For anyone who has played hockey at any level, you already know that each coach along the way has had a different philosophy. At the end of the day, the most important of the coach’s job is player development. The development of skills, knowledge of the game, and sportsmanship.
Coaching is usually broken down into three distinct styles: authoritarian, democratic, and holistic or laissez-faire. It is a bit of a generalization, but for the most part, all coaches fall under one of these types. Is there a right or wrong way to coach youth hockey? Definitely not. With kids, it is more likely that a less authoritarian style would achieve a better connection with the players.
At the same time, players at an early age need help staying focused and the basics of the game need to be instilled. Perhaps an authoritarian coach would find it easier to get this message across.
In this article, we’ll examine each of these coaching types and the pros and cons of applying them to minor hockey.
Authoritarian Coaching
Typically seen as the strictest form of coaching, authoritarian coaches are like drill instructors. They have complete control over practices and expect to have the full attention of their players. This is far from a two-way conversation and these coaches generally rule with an iron fist.
Pros of Authoritarian Coaching
Hockey is a sport where players need to be focused, especially during games. An authoritarian coach would be able to help younger players stay on task and provide an added shot of discipline as well.
If the coach is well-respected and the team is succeeding, the players will usually buy in. Authoritarian coaches are usually feared and seen as authoritative figures by players which can lead to a well-disciplined team that is cohesive on and off the ice.
Cons of Authoritarian Coaching
Authoritarian coaching is a little outdated and can often be considered too harsh for younger players who are new to the game. While it might help younger players focus, it can also turn them off from hockey altogether if it is a negative experience.
Authoritarian coaches are usually not liked by parents as well. This style of coaching can receive pushback from both players and parents and can result in a divided dressing room. Finally, even if it works, it has a chance of taking some of the fun out of hockey for younger players.
Democratic Coaching
Democratic coaching is the style that is most frequently used with youth hockey players. As the name suggests, this coaching style includes the players almost as equals when it comes to the team achieving its goals. This usually results in a friendlier, although not always more successful experience for players.
Pros of Democratic Coaching
The coach is still involved but allows the team to share in goal-setting and learning. There is usually a strong two-way relationship between players and coaches, and parents are also encouraged to join in the discussions.
For younger players, this is definitely a more positive environment to learn in. They do not need to fear punishment like from an authoritarian coach and can build confidence if they make a mistake. This style also builds a strong connection between the players and the coach and often leads to a positive team experience.
Cons of Democratic Coaching
Democratic coaches often cross the line between being an authority figure and being a player’s friend. There needs to be that divide in order for the team to succeed. This can often be difficult for coaches especially when it comes to younger players.
While team goals can be established and worked on by everyone, a democratic coaching style can also lead to a loss of focus. Without fear of punishment or failure, players may not develop as fully. It creates a friendly environment but there may not be enough emphasis on winning and overcoming challenges to succeed as a team.
Holistic Coaching
Holistic or Laissez-Faire coaching is the most hands-off approach. Laissez-faire refers to the French saying that means “let them be” or “leave them alone”. As you might expect, this isn’t a great coaching strategy to use when it comes to minor hockey.
Pros of Holistic Coaching
Leaving the players alone can be a way for them to figure things out on their own. Hockey is a game that is usually determined by the players and coaches do not have as big of a direct impact, especially at the youth level.
Holistic coaching is a non-complicated way to ease players into their first couple of seasons of hockey. After all, these young players are still learning the basics like staying on their skates.
Cons of Holistic Coaching
The cons of this style of coaching are fairly obvious: the coach is entirely missing as an authority figure for the players. The players are mostly left to their own devices and it is difficult to build cohesiveness as a team.
For younger players, it can be a difficult way to develop the skills needed to learn the game. It’s almost as if there isn’t any coach at all. Not having enough authority for the team can also be a negative experience for younger players.
Conclusion
Is there a right way to coach youth hockey? It really is up to the coach and how they apply their style on and off the ice. For developing players, the best coaching style is likely a hybrid of authoritarian and democratic.
Authoritarian coaching can help with player focus and discipline. Democratic coaching can help players develop team-building skills and reinforce that hockey is the ultimate team game.
Whether you are a first-time peewee coach or a Jack Adams Trophy winner, hockey coaches should never stop trying to learn more about the game and their craft. There is so much more to coaching than drawing up X’s and O’s or choosing the best line combinations. It is a constant battle to maintain leadership while providing equal opportunities for all of your players.
As if hockey itself was not complicated enough, coaching the sport brings an all new type of understanding and analysis. When you are a player, you only really have to worry about your own position. As a coach, you have to know every position and how each of them affects the overall game plan for the team. Regardless of what level of hockey you coach, here are five reasons to never stop learning, no matter how successful your team is.
The Game Evolves
What worked one season might not work the next. This is especially true for coaches at higher levels of competitive hockey and even in the NHL. Opposing teams can find out your strategies and create a game plan against them. Every good game plan works in the league, until it doesn’t. Hockey has likely already changed since you were a player, so keep on top of how the game is evolving and learn how you can adapt that to your coaching style.
The overall sport evolves as well which makes outdated strategies stale and useless. As a coach you always need to keep up with the new ways that hockey is played. Just always remember that before exciting, offensive hockey in the NHL, coaches thought that the neutral zone trap was a viable strategy and a great way to play the game. Sure, it worked for a time, but as with most strategies, other coaches caught up and created a system to counteract it.
Personal Development
Learning new skills for your personal development is an underrated part of being a hockey coach. Sure, it’s usually a volunteer gig for parents, but there are plenty of things you can learn from it. It is an excellent way to spruce up on your leadership skills and a great way to work on speaking in front of groups. Most youth hockey coaches even know that there is plenty of on the job training for how to handle confrontations with hockey parents.
Being the coach of a hockey team is also an important role in a child’s early life. The things you learn from your players can help you be a more patient and empathetic person, and is a good reminder that winning isn’t everything when it comes to sports. For as much time as you work on drills at practices, take the time to learn more about yourself and how you perform in a leadership role.
To Learn More About Your Players
This goes hand in hand with personal development, but as a coach you should want to learn more about how to get through to your players as well. At the NHL level, people often talk about how a coach can ‘lose a dressing room’. This means that anything the coach says simply doesn’t resonate with the players anymore. It could be as simple as not feeling motivated by what the coach says, or as complex as losing confidence in the team’s system on the ice. Whatever the case may be, coaches need to constantly be learning how to stay connected with their players.
Establishing a strong bond with your players is a great way to build team rapport. Remember, players are often a reflection of their coach on the ice. If you are positive and supportive, players will want to play and win for you. But if you are negative behind the bench, players will pick up on that energy as well.
Learn to Adapt to Your Players
Every team at every level of competition has a team full of players with different skill sets. As a coach, each new season can be a challenge, and even every game if the same players aren’t there all the time. A great coach will know the strengths and weaknesses of each player on the team and accommodate for that depending on the personnel they have to work with. Adapt your game plan to your players rather than force your players into the game plan.
At the NHL level, it is usually apparent when a coach is trying to force players to play a different style than what they are used to. A good coach won’t force Alex Ovechkin into a defensive role because it simply isn’t how he is effective on the ice. As a coach you need to learn your players strengths and know how to apply them to help the team succeed on the ice.
Winning and Success Are Never Easy
That’s right, you read that correctly: winning and success are never easy. Success always takes hard work so if you want to be a successful coach, you need to be committed to putting in the effort. It starts with doing the little things like showing up first to practices and games or establishing a personal relationship with each of your players. An active coach is always trying to learn more about their players, and a better relationship means it is more likely they will listen to what you have to say from behind the bench.
Not only is winning difficult, but you have to keep re-learning how to win as well. What worked in one game won’t always work in the next game, so refining your craft and making adjustments is something you’ll have to learn to do. Never be satisfied with a victory, because the next one will always be a new challenge. It is always helpful to take a look at what worked, but it is even more important to learn from what didn’t work. Hockey is a challenging game to play and at times, it can be just as challenging of a game to coach as well.
Communication is Key in Hockey, and because of this, hockey has developed some common sayings. There are phrases that only make sense in the context of a hockey game and sayings that, when you hear them, you instantly recognize it as a “hockey quote.” But sometimes we hear and repeat these hockey sayings without knowing where they came from or why they were said.
Here are five common hockey sayings and how they came to be:
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
Likely the most popular is attributed to Wayne Gretzky, and it serves as a useful saying not just for hockey, but for life in general. Although, one of the earliest recorded uses of the saying is by Burton W. Kanter, a tax lawyer, who was talking about Gretzky and claimed that Gretzky used the saying in conversation with him. The saying is also sometimes attributed to Wayne’s father, Walter Gretzky, or to one of Wayne’s coaches.
Regardless of who first uttered the quote, the idea of missed opportunity has long existed before Gretzky’s phrase, in the form of a soccer adage from 1965, “you can’t score if you don’t shoot,” and a baseball saying from 1943, “you can’t expect to hit if you don’t swing at ‘em.”
Recently, the popularity of Gretzky’s saying exploded beyond the world of hockey and even beyond the world of sports, when the American sitcom The Office featured the quotation as part of a gag involving one of the show’s main characters, the office boss, Michael Scott (pictured above).
“Gordie Howe hat-trick”
A normal “hat-trick” is defined as “the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match.” A “Gordie Howe hat-trick” is named after NHL hall-of-famer Gordie Howe and involves a humorous combination of two positive feats and one more questionable feat: a goal, an assist, and a good old fist fight.
The phrase was coined by a New York sportswriter in the 1950s and was named for his all-around hockey prowess and his reputation as a “tough guy.” However, Howe himself only achieved a Gordie Howe hat trick twice: once in 1953 and once in 1954, both against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The former head coach of the Arizona Coyotes, Rick Tocchet, currently has the most Gordie Howe hat tricks in NHL history, with 18.
“Bring your A-game”
This phrase isn’t just common to hockey, it’s used nowadays in pretty much any sport or activity, and if you were or are an athlete in any discipline, chances are that you’ve had a coach say this to you at some point.
To “bring your A-game” means to perform at your best, both in terms of focus and physical ability. Although it is uncertain how long the saying has been used in hockey specifically, hockey writer Adrian Dater claims that he first heard the phrase, “bring your A-game” used by former Colorado Avalanche coach Marc Crawford in 1996. One of the earliest recorded general uses of the saying is in a 1969 “Gentleman’s Quarterly” article about an unusually difficult golf course.
“Great moments are born from great opportunities”
This fantastic quote is courtesy of Herb Brooks, who both played for and coached multiple Olympic hockey teams throughout his life. He first used the now popular hockey phrase in the opening line of his pregame speech to the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team he was coaching, as they were about to face the Soviet Union team that had consistently dominated international competition and seemed like an unstoppable force.
Brooks specifically built and trained the Olympic team to be able to face the intimidating Soviet Union team. When the U.S. team defeated the Soviets and claimed the gold medal, the entire story, as well as Brooks’s iconic speech, was enshrined in hockey history.
The story of the U.S. 1980 Olympic ice hockey victory is told in the 2004 film Miracle, where Brooks is played by Kurt Russell.
“Don’t go through life without goals”
Outside of the sport of hockey, this proverb just sounds like a boring, obvious piece of life advice. But when you consider the context of a hockey game, the saying gains some humour and extra meaning: scoring goals in hockey is great, but it’s important to have larger aspirations both for your hockey career and for your life.
Although the saying is often cited in hockey books and by pro players on social media, it isn’t known who came up with the quote. The saying is often featured on hockey t-shirts, bumper stickers, and posters, the earliest of which was first seen right around the start of the 21st century.
There you have it: five common hockey sayings and their origin stories. Although language may continue to change, including the language of hockey, there will always be some way of urging players to “give it their all” and “put the puck in the net”!
It is a great divide that we are still trying to cross in our everyday world, let alone sports. The gender gap is a real social dilemma and whether it is about opportunities or the differences in how much men and women are paid, the fact is, in many ways our society is still a male-dominated world. Leagues like the WNBA and the NWSL are breaking down barriers for female athletes around the world, and hockey isn’t too far behind. Recently the PWHPA (Professional Women’s Hockey Player’s Association) continued its Dream Gap Tour for a second season, as the organization pushes for a North American professional women’s league. The PWHPA played its first official women’s hockey game at Madison Square Garden, a historic event for women’s hockey everywhere.
We all remember the legends of the game that paved the way for young female hockey players around the world. Manon Rheaume stood tall as the first woman to ever play a professional sport in North America. Hayley Wickenheiser and Cammi Granato led the first generation of women’s hockey stars and are rightfully considered to be two of the best to ever suit up. But there are often women behind the scenes, working for NHL front offices and helping the league function on a day to day basis. Recently the NBA and NFL have both embraced hiring female coaches and executives, something that was unheard of until the last few years. Let’s take a look at some of the most powerful women in the NHL and how they are changing the game for the better.
Dawn Braid
Braid was the first woman to ever be hired into a full-time coaching position when she became the skating coach for the Arizona Coyotes in 2016. She has also worked with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Anaheim Ducks, and the Calgary Flames in various capacities. Braid worked with the Coyotes for two years before leaving the organization to return to consultant work.
Kim Davis
Davis was hired in December of 2017 as the new Executive Vice President of Social Impact, Growth Initiatives, and Legislative Affairs for the NHL. She works tirelessly with grassroots hockey across North America to ensure that a strong and diverse culture is enforced from a young age. As the NHL becomes more diverse both in terms of gender and culture, Davis is the one leading the charge, creating a league where all individuals are welcomed and celebrated.
Heidi Browning
Browning is the current Chief Marketing Officer for the NHL and has the task of drawing interest to hockey at a time where the internet and social media rule. She has started numerous programs including NHL Power Players, which empowers teenagers to help provide feedback and suggestions on how the NHL can better relate to the youth of today. Browning also helps the NHL players market themselves, whether it is building their own brand online or helping them find a platform to help the community.
Cassie Campbell-Pascal
Another legend as a former player, Campbell-Pascal is now trailblazing in the announce booth too as one of the new hosts of Hockey Night in Canada. She has become a mainstay on broadcasts and has provided poignant insights and demonstrated a vast knowledge for the game. She has paved the way for more women broadcasters around the league, and joins a growing contingency of female broadcasters in nearly every professional sport.
Susan Cohig
Cohig is the Executive Vice President of Club Business Affairs, which is a fancy way of saying she ensures NHL teams have their ducks in a row. Cohig is instrumental in things such as the recent expansion team in Las Vegas as well as the upcoming debut of the Seattle Kraken. She has also played a large role in getting female players involved in the NHL all star festivities as well as the extremely popular women’s hockey rivalry series between Canada and the U.S.A.
Cammi Granato
We already mentioned Granato once earlier, but she definitely deserves her own spot as she was recently named the first ever NHL pro scout by the Seattle Kraken. She was hired by another powerful woman, the Director of Hockey Operations in Seattle, Alexandra Mandrycky. There have been female amateur scouts in the past, but Granato is raising the bar, showing that when it comes to identifying talent on the ice, women are just as impactful.
Hayley Wickenheiser
Often called the Wayne Gretzky of women’s hockey, Wickenheiser is now the Assistant Director of Player Development for the Toronto Maple Leafs. She is actively in charge of monitoring the progress and performance of Toronto’s farm system and prospects. Wickenheiser continues to work hard in growing the popularity of women’s hockey with initiatives like her WickFest girl’s hockey tournament.
Katie Million
Million is the USA Hockey Director of Women’s National Team Programs, so she is directly responsible for the recent success of the U.S. Women’s hockey program. She took over the position in 2019, after the U.S. Women’s team won Olympic Gold, and one of her main goals is to repeat in 2022. She is now one of the most powerful figures in the U.S. women’s hockey program, and is tasked with continuing the mounting success that the country has come to enjoy.
Lindsay Artkin
Did you know there is an NHL Coach’s Association? Well Lindsay Artkin is the president of it and is ensuring that the path is cleared for women who want to get involved in coaching at the professional level. Do not be surprised if we see some bigger names in the world of women’s hockey behind the benches of NHL teams at some point in the near future, especially as the role of coach in the NHL continues to evolve!
