For as long as any of us are involved in life, or hockey, we shall never quit learning. We need to remain engaged and observant. The final two parts of this series of great lessons learned in my many years, appear this week with my final the week of the boys’ high school state tournament.

The past several years, I had the great opportunity to work with high school-aged girls in White Bear Lake. Girls like to know “why.” They like to be told why, where and what for.  

Legendary football coach Lou Holtz said coaching is about teaching “choices.” I agree. Coach Holtz said that he likens coaching to putting a choker on a dog. You use the choker to teach good choices, so that when you take the choker off to give the dog more freedom, they likely make better choices. As is often done entering the military, you have to break players down before you build them back up.

I shared similar concepts with the high school girls. I often said there was no “always” and no “nevers.” We as coaches are here to teach good decision making. Once our players are set free to play the game, it is they who must make choices. And in the fast-paced game of hockey, there is no other way.

Offense scores, defense wins! I have often felt that the Minnesota hockey culture greatly embraces the former (offense) but lacks a bit in its respect for the latter (defense). When the big games come along, most often, great defense wins. And one of the great ways to teach high level offense is to be sure your team plays great defense. There’s no better way to develop offensively than to face this great defense daily.

Words matter. Practice is the place to address individual and team shortcomings. On game night, in the locker room and out on the bench, positive words should be the rule. Word choices matter in contributing to a positive mindset. Players and coaches need to monitor their words. Instead of “quit circling” (negative), we should be positive: “Let’s stop on pucks and compete for pucks.” I was far from perfect in this area. There’s nothing like a positive mindset and positive energy.

After a bad period, players enter the locker room, many with something on their mind.  Before you speak, ask yourself, “Is this helpful to the team or just my frustration coming out?” If you have something to say about what is needed to turn your team’s performance around, say it. Say it in a positive way. Then shut up. My good friend and fellow coach, and many years NHL strength coach, Kevin Ziegler, has said over and over, “Frustration is never rewarded.” Rarely is negativity rewarded. Enough said.

As a coach, if the team had a bad period, I liked to get in the room right away so as to not let the team “stew” in bad feelings. I wanted to pick them up. After a good period, generally speaking, I waited longer to address the locker room, allowing them and their good feelings to simmer and then come in with whatever “news they could use.”

We all get caught up in game plans and systems at times. I like to say every Sunday in the NFL, 32 teams think they have a good game plan, but only 16 teams win. Game plans are great, but football teams that block and tackle the best most often win. Hockey is no different. In hockey, teams that play with awareness, complete the highest percentage of passes and hit the net with their shots do well. It still gets back to blocking and tackling and situational awareness.

The problem for many coaches and players is they don’t really know how to teach the basics. In drills, do players always present themselves perfectly for the pass, or do they turn their back to the puck? Are all players always positioned for the pass, or are they lazy because they expect in the drill the pass is going elsewhere? Do attackers end up behind the net and heading off to get back in line for their next rep in the drill, or do they ALWAYS stop in front of the net? Do they pace themselves properly and position themselves perfectly at all times, or do we even pay attention to these details in practice? 

I have seen a million practices and I can tell you many coaches either do not see these basic things themselves or they don’t hold their players accountable to doing everything right. Trying to be great in practice is a goal worthy of pursuit.

And once a player is shown the right way, do they hold themselves accountable to doing things right EVERY TIME? Focus is required to get better at any skill. Ability to focus in our youth is diminishing. This is not any kind of new news. Practice focus is required and increasingly difficult for our new generation.

Have each player monitor their own focus daily. Monitor the words they use throughout practice. Monitor their thoughts. Have your players rate themselves daily on their enthusiasm to attend practice. Then also rate themselves on their enjoyment of practice as a whole. If they rate themselves high on focus, enthusiasm and enjoyment on most days, they will be making progress. If they do not rate themselves high, then they must be the one(s) to problem solve and figure out how they can do better.

Players, if you want more feedback on how to get better, ask a teammate. Ask them to be 100-percent honest and ask that they tell you what they see in you and where you can improve as a teammate and in your approach to the game. Teammates, if you love your teammate and really care about them, you will be honest in your assessment.  Let’s end the “coach doesn’t talk to me enough” complaint. There are plenty of resources that can give you great feedback beyond your coach.

Embrace HARD. If you want to be a good player or a good team, you are going to have to beat other good players and good teams. If you want to be great, you will have to beat great players and great teams. That is never easy. Becoming good or even great, is difficult and the path to such a place will be challenging. You must enthusiastically embrace the difficult challenges that lie ahead if you wish to achieve anything outside of the ordinary. 

HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS/JUNIORS: CONTACT ME AT HARTZELLHOCKEY@MSN.COM IF INTERESTED IN ATTENDING AND FOR MORE DETAILS ON MY JUNIORS AND BEYOND PREPARATION CAMP IN MAY. IT WILL BE A PREPARATION CAMP LIKE NO OTHER
 

A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Kevin Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. He was the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen from 2012-14. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s. His book “Leading From the Ice” is available at amazon.com.

Photo: Mike Thill