Thanks, Daemyn! I'm touched!
Best thing I can tell you is you've gotta make em respect you. That's one of the hardest things. Once you get their respect and they listen to you, this opens a whole world of teaching and coaching possibilities. BUT, you gotta do it in a "fun" way.
When I very first started coaching a team of 9-11 year olds, whenever I'd blow the whistle to bring them to center and start the practice, they'd take forever to get to the center. They'd all keep shooting the pucks around, chasing eachother etc... When I'd go get those guys who were goofing off, the few who did actually come to center would start skating off as soon as I left them. This happened on the first three practices and I decided it was time to show them I meant business.
The next practice I blew the whistle and again, only a handful of kids came to center while the rest were still goofing around. I started counting out loud. "1,2,3,4.." Then I asked the kids that were in center with me to come on and join me in counting, and they did."FIVE, SIX, SEVEN - louder, count louder everyone! EIGHT, NINE,..." Finally, one of the kids spoke up and said "Hey, coach, why are we all counting?"
I paused counting to answer him "Oh, it's simple Danny, we're counting the number of laps everyone will do until we all line up in the center" and I then continued counting "TEN, ELEVEN...."
"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!" All the kids in center screamed! They immediately skated off to round up the bunch and by the time everyone finally got to center I had counted to 20. They skated all 20 laps.
The next week, I blew the whistle, started counting, and they only had to do 8 laps. The next week, 4 laps. Since then they've not had to skate laps and I don't count anymore.
For two years now, when I blow the whistle, they stop on a dime and line up in a half-arc formation sitting crosslegged. They do it now not because of the fear of skating laps, nor even out of respect for me I guess. They do it because they heard the whistle.
On a similar note, I had a goalie who always seemed to have to tighten his skates just after skating drills started, IMHO he was just trying to skip out of half of the drills. Finally, I started making the whole group do pushups while we waiting for him to tighten his skates. Obviously, with 12 kids yelling at him to hurry it up, he seemed to suddenly become more thorough in fastening his skates the first time!
Bernie
P.S. Oh yeah, another important thing- design or use drills that minimize "waiting for your turn". Make some kids wait for even 2 minutes and watch your whole practice turn into a free-for-all!
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