Putting A Hockey Plan Together - 2

This is a continuation of our special series on readying for the coming season, and it's also the second part of my previous piece on "Putting A Hockey Plan Together".

-- Dennis Chighisola

Putting A Hockey Plan Together - 2

My previous post explained the three parts I've always used in putting a hockey plan together. With that, I'd like to use the next few posts to go a little deeper into each of those parts. As you might recall, I went fairly deeply into putting together A Year-long Plan, but let's concentrate on that even further right now...

Just as an FYI... I'm writing a lot of this from a coach's perspective.

Still, while I might not have gone into the same kind of detail as a hockey parent, I assure members that I did as much deep thinking (for a son who had a cup of coffee in the AHL, and a grandson who set a number of offensive records at his college). In other words, I had to keep a close eye on my own guys' development, knowing where they were at a given moment, and figuring where they should eventually be in a reasonable amount of time. I'd like to think that my being honest with each of those assessments was one key to our success together. And I'd also like to believe that knowing what to do next was as important to that.

As for adult rec players, I might suggest almost looking at yourself as a parent would his or her youngster. I mean, maybe you can take a step back, be honest in your self-assessment, and then plot a course for where you'd like to be by the end of the coming season.

Now, I really needed my bunker for a project like this, because it usually involved spreading a ton of notes out on a fairly large table. Those notes? They included separate slips for individual skills -- like skating, puckhandling, passing, receiving, shooting and checking. And there would be more slips -- on physical traits -- like speed work, conditioning, stretching and strength development. Not done there, I'd next have to be able to view all the various aspects of my team's playing system, that to include special areas of play -- like face-offs, mandowns and powerplays. I'll also want to have listed and explained how we'll play all the numerical matchups -- like 1 on 1's, 2 on 1's, etc. Then, like the TV ads say, "Wait! There's more!" :) Ya, I'll want to cover things like how our bench will be organized, how we'll make player changes, and even how we'll work the "goalie off" play.

A lot of coaches like to think they can keep all that stuff in their heads -- ya, so they think. Laying it all out and explaining it to oneself is something else, and it's far, far better. In fact, I think a coach can explain things far better to the players if he's first explained it well to himself.

Oh, and one more thing... While some coaches fail to see the importance of their team's pre-game warmups -- as if it's just something players do to get the juices flowing, I've approached mine as if there's a science to it. For this, I have one awesome post and video for you called “Designing A Hockey On-ice Warm-up Routine“, and there's another that Oldrich Jindra and I combined on that gives a different twist. In both instances, coaches should gain an understanding of how seriously some advanced guys view this topic.

As an aside... Keep in mind what I mentioned in the previous post -- about holding some pre-season off-ice sessions. And, while I made a big deal out of getting the basics of our system taught away from costly ice, a few of the ideas I just noted above might also be justified for early off-ice introduction. Practicing -- or rehearsing and rehearsing -- our pre-game warmups is at least one.

Okay, I usually like to work backwards in my Year-long Plan. In other words, I'd want to envision how I hope my players will look by season's end, or what I'd like them capable of doing by then. From there, I find it easier to plan the way to inch my guys along -- from September through to our playoffs. (I always forget exactly how the old saying goes, but, "By the inch it's a cinch, by the mile...") I usually reduce all the stuff I waded through in the bunker into a neat looseleaf notebook.

I think members know that I'm a semi-techie guy, and I love most of the modern day conveniences -- like new audio and video gadgets, new Internet techniques, social media, and more. What I haven't yet wrapped my head around are newer smartphone apps that many younger coaches are now using in their work. So, while I'm be talking about dealing mostly in hard copy, I encourage coaches to make technology work for them.

Still, I wouldn't suggest skipping the other steps I'm offering here.

The looseleaf is a great place to ultimately store the Year-long Plan, a snapshot of your Teaching Segments, blank rink diagrams to sketch on, note paper and more.

My Year-long plan is usually drawn out on a horizontally held piece of legal (8.5" x 17") sheet of paper. And that's divided into the number of months that span my season -- like September, October, November, December, January, February and March.

Being a civil engineer in my youngest years taught me to work mostly in pencil, and only putting things in ink that I doubt will change. So, while headings (like the months) aren't apt to need altering, my way is to make all my teaching notes erasable.

Now, as I've already mentioned, the Year-long Plan needs to be worked backwards. That doesn't mean everything would be written in backwards -- from most complex to the basics, but we do have to keep that in mind.

As an example... It's okay to begin penciling in the basics of your system and basic skills for the first weeks (or even the first months) of the season.

At the same time, it wouldn't make sense to teach special teams -- like the powerplay or penalty-killing -- to a young-ish team during their first practices. No, for most young teams, I'd save that stuff for later in the season, once they have more important parts of their game well under control.

If you get what I'm saying, a coach will want to keep moving various parts of his teaching into the appropriate calendar places, while always keeping in mind the urgency of each element, as well as the phases of training that obviously require prerequisite work.

In my way of doing things, the Year-long Plan is not the detailed one -- other coaches can use it differently, but...

I'd plot something like "Powerplay" across maybe the last two month's of a stronger Squirt/Atom team's plan; I might have "Conditioning" spanning all seven months; I might draw "Primary Forecheck" in for the first two months of a Bantam team's plan, and then add the "Secondary Forecheck" in after that.

As I've had to apologize so many times in the past, it's hard to get too specific on such things, mainly because all of our teams are so different. Even within a given level, something like two AAA Pee Wee teams would likely need different approaches. If members haven't guessed by now, it's within the Teaching Segments that I get a lot more detailed. With that, I'm hoping members will do what they can with all I've provided above. If you do it mostly in pencil, you should be able to complete the Year-long Plan rather hastily. My hope is that I'll get the third installment in this "putting a hockey plan together" series to you within about 3-days. If members can get their Year-long Plan ready by then, it'll make a handy reference for attacking our Teaching Segments.