Going Beyond Basic Hockey Practices

As I once again attack this month's special theme -- helping members prepare better for the coming season, I need to next address ways we might go beyond basic hockey practices. In other words, this is going to go beyond our typical on-ice practices, and even beyond the traditional types of off-ice training...

-- Dennis Chighisola

Going Beyond Basic Hockey Practices

I've covered a lot of this topic over past years, mainly because it seems so important in the development of any athlete. And, I'm hoping members will feel as strongly about something I've for decades referred to as "the final frontier in sport". As I mentioned in the intro, this kind of training goes beyond basic hockey practices as we know them. Of course, most members understand that there are some alternative training methods that can help players play better. However, what you might not immediately consider is the possibility that some alternative methods can also often help one get more out of practices. Okay, if you haven't guessed, this alternative training -- and the one I call the "final frontier", falls under the general heading of mental training. You don't need ice-time for this, and it doesn't fit under the heading of dryland training. Ya, it's done off-ice, but... Before tackling this topic, however, let's take a step back and explore a little about how humans learn...

Now, I always seem to luck out -- for your sake, and for mine, having an email or social media post come my way in an eerily timely fashion. That's what happened today, when I received a link to an article titled "Memory and Recall: 10 Amazing Facts You Should Know" (based on an excellent review chapter by the distinguished UCLA memory expert, Professor Robert A Bjork).

This piece begins by suggesting that "memory and recall is generally poorly understood, which is why many people say they have ‘bad memories’."

The article covers ten points, but I'll give more weight to those that impact our current topic of mental training and our going beyond basic hockey practices.

1. Memory does not decay

No, despite the fact that we aren't always able to recall a distant memory, "researchers think that in fact memory has a limitless capacity." If there's a secret to memory recall, it seems to need "rehearsal" in order to retrieve what we want.

2. Forgetting helps you learn

Confused? :) The example used by the author is in recalling where you might have parked your car. The problem is that you don' want to recall every place you've ever parked, but only the very last time.

"To make your super-brain quicker and more useful in the real world you’d have to build in some system for discounting old, useless info. In fact, of course, we all have one of these super-brains with a discounting system: we call it ‘forgetting’." And, that’s why forgetting (some things) helps you learn.

3. ‘Lost’ memories can live again

No matter, although some memories may become less accessible, they can be revived.

"Even things that you have long been unable to recall are still there, waiting to be woken. Experiments have shown that even information that has long become inaccessible can still be revived. Indeed it is then re-learned more quickly than new information."

4. Recalling memories alters them

How can recalling a memory change it?

"Well, just by recalling a memory, it becomes stronger in comparison to other memories. Let’s run this through an example. Say you think back to one particular birthday from childhood and you recall getting a Lego spaceship. Each time you recall that fact, the other things you got for your birthday that day become weaker in comparison." (The author also points to the possibility that false memories can also be created and constantly recalled.)

I think this section comes really close to what we want to achieve in mental training for our hockey players. Whether talking skills or tactics here, we want our players to firmly implant specific things, and to discard things like poor skill techniques and the wrong tactical methods. I'll even suggest that creating some so-called false memories can help towards that end.

In fact, I like the author's suggestion that, "This raises the fascinating idea that effectively we create ourselves by choosing which memories to recall..."

5. Memory is unstable

In other words, "... we forget that we forgot and so we think we won’t forget in the future what we now know."

What the author warns us of -- and what I want to remind coaches and parents about -- is that our players can "... vastly underestimate how much effort will be required to commit material to memory."

6. The foresight bias

LOL! Haven't we all done this: having an idea that's so awesome we think we'll never forget it, and then we promptly forgetting it? (I've done that too many times!)

I actually believe this enters into our need to go beyond basic hockey practices. Or, might I suggest, that it's a very good reason why we have to go to extremes to commit proper hockey skills and principles to memory.

7. When recall is easy, learning is low

"We feel clever when we recall something instantly and stupid when it takes ages. But in terms of learning, we should feel the exact reverse. When something comes to mind quickly, ie we do no work to recall it, no learning occurs. When we have to work hard to bring it to consciousness, something cool happens: we learn."

If this makes sense to members, I think it makes even more sense that we dedicate a goodly amount of time to mental training and going beyond basic hockey practices.

I think it also points to our need to convince our players of the importance of mental training.

8. Learning depends heavily on context

Hmmmmm... On the face of it, this one seems to make sense.

As it turned out, I was surprised at the example of changing venues -- whereby something learned in the classroom can be forgotten in a different location. What didn't surprise me was when the author said, "It turns out that in the long-term people learn information best when they are exposed to it in different ways or different contexts. When learning is highly context-dependent, it doesn’t transfer well or stick as well over the years."

I hope members recall me suggesting this in numerous posts -- recently and over many years. It's known that we learn best when experiencing information through many senses, and it's also known that we each have certain individual learning preferences -- like doing better by seeing, hearing or discussing new info.

As for the venue, I hope members recall me suggesting that more learning takes place when we have our players work at some of the same things various settings: like in the lockerroom, in a parking lot, on the rink's runway mats, and on the ice. (In a few minutes I'll suggest adding to those a new place (or places) where mental training might take place.)

9. Memory, reloaded

In the author's example, he said, "If you want to learn to play tennis, is it better to spend one week learning to serve, the next week the forehand, the week after the backhand, and so on? Or should you mix it all up with serves, forehands and backhands every day?

It turns out that for long-term retention, memories are more easily recalled if learning is mixed up. This is just as true for both motor learning, like tennis, as it is for declarative memory, like what’s the capital of Venezuela (to save you googling: it’s Caracas)."

I've known this from my favorite college course, Principles of Motor Learning, although I sometimes strayed or even argued that approach with my professor. I tended to see it as the author does, in that, "The trouble is that learning like this is worse to start off with. If you practice your serve then quickly switch to the forehand, you ‘forget’ how to serve. So you feel things are going worse than if you just practice your serve over-and-over again. But, in the long-run this kind of mix-and-match learning works best."

On the other hand, the author says, "One explanation for why this works is called the ‘reloading hypothesis’. Each time we switch tasks we have to ‘reload’ the memory. This process of reloading strengthens the learning."

This idea of reloading is something that helps in my way of teaching similar things in various settings, and I'd like members to consider this when/if you decide to include some mental training sessions for your players.

10. Learning is under your control

Well, here's a good one -- for member coaches, parents and players, in that you each have control over memory and recall. (Actually, I wouldn't be writing this piece if that wasn't the case!)

"If anyone believes learning is hard," the author suggests "techniques like using different contexts, switching between tasks and strenuous reconstruction of memories can all help boost retention."

That ought to sound familiar, because I've recommended these methods -- and even more ideas for straying beyond basic hockey practices.

As I end this segment, I highly recommend members read that article in its entirety. It's an easy read. I also sincerely hope every member dwells on those ten points, and especially the ones I suggest affect the training of a hockey player. Then, using that article as a springboard to going beyond basic hockey practices, let's get into mental training.

By definition, mental training is not physical training. And, I say something so obvious to suggest that players still need to get all their on-ice and off-ice work in before expecting mental training to make a difference.

Talk the game

As the above report suggests, players can get more learning accomplished if they experience information in several venues. Still, without even knowing all that was noted above, I used to get lots of hockey talking done during the course of a normal week -- at an off-ice discussion station, in our pre-game and pre-practice lockerroom, and on the ice prior to or after a given drill.

I'll tell you something... A great many of my former players went on to become very successful coaches. And I'll also tell you that most of my players -- from about 12-years old and older -- could talk the game with most any adult. How so? It's because we talked the game constantly, and I greatly encouraged players to explain things back to me and to their teammates. Ya, when I say "talk the game", I mean that it should be a two-way conversation.

Use video

Between my teams and my summer hockey schools, I've done this in sooooo many ways (my old friend, Roger Neilson, may have beaten me to the nickname, "Captain Video", but I was close)...

Over the last decade or so, I created a team website each season, where I'd host instructional videos for my players, team parents and assistant coaches to view. If you think about it, it was helpful for my players to be able to see how things are done before ever getting to the rink, but the parents also better understood what I was asking of their youngsters, and my assistants had an understanding of the way I like things to work.

In my hockey schools I called the study of our earlier skills and matchup sessions "Video-review". With my older teams the same kind of sessions were about studying our play in a recent game. And, in my last few season as a hockey coach, I'd make copies of our most recent game available for my players to watch back at the dorms or at home. (It wouldn't have been possible to put an entire game on a team website many years ago, but it surely could be done today.)

Actually, a lot has changed in technology just in the few years since I retired from coaching, and I'm going to suggest that a lot of new coaching-with-video options will emerge in the years to come. So, I suggest that the most eager coaches in our membership watch for such advancements, and find ways to use them for your players' sake.

Use Mental imagery

Talk about changing your memories... When I think about that idea of changing memories, I'm reminded of all the inspirational saying I have on a Facebook page called Great Motivational Quotes. For, nearly every one of the hundred-plus quotes there has something to do with looking at things differently. Said yet another way, most of them are aimed at changing ones mental approach in a very positive way.

I'll also suggest that coaches and parents try as often as possible to speak in positive terms to their players.

I'm bet that most viewers missed this, but I caught Donald Trump say something in a recent interview that really resonated with me. This took place in reference to his wife's speech at the recent Republican National Convention. For, when asked if he'd mentioned such-and-such to Melania beforehand, he replied something to the effect that, "No, I didn't want to plant any negatives in her mind..." Ya, he knew enough not to send her out to such exposure with any negative thoughts whatsoever, and you don't want to do that to your players, either.

When we talk about mental imagery, though, the first thing that comes to my mind is "visualization".

By now, there's plenty of evidence that it works. If there's any challenge to using mental imagery, it's in how to pull it off.

One of the ways I've done it was to create separate positional recording for individual positional players. With that, players were instructed on how to use their recordings, and encouraged to listen as often as possible.

Yet another way for me and my teams was to use mental imagery in our pre-game lockerroom. I'd have the players get comfortable, relax, close their eyes, and then listen as I talked them through a given visualization.

A funny -- and maybe cute -- story... My grandson was a freshman in college, and had spent the entire pre-season in an unfamiliar position -- on a wing. Days prior to opening night and his first college game, he got the word that he was being moved back to his more comfortable center position.

In a panic, Tony Chic called and asked if I'd send him "one of those visualization tapes we used to use in summer hockey school." I knew what he was talking about -- a recording that takes a centerman all around the ice on a typical shift.

Did Anthony really need that recording? Naw, I doubt it. Instead, I suspected he was looking for a security blanket, or something that would keep him company over a few nerve-wracking nights and a long bus ride to the away game.

That all took place quite some time ago, but I recall he set up the tying goal late in that game, and I believe he was named one of the game's stars.

One last point, this from the article I started with... For, it ends with, "... studies have shown that people can crowd out painful negative memories by focusing on more positive ones." And, that to me seems like enough reason to spend plenty of time on an athlete's mind. Anyway, I hope I've convinced members how important it is to go beyond basic hockey practices in order to give players all they deserve in the way of preparation. To me, there's no other way.