By John Russo
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist

I was most recently talking to a high school coach and mentioned that I want “performance” from my players – and if I got it I didn’t care if we won the game or not. The coach asked me to define “performance” and did I really think that was the only thing that mattered.My response went something like what I’ve written below.

Hockey is a game where there are only two variables that you can control once the game starts – player effort and players doing their jobs. For those of you have been reading my columns for a long time (not necessarily all 26 years), you know that there are three things; the third being skill. But skill really can’t be changed during a game, so coaches can’t ask players to do more than the players are able to do once the game starts. Furthermore, every coach should understand the skill level of each player and the team as a whole at all times and coach within those skill sets.

Examples might be that the team has a player that is fast and tough but doesn’t have very good hands. The coach shouldn’t ask that player to quarterback a power play. One player may be the best shooter on the team but is not very fast or agile. The coach should try to set things up to get that player the puck in the shooting area as much as possible, not necessarily expect the player to get the puck to the shooting area.

Most teams also can be described in a broad way as to their skills. Some are fast, some are nifty with the puck, some are gritty. It’s the way they play. It is generally more productive to have lines together that are complementary. Some coaches like all grit on one line, some like a grit player on each line.

Coaches not only have a need to understand players’ skills, but to plan practices to improve the skill set of all players over a period of time. I’ve seen high school coaches that spend most of their time on systems and zone play. They expect their players to have skill sets coming in – like the NHL. I think that is asking way too much.

At the youth level, especially early in the year, skill work should make up two-thirds of every practice. That doesn’t mean all skating drills – or even just drills. Many small area games can be designed to teach skills, and understanding and effort, and performance.

So what is performance? Well, it’s all of the things that a player should be doing that aren’t effort and specific skills. Effort is easy to identify. Players are putting out all the time – that’s a pretty good definition of effort. Some players will do more or get there faster than others, but that isn’t the measure. Again, it’s a best effort possible by each player.

Performance is much harder to define. It heavily includes players doing their jobs within the systems (forecheck, defense zone, neutral zone), but also many other things like:
• Supporting the puck when a teammate has it. Getting into good positions to receive a pass and move the puck out of the zone, down the ice or to the net.
• Moving the puck to a well-positioned teammate in any of the three zones.
• Not moving the puck to teammate not properly positioned (much harder to measure).
• Backing up defensemen partners when they get out of position – or are being offensive.
• Shooting the puck properly from the point (not necessarily hardest).
• Taking or not taking chances at various times in games.
• Playing 2-on-1’s correctly as a D or a forward (a thousand options).
• Encouraging teammates and being a positive player.

The list could go on and on. Most of these items make up what a coach does most of the time – try to teach performance. Skills come mostly from drills – performance comes mostly from teaching; maybe using drills, too.

I have always liked to teach both verbally and through the use of drills and small area games. I feel that skills and performance drills/games can be tied together in many cases. As a coach of young players 25-30 years ago, I used to use “gate drills.” I made channels/slots on one side of the ice or down the middle (with cones) so players had to carry the puck to a certain point before passing or shooting – or getting a pass. This forced certain performance over and over until it was automatic.

That’s the way we teach most skills and many performance items in hockey – by “rote” (doing it over and over). The key is to get players to practice properly, so the over and over is GOOD performance or a good skill.

I still watch practices and shake my head at the basic things being done. Examples are 2-on-1’s and 3-on-2’s full ice. No 2-on-1’s, 2-on-2’s or 3-on-2’s ever happen full ice. It would be like starting a shot in a shootout behind the net at the other end. My 2-on-1’s and 3-on-2’s develop in the neutral zone – so in that zone learning can take place as well.

Many simple drills can be skill, effort and performance if they are well thought out. Example: All of my practices for 20-plus years started (mostly) with players along the boards at the hash marks, skating top speed across the top of the circle, and shooting. So we easily get skill (shot while feet moving), effort (full speed) and performance (attacking the net).

Coaches really need to look at everything they do in practices to make certain they are not only working on the most obvious performance items (systems) but also all other performance items that are just as important. They should try to create as much understanding as possible.

A couple last thoughts. The harder a player works and the more skills present, the easier it is to perform. So don’t ignore those two in practice.

In the end, coaches should also have someone monitoring certain key game performance items by players and by line. These are probably much more important than the shots, hits, etc. This gives the coaches a chance to continue to design practices that will improve a variety of performances that are lacking.

John Russo, Ph.D., is founder and director of the Upper Midwest High School Elite League. He was a captain at the University of Wisconsin, and his Coaches’ Corner columns have appeared in LPH since 1986.