A Difference in Hockey Teaching Levels

This happens often, so I guess I shouldn’t always think it’s so ironic that I have very similarly themed conversations with different hockey folks within a matter of minutes or hours.

That’s actually what happened from yesterday morning to later in the afternoon, and then just now in an email exchange.  That email exchange, by the way, was with our in-lining hockey friend, Jerry Z.

So, let’s explore Jerry’s question, and also relate that to my earlier conversations…

– Dennis Chighisola

A Difference in Hockey Teaching Levels

To begin, I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to work with players at all the different levels of our game.  Some might think this is a negative, in that I might be a Jack of All Trades but Master of None.  Ya, you might think.

However, it’s worked-out to be a huge plus for me, and here’s how…

One example might be a former pro player (and current pro coach) I worked with for a good many years.  You see, despite the levels he ultimately reached, he had a skating flaw that was virtually impossible to correct or override by the time he became an adult.  I suspect that flaw crept in during his very first times on the ice, and he just reinforced it and reinforced it over about the next 20-plus years of skating.  The huge benefit for me — and to the hundreds (if not thousands) of beginners I’ve had in subsequent years — was that I knew that problem was possible — but preventable — if I did certain kinds of drills with my Learn-to-skate kids.

The above, of course, is just one example of how going back and forth between levels has benefited me and my students or players.  And I can tell you that it’s worked in both directions — from elite player traits helping younger kids to the experiences with young players helping my oldest guys.

Okay, so now, about that email from Jerry…  We’ve gotten in the habit of communicating about once per week, especially if we haven’t had the chance to work together for awhile.  Anyway, within his most recent report to me, he included the following:

“A friend made an interesting observation about my last video (posted on the CoachChic.com site), the one where I’m skating with the old skates and stick. He said I skate as if I’m afraid to fall. I thought that was an interesting observation and am looking into falling more on purpose so I know what to do when I’m careening out of control…”

With that, I need to mention here that I have for years conducted beginner hockey sessions — for toddlers, and for adults.  And, while our game’s basic skills are obviously the same, I actually run those clinics in drastically different fashions.

A conversation with one of my Learn-to-play parents at rink-side Sunday morning helps explain part of this…  And he totally agreed and understood as I explained my reasons for having my little ones roll on the ice, do bellyflops and backslides, and initially jog their way across the rink.

I really got into this a great deal more when I bumped into a high level figure skating coach outside a local store hours later…  We’re birds of similar feathers, that young lady and I, both of us thinking and looking far, far outside the proverbial box when it comes to helping the skaters in our charge.  Anyway, when the conversation turned toward our creating outgoing or flamboyant “personalities” in our athletes, I described the way I try to create little daredevils in my Learn-to kids’ very first times on the ice.  Ya, I’m talking about the diving and rolling and flops again, and the way I give the kids high-fives when they do a crazy fall.

Okay, so I’m presuming you have the gist of how I approach my “baby groups”.  And you have to be thinking I’m just going to walk into a beginner adult class and run a carbon copy of the little ones’ lesson plan.  Huh, hardly.

Number One, adults know too much.  I mean, my babies will flop around with absolutely no thoughts or fears of hurting themselves (and that mentality usually stays with them for all their years in the game).  My adult guys and gals, on the other hand, are thinking to themselves, “Hey, I’d better go easily here…  I could break a leg or somethin’!”  Probably even more often, they’re thinking, “Hey, I have to go to work in the morning!”

Ya, adults know too much, and they are almost always holding back quite a bit — or a lot, if we’re comparing them to their toddling counterparts.

And this brings us back to Jerry’s friend’s observation, in that he looks in that video as if he’s afraid to fall.  Ya, our buddy just turned 50-years old the other day (Happy Birthday, JZ!).  And, while it doesn’t have to be a conscious thing on his part, there is definitely a conversation going on in his head — as in, “Hey, I could get hurt here!”

Having dealt with probably a thousand or so adult beginners, I’ve found most of them — including Jerry — to be willing workers.  Only rarely have I had a student who totally held back (which caused me to wonder why the heck they were even on the ice).  Yes, Jerry and most others do really try, and they usually try pretty hard.  Still, with each slight wobble or near fall, I don’t think he or many other adult beginners can resist that ever present internal voice which warns them, “Hey, I have to get up and go to work tomorrow morning!”

All that said, I’ve noticed that confidence grows as adults master given skills.  So, while there’s a point in the early going where Jerry or another beginner might turn pale in the middle of a very basic movement, it’s pretty likely that he and others will eventually whistle and not worry doing the very same thing a month or so later.  Sure, there is probably always going to be something new that rattles them, at least a bit.  But, even those fears can probably be overcome with time.

Oh, that Jerry suggests in his email that he might try “falling more on purpose”?  I sense that is a good thing.  I highly recommend it (just not when I’m around, and not when my liability policy is on the line — LOL).

Then, one final reflection, this having to do with age…  A lot of the adult groups I’ve worked with over the years have been teams, and they’ve been a mixture of guys and/or gals, some in their 20’s and some much older.  And it should make sense to the reader that the 20-somethings quite frequently take to the ice in hell-bent-for-leather fashion.  Those young people are probably also playing street hockey, basketball or flag football with buddies, and they’re still acting — and especially thinking — like kids, with not much concern for their physical well being.  At the other end of the spectrum — and, at 50, Jerry surely is far at the other end, well, the older guys know too much, and the voices are likely screaming at them!