A Winning Attitude

The way a coach approaches the game can have a deep effect on their players. Hockey is a deeply competitive sport, and an effective coach must strike a balance between the desire to win, whilst always trying to keep the game fun and exciting. Teams at the minor level are sometimes an uneven mix of talent and beginners, which can definitely pose a challenge to coaches to keep all the players happy.

The start of a season, even with recreational hockey, can always be a bit of headache. This year for example, we have but twelve players, for two of whom this is there first year playing ice hockey. Practices must be balanced, challenging enough not to bore the more skilled players, but not too complicated for the players who are still learning the basics. Things are disorganized, players are still trying to figure out what position they will play, and who they'll be playing with.

This where skilled coaching comes into play. The same balance must be struck between winning and just going out there to have fun. Only one team can be number 1, and someone always has to finish last. While winning isn't everything, it is one of the reason why we play the game. So this is how we stress it: Play hard for the win, but don't be too disapointed with a loss. There are many things that can be learned from a loss, and there's always the next game.

I've seen certain coaches who can just rip into their players after a loss (we've all had coaches like this, no matter what sport, or what level) - but yelling about everything that went wrong often has little positive impact. After a loss, I find it best to find both things that could be improved upon, and always stress the things that were done right. Even after a win, we usually take the same approach, just because you've won the game, seldom means that everything was done to perfection. Improvements can always be made.

While coaches interested only in winning can often suck a great deal of fun out of the game, making sure that all the players are enjoying themselves and are having a fun season can be an essential element of winning. Many forget this simple fact, hats off to all the coaches who haven't.