The Mental Aspects of Ice Hockey: 5-3 = Someone is Open!

Hockey is a physical and mental game. What can be done to help teach your child the mental aspects of the game? A lot! However, I had a hard time finding information on how to teach them... the mental aspects of the game that is. So, I decided to take my career knowledge and make it up.

The idea goes like this... 11 and 12 years olds have the capacity, at this age, to start using their brains to improve their game play. The mental game is like learning physical skills. You have to practice them and teaching helps.

5-3 = Someone is Open!

If your child has the puck and draws 3 players toward them... then they did 1/2 their job. The other half is moving the puck to another open player. Losing the puck because you hold on to it to long, is not a good hockey play. This is a mental aspect of the game.

If there are 5 defenders on the ice and 3 of them come to your child then that leaves only 2 defenders to cover his 4 teammates. Simple math. Someone is wide open!  It is easy for a child to get overly focused on the puck, on scoring or on skating. However, these things typically lead to losing the puck once 2 and 3 defenders pounce on them. They may NOT even notice the number of players around them. This is a mental aspect of the game.

You can teach your child to hard count the players in their field of vision and visually begin to see the game differently. Practice will allow your child to quickly realize... I have 2, 3 or 4 players on me and I need to PASS or DUMP the puck. This will become an automatic response. Less thinking/processing time means quicker reactions and decisions.

How to teach 5-3 = Someone is Open!

Well of course they need to hear it. But they also need to practice it. Below are the basics, but you can arrive to the same point many different ways.

Step One
Talk to them about hard counting the players when they are first on the ice. They should look up and count the players during face-off. Not their team but the other team. At face-off they should simply look and hard count in their head 1,2,3,4,5. This is the mental practice. This is the starting point. This gets them to count.

Step Two
During the game they should count the numbers of the other team in their field of vision. This is more practice. With time, instead of counting, the brain will register 2 or 3 or 0. The counting goes away and the brain registers the number of players in their vision.

Step Three
Talking to them about options once they notice 2, 3 or sometimes 4 players coming at them is the next step. This is something they have been and are being taught over and over again in practice. They have already been taught and are practicing the response skills. Passing and dumping the puck are the responses to having 2 or 3 players on them. You are working with your child to get them to mentally jump to their options once they draw multiple players towards themselves. Helping them to more quickly make a decision and pull the trigger to pass or dump the puck is the goal.

Step Four
This mental exercise is about visually identifying and understanding your surroundings. This is a mental aspect of the game. By helping your child focus on their field of vision and learning to understand what they see during the game, they will become better hockey players. Step 4 is continued practice and discussion of steps 1-3. Expect it to take about 4-8 games to see mental changes in the game. Kids learn at different speeds.