EFFICIENT PRACTICES

BY TOM RENNEY HEAD COACH CANADIAN NATIONAL TEAM

UNIVERSITY OF LAVAL QUEBEC CITY 1994

INTRODUCTION Many factors determine the quality of the hockey playing experience in a given year and as coach; you must provide yourself, and, more importantly your players, every opportunity to participate to the maximum level of potential. This requires good planning and organizational skills, as well as an astute awareness of the overall talent level of your team. Also, a similar awareness of your coaching strengths and weaknesses and those of your coaching staff, are critical to the overall success of your season. This presentation will deal with what is a collective goal of all of us..."Efficient Practices". If nothing else, you should be able to appreciate the value of being prepared, but other outcomes I hope to achieve include: 1. 2. 3.

designing efficient and specific practices while keeping in mind the overall objectives of the training plan for the team assisting coaches in understanding how to design practices that are directed at specific, relevant game situations organization of, and progression of drills

All to often we as coaches determine the practice needs of our team the day of our practices. We design our drills at the last moment and cross our fingers that all will go well. If you have one, your coaching staff may not know of what will be dealt with until they get to the rink. We have all felt the anxiety that goes along with being ill prepared, not to mention the disappointment felt with a practice that has not met your expectations. Well, two words can alleviate a lot of problems...organization and preparation. If you are to have any hope of running effective practices, you must be organized and prepared.

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The following demonstrates the first step in planning and is indicative of the progress utilized by Canada's National Team. Keep in mind this reflects preparation for the whole season and is an initial step in developing efficent practices.

Historical Review • League • Team • Players

Monthly Training Plan

• Staff

Yearly Plan SAiWi • # of games • # of practices • Travel

• Upcoming games • # of practices • Areas of emphasis • Off-ice training

• On-ice training Player/Team Development

Team Evaluation • Areas of strength • Areas of weakness

• Individual development • Team play development • Specialty team play • • Situation play

Coaching Responsibilities

• Team building

The Practice • Do we? • How long? • Responsibilities

• Projections

• Evaluation

• Goattenders Coaching Staff

• Off-ice training • Days off • Injuries

• Peaking • Days Off

Weekly Adjustments

• Defense • Forwards

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• Specialty teams

• Individual schedules

• Drill presentation

• Attributes • Knowledge • Philosophy

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As you move through each stage and identify areas of emphasis within each one, you are working towards the desired outcome of efficient and effective practices. As you progress through the season, you will see yourself using stages one thru four for reference only, while you actively concentrate on stages five thru ten on a monthly, weekly and daily basis. If you utilize this approach, you will find your team better prepared to train and play, and the reason why? Organization and preparation. TRAINING FOR GAME SITUATIONS Rather than use the term "practice", I prefer to use the work train. To me, practice carries a negative connotation. It is symbolic of stoppages, uninspired effort, and a "get it ouver with" approach by almost everyone involved. Training on the other hand symbolizes enthusiasm, effort, and pride in performance, common goals for any coach. With this in mind, let us now look at an example of a training session designed to address a specific game situation. For the sake of effectiveness let's identify the following sequence that Team Canada utilizes to ensure a quality session. Let us also deal with a period in the in the middle of November, our team has a record of five wins and five losses, and we are preparing for the Deutschland Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

refer to yearly plan and monthly plan evaluate individual and team play to this point determine teaching priorities for team determine length of practice determine training objectives identify other influencing factors devise practice curriculum decide staff repsonsibilities identify line combinations, and defence pairing

Once you have dealt with the previous sequence in preparing to train, it is time to put pen to paper. Any form of a training plan will work, but it is essential to chronicle your session since it makes for quick and easy reference and serves as a tremendous historical resource. Here is an example of a National Team training plan.

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In preparing your on-ice session, ultimately you must determine objectives. The main objective for this session is regrouping and counter attack. We will skate for one hour and forty five minutes, but will likely resurface the ice at the halfway point. Now, let's review our training plan, and its' curriculum.

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In order to ensure a clear, well executed session, we always pre-ice the players on at least the key components if not, the entire content of that session. As well, if necessary, during a flood, we will not hesitate to bring the players into the dressing room to review the second half of the session. This creates a business like, well organized approach to training that your players appreciate, allowing everyone to enjoy a session with fewer breaks, less explanation, and quality execution. As crucial to the success of your training is sequential or progression teaching. You will notice we have followed a particular progression in the curriculum design of this session, however, continuous reference to how this fits into the game situation is also important. Now let us review a training session and curriculum design you may use for a game day skate. In this particular case, let us look at the form we use for a game day skate, and how we actually used this form in preparation for the French in Lillehammer, Norway.

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How does this session differ from a non game day session: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Task...Olympic Scenario You have a game day skate. You play at 6:00pm that night and you have ice time from 9:00-9:45 that morning. Your team is showing some fatigue and you have two injuries that could keep those players out of the lineup. You have a record of 2-0 and the tough opponents are yet to come. Your team has yet to play a complete game tactically, but the effort is there. Tomorrow is an off day. Decide on what you will do with your pregame skate. Write down your objectives, practice content and for how long you will skate. What do you tell your team? SUMMARY As indicated, organization and preparation go a long, long way in determing the success of your practices. If you work from your yearly plan, and incorporate not just monthly, but weekly refinements to that plan, again, you will realize success in your sessions. Appreciate the value of progression teaching and always be prepared to explain how every drill has a place in the big picture. Always be in tune with your team. Understand how they are feeling. Recognize the need to rest, take a day off. You are a thermometer and you must take the temperature of your team, be it in technical needs, psychological needs, or physical needs. Utilize your staff, allow them ownership, this gives them input, and the players a rest from you. And, finally, keep your training interesting, challenging and fun for not just the players but yourself as well. "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there". Will Rogers from the book The Edge"

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