Dan’s Tip of the Month for Kids...

“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” Mike Singletary

     This is the time when the focus of most teams shifts from practices to playing games.  Your coach may play everybody equally.  For example, if it’s the third line’s turn for a shift and your team goes on the power play, the third line takes the power play shift.  Other coaches may only play the first line or the first and second lines on power plays and if you’re on the third line, you sit until the teams go even strength.  I want to talk to the kids who don’t get to play on the power play.

       It’s normal to wish you played on the power play.  Perhaps you are tempted to be sour that you never get the chance.  That’s understandable.  We all want to be thought of highly, to have the confidence of our coach, to be entrusted with important positions.  But don’t use your lack of power play time as an excuse for not taking advantage of the ice time you do get.

When I was in Juniors many of my teammates would say, “If only I could get a chance to play college, then I could really shine.  My game is more suited to college play.”  When I got to college, many of my teammates were looking forward to the opportunity to play professional.  That was where they were sure they would excel.

Next I played in the East Coast League where players would do anything to show what they could do in the “I” (the IHL) or the “A” (the AHL).  When I played in the “A” and then in the “I”, players were sure that if they would only get a chance to play in the Show (the NHL), they could really show what they could do.

Then, when I finally made it to the NHL, there were a few players who were sure they would do much better if only they played on a different line, or for a different coach, or for a different team. 

What most of these players failed to realize is that whenever or wherever they stepped onto the ice, it was their chance to shine.  Whenever or wherever you play or practice, it is an opportunity to show what you can do.  You never know when someone is watching who has the ability to give you your next break or next opportunity.

Every time you step on the ice is an opportunity to be seized or squandered.  Whether you play on the power play, kill penalties, or play center or wing is not as important to your future success in the game as how hard you work at whatever position you play or situation you’re in.  Seize the moment you do get… every moment.

When I was a sophomore in college I was a scoring machine for the first six games of the season, making the highlight films.  Then the coach put me on the third line – a checking line - to improve the defensive ability of that line.  I went from scoring a goal a game to a goal every seven games.  Off the scoring line (and off the highlight films), I decided to become the best defensive forward/penalty killer I could.  It’s my third line defensive ability and penalty killing that got me to the NHL.

I truly believe if I had tried to make it to the NHL on my scoring ability, I’d be an accountant now.  The point is, if one opportunity is taken away from you, seize another.  Or work harder to regain the position you want, whether it’s be a centerman or playing on the power play.  Remember that if you don’t play on the power play, you will most likely play on the very next shift.  You can seize that opportunity or squander it.  If you squander it, it may lead to making excuses as to why you don’t play on the power play.  Excuses are crutches to help you feel better, but it’s hard to play hockey on crutches.

DAN’S SKATING TIP THIS MONTH – you need to “stride to the side”:

Those of you who have attended my hockey school know that my formula for being a better skater is to skate with a 90 degree knee bend (or in a seated position), keep your head and chest up, push off or stride to the side, get a full extension, arm swing forward and back, and replant your feet right under you.   In this issue, I want to talk about the need to stride to the side.

Figure skaters can push off straight behind themselves because they have toe picks on their skates.  Hockey players don’t have toe picks, so if we push off to the rear, the toe of our skate will not dig in, it will just slide along the ice.   When we push off, we need to plant our feet at an angle and push off to the side - against our edges.  If you push off straight to the side, the entire edge of your blade can be in contact with and grip the ice.  If you push off to the rear where nothing of your edges, only your toe, comes in contact with the ice and you have no edge or grip.

Here’s a way to know if you are pushing off too much to the rear.  Have your coach,  your parent, or a teammate watch you as you pick up your skate to replant it after you have made a full stride going at top speed.  If the toe of your boot comes up off the ice more than an inch, you are probably pushing off too far to the rear and not enough to the side.  The more your foot comes up off the ice, the more you are pushing off to the rear and wasting energy and losing speed and efficiency.  When you push off too much to the rear, you loose your edge while there is still energy left in your leg to push, but you begin to push against the ice with your toe where you have no edge and your skate slips and forces your leg to kick your skate up.  That kick up is a telltale sign you may be pushing off to much to the rear.

To better understand what I’m saying, take your stick and imagine that the bottom of the blade represents the blade of your skate.  Hold the stick so the blade is resting next to and parallel to your feet, like your skate blade would be.  Then pushing against the floor, move the blade of the stick directly to the rear and notice how long the full blade of the stick is in contact with the floor.  Not very long at all.  Then hold the stick so the blade is next to your feet again and pushing it against the floor, push it straight away from you to the side.  Notice that the entire blade of the stick can be in contact with the floor until you get to the end of your reach. 

I hope you can see that the entire blade of your skate can be gripping the ice for a much longer time if you push off to the side rather than to the rear.  The longer the blade’s edges can grip the ice, the longer your extension (your stride) can be and a longer stride means faster and more efficient use of the energy expended.

So at your next game or practice, when you are skating to get warmed up, concentrate on pushing off to the side.  Over exaggerate pushing off to the side and you will see that your stride and your extension will be longer.  A longer stride and longer extension will make you a faster skater, something we can all use in our game. So remember, you need to stride to the side. 

DAN’S UPCOMING PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

None Scheduled during pre-season.

 

DAN’S HONOR ROLL

Those kids who understand one of the most important things necessary to make it to the NHL:

The first marking period will probably come out before the next newsletter so if you qualify, Email your Name, age, GPA (on a 4.0 scale A= 4.0, A- = 3.75, B+ = 3.25, B= 3.0, etc.) or average overall grade improvement, school, team, and state (must be at least one full grade over last year or a 3.50 GPA or better.

For example:

NAME                    AGE    GPA       SCHOOL                            TEAM                                             STATE   

Dan Doe                    11      3.75        Peach Plains Elementary    Muskegon Chiefs  AA PeeWee         MI

(I hope all of you can make this list.)

COACH TO COACH – from JAY

When Dan’s oldest brother was in Junior High, he signed up to play flag football.  Because of his above average athletic ability, I was sure he would be picked for a skill position, but he was unknown to the coach and was assigned to be a guard.  I had to bite my tongue as players that I thought had lesser ability bumbled about at quarterback, end, and running back while Scott went about the business of playing guard.  About four games into the season, he raced a short kickoff back for a touchdown.  As he was receiving kudos from his teammates, the coach said, “I didn’t  know you could run like that.” To which Scott replied, “You never gave me a chance.”  Scott was a running back thereafter.

Dan’s advice (above) is to the third and perhaps fourth line players.  I’d like to talk to you as a coach about your third and fourth line players.  As you will hear from Dan and I from time to time, there are only two reasons to have kids engage in youth sports – to have fun and teach them life lessons before the harsh reality of adult life sets in.  Some kids aspire to go on in hockey and play college and pros, so they play hockey for the purpose of developing their skills.  So let’s add development to fun and teaching life lessons as reasons to involve kids in youth hockey.  We like to call these the imperatives or the raison d'être (for our French Canadian readers) of youth hockey.

The dilemma often comes when we try to balance these imperatives with winning. There are those who argue that kids have more fun when they win.  That gets no  argument from us.  But we think the imperatives in youth sports come out on the side of equal ice time for every player even if it puts your team’s won/loss percentage in jeopardy.

Consider these points:

- If we are about having fun, we can all agree that the third and fourth line players (up to half to one third of your team) who don’t play in the third period of a close game aren’t having as much fun in the third period as the first and second line players.

- If we are about teaching life lessons, what life lessons are we teaching if we say this is a team sport - unless we need to win? Aren’t we saying to the third and fourth line players that you are no longer on the team as a hockey player, we expect you now to work on your skills as a cheerleader?

- If we are about development, we can all agree that the third and fourth line players’ development will be limited if they don’t play as much or if they don’t play in pressure situations. 

- If we are about development, we can all agree that if third and fourth line players don’t play on the power play or penalty kill, they aren’t developing the skills necessary to play in those situations and advance in the game.

- Not to mention  being fair to the parents’ contribution - equal play for equal pay.

- And let’s admit that we don’t always know who’s going to develop or rise to the top unless they are given a chance.  As cases in point, Jason Allison, the Boston Bruins leading scorer was cut from his Bantam team and other parents in PeeWee used to say, “Oh no!  Not that kid again” when the Mississauga (Ont.) Reps (Travel) coach put a little kid named Brendan Shanahan on the ice.  And I have to admit I never dreamed Dan would ever skate professionally let alone be in his sixth season in the NHL (so much for what I know).

So how do you balance the natural desire to win with the imperatives of fun, teaching life lessons and development?  Here’s a method that worked for me as I coached Dan and his brothers from Mites to Juniors.  A 60 minute game was divided into two sections, the first 55 minutes and the last five minutes.  The first section was the kids’ game: equal playing time for everyone, regardless of equal strength, PP or PK, including starting a different line at the beginning of each period.  In the last five minutes, it was the coach’s game.  If the game was close, the best players played and we tried to win.  If the game was in hand or out of reach, the other players played. 

Two interesting things consistently happened.  If the game was close, the third and fourth line players would count the seconds to 5:00 remaining of the third period and then scream, “Get a whistle” or “Switch! Switch!” so the better players could be sent in to win for the team.  It was also a badge of honor for the better players to sit out the last five minutes if the game was in hand and they never complained if they didn’t play at the end.

If players we perceive as being third and fourth line are not given the chance to develop, Scott would have finished the football season as a guard, and the hockey world might be the poorer for having lost Jason Allison and Brendan Shanahan.

Imperatives are just that.  Winning’s a bonus if’n your’n play better’n his’n.

THIS MONTH’S SAYING TO PUT IN YOUR LOCKER

“There are many hard and fast rules for success, but the trouble is that all are hard and none are fast.” Unknown

 

THIS MONTH’S QUESTION:

Dan:  “Do you have a special diet?  Do you eat special things for energy or endurance?  What should I feed my young player?”  Hockey Mom

Hockey Mom: Yes, I watch what I eat very carefully.  I’m convinced that our bodies are what we eat.  On games days typically my diet is as follows:

•   - Breakfast: Cereal and toast, maybe a bagel or a banana or yogurt.

•   - Lunch: Dinner size portions of salad, pasta, and bread, lots of water.

•   - Nap - two hours (it’s a tough job but someone has to do it).

•   - Pre-game snack:  Toast - plain or a muffin and more water.

•   - Post Game: Salad, baked potato, steak, a vegetable, lots of water.
  
  On non-game days:

•   - Breakfast: same

•   - Lunch: pizza, perhaps left over pasta.  I try to keep fats to a minimum.

•   - Dinner:  Salad, baked potato or rice, meat, a vegetable.

I almost never eat junk or fast food during the season.  Frankly, I feel awful if I do.

I’m not a nutritionist, but from what I’ve heard a growing, active child needs more proteins and fats than I need.  It’s true that muscles are fed by sugars which the body derives from starches (pasta, bread, potatoes, rice), so those are the energy foods.  But a child needs more protein and fat than an adult.  So I’m not sure you need to do anything more than three meals a day from all the basic food groups, with perhaps some emphasis on carbohydrates (pasta?) before games.     

ABOUT ONE KID’S TRIP TO THE NHL—current installment  

This has been an exciting camp for me.  First of all, meeting my new teammates on the Mighty Ducks has been interesting.  Of course, I’ve know these guys as opponents, now I get to meet and interact with them as teammates and hopefully before long as friends.  Jim Cummins and I danced once (and it wasn’t the polka) and now he’s most likely going to be my linemate.

The atmosphere in the Ducks’ locker room is different than the Kings’.  The Ducks are more serious, the King’s were less intense.  It could be the difference between L.A. (Hollywood) and Orange County.  Most likely it's because the locker room reflects the personality of the leaders – in the Ducks’ case, Paul Kariya is a quiet, serious young man whereas Rob Blake and Luc Robotille are a bit more carefree and are even known to goof off on occasion. 

*****

You might be interested in what a training camp is like at the NHL level.  The guys are divided into two groups to limit the number of players on the ice at one time.  Practice is usually two hours for each group.  The first hour is devoted exclusively to individual skill development, like skating, stick handling, etc.  I’d like to repeat that for emphasis.  At the NHL level, one half the practices during training camp were devoted to individual skill development.

The second hour was team development (breakouts, etc.). In the past, training camps were largely scrimmages.  Now teams that feel that individual skill development is so important that half the practices are devoted to it.  Is there a message here for youth hockey players, coaches, and parents?  I think so.  If you are a young player and are bored or impatient with the time taken during practices for skill development, you won't like to be a NHLer.

*****

I’ve played two pre-season games against the Kings.  It’s a funny feeling going against your former teammates, especially in the Staples Center.  My friend Stephan Fiset stood on his head to stop a tip-in of mine and then had to twist to flop on the rebound.  He sprained his knee and had to be taken out of the game.  I called him after the game to see if he is all right.  He’ll recover.  Seems to me it would have been a lot easier if he hadn’t tried so hard on the tip-in, but he’s as anxious not to let me score as I am to score on him and the Kings.

*****

In our first book and also in the second, we indicate how important it is to be well-rounded and play all the sports.  I was reminded of that message in a special way when I played in the Mighty Ducks’ annual charity golf event.  At that outing, I got lucky and knocked in the second shot on a par 5 hole for a double eagle.   I was pleased that I played golf as a kid and not just hockey so I can play in these events without being embarrassed about my game and even contribute to my team’s success here and there.  You just never know when some bit of knowledge or some skill that you developed as a kid will hold you in good stead as an adult.  That’s why we strongly encourage you to play all the sports that are available to you.  You just never know…

  Dan Bylsma  #21

DAN AND JAY’S BOOKS

So Your Son Wants to Play In The NHL   Published in 1998 by Sleeping Bear Press in the US and McClelland & Stewart in Canada.  HC $24.95.  The story of Dan’s journey from the ice rink in our back yard to the NHL.  Autographed and personalized copies available at www.DanBylsma.com.

So You Want to Play In The NHL  To be published in early November, 2000, by NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group.  Trade paperback—$14.95.  Thirty-five questions that aspiring young athletes have and Dan’s and Jay’s alternating answers. Forward by Luc Robitaille. Autographed copies available at www.DanBylsma.com after November 15th.

Pitcher’s Hands is Out    To be published in January, 2001 by River Road Publishing.  HC and Trade paperback.  A historical novel about what it was like to be a kid living in the Great Depression.  A baseball story.

Dan’s On the web

At www.DanBylsma.com