Fundamentals

Over the last year or so, I've become involved with coaching at the Adult beginnger level.  It's interesting to deal with the challenges of meeting the needs of learning hockey players.

For one, thing, let's face it...Hockey is just plain a very hard sport to pick up as an adult.  You have to learn how to skate, pass, shoot, position, anticipate the play, and all kinds of things.  And none of it is easy.  True, some people have natural talent that makes the process easier, but for the majority it takes a lot of damn hard work, effort and frustration to make progress.

One thing that I've noticed, both in Hockey, and in Martial Arts (which I've been teaching for over a decade) is that people are not mentally prepared to learn the fundamentals.

Mind you, my approach to learning something is Mastery.  I've always been this way and it's something that my martial arts instructor has confirmed and reinforced over the years.  My goal is to master what I'm learning, and to master something, you have to do it a thousand times.

That does get tedious after a while!

But, in American society, we've all been conditioned to expect and demand fast results.  Fast food, faster Internet, faster computers, faster cars....in just about everything, we want it fast!

I'm no exception.   I mean, really, there's so much stuff to take care of during the day, so much travel to get to where I need to go, anything that can get things done faster just helps ease my life.

The problem, for us all, when learning a difficult new skill that takes time to master, is that we're just not used to dealing with the time it takes.  It's downright frustrating.  I get that.

In coaching, while drinking beer after games, there is always to pressure to teach the next thing.  We want to learn this, we want to learn that.  And often, the problem is that it's hard to teach the next step when the foundation just isn't there yet.

Now, this isn't a criticism of players and students.  But maybe it will help them understand why the process is so long and frustrating.

When I'm asked what the fundamentals of hockey, it's a simple answer.  Skating!

Everything you do in the ice is predicated on the ability to skate.  The better you skate, the easier it is to work on all the other aspects of the game.  When you're learning, just skate as much as you can.  And not Stick & Puck, just plain public skating.  Every time you hit the ice is a good thing, but taking the time to make sure you focus on your skating drills and techniques is eventually going to pay off.