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....