Changing Coaches
Change is inevitable, but it doesn’t make it any easier when it’s thrust upon you or in this case your child. As the new hockey season approached we found ourselves at a cross roads with the private hockey coach my bantam worked with for the past 9 months. His commitments to his club teams left almost no window to squeeze in private sessions unless we could go back to 6:00 am during the week. Our daughter’s team has three practices a week an hour away and having her roll in at 11:00 pm on a school night and then be up by 5:00 am to skate before classes was not a sustainable model. We made the decision together that she needed to work with another coach.
Who is the Next Coach?
Then the great debate began; who could replace the coach that took our daughter from zero to sixty in less than a year, that helped shape her game and fostered growing confidence? His twin brother had even greater commitments to work around with the other club team so he was also out. Our goal was to stay with their coaching family, some related others part of an extended group that worked both individually and under a single unified banner.
The key was the style they all worked under. This group consists of all old school Russian coaches who played at various club and international levels in their own playing days. They are no nonsense, strict, demanding and expect results. They care about their players, their development and helping them become their best. It’s a great mix that my daughter responds to positively. We needed a new Coach S.
Enter Coach K
First Session with Coach K
With Coach S’s help, he recommended Coach K. We had seen him at the rink and our daughter had been attended his clinics for the past 5 months. They were an hour and a half of pure torture every time and she always came off the ice a sweaty mess, but it garnered results. We broke down the coaches of this team into a “Better, Harder and Longer”.
We called his clinics the “longer” piece of the puzzle. Coach S was “better” refining her skills, Coach V (twin brother to Coach S) was the “harder” working to make her stronger and Coach K a lesson in endurance. He could skate you till your legs were going to fall off and then ask for more. It was a brilliant choice.
We all went in with a little trepidation to the first session, but it all turned out well. Aside from a list of “things we need to fix” the fit was great. He brings the right mix of stern expectation and teaching in a way that she understands, except when he slips into the occasional Russian and then she just relies on visual clues, but hey whatever works right?
