Featured image from Vancouver Hockey School ‘Tis the season to reflect on the unofficial first half of your season. What’s working, what’s not working, and how can you capitalize upon both sides of the coin moving forward into the new year? A lot of coaches at this point in are prone to griping about underwhelming […]
The National Hockey League has seen four head coaches dismissed this season. This after not one NHL bench boss lost his job last year. As an unapologetic coach’s apologist, it’s difficult to watch people like Todd McLellan and Joel Quenneville lose their jobs, even though for all I know they completely deserved it. I don’t […]
Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League, the farm team of the Ottawa Senators, is a hotspot for teaching young hockey players about the importance of playing fast. It sounds easy enough, but for Assistant Coach Paul Boutilier, playing fast on the ice all comes back to the amount of information retained off the ice. […]
From Winnipeg Jets Assistant Coach Todd Woodcroft to the on-ice creativity created by Mississauga Steelheads Assistant Coach Brendan Taylor, we’ve covered the entire ice surface when it comes to increasing offense. Behind the net, off zone entries, and even through the hands of the league’s best defensemen (who also might be the league’s best forwards […]
Paul Carson’s roles, duties and accomplishments are many. Published children’s book author, educator, coach, hockey dad, Hockey Canada executive, board member of the Coaching Association of Canada are just a few. He understands hockey from pee wee to pro, and as Vice President of Development at Hockey Canada, he understands the need to be progressive […]
Here in the lower mainland these days there are plenty of excuses to be grumpy. It’s dark in the morning, it’s dark in the afternoon, it’s raining, it’s gloomy, the humid air sneaks into your bones and grans hold with an unbreakable iron grip – what are we talking about? It’s hard to focus. Imagine […]
Every Head Coach should take advantage of the opportunity to create a Culture Statement that outlines the specific values and beliefs that will be used as a filter to make his/her decisions. These values and beliefs are to be used by every team member to guide their decisions, actions and behaviours. The values and beliefs […]
The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behaviour. Source This is an article I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. It’s about coaches, how we operate, and how our methods effect young hockey players on a cellular level. Now, I’m not a […]
Photo Credit: Skate HQ “Fear and trust ride the same teeter totter; when fear goes up trust goes down, when trust goes up fear goes down” – Walter Aguilar As a coach, do your players fear you or trust you? When your players fear you you will get compliance, when they trust you you will […]
I share with you in this article the values and beliefs of Jack Clark, Rugby Coach at the University of California, Berkeley. I watched coach Clark’s speech years ago on the subject of coaching high performing teams and wanted to share his 5 values and beliefs. I have added “character” as a 6th core value […]
