Leadership/Behavior Skill Teaching
Introduced this concept
Discussed our definitions of Intention vs. Desire to recall it and get player inputs.
Told story after this discussion about 2 former players.
2 Player Story
I coached 2 defensemen that got called up to the same NAHL team on the same day.
Similar skill levels, and completely different approaches to their lives.
One lived on Intention.
The other constantly talked about how he wanted and should be there.
He was all ‘desire.’
The best part was both of them came to my tier 3 team after training camp, so we didn’t have billet families set up for them yet. I had 2 extra bedrooms at my apartment so they stayed with me. I got to observe how they lived away from the rink and how they interacted. Here is what that looked like.
‘Intention Guy’ got up a few hours before morning practice to prep a meal and get it digested.
‘Desire Guy’ got up a few minutes before he drove to the rink, no food, no hydration, no movement. Straight out of bed to the rink. Desire Guy would also come down and chirp Intention Guy for eating so strictly and on a schedule.
‘Intention Guy’ was chirped by his teammates and players complained to his coaches that he “tried too hard at practice.”
‘Desire Guy’ was too cool to do any rep in a tier 3 practice at full intensity.
‘Intention Guy’ stayed after practice to work 1v1 with a coach on individual skills for the 29 days he was on our team.
‘Desire Guy’ was on the ice after practice because that player wanted to teach him that this was an expectation at the next level and he should build the habit now, Desire Guy never gave full effort in those reps post practice either.
Which player stuck for the rest of the year in the NA and which was back in Rochester, MN 4 days later?
This one isn’t a trick question…
Everything Has Opportunity Cost
Building off that story we defined opportunity cost:
The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.
After discussing with players, I recapped it with one sentence.
“When you stack too many ‘impulse’ alternatives, the opportunity cost of that starts costing you opportunities.”
Therefore, stacking intentional choices keeps the door to future opportunities open for you.
When you are scrolling TikTok you can’t shoot pucks at the same time.
On Ice
We kept building on stick picks, and switches/overlapping play and gave them a new environment to work on them in.
The players I’m working with have been told ‘wide wide speed’ by their youth coaches down here. We are unlearning deeply ingrained habits
and setting them up to enter through the middle and how to create space for that to occur.
On entry:
Other Random Nuggets:
“Make it impossible for your coach not to root for you.”
Homework: 3 day audit
he “tried too hard at practice.”
Ah the old Tryhard ruining it for everyone else.
I've been in it for 10 years, and this is what I've seen far too often. The herd mentality. Too many too insecure and too afraid to be vulnerable and try...
Its really what I'm trying to do. Get kids over the try-hump, where they can start unlocking new levels for themselves.