Learning How to Learn, Coaching Children in Ice Hockey

I worry that some parents may feel frustrated to see the children struggle with learning. I feel frustrated too. It is hard for me to hold back from jumping in to rescue the students and correct every little movement. I purposely watch, give very few corrections and spend some of my time on the ice studying the children to understand more about how they learn. This is great information for me to carry forward to private lessons.

I want the children to be challenged and develop cognitively in the clinics. A huge part of that is for the children to learn to attend to the coaches in a way that they learn to see for themselves what they have to do and to take the responsibility of being independent learners. I feel in our culture we love our kids so much and do so much for that that we inadvertently sabotage their learning by doing their homework for them. Watching our children struggle requires a ton of patience on the part of the coaches and parents but I am 100% convinced that this educational learning model is better for the children than the "professional hockey coaching" model that attempts to cram skills into kids who are not quite ready or not receptive to the learning at a particular moment.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. It is interesting to see how the children of various developmental levels interpret our instruction as they take their first stabs at trying something they have never done before. I set the bar high but I don't expect perfection, ever... only effort and moving in the right direction. It is critical for parents to understand that these very fundamental first awkward steps, done on their own, are the building blocks to creating a strong, reliable student of hockey who will later reach a much higher level for having worked through the struggle at the start.

Once they have learned to learn, learned to deal with frustration, learned to be brave and attempt new things and learned that failure is not a dirty word, they will learn to skate well and play hockey.

My family used to take karate lessons and one instructor told us that it was when we were struggling and feeling the most frustrated and could see the least gain, that we were actually learning the most. I learned I had to persevere through those frustrating times to come out the other side and be able to appreciate the gains.

I hope you will come to see that your child is learning when he struggles with drills that challenge his body and his mind. All of the homework is of his own creation. All of the work is his. He can and should feel very proud of that.