun and want to keep coming back to the rink.  We truly embraced Long Term Athlete Development.  LTAD

The results have been fantastic;  the kids get more repetitions and better instruction due to the improved coach to player ratio by using stations and most importantly, the kids have fun.  While reducing the number of full ice games or scrimmages, we spend more time in practice playing Small Area Games, SAG's.  These are fun and help us develop better hockey sense with more player touches.  After all, look at today's NHL, most of the time when the puck is in a corner, almost all 10 players can be seen in that small quadrant.  As fast as the game is, you need to make plays in small spaces.  This new model helps the kids learn that style of play.

CoachThem wishes, Erik and his team, the best this season.

Coach This Way

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CoachThem

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