I love the game of the hockey, I watch whatever hockey I can from little kids to the pros. That being said I have never been the best athlete, I always wanted to play goal growing up as a kid but my parents could never afford it. I only played two years of organized hockey, I was never the best skater, shooter, passer well anything really. I don't like writing stuff like this as I never want to come across as "that parent" who thinks that everything is against their child. After watching her first couple years one of which was split half time with another goalie and her second year which was full time. Skylar has had some really good coaches, but when you ask them what are you plans for Skylar today? You would get a response of well, we are going to do some cross overs and other skating drills with the team then they are going to work on net drives. Great the other girls on the ice are going to learn something, my daughter will be used as target practice. Watching this and other kids practice, the mentality was the same with everyone the goalie was there to take shots at most teams didn't have anyone to work with their goalies, there was that one coach that kind of helped but for the most part didn't know what they were doing. Well, time to step up I decided I was going to help coach this year, like I said before I was never the best athlete not a very good skater but I needed to do something. So I read as much as I can, I had always checked out www.goaliestore.com there are some really intelligent people there and I took as much as I could from there and started out the year. I told the coach going into this year my primary role was going to be to work with my daughter, he was fine with this as we had two other assistant coaches that could work with him and the rest of the team. I worked with my daughter as much as I could, t-pushes, shuffles etc etc.
The minor hockey association that we play for only requires the head coach to take their level 1 coaching certificate. I took mine anyway, I wanted to learn as much as I could. I took the course, I learned how to run a practice, nothing else. I was shown some drill ideas, progressions for those drills all well and good, I was no better at teaching my kids HOW to play hockey at fundamental level. They never taught me proper skating, stick handling, passing anything really. They just assume that everyone knows how to do all of these things. The amount of goalie coaching that was shown during that one day course? None, not a single thing. When I left the course I honestly felt fine about it, I thought they did a good job, I did learn some new things.
Fast forward to April, hockey season is over softball is starting. First parents meeting for her softball team and we have no coach, well I have as much experience playing ball as I did hockey. I don't really watch softball though and I watch a lot of hockey so I had a little more confidence there. Well no one puts their hand up to coach lots of assistants, but no head coach so I decide to do it. I am now the head coach of a squirt b softball team. They have the same requirement head coach has to take their level 1 coaching certification. Sign up for the course, hey this one is two days and hockey was only one. First day of the course they go over some basics ethical decision making etc etc. Then we start working on softball skills. Guess what we worked on? The basics something that was NEVER touched in the level 1 hockey coaching clinics. I was taught how to throw a ball, catch a ball, hold a bat and all of the other basic skills required to play softball. Day two rolls around a little more basic theory positioning and rules review then we go back to the gym and work on pitching and bat catching. During this two day course we reviewed all of the fundamentals required to play softball. I walked out that two day course feeling confident that I had all the skills that I needed to properly coach these girls on how to play softball. Driving home the first thing that came to mind was, what a joke the hockey coaching clinic was in comparison.
Long story short, I honestly believe that hockey Canada is failing at their most basic level. Training coaches to coach kids on how to play hockey. I learned more spending 30 minutes on www.goaliestore.com then I did taking any hockey Canada related training. Hockey Canada seriously needs to look at some dedicated goalie training for their coaches. Their needs to be an understanding that goalies are not there as target practice, they are there to be taught just like the rest of the kids on the ice. Most coaches understand how to t-push and shuffle but don’t understand how that pertains to the goalie position. We need to start coaching coaches to coach goalies or this is never going to change, in general the best goalies are the ones with the most money as they can afford qualified coaches, private lessons and more ice time. This probably pertains to most positions on the ice but is more evident with the goalie position than any other because a goalie in 90% of situations has to pay money out of pocket to see ice time with a qualified coach.
This is my impression from the level of hockey that my daughter is playing at, she plays tier 3. She plays the game because she loves the game, her room is full of hockey posters and pennants. I am incredibly proud of her, she had 7 shutouts this year, and kept her team in the game every night.
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