Feature Story
Somebody else said it
By John Russo
Let’s Play
Hockey Columnist
It has been two or three years since I’ve
put together a “Somebody Else Said It” column. I like to find quotes from
hockey and non-hockey people that can inspire or shed light on things that are
of interest to coaches. Maybe these will make somebody stop and think – and
even provide a little laughter.
On Attitude
“Pity the poor people who see only the
fly specks on the windshield of life.”
- Earl Nightingale, radio announcer,
heard by me in 1966 while passing through
“The fire of coaching still burns inside
me. I will be back. When I return, it will be my greatest day in coaching.”
- Bob Johnson, who
made that quote on his death bed with cancer.
On Effort
“I’ll do the very best I can, the very
best I know how. And I mean to keep doing so until the very end.”
- Abraham Lincoln (never played
hockey...that we know of).
“Hockey used to be pretty simple game –
we just seem to complicate it sometimes. You listen to guys at clinics talk
about their forecheck systems. You can forecheck one guy, two guys, and if you pull your goalie
you can even forecheck six. If you turn a bunch of
kids loose on the rink, the kid that’s the most aggressive is always going to
be forechecking when he doesn’t have the puck because
he wants it back. That’s what I mean about complicating the game – we
need to let them do it more.”
- Dave Peterson,
“We will do today what most people won’t,
so we can do tomorrow what most people can’t.
- Terry Cullen, over
the door of the
On Coaching Flexibility
“The need for change bulldozed a road
down the center of my mind.”
- Maya Angelou, national poet,
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I
took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
- Robert Frost, pretty well-known poet
“Most people would rather be comfortably
wrong than right all by themselves.”
- Unknown
On Player Skills and Capabilities
“I look for very skilled guys to be
defensemen. They have to be puckhandlers. That is where games are won and lost.”
- Don Lucia, head coach,
“Most kids don’t know how to play games
on their own anymore. If a coach were to sit on the bench at the beginning of
practice – or even stay in the locker room – most teams wouldn’t know what to
do. A team that does know what to do is probably very well coached.”
- Don Lucia, head coach,
“The harder you can push, the faster you
will go.”
- Bobby Orr when asked about his analysis
of skating speed
“Skating is hockey’s weak sister – it is
not conditioning, it is technique.
- Mike Kemp, head coach,
“Straight line skating wind sprints (and
overplaying in games) teach players to pace themselves and to have continually
worse form and performance due to fatigue.
- Jack Blatherwick,
Ph.D., college and Olympic coach, current assistant coach/physiologist with
Washington Capitals
“Players need to put themselves into
position to get a pass by calling ‘with their feet,’ not their mouths.”
- John Russo Sr. (oops, that’s me)
“Players who are average speed but put
out 100 percent effort will play faster than a speedster that only tries 80 to
90 percent.”
- John Russo Sr. (oops, me again)
On Coaching
A coach should use game statistics like a
drunk uses a light pole – for support, not for illumination
.”
- Mike Keenan, head coach, Calgary Flames
“Hockey is a living breathing thing. It
has a rhythm and a pace. You have to play within the rhythm and pace. If you
can control these two, you control the game!”
- John P. Russo (my son), assistant
coach, Benilde-St. Margaret’s
John Russo, Ph.D., is founder and
director of the
Let’s Play Hockey
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