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Originally Posted by timmae
Awesome read bud... Make sure you keep communicating with the players. I played basketball when I was younger and the coach just told us to play 5 of 5. He'd switch lineups without much discussion and we never really knew what we were doing well or what we performed poorly at. At 15-17 they understand and can deal with a lot... just be real with them. Offer praise and criticism to the amounts you feel are necessary but definitely offer both. Oh yeah, go kick some butt... winning always helps!
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thanks! I'm fairly talkative on the bench. I will compensate much of my lack of tactical work with good encouragement and constructive criticism. I don't really have a good grasp of which kid plays well with who just yet but I will eventually try to set lines with kids that have affinities playing together although I believe in keeping lines about even. This is still recreative hockey and I don't want the bottom three forwards foreced to play together because the strong kids don't want them because it will suck for them.
As a karate instructor for the last 6 years, I've dealt with all sorts of people, from 4 and a half years old to older, retired, people. Yeah, it's not a team sport per se, but kids who are interested in the sport they are doing usually respond well to how I communicate. I don't want to put any kid down but will try to get them to up their game. If I can get them to buy my message of hard working, we could have if not a successful season, at the very least a satisfying one...
FM