Too often people are thrown into the coaching role simply because there is nobody else to do it, or they are there with ulterior motives, but coaching children is not as easy as it appears to be, you must be able to relate to them, you have to make it fun, and you must have the ability to teach them something. Too many children don’t stick with whatever sport they are playing, many times the reason for that is they don’t like the coach of their team.
Players won’t listen to a coach they don’t respect. Players won’t value a coach who just goes out on the ice or behind the bench and screams and yells like a lunatic at the kids and at the referees. As a coach you must be able to relate to the players and make them understand that the reason you may be telling them to do something is to make them better players. Players just want to get out on the ice in a practice and shoot pucks around and do what they want. Just as a school teacher must do, you must make the players listen to you. At the coaching clinics a individual will learn some different ways of communicating with the players, but it is mostly from within where
A coach must have the ability to keep the players interested. If players aren’t having fun they will get bored, lose their concentration and won’t respond to the coach very well. They need variety in the drills they do; otherwise they will just gripe and complain about how they don’t want to do something. Coaching clinics teach a coach many different ways to teach the same skills. The Ontario Minor Hockey Association has six different levels of clinics a coach may attend in order to hone his skills and keep them up to date. At these clinics, the instructors teach the coaches about the game, how to lead the players, and about player development. The clinics will teach anybody who is older then the age of 14, and will take them through the ranks of coaching all the way up to the national level. They teach coaches the rules of the game and how to deal with minor hockey parents. Coaches who attend these clinics will learn new ways to keep players interested and keep them listening to you.
Coaches play a role in their player’s lives just as teachers do. A coach teaches skills such as leadership and teamwork. There are