Feb. 2016
Following my last message that, in part, included aspects of mental preparation and team building, I was quite pleased of attend development sessions on same facilitated by two of our Sting coaches. Big thanks go out to Jerrett DeFazio and Mark Dalipaj for facilitating these tremendous opportunities for our players! Coaches, please feel free to reach out to me, directly, with your success stories as we build an even stronger Sting development culture moving forward.
As enthusiasm builds in anticipation of the playoffs, we want to congratulate all Sting coaches and their teams for a successful regular season. With the knowledge that winning (on the scoreboard) is only a bi-product of development, we celebrate your "success" with you! There's no such thing as losing anyway, you can only run out of time!
In keeping with our development model as we cross the threshold into the playoffs, there exists great opportunity for continued development for our Sting players! As such, among other things, I would promote the opportunity for further development for our kids around communication and leadership when reaching out to our referees. Asking for clarification or perhaps an appeal to linesmen through team captain(s) will certainly serve to promote growth and development for our Sting players in these areas. Subscribing to the philosophy that children learn through modeling and imitation, our Sting players are very fortunate to have such great opportunity for development through the example provided by our coaches and I would support this strategy, 100%.
Thank you once again and good luck!!
Larry Carroll
Director of Player Development
Ottawa Sting Minor Hockey Association
Coaches,
In the context of Player Development, I want to thank you, once again, for all of your efforts for our Ottawa Sting players and families! Kudos to all as we are actively building a great community, one hockey player at a time!
At this point in the season, we have seen many successes with our programs. Yes, there have been a few character building moments too but the process of being a hockey coach, a hockey parent and a hockey player, is certainly a journey. As we strive forward, together, to optimize our successes, we do so as a team for the benefit of our Sting players. "It takes a village" as they say...
In terms of development (physical, mental, emotional and social) we, of course, aim to maximize every players' growth in each of the categories during the season with concrete, measurable programming. With your great efforts and solid seasonal plans that include, activation (physical & mental), team building (purpose & reflection), recovery (foam rollers, protein/hydration), power skating, off-ice training and goalie programming, we continue to build and maintain a very strong Sting reputation.
The following will provide you with a few resources that have proven to be of great benefit to coaches, players and families as we aim to celebrate many more success. Please feel free to forward them to your families. For those of you whom have not yet taken the high performance certification, the book, Hockey Tough will be very useful. For our busy families and players, The Ultimate Cook Book for Hockey Families is a super resource to stay healthy and game ready on the fly and the link to Dynamic Edge will speak to the aspects of concussion baselines and training the brain. Finally, as the Director of Player Development for the Ottawa Sting Minor Hockey Association and an advocate for vision training, multiple object awareness and neuro-tracker training, I would strongly encourage the inclusion of these elements as part of player development models moving forward.
HOCKEY TOUGH (A WINNING MENTAL GAME)
THE ULTIMATE COOK BOOK FOR HOCKEY FAMILIES
Thank you and let me know if I can provide you with any further support.
Larry Carroll
Director of Player Development.
Ottawa Sting Minor Hockey Association
