Ep 7. How can I still be a head coach if I have a professional skills coach?

A fellow new coach was nervous about losing his authority as a head coach if he had professional skills coaches. David gives advice on using a team approach to coaching. We bring in a goalie skills coach, Daniel Vella, to offer his perspective on working collaboratively.

Coaching Call is is a question show about coaching grassroots hockey. We have a certain take on coaching hockey. We believe in using sport to make players better people on and off the ice. Your hosts are David Trombley, a coach with 30 years of experience at all levels and ages, and Susan Sim, a new house league coach. Submit your questions at http://newcoach.ca/ or in the comments.

Transcript

Intro

Susan: Welcome to Coaching Call, our weekly podcast where we answer your questions about coaching hockey. We believe in using sport to make players better people both on and off the ice.

Hey Dave, how are you today?

Dave: I'm doing great, Susan. How are you? 

Susan: All right. All right. We have a question today that I got from a coach that I met at the Coach 2 training through Hockey Canada that I attended a couple of weeks ago. He's both new to coaching this select team and working with skills coaches. And he had a concern that he wanted to retain his position as head coach. And he wasn't sure how that would work with the professional coaches. And so I thought we'd dive into that.

Coaching as a Team Activity

Dave: So you know what, Susan? It's a small shift in meaning. So if he's given the meaning that he's going to be losing control of his hockey team, he just needs to make a small shift in what that meaning is to work with a skills coach. When you have a skills coach coming in, it's about making your organization, which is really yourself, the head coach.

You have your assistant coaches. You have your trainer. And you have your organization and those people that support you. Then you have your parents as well. So this is the big group overlooking the hockey team that he's going to be working with. And he just needs to have a conversation with that skills coach.

It's just part of his his ability to teach his hockey team to be better players all around. That's all it is. That's all it is. You know what and you know what, Susan, I remember going out to a practice one time where a coach came in the room, shut the door, gave me his hockey resume, and then told me, I don't know why you're here.

I can do this. I can do this. And I was like, wow. And then I said to him, I'm not here to take your job. I'm here to work with you to improve what you're offering to your team. It doesn't take away from your skills. It actually makes you look better. You know what? You can watch the practice, bring the kids over, communicate with the kids that maybe aren't working hard enough.

Or you can view your team differently. Maybe not as running the skills, but now as an evaluator of where your team is. And he looked at me going, Oh, I never thought of it that way. Changed the meaning, and then all of a sudden he went with a different approach, and then his hockey team really respected him because now he can take better notes during the practices. He'd allow me to do my job, he would do his job, 

and then he'd communicate with the parents. Hey, I didn't realize our team can't skate backwards. I'm just making this up. We need to spend more time at backwards skating, crossovers, acceleration, because we'd be better defensively if we can. Better be backwards skaters and just simple things.

Change the meaning. You're still the head coach and, there's a reason for it. And there's a lot to do as a head coach, too. 

Susan: I think that's really good. 

This makes sense to me because at work, I lead teams of software developers and different people have different strengths. I am the manager and I give people different things to do. The individual contributors support me in different ways.

Dave: Absolutely. This doesn't take away that the coach I was working with had played high level hockey. High level hockey. What it does, it allows him to expand, just as you said, of evaluating and looking over the whole process. He can watch the goalie training. See how that's working out.

Understand how that's working. You could also watch his assistant coaches. Who are the ones just sitting on the side, drinking coffee for the whole practice, or are they actively participating? 

Susan: That pulls on another important aspect of being head coach is coordinating all of these pieces. You got to make sure that everyone's doing their job individually and when you put it together, you have a team that works together.

Dave: Absolutely. And the head coach has to have the ability to do... everything. So if the skills instructor doesn't show up because they had a flat tire or some whatever that the story is, it doesn't matter. He can run the practice. If the goalie coach doesn't show up, he can run the goalie coach. If all the coaches don't show up, he can run the team.

That's what he is. He has that ability, or she has, excuse me that ability to do everything. But when they're all there, then he's able to really evaluate how the team's performing and the kids themselves. 

Susan: I want to respond to that a little bit because I don't have a hockey background. I can't play hockey, but I did a lot of homework when I was preparing practice plans, right? I would, plan out everything in a high level of detail because I didn't have enough experience to wing it. and so what you're saying about being able to do each one of the pieces, I think. There's a little bit of a spectrum, right? Sometimes I do what I can and sometimes it's better than others.

Dave: Right. You know what that's really great because I, was really more thinking about myself. and, then I'm thinking, okay, here we are talking about new coaches like yourself. And you know what if it's your first practice, absolutely. 

Who knows how that's going to go. But then all of a sudden you just start, if you're watching you, Oh, gee, I like that drill with the kids are doing, Hey, Coach Dave, do you have a name for that drill? And most coaches will have a name for the drill. Yes. We call it the New Haven drill, and you can just write that down. So you have it kids, you know what, we're going to do the New Haven drill. The guys remember it, and then you can review it. Before going on to the ice, or you can do it, review it on the ice if you want, using a whiteboard.

Even though your skills may not be equal to mine in hockey, your communication skills can be the same. You can still communicate and talk to the kids and lead an effective practice. 

Susan: Every good drill has a name. 

Dave: Absolutely. Absolutely, right? And everyone remembers it just like that, too. 

Susan: And so who decides what the practice is going to look like? So let's go back to the original question. We have a volunteer coach. They have played hockey before. That's the typical coaching parent. They played some hockey and we have a skills coach. Who decides what's going to go into the practice? 

Dave: It will be with the coach and the skills coach. And if we had Daniel, the goalie coach, and we get together before and we have a discussion. Number one he'll speak to the goalies. Daniel, what would you like to do with the goalies? I like to have both goalies. Could you please give them to me for X amount of time?

And like you said, we can incorporate it into your drills at the end, the last 15 minutes. 

Susan: Do you have this conversation like, in the five minutes before practice or do you have it earlier in the week?

Dave: No, we usually have it we'll meet. Especially for the first practice, where I always meet before maybe 15-20 minutes. we don't need a lot of time. And you know what? The conversation's very quick. And then all of a sudden the head coach, then you would turn to me and said, Okay, Dave we have the players, if it's the first practice, I always feel like Daniel said, you want to build some trust and you want to Build that with the players, whether it's skaters or the goalie, and for me, I need to evaluate.

I need to evaluate their skills, right? Because you said, oh, Dave, we need to work on skating, and then I get out there and be like, wow, we really do need to work on skating or, add stick handling and passing and team plays and breakouts, it's a big endless list, right? I like to have that evaluation first.

But then once you get going, the head coach, you are communicating with me. Hey, Dave, you know what? We're getting a lot of goal score against us. We're in our end a lot. And that could be significant because of your skating skills. When you don't have strong skating skills, it's hard to get out. It's hard to back check.

You know what? But when your team's very strong at skating and you're telling me, Dave, we're in our end a lot. Then, probably could be along either team play, positioning, or puck skills. Do they have that ability to have the puck. So I know one of the teams I worked with were great skaters, but didn't really have the finesse in their hands to control the puck.

So we would lose games two to one by one goal. Cause we can skate with any team. And so the other teams didn't have many scoring opportunities, but the other team had a little bit better individual skills and that's where we'd lose our games. So it's interesting. It's a, it's that communication working and we're working together.

We're working together always

Susan: That's really what we're hoping for, right? Cause we're all working together as a team. Everybody has something to bring to the table. I come into this with a lot of humility because I have no choice, right? I need help. I can't do this on my own. And the thing that I'm really good at is the people leadership.

And that's what I lean on. And so to me. I need the skills coach because I can't do the hockey and at best I can get a kid to demo what I want, but there's nothing like somebody who can do the motion properly and explain it. 

Dave: And correct at the same time. So I've noticed I've been out to different skills watching, my daughter and different skills. People come out. They'll run drills, but I don't see 

any correction. Do this. And you know what I'm watching? Okay. Those girls are doing it incorrectly and there's no correction there.

And yeah. And the person who's doing the skills development is a beautiful skater. But this is where I like to have coaches like you on the ice or assistant coaches to help correct, to the correction part. If we're doing passing, you know what we, the skills person will demonstrate, but it's one to 15, I'd just say 15 skaters.

And, but how do I get to each and every person? It's really difficult. 

Susan: Yeah. Let me tell you a little bit of my experience. I coached house league last year and the league contracted with a company to provide professional coaches. I never really built a relationship with my skills coach because they would bring in a different person every week.

I didn't have the opportunity to have a conversation about what to work on. Because I was new, I didn't know how to have that conversation. I didn't know if I would be stepping on their toes. I didn't know where the line was or where the lines of reporting were in this relationship. 

Dave: That's challenging. To have a new skills coach come in every week is difficult. 

It's like having a new contractor into your house who's building a kitchen for you. and you know what? Everyone has a little bit different style. Communication style and different ideas on how to develop, build your kitchen or develop your hockey team. It's nice to have consistency, congruency, working with the coaches. 

I think that's still very important that you have the same team come in pretty much 95 percent of the time. Like I said, you know what? We're human, people get sick, whatever. But yeah, it's nice to have that same consistency.

So you're growing together, you're working together. 

Susan: So let's break down that scenario a little bit. I'm in the dressing room. I'm dressing the kids. The skills coaches are on the ice already working with the last group. The last group leaves, my kids go on the ice, there's a Zamboni in there somewhere. And they're just running drills. I never really had the opportunity to have the conversation.

What would be a good way to deal with that situation? Should I go in, before the kids go on the ice, call them in and say, Hey, here's what I'd like to see. 

Dave: Yeah, you know what so those skills, people are there doing two, three, four, five, whatever, how many hours. And so your team's stuck in the middle. And, so there's the flood. So you have that flood time to come to me and, say, hey Dave, how are you? really appreciate you're working with the hockey team. Do you already have a preset practice for today? And I would say, sure I do. I'm working on ABC. Why Susan? What's up? I'm wondering if it's curious if you could spend, say, time on backwards crossovers. And then our team needs work on shooting. We really need a lot of work on shooting or, just give me a little bit of, feedback.

And, someone like me, I got a buffet of a thousand drills in my head, alright, and especially when you're doing it day in, day out, seven days a week, it just comes like that. And I don't need 10 hours to prepare practice. I'll probably need 10, not even 10 minutes, just a couple of minutes. And I'd be like, all right we, I know what to do with your team. You know what, I have my warmup and then I get to the power skating that you're looking for. And then I incorporate some of the other things that you may want, and it could be positional stuff too, right? And absolutely. And that's. 

Susan: Yeah. When I first asked that question, I approached it from the point of view, I don't want to step on your toes. But as I listened to you talk, it was how do I make you better? 

Dave: Absolutely. And you can allow me to do my job even better. Rather than, we leave The hour and then I hear from the parents, Oh, that was okay. I wish they worked on blank, right? Really, all that comes from you, the head coach. That head coach is evaluating the team, working with the team, having emails going out to the parents, and you know, what?

You're this whole community. And if you're not communicating with me, then maybe you're not getting the most out of me. That's that's the... But you gotta talk. Don't be afraid. You know what? And the other thing... That's a little bit challenging is if you just come up to me and just start barking, and you know what? No, we're here to work with you, right? And can have a couple minutes. And most of these guys, if they've been on the ice a lot, want a couple minutes to themselves. And and, just to take a breather, have some water, have a snack, but it's a grind. But yeah. If you're just two minutes, it's just a two minute conversation.

That's all it is.

Giving instructions to the skills coach

Susan: Nice. I'm going to give you a scenario that's a little bit in the opposite direction. I'm starting with a new team this year. We had our first practice on Tuesday. It was with a skills coach. I had, I knew him from summer camp, so I knew his name and he recognized me. And he says, what do you want to work on?

And I said, I want to work on skating. And he said, anything else? I said, no. I'll use your judgment. And in, and we said, maybe do a little bit of scrimmage at the end. And what we actually got was we had a 50 minutes after the flood. I think he spent 45 of that on skating. I'm not sure I did that right.

I don't know if he was taking my instruction a little bit too literally. Maybe it was all that they needed to work on, but they didn't do any shooting. They didn't do any passing. They did a little bit of carrying while they were skating. So could I have handled that a little bit better or was that fine? 

Dave: That's a really great question, Susan. I think what you're doing is that you're evaluating your skills instructor. No different than at your work, you're evaluating your workers. You know what, how much skill do they have? Are they able to adapt? Do I need to communicate differently with this skills instructor?

You know what, can you do 50% skating, 25% Shooting, 25% fun, I'm not too sure. And every skills instructor is a little bit different. And all of them have their own wheelhouse, what they like to do. And teaching skating, I'll be straight up, is the easiest one. Because you have all the kids in lines, and they go up and down the ice.

Typical, right? It could be different, but that's the setup, and you're able to control that 

Very well and easy. Once you add in pucks, and once you start adding 

shooting, and it's like chaos. How good are they good at controlling chaos? And some are really good, and some... aren't so much.

You know what? I think it's a, an opportunity for you to grow by learning about your skills instructor. And that just doesn't, you can't fire off one practice saying, oh my god, I didn't grow. You did grow. You learned something. I need to be better at talking. I need to be better at, be more precise in what I want What do you want? 

If you go, yeah, I want a haircut and you sit down and they go, all right, and they cut off a little hair. There's your haircut. No, you got to be precise. Gee, I'm looking for a blonde look. I want blonde. I want it short. I want it spiky, and then the hairdresser knows exactly what you want. So I think with the skills. 

Susan: Building on that we need to get to know each other a little bit And I think I need to communicate to him that I'm going to give him a fair amount of latitude. He's the expert here. I have some thoughts and I welcome his input because, you had the opposite experience where the coach tells you something and they get mad when you don't do exactly what they've asked you to do.

Dave: I've had a lot of great experiences too, don't get me wrong, right? So my best experiences is when the coach sits down, they have a conversation. Usually during the flood, that's when they're doing it. And they support you on the ice. They don't jump in. I've had coaches jump in all the time and it just takes away the flow of where I'm going.

I don't like that. You know what? This is my practice. Let me run it. And you evaluate and support. And you just get better at it. You just get better at really what you want. And then after you keep doing it more and more, your communication becomes clear. You're making notes. You're writing. You're taking, you gotta take notes.

You gotta have a book of notes. And you know what the drills are. And... Yeah, it's it's great for me when we sit down with these coaches that have great communication. I know exactly what I want. The only thing I don't like is when they email me, Dave, I want to work on shooting and then I show up they go, Dave, we don't want to do shooting anymore.

We want to do breakouts and regrouping and four checks. And I'm like, okay. Throw that practice plan out, 

But I'm okay. Cause I get a thousand drills on my head and I do this every single day. So

Susan: I'm just thinking back to the practice that we had or, And I think it went okay. because I'm happy with what the coach taught the kids. He was teaching them things like crossover starts. and that was really cool because that was something they don't do and they would, he would be building on things and gradually making it more challenging. And he was doing things like stopping and changes of direction. So these, he was covering things that were completely appropriate. He was progressing the drills in ways that I was happy with. So net, I was happy with the practice. I just wonder if. The kids wouldn't have been happier with some more shooting, but, that will come, I think.

Dave: Absolutely. And you say that to the kids, ah, we'll do more shooting next time. He is, you know what? And like a goldfish, right? Move on, right? Just move on. Yeah, you know what we all want really great practices all the time for the kids. And, as you keep going, maybe it's been a while since you ran your first practice or you've been with the team, you just said it was your first practice. It's been three months, four months, six months, and even skills instructors, some of them might be a little rusty too until they get going.

You don't want that. But yeah, going straight to skating for 45 minutes. Yeah, that's a easy control the group 

And but that's okay. It's only the first one. 

Susan: It's what the kids needed, too. Especially first practice of the season. Where the kids are at right now, I want them to get better at skating. The challenge for me is to remember how to keep it fun because I've had practices last year where we did, 40 percent of the practice was passing.

And then I think another 40 percent was skating and we didn't take any shots on net and the kids were miserable.

Dave: Sure. Absolutely. So yeah, you incorporate some fun. You have some fun drills. 

Skills instructors all know the fun drills I like to do and there's a lot lots of them out there. Coach James is one of the best guys at creating these fun drills for the kids to play all the time. So yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's okay. You know what? You can't have enough skating.

Daniel Vella, Goaltending Coach

Susan: We're gonna bring in Daniel to help us with our goal tending questions.

Daniel: Hi, my name is Daniel Vella. I'm the co-founder and owner of Direct Motion Goaltending. I've worked with Hockey Extreme for 12-13 years now. I'm now the lead goalie instructor for the Toronto Junior Canadiens Junior A team. I've built a goalie community and business based off of the community aspect. And I've been a goalie in the GTHL in Toronto my whole life, and I'm here to support the goalie community.

Susan: Many of us know what to do with the skills coach for skaters, but working with a goalie coach is something different entirely. So we're approaching this, Daniel, from the point of view of a parent volunteer who hasn't worked with a skills coach before.

So what advice do you have?

Daniel: So working with a skills goalie coach in particular with my experience most head coaches or volunteer parent coaches, they really don't know anything about goaltending. So they tend to let us take the reins but sometimes I find it's good if a coach is willing to get involved and sit in and just be there to listen to what the goalie coach is teaching during the practice. That way they can reinforce the same verbiage when the goalie coach is not there.

Another problem could be as if some of the coaches too involved, they tend to reinforce like one thing that doesn't quite work for every situation of goal tending. So it's like finding that that in between where the coach can reinforce the right things at the right time, but not Too much where the goalie feels overwhelmed and feels like they are not improving because the coach is always on them.

Dave: Absolutely. Daniel, you're, you probably hit it right on the mark. You like those coaches that come out to support you and the goalie. And learn at the same time. So when they go to the games, because the coach is always at the games, and they can go back. It's okay, remember what Daniel said, or Matthew, or whoever that goalie instructor is, and support the goalie.

You're that in between. So there's a vital importance between having support from your team, the coach, and working with the goalie coach, absolutely.

Daniel: Yeah, I think the key word there was the support. Goalie is such a psychological game, right? So the more words, the more things they hear, the more they absorb, sometimes it can be too much, right? And the support aspect is a little bit more important where the goalie can play their game And understand that they have their coach and their team behind them to support them.

Dave: And when you have that goalie coach or that coach working with Daniel, you know what it's a different communication rather than if they're not there, Oh, what did the goalie coach say? He must have told you something, right? And then it becomes a little bit of a war on words rather than a support.

Daniel: Another thing that could happen is if there's a, the coach is not involved with the goalies and they want it, they'd say, Hey, it's all you. Another thing that could happen is the goalie goes through a bad stretch of games and then they start questioning, what are you doing in practice? What are you working on with Daniel?

What are you working on with Matthew? And then they start to question, not only our skill, but the goal is themselves if they're cut out to do this, right? But if there's a parent or volunteer or a coach that's more involved They can understand what's going on if it's a if there's a bad stretch of games It could be a psychological thing.

It could be a technical thing. They used to have a better understanding of how to handle that

Susan: I'm going to ask a really nuts and bolts question. My team practices once or twice a week and I may have a professional skills coach for the skaters. And do you, as the goalie skills coach come in at the same time? Or are you part of that practice or is there a separate

Daniel: We do everything, so we do everything from private lessons to Clinics with a group of kids and we go to team practices as well. Typically at team practices, there's like a, I tend to say a standard three practices that coaches usually do. The number one being is I will have one of the goalies, if they have two goalies, I'll have one of the goalies for half the practice and then the goalies switch, and then I have the other goalie for the second half of the practice.

That way the players still have a goalie to shoot on, and then I have a goalie to work with, and we maximize time that way. I'd say the second most popular one that coaches tend to do is they just give me the goalies for, say, the practices in an hour. They give me 45 minutes, and then I watch them in drills for the last 15 to see how they can incorporate those skills with their players, with their teammates.

And then the last one being you get minimal time with the goalie at the start and then you watch them throughout the practice and coach them throughout the practice. That's not our favorite one, but we've done practices like that and it is effective because you can coach them in the crease while they're taking shots from their teammates as long as the drills are structured to benefit the goalie as well as the players.

Dave: Daniel just listed different ways to train goalies during practices. It all comes down to age, skill level. Obviously, the one where you just allow the players to shoot on the goalies and you coach them that way is no good for younger house league kids.

It's just super ineffective, right? It's super ineffective. 

Goalies 

Daniel: need to build a good foundation off the start when they're young, when they're still learning the position. Once they really get a good foundation then you can start incorporating them into more player drills. More often when the goalie coach is there and then they can understand the things that the goalie coach or even a parent coach that's been working with the goalie coach they will understand the things that you're saying to them while they're doing the drill.

And it's not too overwhelming.

Susan: So what I've seen parent coaches do when they work with the goalie is that they'll put the goalie in the net and they'll just take shots on them. And I don't think that's the whole story. I think there are probably some goalie specific drills that you need to incorporate or some skills that need, they need to build up.

Can you talk a little bit about goalie skills?

Daniel: I guess I'll start with skating. Because the way goalies skate is almost completely different than how players skate, right? Players take long strides, they move up and down the ice, and goalies usually operate forward, backward, side to side in a minimal space. So we use different skating mechanics to be efficient in the crease, right?

So primarily goalies need to learn good skating mechanics first. Before you start really getting heavy into puck drills, right? They need to learn T pushes. They need to learn shuffles. They need to learn pad slides, power pushes. They have to learn how to see cut in their goalie pads. Cause it's totally different or even their goalie skates.

Cause they're designed in a different way than player skates. And then with all that additional equipment on it, your body has to function in a different way. than you would if you were just wearing player equipment because it's bulkier, it's heavier. You have to be, you have to have a wider stance in some situations.

So I think skating and learning those skating fundamentals right off the start is really important before you start getting into puck drills.

Susan: And what's the next step after that?

Daniel: Save technique. I think young goalies should learn how to make proper stick saves, proper pad saves, chest saves, blocker, glove saves, before you start doing patterns and drills like a, like example for a triangle. That's where the goalie starts on the post. Basic triangle, they come out to the top, they make a save, they control the rebound to the corner, and then they go to the other post and then rinse and repeat.

So the skating needs to come before the save technique, and then the save technique needs to come before the drill.

Dave: Daniel, I got a question for you. With Darcy playing house league hockey last year, the goalies rotate every year, every week. game was on Tuesday, on the Saturday prior was our practice time, and so Darcy would get the equipment, and she'd go on net, and we'd do a practice, and it's just it's just like one practice.

Do you, what would you recommend for someone that's like sparkling brand new, and you have that one practice to get ready for the one game coming up on Tuesday?

Daniel: It's very difficult to learn a lot of things in one practice but I have done, and our coaches have done practices like that where we've gone to a house league team or a select team and for example, the goalie broke his arm or broke her arm and they need somebody to fill in until they get a proper replacement from the year younger or the level below.

So we have done practices like that, and I think it's the same structure. You work on skating first, you do safe technique, and then you maybe get one puck drill. If they can skate, and if they could, if they know how to stop the puck properly they'll have a better chance in game because they're not going to retain.

All of that, all of those skills right away after one practice. So if you focus more on skating and safe technique, at least they feel comfortable with what they're doing for their first time in a game. And then if they truly love it, then you can keep working on it. They can stick to being a goalie and.

And you can work more on puck drills and other patterns.

Dave: That's great advice. Darcy realized that the girls in her league couldn't raise the puck. So she's Daddy, I don't need to stand up. I'm just going to lie down. No one's going to score. and she used it. She played on her knees. She went from side to side, every shot was on the ground.

She had a couple that hit her in the chest, but we're talking not very high, but she landed one goal and she said, daddy, I didn't land the one goal. My defenseman shot my own net.

Daniel: That happens. See this comes back to why skating is important, right? One of the hardest skating techniques and just in general aspects of skating for goaltenders to learn is skating in the butterfly and operating on the post in your butterfly or your reverse techniques. Skating on your feet. So I wouldn't say it's a lot easier, but it's much easier than in the butterfly. So if you can spend more time working on skating for their first practice, then when they feel like they can just operate in the butterfly, at least they could move in the butterfly as well.

And they're not just stationary. They can stay with the play if they feel like they're comfortable in the butterfly.

Dave: Yeah, and you know what? The one thing I noticed with Darcy's team, whoever was going in that it was extremely hard. And once they got down, it was hard to get back up again. 

Daniel: So that's another thing like getting used to. Your equipment and the way it feels on you because it's bulkier, it's heavier than player equipment. Standing up and going down is actually challenging, right? Your body needs to move a certain way to be efficient. So that way you can stand up quick enough or go down quick.

Dave: it's so true. It's so true. It's such a tough sport. A tough position

Daniel: Some people consider it a different sport altogether because it's so different than

Dave: Yeah,

Daniel: the players.

Dave: It was a slip, but absolutely. Yeah, you're like an island. You're like an island, right? 

Susan: Can we talk a little bit about the mental aspect of being a goalie? One of the things, a couple of the things that I had my team do last year was every time the goalie made a good save we would cheer, right? We would bang the sticks or something like that. And also at the end of the game, we always rushed the goalie.

Although by the end of the season, it got a little bit crazy and I'm not sure it was completely safe. Do you want to talk about. How we can support the goalie.

Daniel: Yeah, I think that's the most important part of being a coach and a teammate to goaltenders. It is supporting your goalie when they make good saves or even just a save in general, like a routine chess. Save just a little like tap on the boards from the bench. It's a good feeling for a goalie that, like your team is always supporting you even when you're making your routine safes.

And that goes for letting in goals as well. If a goalie lets in a goal, I think there should be at least one player on the team. It's usually a defenseman, maybe if it's a higher level it's usually a captain or assistant captain that will skate to the net, tap them on the pads, be like, we'll get it back for you.

And that makes the goalie relax and feel like they can trust their team, and that they can make mistakes. Because the last thing you want a goalie to be feeling is the fear of making a mistake. If you're constantly fearing that mistake, then you're going to make mistakes more often.

Because you play rigid, you play safe, you play deep, and then more mistakes happen because of that. You need to be... You need to feel comfortable in a net. You need to feel like you have support and that you can take risks and do things that you wouldn't normally do that you haven't practiced. And it might actually be the difference maker of letting a goal in or making a save.

Susan: This is all good advice. Any final wise parting words?

Dave: I have one, keep the puck in front of you.

Daniel: Keep the puck in front of you.

I guess this goes back to the mental aspect. And this is like more directed towards the goalies. And I guess coaches can reinforce this with their goalies is try not to dwell on things. You're going to make mistakes. Especially at the younger ages, when you're just learning how to be a goalie, you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna make mistakes often.

Don't dwell on it, move on. We like to say, memory of a goldfish. We don't think about our saves too much, especially in a game, because you need to stay focused.

Time for correction at practice, right? If you're really feeling like... You let a bad one in, or you're, or you feel like you're a goalie, let a bad one in, and they're just struggling with a certain aspect.

Positive reinforcement is important. Short memory is important. And then handling that situation in practice is also important for two reasons. Number one, you'll probably fix the mistake if you work on it, and then the mistake won't happen again. But number two, if you practice it, it's good validation for the goalie that they feel like, I made a mistake and I know I'm going to be able to work on it at practice so I won't make that mistake again.

And that feels good as a goalie if you're constantly making the same error. At least like, when I go back to practice everyone's good. Supporting me to work on this.

Dave: That's great advice. Yeah, great advice. Absolutely.

Susan: Thanks, Daniel., 

Daniel: problem. Thanks for having me. Hope we can do this again sometime.

Susan: Oh, for sure. For sure.

Daniel: All right.

Dave: He's very good. You know what? I like getting these coaches who are deep in it. They live it. They breathe it. 

He was out late last night working with his goalies. I think it's you 15 AA girls and They're very good. They're extremely good. So and then he had an early practice this morning. That'd be with a different, probably a 7am to 8am team. And you know what? Yeah, it's hard. A lot of people don't understand that these skills instructors work late and early. It's not ideal for your body and for good health.

And everyone, oh wow, like they're teaching hockey. It's so friggin easy. No. It's not. It's not easy. You gotta show up and you gotta perform every single practice. And whether it's 7am, 6:30am, and then you have your daytime. You don't have too much daytime unless on the weekends. And then you have your night time.

You could go anywhere from 5 to 11 at night. And then start early in the morning at 6 and go to 8. Like it's... And I was doing that when I was running hockey extreme for the first 20 years, seven days a week. I was doing that seven days a week and it's a grind. It's a grind. I remember sometimes I come home at night and I get home maybe at midnight.

I just leave my hockey track suit on and just go to bed. I knew I had to get up at 5:00 and it's only five hours. 

And it wasn't just 10 minutes away. It's at least 40 minute drive. And I just go to bed, wake up at five, put the coffee on and away, went away, went. My time to myself was afterwards, so it'd be like an 8:30 I'd go somewhere to a greasy spoon and have breakfast. And that's how I start my day. That's the life of a skills instructor.

Susan: right

Recap

Susan: Let's do a little recap to answer the coach who asked the question in the first place. So it's how you think about the relationship. You are a team coaching a team. You're working together. 

The skills coach is here to make you better as a head coach and also as a head coach, you have a role in making your skills coach better.

You also have a role in getting all of your pieces to coordinate with each other. And in all of this communicate. The flood in between the last team and your team is the ideal time to do it. So that means I as the coach need to manage my time a little bit ,so that there's somebody in the dressing room managing the kids so that I can come out and have this conversation.

Dave: And, you know what? Some coaches like to email. You know what? A short little paragraph or bullet point, what to focus on for next practice, which works great too. I would have that opportunity when I'm in the car driving to the practice to actually... You know what think of what drills to do for the team. 

Sign of and goodbyes

Susan: That was really good. So we've answered our first question from the wild. 

Thanks for tuning in to Coaching Call. We'll be back next week to answer more of your questions. 

Dave: Bye guys. 

Susan: Bye.