10-2 victory

On sat night I had a few of the kids out for a little scrimmage. I told them to focus on going to the open spaces and a lot of passing. I made sure to use the behind the net passes a lot to get the kids used to the idea of using it as well. I saw a lot of passing using the boards which was great.
Then at the game on Sunday, I reminded them of what we had don on Sat night.
I told them to come out with speed and a lot of shots.
Well, they sure did listen. It was a rout. I even told them to stop shooting on net and focus only on passing the puck. I switched forwards into defensive roles and got them thinking in different ways. that will help the team as a whole for future games.

nice to be on the positive side of the blowout.

we are now a 5-1 team...not bad
:-)

Leafs win for my B-day

Considering that this is the 2nd game in as many nights, I'd say this game was won due to the coaching of Wilson. He recognized that not all of our guys had legs for the whole night and he played the 4th line more than usual to make up for it and let his 1st line rest a bit more...the result was some great hard fore checking that led to a lot of scoring chances.
I wasn't surprised that we looked a bit slow at times, but for the most part, Brodeur kept the Devils in this game. There were at least 5 times that Marty pulled out some magic tonight including one save where he snagged it with his blocker hand as the puck headed towards the goal line.
Stajan and Moore had incredibly good games, and again, Schenn played a solid D game. The penalty at the end was bad luck.
The reason we looked slow in the OT was because we were on the PK, and it took them a bit of time to get out of that mode.

Great game...thanks for the win on my B-day boys!

Slammed into the boards

by my own momentum, but still...glad I was wearing a helmet...

It happened during a game with some co-workers and friends last night..diving for a puck, then sliding into the end boards...that slamming feeling and the instant "Am I OK?" moment afterwards...

and yeah, I'm OK...yay pads.

need to work on receiving the puck when playing left wing...

oh, and it started snowing yesterday at 5:10pm....

another win...now my Coaching record is 3 wins, 1 loss

The boys looked really confident out there. The drill we did on Sat of going hard to the net for the rebounds really paid off. I watched as most of the kids finally started to get the idea of going to the net for a rebound.
Most goalies, especially at this age group, let out big rebounds and if we are going into the play thinking about getting that rebound, it really helps us with the fast reactions.
AND to that point, one of the things I worked on with our goalie, was his rebound control. I showed him how to direct pucks into corners, and most importantly, that he should cover that puck every chance he gets.
The next thing we have on schedule is another game...I hope the boys don't eat too much candy the night before.... Halloween!

The next thing these kids need work on is the passing. we need hard stick to stick passes. It will go a long way to helping us clear our own zone faster.

Friday practice

I need to leave work early to get to practice on time...
here's what I hope to work on:

- hard work on boards
- fast skating
- passing to front of net
- shooting
- where to go on 2on1's
- rebounds
- getting out of our own zone
- and if time permits, a bit of scrimmage

on Sat we'll focus on passing and how to bring it into our game

under the belt

Well now I have had a couple of games and some more practices under my belt. We won our pre-season game handily (7-3) and our first regular season game (2-1). But our first trip out to Russell wasn't so good. We were up against a really strong team, and it intimidated our team and put us off our game. Not to mention that the Russell team had some great players.
But the mood afterwards was pretty good, so I am looking forward to today's practice.

The season is looking pretty busy...not much free time anymore...all practice and games every weekend....

Full ice and parents meeting

I had a full sheet of ice to work with today...it was great...so much room...

i split the guys up into forwards and defense...I had my Asst Coach show the forwards some positioning in both the offensive and defensive zones...also some faceoff positions and some passing drills

I took the Defense side and got them into position for clearing the pucks out of our zone, and how to keep pucks in the offensive zone...the drills were really basic, but showed them where they needed to be, and why.

Then I split them into 2 teams, white vs red...i had them play the positions they had been practicing and stopped them whenever I had point out that someone was out of position.

for the most part, they were much better than at our last scrimmage...I saw some really smart positioning , and some good passes. (including one by Nick that almost sent Cam on a breakaway)

so I think with a few more passing drills at high speed and some more attention to positioning, we should be ready by the time we play our first game.

yay!

After the practice, we headed to Tim Horton's for my first Parents meeting...talked about my philosophy of what i want to do with the kids...Parents, for the most part, seemed fine with everything... a very laid back group.
which is exactly what I was hoping for on my first time in as Head Coach.

pre-practice #2

I've got my drills all laid out...ready to go...making copies for the Asst. coaches...
I have a plan for getting to the rink on time...hope traffic co-operates.
It's crazy how fast these practices sneak up on you...looks like it will be a busy season...lots of work goes into this coaching thing...a lot of pre-planning.

We still need a treasurer for the team...hopefully I dont end up dealing with it...I have a lot on my plate already and don't want to screw that up.

We also need to book some tournaments....ahhh...too much to do..

but the website is looking nice...

names to the faces

I have an idea to post pictures of the parents and kids with their names so that we can all get to know each other by name faster...hope everyone likes the idea.

I need to pick a few drills for Thursday...will do this afternoon

The team still needs a treasurer...I hope a parents steps up to help us out soon. We need to get on these tournaments...

I know some of the parents are not in favour of out of town tourneys...I imagine it is a combination of cost and travel conflicting with schedule...
but maybe we can find some kind of arrangement because I think they (the tourneys) are great for team building.

OK...back to work

1st practice

I met all the kids at the door as they filed in, hockey bags in tow. Their parents seemed as excited as their children. Checking to make sure the skates were tied just right. did they have enough water?

I made a little speech in the room. I probably should have prepared a bit more. But I was pretty tired from the last 2 days of Coaching clinics. But I think I managed to get the important points across.

Out on the ice, I had the boys start with a scrimmage ...6 on 6...I then switched it up to 3 on 3 to show them how important passing and skating are...with the open space on the ice, they played really well...hopefully I can get my hands on some pinneys to help the boys distinguish the different teams.
I then moved on to some basic skating...crossovers, pivots, backwards skating. I pointed out to them my belief that skating is so important. I hope they take part in the Powerskate sessions once they start up. I twill really help us grow as a team.

Then we moved on to passing...they seemed to think the drill was too basic, and most kids seemed a bit uninterested, so I'll need to think of a way to make it more fun and challenging.

So to get their interest back I quickly switched to every kids favorite drill...the shootout!
but before they started randomly firing pucks at the goalie, I told them I wanted them to take this chance to be creative and show off their unique style.
The boys tried some great stuff...between the legs...the spin-o-rama...so good! And the goalies stood tall in the nets. some of those saves were great. I hope they bring that attitude to the games.
Then I kept their interest again by adding a chaser to help speed things up....then I made some of them defencemen and started a 2 on 1.

And that was the end...the Zamboni honked his horn and off we went (although next time, I will ask the kids to put the pucks in the net so I don't have to chase them all over).

The change room was pretty lively afterwards and that has to be a good sign...some of the kids and parents came up and thanked me which was a real nice touch.

Now I am off to have some tea and try to catch some Z's

Coaching Clinic

I finished my Coaching certification clinic today. A jam packed 1.5 days with a group of guys (and one female) all trying to better their teaching skills.
Our instructor was a pretty funny guy with a little story about every aspect of the game. You can tell that he comes from a different era of hockey but is happy with the direction hockey is going.
The on-ice aspect of the course was a real eye opener about how to really break what appears to be a basic drill into even more simplified terms.

I feel really prepared going into the crazy world of coaching....