Interview With a Youth Hockey Coach

 Today I am sitting down with a respected youth hockey coach named Nick, he wishes to keep his last name private. Nick had played the game of hockey for 20 years and has coached for now five seasons.  I wanted to understand his knowledge on what he thinks is the proper way to develop youth talent. The first question I asked him was "what is the first thing a player should focus on improving?" His response was "Skating without a doubt. Skating is one of the hardest skills to develop on ice, and it is the most important skill overall. A good skater makes a great impact for a team. Young players should be focused on improving their skating every chance they get. Players should get comfortable skating in all directions and learn to rely on their inside and outside edges." After that I followed up with "what is a way for players to understand positioning?" His response was "Honestly, know all the positions on the ice and understand their role, once you do that you can start looking at the players at a pro level and where they put themselves on the ice. Watching the pros play is such an underrated tool, they are masters at positioning so my advice would be to study their gameplay." Finally, I just wanted to ask one more thing from Nick. I presented the question "what is the most important thing in youth development?" His response was "to make sure the players are enjoying what they are doing and not there to make someone happy. The most important part of the game is having fun. If you're having fun, you can accomplish anything." I would like to thank Nick for his time and insight on the game.

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