Mental Aspects of Ice Hockey: Mid-Season Assessment, Fun, and Goals

It is mid-season so to speak. Our players have played in 27 games. What does that mean for 10-12 year olds? I spoke before about their ability to begin to understand what they do and don’t do well. Mid-season is a great time to have a discussion with your child about how they have progressed. Progression is the key.

I recommend using this conversation as a way to assess how they are enjoying themselves. First, ask them what their team is doing well. Ask them what their team can improve on. This does 2 things. One, it focuses them on the team. Hockey is about team play. At this age and point in the season, they should understand the pass and teammate next to them is mightier than trying to beat 3 players on their own, only to lose the puck or get off a lame shot. See what they notice and understand about the past games. By having them identify the teams strengths and weakness, they are also identifying things they are doing. Two, it is away to ease them into talking about themselves.

This is not an opportunity for you to lay down an agenda. You can always guide the development of one but your child knows if you are listening or just telling. Before you even start with their strengths/pros/good and weakness/cons/bad, ask them to recap their most enjoyable plays. You really want to find out if they are enjoying themselves. Their best plays probably have aspects of their strengths in them.

Just ask them what they think they can better develop or improve over the next half of the season. These aren’t so much weaknesses but improvements. I explain it to my son like this, “You are much faster than a year ago and handle the puck really well. What else would you like to add to those skills?” He identified 2 things. He wants to speed up when coming down the boards and when making a move on a player. He wants to improve his backward cross-overs. Hockey skills can always be improved. Teaching your child to understand getting better doesn’t mean that they are bad at something, is very important. It just means hockey is hard as heck and even NHL players continue to work on getting even better.

Reviewing the fun part of the season with your child is more important than pointing out what they need to work on. If they are having fun, they will continue to become better rounded players. That being said, this is the age and the mid-season is a good time to help them learn about and better understand what practice is used for. There are travel and recreational levels of play. Expectations of attitude and behavior are different between these levels. A big part of teaching your child the mental aspects of ice hockey is preparing them to practice with a high personal standard. Their own standard, not one they are told to follow so they don’t get yelled at by the coach. Having fun leads to improvement by building on success. Setting goals is fine. It is the road you take to identifiying goals that makes all the difference. Think about it.