Coaching Creative Hockey

Coaching is like baking a cake.You usually need a recipe.BUT you still have to supply the ingredients.THEN mix them together in the right order.AND do the actual cooking.The ingredients you need to supply are: Your time.Some money.How your cake will turn out depends on your supply of the ingredients.It also depends on how you do the cooking.This is the sequence in which you actually do things.How your cake turns out depends on the manner of your cooking.It will also depend on your stove.Your energy, determination, persistence and single minded focus.It also depends on the correct temperature of your stove.You should end up with a solution to your coaching problem.It is unlikely to be identical to any other.The differences will be own input.That's how it should be.BUT if you do not have the required ingredientsAnd a suitable stoveYou should not attempt to cook.Wayne Gretsky - a creative hockey player.Recently I saw an interview on Australian TV with Wayne Gretsky. The Winter Olympics were on in Canada at the time. I had heard of him before. He seemed a pleasant person who was enthusiastic about ice hockey. He wasn't as big as I thought he might have been. I imagined ice hockey players as being something like grid-iron players.Except not often of African origin. Gretsky didn't fit the image at all.Canadian friends told me he was one of the smallest players. But he was a master despite his size.He holds more records than any other player in ice hockey history. He was also amazing to watch. He survived by quickness and intelligence.He also had supernatural peripheral vision.In addition he understood the dynamics of the game so well.He generally knew where the puck and the other players were going.Before they went. So he often seemed to be skating around pylons.As the mesmerised opposition remained stationary.He controlled the play so well.That the area behind the opposition's net was called 'Gretsky's office'. He used to get the puck behind the net and essentially stop the play.Then pass to the player who was open and in it went. He was so quick.The opposition didn't want to chase him behind their own net.For fear of getting 'burned' which often happened anyway.There's brutality in ice hockey so most players are big and strong. The finesse is there but overshadowed by the hitting (body checking). There is much less now than there used to be.But the injuries are getting more severe. That's because those big players are moving faster and thus hit harder! Gretsky had a couple of enforcers though.They made mincemeat out of anyone who went near him.Europeans play with more attention to finesse on a larger rink. But that was the beauty of Gretsky. He was too small to hit or be hit in most cases So he concentrated on the other skills.Wayne Gretsky turned his weakness (size) into a major advantage. You can do that too if you focus on what you can do.Rather than on what you can't. Work on your strengths.You'll not just get up when knocked down.You'll also improve what you do and get knocked down less often. Maybe like Gretsky you'll get so good you aren't knocked down at all!The start stops most people.Back in my art student days I learnt how to deal with this problem.I was in the third year of a four-year art course.One memorable evening I arrived for class and was the only one there!I wasn't happy but decided not to waste my time.I looked at my blank canvas and didn't know what to do.Yes the start certainly had me stopped.Have you had this feeling?I still didn't know what to do.I mixed Indian red with turps.Because the paint was runny, I flicked some onto the canvas.I splashed on more.Still further splashes followed the first ones.It was a bit like an Indian red "Jackson Pollock‟.I decided to join up the dots.I was pleased with the result which I had not anticipated before