I just finished The Talent Code, and it was fascinating on many levels. There are so many implications for any coach or teacher of anything....I can't begin to address them all, which is why it's such a valuable book. One of the many concepts that really hit home with me with me though was the concept of "deep practice" being uncomfortable rather than easy repetition of skills or drills. It reminded me of a few hockey books I've picked up in the last year....

After seeing his name in many books (including Tom's) and articles, I tracked down a copy of the out of print Road to Olympus by Anatoly Tarasov, the famous Red Army hockey coach. Tarasov describes how he made the speed and challenge of practices uncomfortable for his players so that game speed would seem like slow motion. In essence they were always in "deep practice" mode on the ice. The Red Army also had the "spark" ignited by national pride and being underdogs when they first came on the international hockey scene.

Herb Brooks did the same thing with the 1980 US Olympic team of "Miracle on Ice" fame. In the book Overspeed Training for Hockey, available for free HERE, trainer Jack Blather describes how the 1980 US team also practiced at speeds that pushed the envelope of comfort, with the goal of being able to match the Red Army team's conditioning level. Again, this sounds very much like the "deep practice" Coyle describes, and the spark was obviously ignited by the challenge and opportunity to represent the country on it's home turf.

Finally, after reading about Brazilian "Futsal" in Coyle's book and the skilled players it helps develop, I'm reminded of the emphasis Tom places on using small area games to teach the bigger game. The Futsal concept fascinates me too in that the smaller ball requires faster and more accurate skills to control and shoot/pass accurately....it's overspeed training for ball handling skills, and I'm left wondering what the hockey equivalent for this might be that could be used on the ice? Tennis ball hockey on ice is a good attempt at this but the bounce of the ball tends to minimize opportunities to handle and control the ball. Any suggestions or ideas?

I've only scratched the surface of the learning concepts presented in the book, but I'm curious what the rest of you think are implications on how we can coach hockey better or differently.

DMan

To teach a skill and to deep practice I guess we should slow down and break the skill in to chunks like the book says. I think that Coyle meant that kids felt uncomfortable because they practiced slowly and they had (and were demanded) to really concentrate on the practice (to fire the right circuits). But of course add speed when we're learning to give new impulses.

I think it's very important to train and build diverse set of basic skills to kids; agility, coordination, balance etc. (its myelin base to every hockey skill).

To me the most fascinating thing form the book and its website is the game reading and game sense studies and how it can be teached. And I believe that it's in this area where the overspeed training is helpful, But also all the games that you play. Diverse use on different games on and off ice gives to your player more options and (creative) solutions to different game situations.

Kai

Here is an idea of how to use the ice to play tournaments on one sheet. Incorporate one tournament per week. Two or three teams could share the ice and set up everything before so they don't waste time. I have included a diagram. Use hollow 4x4 boards, hose or rink dividers. Add rule modifications and keep score.

Use foam pads, wooden or thick hoses to divide the rink into three sections and 3 benches. Play 5-5 with 5-7 year olds and 4-4 with 9-10 year olds. A 60 minute ice time could be a 6 team round robin tournament of 10' games. 5 min. warm up and 1 min. between games to switch rinks. Cotinuous. After a goal take the puck out right away and go. Opposition can't pressure until one player crosses the mid line.

Another idea is to divide the rink into 4 areas.

The last 13 years I taught PE we got double classes with 48-60 kid's in a small gym with 3 badminton courts and 6 baskets. We would divide the students into 12 teams and make 6 areas. I added a line between the cross gym badminton courts to make 6 areas for badminton and volleyball and of course 2 groups would be under each basket. I also used a rope instead of nets so it was easy to remove for the 10 minute run at the start of each class. We would do skills in the small groups. (no one sitting out) and then play tournaments with modified rules. The kid's loved pe because it was fun and they also got very fit and learned the skills.
filemgmt/index.php?id=43 is the link to a video of a volleyball and a bball class.

The hockey rink is a big place if coaches open their minds up and think of ways to use the space to teach both the individual and game playing skills.

I am going to upload it again as an example how to use space efficiently.

Thanks Kai & Tom,

I agree that breaking down or "chunking" a skill into small pieces, doing it slowly and properly, makes all the sense in the world, and the small area game tournament will be a regular feature for me this year. I did this once last year and it worked quite well.

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I'm still stuck on the brilliance of Brazilian "futsal." It has the benefits of a small area game AND increases skill development through modified equipment. It's like the nervous system overload that Tom talks about here:
forum/getattachment.php?id=281
....inserted into a game teaching situation.

The Soviets and 1980 US team used weight vests during practice to increase leg strength, and the US team sometimes practiced with minimal equipment to get comfortable doing things at higher speeds. Futsal uses a smaller (heavier too, I think) ball which requires more exact skill. What can we do to push the skills that small area games teach even further?

Any thoughts?

Thanks again.

I think that we have to incorporate practices that are in a tournament format. Play games with modified rules. Overload the players by using a tennis ball, heaviy pucks, light pucks. Sometimes play soccer with a ball or using a puck.

It only takes the willingness to create a practice kit at each arena that has rink dividers, small nets, and various kinds of balls and pucks.

So instead of having the traditional skills practice and full ice games add one dimension. Teams combine every second practice and make 6 or 8 smaller teams and play 3 cross ice or 4 1/4 ice games. Play tournaments in small areas. Keep score. Then play the regular full ice games that they always play. (there is no way parents are ready to give these up)

I would love to get a curling rink and make two smaller rinks for youth hockey. In Calgary they have shut many curling rinks down. One close to me is now part of a school and the Big Four building used to be the largest curling rink in the world. 2 floors with 24 rinks on each level. Just think of how much U10 hockey could have been played there. Easily 5 rinks on each floor. It is also a great 3-3 size for any age.

Just some thoughts.

Few years ago I was at coaching seminar where we played a really funny SAG. you palyed with a partner shoulder to shoulder but just one stick per pair so that you would play lower hand on the stick and your partner would play witk upper hand. With the frre hand you
would hold on to you pair.

We have used tennis balls, we played Ultimate Frisbee on ice. 3 on 3 with 3 pucks ( or e.g.one puck, one tennis ball and one light puck) you're free to score both of the goals. Play just with you fore/back hand etc. Use themed games off-ice too with soccer, basketball and floorball etc.

Then we've used reaction drills where player has two or more options and the have to make quick pass (after deke or under pressure) to right player (e.g. one player plays stick on ice when rest of the target players play stick off the ice).


Kai

Not size, strength, iq, or any factor was as significant as the answer to the simple question, "How long do you intend to play the sport? (musical instrument, dance etc.)
1. one year.
2. until finished grade school.
3. until finished high school.
4. all my life.

These were broken into, a. short term commitment, b. medium, c. long term.

When someone VIEWS THEMSELVES as a researcher, athlete, musician or whatever then they engage in deep practice and benefit from the time spent practicing or studying. He found that someone with a long term view would benefit as much from 10 min. of practice as someone with a short term commitment got out of 90 min. of practice.

So you need the learner to be totally engaged in the activity along with excellent teaching.

Thanks Tom & Kai,

I appreciate the input and ideas. The correlation between intended length of involvement and rapid learning is very interesting. Not too many people are pushing hockey as a lifetime sport, but I agree it is and should be emphasized as one. I also found it interesting that many of the talent hotbeds were sparse, bare-bones kind of facilities rather than posh & specialized ones.

Here's an older but interesting article on hockey talent hot beds:
http://www.nhl.com/intheslot/read/impac ... spots.html
Tom, some of your videos are from Turku aren't they? What is it that makes these places so much more productive?

DM

DM, I think Turku has a rich hockey tradition and TPS used to be the Canadiens of Finland. Juhani started a lot of youth development and his sports school hockey class had players like Kiprusoff and Koivu in it. After a long hiatus from the top of the league TPS won the Championship this season.
The top goalie coach is from TPS and Finland produces more goalies than anywhere else right now.

I was in Turku last month and there are lots of sports facilities that were well used as I drove and walked around.

So I think they have the tradition and the great coaching that is needed to be a hotbed.

Quote by: TomM

DM, I think Turku has a rich hockey tradition and TPS used to be the Canadiens of Finland. Juhani started a lot of youth development and his sports school hockey class had players like Kiprusoff and Koivu in it. After a long hiatus from the top of the league TPS won the Championship this season.
The top goalie coach is from TPS and Finland produces more goalies than anywhere else right now.

I was in Turku last month and there are lots of sports facilities that were well used as I drove and walked around.

So I think they have the tradition and the great coaching that is needed to be a hotbed.

And Yurzinov was the head coach of TPS at that time. 1992-1998
Here are few players that Yurzinov coached:
Saku Koivu (Canadiens, Ducks)
Aki Berg (Kings, Maple Leafs)
Fredrik Norrena (Blue Jackets)
Antti Aalto (Ducks)
Jani Hurme (Senators, Panthers, Ducks)
Sami Salo (Canucks, Senators)
Marko Kiprusoff (Canadiens, Islanders)
Miikka Kiprusoff (Flames, Sharks)
Petteri Nummelin (Blue Jackets, Wild)
(Lighting, Flyers)

Yursi is a great coach. Around 65 players that he coached went to the NHL. I did some seminars with him and Juuso while he was coaching TPS. They are great friends and played against each other for years in world championships and Olympics. In 93 Yursi had me run a practice with the TPS pro's with a focus on body checking. He came one week a month while I was in Salzburg and ran skill sessions in the mornings for all the players. I have posted a puck handling and a skating practice that he did.

(Yursinov played for the Soviet Union then coached for years as the assistant to Tikonov and was head coach of Dynamo. Players like Yashin, Kovalev and most Russian greats played for him. He then coached in Finland and Switzerland and the last years goes around and works with various clubs as a guest coach. He is about seventy now and a really pleasant and funny man who has a passion for the game.)

So it was a combination of great tradition and two coaches who have been inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame. Yursi coached the pro's and Juuso coached the hockey class for 2 sports schools. (Juuso also coached TPS and in Switzerland and Germany)

They both not only coach skills but how to Play the Game.

I have shared there techniques over the years with this website. Juuso and I started communicating with letters in the late 80's, then with faxes and then email and now email and skype. He would share the ideas that him and Yursi were discussing.

I like the direction coaching is starting to take. The focus is going away from strictly skill development using drill after drill to combining skill development with learning how to play using games and trasntion games in practice. So now we are starting to build the toolbox to put the tools in.

I just got home from teaching my last hockey on ice session of the year 13 kid's and 2 goalies. Here the kid's go to school until the end of June 200 days. Good bunch of kid's and some very good players.

http://thetalentcode.com/nightline/ is the link to a good intro to the ideas in the Talent Code.