Today felt like hitting a brick wall watching our high school boys struggle at practice. Pucks bouncing everywhere, guys wheezing after two shifts, passes landing nowhere near tapes. Knew we had to overhaul everything or kiss playoffs goodbye.
What Changed My Approach
Last weekend, I filmed our scrimmage with my phone. Damn thing looked like a comedy reel. Kids chopping at the puck like lumberjacks, gliding instead of striding, just throwing blind passes up ice. That’s when it hit me: we weren’t building hockey players – just burning ice time.
The Three Things We Actually Fixed
Started Monday with new rules:
- Forget fancy drills. Tape 10 pucks along each blue line. Made every kid skate end-to-end picking them up without stopping. Sounds simple, right? Chaos for the first hour. Sticks clattering, knees buckling. By Friday? Six kids straight up crying at practice. BUT… they could actually handle a puck at full speed. Not on cones. In actual traffic.
- Ditched the gym bicep curls. Hauled two tractor tires into the parking lot after school. Made ’em flip those damn things down the asphalt 50 yards, sprint backward to start, repeat five times. Coach almost called EMS the first day. Three kids puked on the pavement. Still made ’em finish. Next morning? Those same boys could stay on the puck through three hits along the boards.
- No more scrimmaging half asleep. Set alarms randomly overnight. Texted “RINK IN 20” at 1AM Wednesday. Half the team rolled in looking like zombies. Made ’em run breakout drills immediately – no warmup. You know what happens when tired legs try quick stops? Spectacular crashes into the glass. But next period late in games? Suddenly they’re thinking positionally instead of chasing like headless chickens.
Where We Landed
Took six weeks of pure misery. Parents sending angry emails, two kids actually quit. But last Friday? That crap team from Milton that wrecked us 8-1 in preseason? We held ’em to zero goals in the third. Saw something new: kids digging pucks out calmly while getting slammed. Not skilled yet. Not soft anymore. Hell of a start.
