The Ride To The Rink - You've Gotta Communicate!

Lee MJ Elias [0:08 - 6:57]: Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. And welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the rink. It is Lee with you today. And today I'm going to talk about something that I feel like I have been saying to every team I have coached at every youth level, 18 U, all the way down to six U. And it's something you all hear a lot. But I want to talk to you in a way that hopefully will inspire you to do this a little bit more at your games and your practices. The word of the day is communication. We gotta talk more on the ice. Whether it's calling for passes, instructions on the ice, even just good communication to help tactically where people should be, we're seeing it across the board. There is a lack of communication in hockey today. We know the reasons why, and none of it's your fault, okay? When I was growing up, we didn't have cell phones and social media. We had to communicate. We had to be on the phone. We had to do it more. Where you're at right now in your life, you've been gifted a lot of great technology, and I love it, too. Okay? But one of the side effects of having so many screens and text messaging and social media is that we communicate less verbally and more with our thumbs or our fingers on a screen, and the result of that is less verbal communication. Um, in sports, in this case, on the ice, um, I cannot tell you how important it is to be able to speak and vocalize on the ice. Different situational awareness, uh, in different situations, period. Right? I'm open. You're open. I'm passing. I'm shooting. I'm dropping. I'm open. Over here. Over there. Heads up. Man in front, girl in front. Whatever it is, there's a lot of different things we need to communicate. We cannot assume that someone else can read your mind on the ice. It is a gift when you get that kind of chemistry with a teammate. But even then, they talk. You can go to any NHL or pro level or collegiate practice or game, and if they turned off all of the crowd noise, and you can hear, and a lot of times you can hear them over the crowd, they are extremely vocal. I actually believe this to be one of the aspects of hockey that separates great players from just good players. They communicate, they talk. You can even have a secret language on the ice if you want to get creative with this. I had a teammate one time that knew when I said shoot, it meant pass, and when I said pass, it meant shoot for a rebound. We had that understanding and it would throw other teams off, but other things, too. I see it all the time where an opposing player will get behind the defense and I might hear the coach screaming, there's someone behind you. But nobody on the ice is saying anything to their teammate of, hey, one back. One back. Get back. Get beneath that player. Practice is where you can get this done. Every drill you do where a pass is received, a pass is made, you should be talking when you're shooting. You should be saying, got to get my own rebound. Go for the rebound. When you're playing defense, you should be very aware, there's a man over there. There's a player over there. Step up. Move up. Learn the language of hockey. You can ask your coach, when should I be vocal? You can ask your parents, do you think I should say something here? But like most things in the game, communication is a skill set. It's one you want to learn. Believe me, I. Look, I've had players say, well, that player never passes to me. I go, well, do you ever shout that you're open? And sometimes they're back. Well, they should know that. It's not the way it works. Maybe they should. But the idea is this. Hockey is a very fast pass, fast paced game. There's a lot going on during the game. It's very possible a player might not see you open, but it helps a lot when you know that they're there and you know that they're behind you or that, you know, I've been on situations where kids on a breakaway, they think there's a player half a stick length away, and they're more like three stick lengths away. You're gone. You're open. Take the shot. You're on a breakaway. You gotta talk. You gotta. Gotta talk. So I want you to work on this. At practices, I wanted you to encourage your teammates. Be a leader. Encourage your teammates to communicate. If you feel, yeah, kids, that your team is bad at this, talk to your coach and say, hey, listen, I think we need to communicate better. Is that something we can work on? Right? The repetitions of doing it make it real. In drills with the team that I'm coaching right now, if there is a pass in the drill and I'm the one making the pass to the player, I will not pass the puck. I don't care how open the kid is. If they do not call for the puck, that's how we work it into the practice. And they know that. And I'll be honest, a lot of those kids, just to your point, kids, just so you know, they have a hard time with this. The first three or four shots, they. They kind of forget to do it. That's okay. This is all part of the learning, but that's why we do it. I'm not passing till you say something by the fifth, 6th, 7th drill. Definitely got it down. Or 5th, 6th, 7th week. It takes time, but let's work on this aspect of the game. Communication on the ice, speaking verbally, is a major skill set. You all need to work on what's cool for you, and I'll end the episode on this. Is that because it's not a prevalent skill today, like it was 20, 30, 40 plus years ago, this is an opportunity for you to build a skillset that not a lot of players have. You want to step out. You want to. You want to stand out to your coaches. You want to stand out in a game. Talk, talk. It's an easy thing to learn to do, and it makes you a better player. It makes your team better. If you get everyone talking on the team, your team's going to do a lot better. So that's going to do it for the ride to the rink. Talk. Communicate. Continue to text, as well. Nothing wrong with it, but when you're on the ice, you can't send a text message. I will be at the top circle. Please pass me the puck. Does not work that way. You got to talk. Talk on the bench, talk on the ice, talk in the locker room, talk at your team building events. Talk, learn, practice. It's a good thing to do. If it. Last. Last note. I should say this, too. I won't get into what an extrovert and introvert is. I know there are some listeners out there that have no problem talking, or they'll jump on this. I know there's somebody out there, too, that may be shy, and this is hard for you, and I want to acknowledge that. Okay? Not everybody is great in social situations. That's absolutely okay. Some of my best friends and best people I know and care about are extremely introverted people who do not like to be around crowds. But you still need to learn how to effectively communicate in your own way. No matter what side of that spectrum you're on. I believe in you. You should, too. Let's communicate together. Remember, kids, you can always communicate with me. You can send me an email at team our kidsplyhocky.com. or if you're listening to this, look beneath the description. There's actually a link there. Now, you can tap that and text to us any questions you have so if there's something you want me, Mike Christie, or one of our guests to talk about on the ride to the rink, check out that link. Let us know. We are here for you. With that said, have the best week ever. Enjoy your hockey, enjoy your friends, enjoy the games, enjoy the practices. We'll see you next time on the ride of the ring. Skate on.