Blog: Courageous Coaching

There is a feature story on Lets Play Hockey today by Coach Hal Tearse that is a must read.  The story is titled Courageous Coaching, but it is really about the leadership that is sometimes lacking on today's youth hockey squads.  Here are a couple of snippets I really liked:

On Short Benches

I thought it was perfectly reasonable and responsible to run equal lines when I coached PeeWees, and as far as I can tell, no player has suffered as a result. In fact, many of the parents still thank me for doing so.

Consistent short benches in youth hockey are arguably child abuse. No parent should put up with it. The courageous coach plays all the players. Let the scoreboard take care of itself.

On Leadership

Coaches are really the most important and influential individuals in youth hockey. The head coach is responsible for creating the atmosphere for the players and parents. It does take a courageous individual to lead people in a direction that might be considered different than others. It takes a committed coach to ensure that every player on the team gets the opportunity to learn, develop and play.

Good coaches will work hard with the lower-skilled players to bring them up to the level of the other players. Lazy coaches simply shorten their bench and take the easy route. In the end, short benches will work on the scoreboard about 50 percent of the time, but at season’s end, very rarely will the strategy work as the participating players are tired, maybe injured and the rest of the kids not really part of the team.

Good stuff there.  Give the game back to the kids!