All hockey players have their own, unique mobility on the rink; frequently referred to as their skating. Tommy Keane, a 20 year veteran hockey instructor, has a passion for guiding youth hockey players to find their own, unique skating form. Keane recognizes the importance of developing good skating habits early in youth hockey and the balancing act a child must uphold to learn the games finer points while learning to skate.
Keane, referee-in-chief of Lynbrook Roller Hockey, is aware of the frustrations that go into teaching a child to skate. Aside from his officiating duties, Keane has trained and coached youth hockey players for over 20 years, and is a man of repetition. “I haven’t changed much, I ran the same drills twenty years ago” said Keane about his weekend roller hockey clinics that are offered to Lynbrook Roller Hockey players ranging from four to sixteen years of age.
“Getting your legs under you and balance to move freely is what I try to show the kids” said Keane. Drills Keane implements vary; all testing the youth player’s ability to stay up on their feet. “I love to see the kids fall, it means I’m testing their edges and challenging their minds and body to do something they didn’t think they could do”
Full-length, goal-line drills in particular according to Keane are useful for pinpointing where a player is struggling fundamentally. “Going from goal-line to goal-line will zero in on where the kids have deficiencies. Maybe their left-foot stride is weak.” Keane’s solution, have the player only move his left skate, while the right remains stationary on the ice.
The secret to creating good skaters is simple really. Keane says “its repetition, who is skating every day without me.”
Attached is a video of Tommy Keane speaking about fundamental skating and the thrill he gets as a referee in the same league he hosts weekly clinics.
https://vimeo.com/109713984
By Freddy Cicchetti
You’ve heard it before, from winners and losers in post-game interviews, coaches do not hold immediate answers. Hockey is simple; it’s a game of mistakes. Nothing represents the final on-ice product more accurately than the game-film.
Professional coaches, videographers and trainers will exhaust all their resources to dissect every second of the tape. While advanced game-film analysis and its usefulness are obvious in many sports, a finer, more instructional approach to better serve youth hockey players is a foreign obstacle for novice coaches. The challenge however is no deterrent for Junior Freeport Arrows head coach Chris Hogan.
“I think it can be useful, and it can also be overkill,” said Hogan, who believes sports psychology plays a crucial role in the amount of video content he is willing to expose to his team. At this point in Freeport’s young season, Hogan is more focused on raising players’ confidence. He explained that a happy medium between game-film exposure and a players’ unique belief in their own skill set is important.
Hogan is striving for the approach, of less thinking on the ice, translating into natural on-ice poise for his group.
“I can sit there with the boys, critique every little thing and for me it’s wasteful, I need the boys to not think as much, play high-paced and have more killer instinct in their game,” Hogan said.
In his ninth year with Freeport the bench boss, who has a reputation for an intense, passionate coaching style, has retained the position with great success. State and national championship banners hang from the Freeport bubble-like facility where junior players are molded into hopeful collegiate ice hockey players.
Hogan has used video on-and-off in his time as head coach and believes all players do have the ability to benefit from the tape in some way. “I think if used correctly this will be a great advantage for my team and the correct coaching process.” Hogan expressed his desire for less full-game video sessions, as he would prefer shorter, packaged content.
“Maybe four to six shifts, some of what you liked, and areas where we need improvement” which he believes will stop boredom, preventing players from sitting through hours of video.
The Product
The 18-and-under Freeport Arrows took to the ice last Saturday for an exhibition contest with the junior Bronxville Hawks. As a former Arrow under Hogan and part-time youth coach, with some novice video camera experience, Hogan agreed to let me work with his team as a videographer.
So, we inevitability discussed the product, the game video, during a two hour phone call. Making a quicker first pass, immediate foot movement on puck retrieval-plays, and the most basic “shoot the puck” frustrations of the Bronxville game were among the focal points.
One short video clip attached to this post is a simple three-on-two that deserves a more favorable outcome. “Just shoot the puck”, every coach, player or fan has admittedly used the common phrase, with frustration and wonderment, as a team’s collective stickhandle skills and passing quickly becomes their kryptonite on the scoreboard.
This week Coach Hogan and I will meet to discuss the short four-minute package I compiled, hopefully our discussion points align. Hogan is exited for the opportunity, “This will only help in providing more discrete, concrete feedback for the guys.” Hogan believes time-management; clip quality over quantity and the proper instructional methods will be instrumental in easing his players into this process.
Here is the game-film shortly packaged:
https://vimeo.com/108181311
You’ve heard it before, the responses often short, from winners and losers in post-game interviews, coaches do not hold immediate answers. Hockey is simple; it’s a game of mistakes. Nothing represents the final on-ice product more accurately than the game-film.
Continue reading for game footage access.
Professional coaches, videographers and trainers will exhaust all their resources to dissect what’s dubbed “the tale of the tape.” While game-film analysis and its usefulness are obvious in many sports, a finer, more instructional approach to serve youth hockey players is quite foreign for novice coaches. The challenge however is no deterrent for Junior Freeport Arrows head coach Chris Hogan.
“I think it can be useful, and it can also be overkill,” said Hogan, who believes sports psychology plays a crucial role in the amount of video content he is willing to expose to his team. At this point in Freeport’s young season, Hogan is more focused on raising players’ confidence. He explained that a happy medium between game-film exposure and a players’ unique belief in their own skill set is important.
Hogan is striving for the approach, of less thinking on the ice, translating into natural on-ice poise for his group.
“I can sit there with the boys, critique every little thing and for me it’s wasteful, I need the boys to not think as much, play high-paced and have more killer instinct in their game,” Hogan said.
In his ninth year with Freeport the bench boss, who has a reputation for an intense, passionate coaching style, has retained the position with great success. State and national championship banners hang from the Freeport bubble-like facility where junior players are molded into hopeful collegiate ice hockey players.
Hogan has used video on-and-off in his time as head coach and believes all players do have the ability to benefit from the tape in some way. “I think if used correctly this will be a great advantage for my team and the correct coaching process.” Hogan expressed his desire for less full-game video sessions, as he would prefer shorter, packaged content.
“Maybe four to six shifts, some of what you liked, and areas where we need improvement” which he believes will stop boredom, preventing players from sitting through hours of video.
The Product
The 18-and-under Freeport Arrows took to the ice last Saturday for an exhibition contest with the junior Bronxville Hawks. As a former Arrow under Hogan and part-time youth coach, with some novice video camera experience, Hogan agreed to let me work with his team as a videographer.
So, we inevitability discussed the product, the game video, during a two hour phone call. Making a quicker first pass, immediate foot movement on puck retrieval-plays, and the most basic “shoot the puck” frustrations of the Bronxville game were among the focal points.
One short video clip attached to this post is a simple three-on-two that deserves a more favorable outcome. “Just shoot the puck”, every coach, player or fan has admittedly used the common phrase, with frustration and wonderment, as a team’s collective stickhandle skills and passing quickly becomes their kryptonite on the scoreboard.
This week Coach Hogan and I will meet to discuss the short four-minute package I compiled, hopefully our discussion points align. Hogan is exited for the opportunity, “This will only help in providing more discrete, concrete feedback for the guys.” Hogan believes time-management; clip quality over quantity and the proper instructional methods will be instrumental in easing his players into this process.
Here is the game-film shortly packaged:
https://vimeo.com/108181311
Mission Statement
Junior Development Hockey Programs–21 and under hockey players, in over 40 leagues in the U.S and Canada, honing their skills before making the jump to college or professional careers – need their own source of news covering in-depth advances in player development, instructional findings and sports psychology insights. Where can junior hockey players or even aspiring junior hockey people more generally expand their minds to a wide variety of approaches that better serves developing hockey personnel? How can players better fight injury? What can video analysis do for a player, team or coach in terms of hockey IQ? Is there a scheduled sequence of hockey system-training in practices or is everything catered to a unique team? How often does a player need to be reminded to hit the net, or does their “burn” or ice-time speak for itself?
Junior Hockey Producer will fill this void with original content and multimedia features. We are striving for a junior hockey cultural shift; instead of reading about other junior hockey players and their accolades, read about what will give, you the player or coach, an edge in development—the ultimate goal for players in the junior stage. We envision stories on video’s role in youth hockey, strength, conditioning, and nutritional information, advanced stats role in hockey, team practice ideas, individual practice ideas, where junior players want to improve, even eight & under players and where they want to improve, systems players ought to know, systems players can scrap, sports psychology insight, well rounded athlete vs. hockey concentration theories, and injury management guidance just to name a few. Content will feel current and always have a twist towards the future of the game. Collaborating with other news organizations, on hockey development, will also be a feature of the blog.
One important difference between Junior Hockey Producer and other niche hockey blogs is we do not just focus on highly touted prospects or organizations. We are hockey people, still involved in the game, covering all junior organizations that are doing something successful, as well as something that could link to a common trend, in youth development. We offer not only journalistic experience but also the context that comes from being personally invested in a development program.
We will be innovative in how we deliver our news, taking full advantage of new technology and the ways people now get information. Simply put, we will have a Twitter account that gives our followers a brief glimpse of the featured story. From there, our followers can access the stories in full.
For the business world, we imagine potential advertising opportunities on our blog. A similarity Junior Hockey Producer and many retail hockey companies have is we both want players to develop into the best hockey player possible. Video ads or sponsored articles are potentially great ideas if certain stories are receiving great exposure.
Competitive Analysis
News coverage of Junior Hockey by websites and blogs—Core Hockey Development, the Junior Hockey Truth Blog and The Junior Hockey News are all very league oriented. Junior players and coaches are not getting enough reported news on information regarding the many realms of development and the insight that goes into producing stronger, more knowledgeable hockey players.
The Junior Hockey Truth Blog is a great blog for parents to submerse themselves in why and what junior hockey is all about for their child. Junior hockey players can be as young as 15 so this is a useful blog that gives insight on aspects ranging from creating a schedule to league stature and where those league participants navigate post-junior career. Mostly Q&A stories and advice blogging; the Junior Hockey Blog can prepare families with information outside of the game.
Junior Hockey News is extremely league orientated producing news on highly touted prospects and league standings. No coverage on player development philosophies or coaching techniques–very similar to the format of a league website; all about the league and its players, not about the contribution to junior hockey development from an experimental or learning standpoint.
Core Hockey Development, is the most similar blog. It primarily focuses on off-season hockey training. They have multimedia features on work-outs tied into what aspects of the game players will likely see improvement. Sports psychology, hockey systems, and advanced stats are just some of the realms of Junior Hockey Developer that Core Hockey Development does not cover.
It is our view that there is an opportunity to capture a large viewership on the many ways youth hockey players and coaches can better serve their own development with a variety of stories. None of these organizations are dedicated to hitting so many angles of youth hockey development. When youth players view our content they will hopefully think and possibly implement something they saw as useful to their own game or organization. The blog is about the players and coaches everywhere. Sharpen your development and become the well rounded hockey player you were born to be.
Junior Hockey Producer Editorial Plan
I want to create a page that provides engaging and insightful news coverage on youth hockey from many angles. There is a lot to cover and I don’t think any media has been really focusing on it. From coaching strategies to drills and everything in between. There are so many articles I can produce. The articles are going to be written pieces that include original reporting, featured entries from coaches, and multimedia videos. Long term I think I could have a running segment that might receive exposure. It could be called “what sticks” and it would be simple. Ask the players of a certain age and skill level what have their coaches have been emphasizing, then ask the coaches what have they been truly pushing on the players. What are the players taking away from all the talk.
Types of Content:
Q&A- these would be shorter articles that would run more frequently, maybe once a week. There are a lot of people in the industry I could interview, different type of coaches, youth hockey parents, the players, managers and even referees.
Profile- I want to write individual profiles on a select group of coaches. There are innovative, passionate coaches in the industry that put their lives into their team. They are not paid a lot as they have regular jobs and are not looking to move up to higher levels. These individuals have so much experience and knowledge about the game. Stories of what they’ve been implementing and what has change will be compelling. Coaches and players learn from other coaches
Numbers:
For the interviews I’m not sure how long they will be, it depends on the subject and how long their responses are. The profile pieces would be longer form stories, maybe 600-800 words.
The Q&A’s I would try to keep up once a week, and produce the longer form pieces every two weeks. As for videos I hope to do at least two. The videos could accompany a story or stand on its own with a short story.
There many articles about hockey leagues around the world, however there is not a steady source of information to learn about youth hockey from a learning standpoint. I want to provide an inside look at the players and coaches all hockey players have had and give them a voice. The same coaches garnering attention is boring, Junior Hockey Producer will give the hockey communities foundation a voice.
Multimedia
I am going to try to include photos in as many posts possible. If I can get a picture of the subject, or of the practice or game that would be great. Additionally I think it would be great to include a video of some kind as more of social media is inclined to share video content.
#1- I am really excited about this one.
Blog Name: Junior Hockey Producer: (could use work shopping)
Sub Title: Sharpen your development and become the well rounded hockey player you were born to be.
or
Closer to the show one blog post at a time.
The blog would feature coaching, players, managerial, referee, hockey parents etc. perspectives on videos role in youth hockey, strength/conditioning/nutritional information, advanced stats role in hockey, team practice ideas/ individual practice ideas, where junior players want to improve, eight & under players want to improve, systems players ought to know, systems players can scrap, sports psychology insight, well rounded athlete vs. hockey concentration, injury management.
My idea is to talk to lots of hockey people, gain insight, and put a spin on it for ideas that could really improve an individuals development, a teams or a coaches. If your involved in hockey it will expand your mind to see what works in other places. I really think there is a need for this blog and I must serve the public by producing really cool content on this blog. Open to multi-media stuff and basic writing. More ideas? Let me know.
