Plan your work, work your plan

Individual player skills are extremely important, but you still need team skills, and coaching skills to do the job right. Just throwing a team of skilled players on the ice with a few scrimmages or mindless drills doesn’t cut it in my book. Evaluate your team and your players. What have you got, what are you shooting for, and what can you do to get the most out of each player and the team as a unit. Don’t tell me how good you are; show me what you can do. I plan every practice around the team I’m coaching. There is no cookie cutter system that works magically for every team. Some teams have different strengths and weaknesses that you need to understand. Each team is different as is each player. Early in the season you work out the skills, and start putting things together on the ice piece by piece building your foundation. While you’re doing this you evaluate each player and the team as a whole. What works, what do we need to work on and what has to be torn apart and redone? You need a good foundation to build on. Your team needs to know the game plan, what systems are we going to use and how do we get the most out of each one. Don’t leave your team in the dark, let them know where you stand and what direction you plan on going. Always be honest about your assessment, but not negative. Develop a positive attitude for your team and move forward even if it’s only a few steps at a time. “Plan your work, work your plan.” Hopefully it’s a good one.