They Don't Ask How, They Ask How Many

This is a motto I preach every season to my team. It doesn't matter if you go end to end, beating every player in your path, or if you tapped the ball into the net on the goal line. Either way, a goal is a goal. It doesn't matter if you hit mercy rule before half, or if you broke the tie in the dying seconds. Either way, a win is a win. I see this as a way of encouraging players in their own way. You don't have to be the offensive dynamo to be contributing to the team. Everyone serves a role in a win. In fact, it's usually the hard work in the dirty areas, the grind it out, never say die attitude that wins games. I've had game breakers that seem to have the ball or puck on a string every game, and I've had players that crash the net and jump on rebounds. What matters was, it ended up in the net.

This poses a wider conundrum though. I want every athlete that ends up on my roster to know one thing; they're contributing. Whether or not they're the leading scorer, the top of the line goaltender, or someone that just routinely hustles on every shift, they're contributing. The sweeping trend of advanced stats and analytics are finally giving validation to the players that do the little things right all game. But this is only in the pros. I can't imagine a local hockey club paying someone to track the Corsi For and Expected Goals Against for every single player on the ice all game. But without numbers to back it up, these players are left without an empirical measure of the contribution they have on a game. They have nothing to show for the "How Many". Too much focus is shifted on having something to show for each shift, each game, each season. This is where the coach comes in. When a kid comes back to the bench, they have an idea in their mind about whether or not they had a good shift. A forward might be happy that they got three shot attempts off, even if none hit the net, a defenseman might be happy that he had a big block on a scoring chance. In these cases, you highlight that. You hammer that message home. You worked hard, and it showed. But other times, they might come back thinking they didn't stack up because they missed an open net in a close game, or passed in front of the net and gave up a breakaway. But that's the thing, they already know about the negatives of their shift. In youth sport, they don't need to hear a second voice telling them they failed, because they already have one in their head telling them that. What they do need is someone telling them what went well that shift, and what they can do to improve for the next one. These moments with the coach, they can be counted. The number of positive plays that are highlighted, are measurable. This gives kids something empirical to take away from each game. "How Many" good plays and good shifts can really start to add up over a season. Because at the end of they day, they really do ask How Many

#coaching #hockey #soccer #sport #win #lose #goal