Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 18:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Perhaps the most challenging, yet important responsibility for youth coaches is to provide each player the greatest opportunity to improve skills. This is also one of the most rewarding aspects of the job, but since it’s easier to draw X’s and O’s, team systems often take up too much practice time in youth hockey.
All coaches could learn a valuable lesson about development from Herb Brooks. His job in 1979 was to plan for the nearly impossible task of beating the Russians, who were the fastest, most skillful team in international hockey.
The 1980 team committed a major portion of their on-ice practice time to overspeed skill training. This was the tactical philosophy and also the nuts and bolts of the conditioning program. Brooks knew from his days as a player in the Olympics, that for every shift the entire game, you had to perform individual and team skills and to compete intelligently and hard — at the fastest possible pace.
This, by the way, is the definition of a well-conditioned team at every level of hockey. It incorporates words like “fast, skillful, compete,” and has nothing to do with long, slow aerobic workouts, nor slow, unskillful skating drills, dragged out beyond the point of fatigue.
This uncomfortably fast practice tempo was the training philosophy of the Soviets, and their practices established a back-breaking comfort zone, in which opponents would attempt, but fail, to compete for the entire game.
For at least two or three practices a week, the main objective of the U.S. team was elevating the comfort zone, because Brooks knew too well that with adrenalin flowing and effort raised to a maximum, the Soviets could pass, shoot and handle the puck comfortably the entire game. They’d done it that way their whole life.
Puck control and skill determine the outcome in the Olympic Games and since the re-acquaintance with the rule book, it is this way in the NHL. Interference and hooking are no longer effective defensive crutches. To win, you have to skate, pass, shoot and play high tempo defense better than your opponents.
Kind of a novel way to determine the winner, don’t you think?
To prepare for 21/2-hour games, the 1980 team had many 21/2-hour practices at a tempo that simulated the fastest games of the year. Even though the level of skill is vastly different from youth hockey, the purpose of these practices is the same, and the basic interval structure should serve as a model.
• Players are told in advance their job is to attempt each drill at a pace that is uncomfortably fast.
• Coaches plan practices that encourage quality repetitions — work intervals short enough and rest intervals long enough to allow recovery. This is the most important coaching guideline if practice is to have a positive impact on skills. There is no skill which can be improved once fatigue sets in.
• Each drill might take about 8-20 seconds with rest intervals three or four times as long. The simplest way to do this in youth hockey is to start a new drill every minute — allowing longer rest as needed.
• For the Olympic teams, colleges and professionals, endurance is an important consideration, so players must often push themselves beyond the first stages of fatigue. For youth teams, skill and speed are more important than endurance, and intervals should be adjusted to reduce the chances of lactic acid buildup.
• On overspeed days, coaches explain new drills within a short rest interval, never longer than one minute. There isn’t time for standing around, and coaches should learn to teach on the move during the drill.
• The performance of skills deteriorates as practice gets longer, so the difficulty of the drills must be adjusted. It is impossible to learn skills — especially difficult, multi-tasking skills — when tired. Secondly, as the ice gets cut up, puck skills will suffer. Finally, as players begin to get tired, their focus is often lost and skill development is compromised.
• Therefore, the earlier drills in an overspeed practice should be the most difficult and creative. These can be flow drills with a lot of passing or competitive drills like 3-on-3, 3-on-2 or 1-on-1 — usually with extra skating.
• As players lose focus, and along with it, the ability to make quick decisions and perform difficult skills, the coach should switch to drills with fewer passes. At this stage, simply carry the puck around corners and shoot at high speed.
• Get rid of the pucks when there is no longer enough concentration or the ice is too cut up to maintain tempo and skill. The end of the practice should include timed skating intervals, without pucks, where the objective of each drill is speed, quickness, agility and improvement of mechanics. For college and Olympic teams, this portion might be 30-60 minutes.
• At any time when skills are not performed with concentration and speed, start a new series of drills at the next easier level of skill.
Improvement requires three mindsets: Players always strive for high tempo and improved execution of skills. Coaches create the right environment by allowing adequate rest. Failure is re-defined.
There will be many times when players lose the puck or wipe out attempting a fast corner, but this must be accepted by teammates as an effort to improve.
In an overspeed practice, the only failure is to stay within your present comfort zone.
Jack Blatherwick, Ph.D., is a physiologist for the Washington Capitals.
