The great thing about coaching girls, whether on or off the ice,
is that they are always trying to do the drill or exercise as
perfectly as possible.

They don’t want to mess up for fear of being embarrassed in front
of their teammates or yelled at by the coach.

The problem with this is that when the coach draws up a drill on the board,
the girls are so scared of make a mistake that they memorize how to
do the drill perfectly, and forget to think about how to do the
same drill CREATIVELY.

To really excel on the ice, you need to understand how to do the
drill perfectly, but then you need to be able to think “outside the
box”.

I am not advocating that players decide to do their own thing on
every drill…

… But girls hockey players are way too “ROBOTIC” out on the ice!!!

They follow the plan to the letter because in their mind the
consequences of failure far outweigh possibility of success.
They don’t want to “screw up”. They don’t want to get yelled at.
They don’t want to stand-out in anyway – negatively or positively.

We NEED to tip the balance the other way.

This fear of failure ultimately boils down to a lack of CONFIDENCE.

Girls hockey players need to understand that it is not only OK to
take chances, but it is the ONLY way to get better.

Getting to and excelling at the next level is all about being
CREATIVE.

Sure, we’ve all played on teams where there were a lot of different
forechecking, power-play and penalty kill systems that we had to learn.

BUT it was always the players who were able to be creative within the
context of those systems that really stood out on the ice.

If you want to give yourself an unfair advantage over the competition,
you can’t just follow the pattern and go through the motions.

To stand-out, you need to think outside the box.

Learn the drills, patterns and systems – and then BE CREATIVE.

Keep Working Hard & Dreaming BIG.

Your friend and coach,

Kim

PS – We just added a few more camps to our Spring & Summer Schedule.
Our next 3 sessions are in May – for more information, check out:
https://totalfemalehockey.com/camps/

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Director, Total Female Hockey

Girls Hockey Director, PEAC School For Elite Athletes