In the past I have used inexpensive ways to bring the team together and work on building the chemistry, leadership and culture of the team. Here are a few:

• Habitat for Humanity work day
• Museum visits
• NASCAR  shop visits
• Cookouts
• Snowmobile parties
• Sightseeing tours

I asked some of my coaching friends to tell us what they do.

Danny Brooks, assistant coach with the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey league, had an extensive list of events that included rappelling 80 feet down the side of a building, working with ropes 60 feet up in trees, sport psychology sessions, and paintball. The team also uses ‘work ethic’ and ‘self esteem’ charts.

In our team building we jumped off the building, we climbed up the trees etc. Players want to know you are going to war with them. We are leaders who lead the charge not stand back and yell and give orders. If we ask our players to jump we jump first. Team building is critical in the success of the team both in short term events i.e. world juniors and in an 80 game season.

At the high school level coach Frank Hubley keeps it simple. His players already have full schedules with school and other activities.

With team building we use our off-ice sessions. We break the team into groups of 5-6 and work out in the weight room and run the stairs. We also have team meetings with the players.

At Ohio State assistant coach Jason Lammers talks about a neat team building exercise that the team just did.

We have really tried to focus on our team. Today we did a great one! We made a spider web and each of the guys had to fit through one of the holes in the web. It was great!

We are really trying to educate our leaders with articles, talks, and actions to show them how to be more effective.

Lots of coaches are using creative team building events to improve their teams and players. Most would agree that this can lead to greater individual and team success. It can be a lot of fun too!

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The manager wears thick-rimmed glasses and listens to everything from the Rolling Stones to the Four Tops. Mohawk is the haircut of the moment. Inspirational quotes decorate walls of the Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse - and we’re not talking conventional baseball wisdom.

Albert Camus weighs in with a thought, although it’s not clear if the French existentialist had any advice for hitting a split-fingered fastball. Economist Alan Greenspan is represented. The words of college basketball coaching great John Wooden are cited.

“Integrity Has No Need Of Rules.” - that’s Camus.

“Rules Cannot Take The Place Of Character.” - Greenspan said that.

“Discipline Yourself So No One Else Has To.” - that’s all Wooden.

“9=8.” Now, that one belongs to Joe Maddon, the unconventional skipper who sold his young players on the motto that’s become the club’s mantra during an improbable run to the World Series.

“I didn’t know what the hell it meant at first,” designated hitter Cliff Floyd said, recalling a speech Maddon delivered on the first day of spring training.

Some players rolled their eyes. Others stared straight ahead with blank looks on their faces.

Floyd, a 14-year veteran signed last winter to add leadership and stability to the clubhouse, gave Maddon the benefit of the doubt.

“It was a different speech than what you’re accustomed to hearing when you come to spring training. It’s usually, “We’ve got a good team, you’ve just got to believe it.’ It was different. So when he said it, people perked up. ‘Whoa. OK, let’s figure out what this means and try to accomplish it.’”

The rest, as they say, is history.

“9=8″ essentially translates to nine players playing hard for nine innings every day equals one of eight post-season berths.

Maddon also sold the concept that the Rays, who won 66 games and finished with the worst record in the majors in 2007, could make the playoffs if they got nine more wins because of hitting, an additional nine because of pitching, and another nine because of defence.

Turns out he was prophetic. The Rays, won had never won more than 70 games in a season, clinched a post-season berth for the first time with their 93rd victory - exactly 27 more than a year ago.

“I’m so used to the eye roll. I’m so used to the scoff,” Maddon said, looking back on that first day of camp. “I’m so used to it, and I’m really immune to both. … At some point, corny can turn into cool.”

While much of Tampa Bay’s success can be attributed to young talented athletes such as Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Scott Kazmir, players say Maddon’s insistence that things are done “The Ray Way” is responsible, too.

Although he’s an intellectual type who prefers fine wine to a cold beer following a game, Maddon can be one of the boys.

When Upton decided on a whim to get a Mohawk haircut last month, the fad caught on in the clubhouse. Maddon joined in the fun, getting his hair cut and noting the importance of solidarity.

“That stuff all matters,” he said.

It all promotes calmness that spills over onto the field.

“He’s acts like he’s one of us in here, and that’s awesome. Guys appreciate that,” rookie David Price said. “He comes in, we have gangsta rap music just blaring in the locker room. Does he say a word? No. It probably stops about two minutes before the first pitch is thrown. Joe just lets us be us. … He has a relationship with every player, and no relationship is the same. That just speaks volumes about Joe.”

Maddon’s also shown he can be a disciplinarian.

The manager benched Upton twice for not hustling on the bases after Maddon first tried to get the player’s attention in a private conversation. He preaches approaching every game the same - be it spring training or playoffs - and is convinced that’s one of the reasons the team has not been overwhelmed by the post-season stage.

“Our program’s been validated. Our concepts have been validated,” Maddon said Tuesday.

Here is an excerpt from The Hockey Conditioning Handbook chapter on the in-season. Your focus now is on maintenance.

In-Season Training Emphasis:

1)      Aerobic maintenance

2)      Flexibility

3)      Explosive Energy maintenance

Training in-season should be focused on maintenance sessions. This is assuming you have reached the necessary fitness levels prior to the start of the season. If not, you may find there are not enough practice hours in a day or week to do everything that needs to be done. Concentrate on aerobics, flexibility, and explosive energy, regardless of the fitness levels. The game cannot be played well without these.

Following are some suggested programs for in-season conditioning maintenance.
Sample In-Season Training Programs

Off-Ice
Aerobics is still the foundation for training. A good practice will usually have an aerobic drill package built in. Cycling and running are two common ways to do aerobic work off ice. Skiing, both water and snow, is excellent for hockey players because it includes upper body work.
Flexibility should be done daily with emphasis on proper warm up/cool down stretching before and after practices and games. Add at least one weekly flexibility training session.
Explosive energy can be done as outlined in the pre-season section. You can also incorporate stair sprints (2 steps at a time), or stair hops (up and down) using one leg only for each 5-10 second work bout.
Maintenance of strength/endurance and high energy can be accomplished by exercising at least the level attained in the pre-season. If a player’s ability to sustain high energy is still weak, players will need to do additional training. Continue to do high energy training 1-2 times per week, depending on game schedule. High energy work should not be done the day prior to a game. Try to do at least one of the two sessions on the ice.

On-Ice
All aspects of conditioning should be done at least to the level attained in pre-season work using programs and drills as outlined in the pre-season section. To save training time, or for variety in training, exercise circuits can be designed to meet all components of conditioning, except flexibility.

Flexibility should be done separately before and after workouts. A complete on ice training circuit is presented below.

Click on the Store tab above to read more about The Hockey Conditioning Handbook.

RENTON, WASH. — There may be a secret to coaching success in today’s NFL, though it’s one Vince Lombardi would never stand for: empower your players.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin was 25-23 in New York with no playoff wins when he arrived for the 2007 training camp in Albany, N.Y., to begin a must-win season. The man renowned for inflexible discipline was concerned over players misunderstanding why he made certain decisions. So he established a leadership council of about a dozen players to deal with internal issues.

Mike Holmgren has had his own players’ committee of about half that size in each of his 10 years with the Seahawks. He also had one from 1992-98 while leading Green Bay. Holmgren won a Super Bowl and went to another with the Packers before moving to Seattle…

Coughlin’s Giants are undefeated and the Super Bowl defending champions.

Coincidences?

Players on both teams say the committees enlighten them, unite them, strengthen their teams’ trust.

“It just gives us a chance for you to relate stuff better to your teammates than maybe a coach can,” said all-pro left tackle Walter Jones, a Seahawks committee member. “Not saying you don’t want to hear it from the coach, you are just more comfortable hearing it from a player.

“You build a bond in the locker room. It’s all about respect.”

Added quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, also a committee member: “It makes the players feel they have input.”

Coaches having veterans as their deputies isn’t new in the NFL - or even with the Giants. Bill Parcells used to rely on Harry Carson and George Martin to deliver his intentions and report back on the pulse of New York’s locker room.

But Holmgren and Coughlin have formalized the practice, setting committees and having philosophies on who it should include. Coughlin’s represents older and younger players. Holmgren’s is limited to the captains of the offence, defence and special teams, so it usually includes only established veterans…

Last season, the Giants were 0-2 after routs by Dallas and Green Bay. Fans screamed for Coughlin’s dismissal. Coughlin went to his leadership council and told it there was no other group that he would rather be coaching.

The council relayed the coach’s message. The Giants went on a six-game winning streak en route to shocking the undefeated New England Patriots, one of the biggest upsets in a Super Bowl.

“I think that I’ve communicated better than I have in the past,” Coughlin, 62 and a grandfather, said. “I think I’ve taken the time to do that, attach more significance to that, and been more keenly aware of trying to make everyone understand what’s being done, why it’s being done. And do so with enough advance notice so that there’s time for it to sink in.”

Manning said Coughlin went to his council during New York’s bye last week to inform it he wanted to suspend star receiver Plaxico Burress for that Sunday’s game for missing a team meeting. The quarterback appreciated knowing what was going on.

Coughlin said there was a “very good reaction. The players understood it, they understood why, and they went back to work.”

His last meeting with them was on Monday, apparently over Holmgren wanting to change the way the players review game and practice video.

The 60-year-old has a limit to the give-and-take with his committee.

“I don’t want them coming up to me saying, ‘We want grilled cheese sandwiches on the airplane,’ ” Holmgren said.”We’re talking about things more important

Teams use different strategies to pick a captain. The process can take many forms:

• Players vote for the team captains
• Coach picks the best player as captain
• Th most senior players fill the captain roles
• Rotate the ‘C’ through the lineup over the course of the season
• By committee, where everyone gets a say
• Management selects the captains

Danny Brooks, assistant coach with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the QMJHL had this to say about what is done with his major junior team.

The three most important aspects to our organization are: 1. work ethic, 2. attitude, 3. discipline.  The captain and assistant captains must have those attributes first and foremost. The captain represents what we want everyday. Our captain is not our best player, but he brings those attributes everyday. He pushes the best players to adopt those attributes. Leadership is something that is groomed. We do something very unique here in Drummondville; we change our assistant captains every month. We reward players for hard work, discipline and attitude. Each player is also a leader in his own right. A player can be a leader in a particular aspect of the game. For example, if you are a banger, you might be the leader of the bangers. In each case all players have ownership in the team. Players are held accountable for the aspect they lead the team in.

Frank Hubley, coaching at the high school level in Nova Scotia, tells us how he selects his captains

I choose the captains. At times I have asked a number of players who they think would make good captains. I ask them ‘why’ and if there are any reasons why any of their choices may not be a good captain for the team.

I have done it where I ask no questions and I pick the captains myself. I have never allowed the players pick the captains. For me it is too much of a popularity contest. Also, I may speak about leadership to the team then ask for 3-4 names of people they think would be good captains. I  have not made up my mind on that way yet.

Jason Lammers, assistant coach with Ohio State, gives us another perspective on the process.

This year we had the guys fill out a questionnaire asking for more information about teammates. For example we asked; who would you want in your foxhole, who is the most committed on and off the ice, and who has the best work ethic. We added up the scores and then decided if we agreed with what the guys thought. It seemed to work really well!

There is no sure-fire way to ensure your team selects the best person as captain. That shouldn’t stop you from doing everything possible to try to make this happen anyway. The right leader could make or break your season.

If you have any suggestion on how to pick captains, please comment on this post,

With the puck dropping on a new NHL season this Saturday, TSN.ca presents ‘30 Teams In 30 Days,’ a quick glimpse at each NHL club as the 2008-09 campaign approaches. Get the lowdown on every lineup, storylines to follow and Scott Cullen’s fantasy analysis. The focus is now on Canada’s six NHL teams, and it continues today with the Montreal Canadiens.

Ever since their inception into professional hockey 99 years ago, there has always been high expectations for the Canadiens…

Now take those expectations and multiply it by 10 this year. With hockey’s most storied franchise set to play its 100th season and celebrate its centennial in 2009, there is no better way to mark the festivities than raising banner No. 25 next October.

Is that asking for too much? Absolutely not.

Heading into 2007-08, the Canadiens - who were expected to be years away from contending - proved everyone wrong by finishing the regular season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference. And while the team went through a roller-coaster playoff run that ended with a second-round exit at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers, they are expected to challenge for the Cup with one of the league’s youngest and most talented lineups.

The Drive For 25 is alive.

General Manager: Bob Gainey (5th season)
Head Coach: Guy Carbonneau (3rd season)
2007-08 Record: 47-25-10 (1st in Conference)
Points Leader: Alex Kovalev - 84
Goals Leader: Alex Kovalev - 35
Assists Leader: Mark Streit - 49
PIM Leader: Tom Kostopoulos - 113
Plus/Minus Leader: Alex Kovalev - 18
PP Goals Leader: Alex Kovalev - 17
SH Goals Leader: Tom Kostopoulos - 3

What they did: Going into the offseason, Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey wanted to address two improvements for his lineup - a tough and physical presence to protect his skilled players and a big centre with a right-handed shot. The first need was quickly addressed with Georges Laraque, who signed a three-year contract with his hometown team …

What to watch for: The Canadiens were among the league’s fastest and most skilled offensive teams last season and should only get better with the addition of Tanguay. The Quebec native, who struggled in a defensive role under Mike Keenan, has a better opportunity to showcase his playmaking skills alongside captain Saku Koivu. Last season, Alex Kovalev stood above everyone as Montreal’s most valuable player, leading the team in scoring and being an on-ice mentor for his teammates. However, the 35-year-old has been an enigma for most of his career, putting in great performances one year and following it up with lackluster efforts the next. So which Kovalev will we see this season? …

Gainey took a big gamble at last year’s trade deadline when he sent veteran goaltender Cristobal Huet to Washington and annointed 20-year-old Carey Price as the new No. 1. And Price didn’t disappoint, finishing the regular season with a 24-12-3 record and a .920 save percentage. While the league’s top young netminder struggled in the postseason, he’s back in better shape and appears ready to handle the rigors of a full NHL campaign. The Habs also have a solid youngster in Jaroslav Halak, who was arguably the AHL’s top goalie before being called up as a full-time backup last March. Halak should continue to push Price for playing time, but the addition of Marc Denis could make the 23-year-old Slovakian expendable at some point this season.

Parting Shot: This season may be Montreal’s best chance to make a run for a championship, only because there could be considerable changes to the lineup next summer. Kovalev, Tanguay, Lang, Komisarek and captain Saku Koivu will all be eligible to test the open market, while Higgins, Plekanec and Guillaume Latendresse will become restricted free agents. Depending on this year’s performance and what the salary cap looks like next July, next year’s team could look quite different with one or two key players out of the equation. But that doesn’t mean Gainey isn’t prepared. In five years as general manager, the former Habs great has done something that hasn’t been seen in Montreal since the days of Sam Pollock and Frank Selke - assemble a legitimate Cup contender while developing a rich pool of young players waiting in the wings.

Scouting young hockey prospects is, at best, an inexact science. Something Lauren Sergio is aiming to change with the help of her trusty “force field-creating robotic arm.”

Science fiction it’s not. Since 2003, the York University associate kinesiology professor has spent two days each June running the top 100 NHL prospects through a hand-eye co-ordination test during the league’s annual scouting combine.

“We’re excited about the potential,” NHL Central Scouting director E.J. McGuire said. “But to this point, we are waiting on some of the longitudinal effects to come in on this kind of research.”

It seems simple enough. Each player must stickhandle a ball through four pylons spaced an even distance apart.

There’s just one small catch: the obstacles exist only on a computer screen and the stick is attached to a robotic arm that pushes back against the player, making it harder to maintain control.

In effect, it’s a way of measuring whether a player has “soft hands.” But Sergio believes it could become a predictor of whether a prospect will make it to the NHL or spend years toiling in the minors.

“We want to see if there’s any way to predict performance,” she said. “It’s all about control.”…

Sergio and her team are currently developing a formula that gauges the success each prospect has early on in their hockey careers - ice time, points etc. - and how those results compare to their Phantom tests. She hopes certain scores will indicate whether a player is more likely to develop into a Dion Phaneuf, a Matt Stajan or an Alexandre Daigle…

“The challenge is to come up with the best weighting factor,” she said. “So that, at the end of the [scouting combine] we can give the scouts all the scores and … tell them that this player has a 68-per-cent chance of being in the NHL in the next year, or two years, or three years.”…

Sergio’s colleague, Norman Gledhill, has run the fitness component of the scouting combine for the NHL for more than two decades, and was the one who initially suggested Sergio when the league asked for a way of testing hand-eye co-ordination…

“This gets down to the hair-splitting when all these other factors start to wash each other and you’re sitting at a draft table in the fourth round, or even before that, and you’re looking to set up your team’s hit list for this year,” McGuire said.

Sep 16, 2008 04:16 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

LONDON, Ont. - Former NHL star Eric Lindros was known for his presence on the ice - and now in retirement he’ll be known for his generosity off it.

Lindros was on hand in London, Ont., on Tuesday for the unveiling of the Lindros Legacy Research building, made possible by his $5-million donation to the London Health Sciences Centre.

The gift is believed to be the largest one-time charitable donation by a Canadian sports figure.

Doctors at the London Health Sciences Centre helped heal Lindros’s various injuries during his career, which was cut short by concussions.

In a release, Lindros said he was pleased to donate to an “organization that helps so many.”

Lindros retired from the NHL last November after stints with the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars.

How do you get your tryouts started?  Do you just give out the dates and times and then have players show up for the first ice session?  There are many ways that coaches do the tryout process and it varies between age groups.

Here is one way that I use and find to be very effective.

I have a player meeting prior to going on the ice, typically 5-7 days in advance.  This gives the players and parents some time to think about the things I have said.  At this meeting:

• players are given the ice times for tryouts.
• no guarantee anyone a position on the team.
• I then provide them with an overview of my expectations for them, if they make the team.
• Players are given a brochure to take home for their parents to read, along with a permission slip.  Why do I do this? The brochure gives the players and parents information on practice times, tournaments, off ice, finances and fundraising.
• Parents are asked to attend a meeting prior to tryouts.  This meeting is typically 2-3 days prior to the first tryout.

When the parents come to their meeting they now have information on which they can ask questions - if they wish. The brochure serves as a very valuable information tool for me.

At the parent meeting I inform the parents:

• that ice time is not something I will discuss
• I am not there to please them but to coach their son
• they will all contribute to the fundraising projects and that
• I am the coach- I run the show.

I believe it to be very important for parents to know my philosophy and how the team will be run prior to allowing their son to tryout for the team.  Could you imagine a parent not knowing the cost of playing hockey and their son makes the team and they can’t afford it!

Having a meeting prior to tryouts and gets rid of many problems.  You lay out your beliefs and philosophy.  If they agree, then you have them. If not, then you get the people who want and believe in what you are doing.  As I tell them, 38 students have signed up to try out for the team.  If you as a parent do not like what I say and only 20 players show up on the ice, then I only have to release one player.

Over time I have found this to be a good way of approaching the tryout process.  Everyone knows up front how the ship is going to sail and who is the captain.  I believe this to be very important.

Once the tryouts are finished I have another meeting with the parents whose sons made the team and lay out plans for the year.

Not every league or team can do this but at the High School where I coach this is the way I do it and it works for me.

My suggestion is be up front and firm and things will fall in place.

Whether Rod Brind’Amour’s season ends in June, April or February, one thing always remains constant - he starts training for the next one as soon as he can.

The captain of the Carolina Hurricanes is one of the fittest players in the NHL because he refuses to stop exercising. He turned 38 over the summer and still has three years left on a contract he fully intends to play out.

Brind’Amour typifies the character needed to be a veteran in today’s NHL. In the past, some believed that longevity was best achieved by taking extensive time off over the summer to let the body heal before essentially starting anew during training camp.

That strategy simply wouldn’t work now.

“It’s definitely a year-round job,” Brind’Amour said during a recent interview. “I think the guys that approach it that way are the ones that last the longest…

The training methods vary by individual.

Brind’Amour likes to get up by 6 a.m. for a bike ride before hitting the gym or going for a skate. Alzner has added more bench press and chin-up exercises to his normal routine that focuses on core strength. Andrew Ference of the Boston Bruins is a friend of Simon Whitfield’s and participated in triathlons while taking time away from skating early in the summer.

The key to Jason Spezza’s off-ice workouts is the presence of other NHLers. He’s one of 10 guys that train together at a gym in Toronto over the summer.

“It’s pretty intense,” said the Ottawa Senators forward. “That’s why you try to have other guys around you that are kind of working towards the same thing.

“It makes it a little bit competitive and keeps the edge on the days you don’t feel like getting out of bed. You’ve got to beat the other guys.”

The 29-year-old Ference believes his generation of players is used to working out all summer long and showing up to training camp in top shape.

However, one change he’s observed over nine seasons in the league is the different approach players now take to their workouts.

“Some guys used to think training was all about going in the gym, pumping iron and getting huge,” said Ference. “They forgot they’re not professional weightlifters or bodybuilders - they have to be ready for hockey.

“I think the type of training, guys have maybe adjusted that to be more specific to our sport.”

Read the rest of the article for more insight on NHL players feeling for the importance of year round specific training for hockey.