ADM Kids

Ask any parent of young kids (hand raised) and they will tell you that it is a challenge keeping them focused and engaged with a lot of tasks. There are simply endless distractions and options these days tugging at their attention.

When it comes to 10U hockey, the onus can fall on coaches to keep practices fresh and players engaged. Guy Gosselin, a player development manager for USA Hockey, recently offered up some tips on how to do that – and why it is so important.

A fundamental but perhaps overlooked aspect of running an engaging practice, Gosselin says, is making sure you are explaining the execution and motive of drills clearly.

“To start, I think that you need to make sure that players fully understand the drill or the game that you're playing. A lot of times if you don't check for understanding, there's confusion,” Gosselin says. “Use the proper tone of voice. Get down on one knee and get them in where they all understand what's going on and then start your drill.”

After all, 10-year-olds aren’t always the best at asking for clarification. Heck, lots of adults aren’t great at admitting they don’t understand something. If a player or whole group is embarrassed and too proud to ask for help, nobody wins.

“Otherwise everyone nods their head yes like they get it and then you get back and they're trying to get to the end of the line because they really don't know what's going on,” Gosselin says.

Even the best-designed drill might not stick with a particular group or on a particular day. To keep attention spans from wandering and to keep players engaged, Gosselin says, coaches need to be ready with a Plan B.

“If you are coaching and watching body language, if a drill starts to become monotonous and you think you're losing them, you should probably have a progression in your back pocket,” he says. “If you think you are going to do a drill for 8 to 10 minutes and after 4 or 5 minutes you start losing them, it's always kind of nice to have something else to throw into that drill.”

It might require a bit of intuitive feel for how a drill is going, and there’s always a balance between persevering through and moving on.

“Some drills look great on paper. There's a point between, jeez, they're not getting this one, and then you kind of let them go and they get it, and oh this isn't going to work,” Gosselin says. “When you do make adjustments, try and remember what the original objective was and match it to the theme of your practice.”

If you start to nod your head reading this one, know that you aren’t alone.

Gosselin emphasizes keeping players engaged by giving them a stake in what is going on.

“Let players design a drill. In today's world, they're like, really? We get to design a drill?” Gosselin says. They're totally into their drill that they designed, and it kind of gives them a sense of ownership.”

Similarly, Gosselin will employ a somewhat silly but effective tactic: He will name drills after players to make them “sticky.” The bond often lasts longer than just one season.

“You know, it's kind of funny. It sounds corny, but you know, I’ve got kids coming up to me who are now adults that I coached 30 years ago, hey, remember the drill called (player name),” Gosselin says. “They get into it, and they know exactly what the drill is.”

And finally, Gosselin suggests some good, old-fashioned competition – nothing that will spur hard feelings, but enough that it will fuel effort and engagement.

“Keeping score a lot of times really increases the intensity and they're really involved,” Gosselin says. “It kind of heightens the intensity and they love doing that.”

It doesn’t have to be up on the scoreboard; a simple reward or game within the game can be enough.

“There are different ways to keep score. You can have an ice marker and you can have tic-tac-toe,” Gosselin says. “And so if the team scores, they get to skate over and put an X in a square. It’s not in your face, but just fun. Give them a competitive reward.”

And hopefully keep them coming back for more.