Thanks to everyone who
participated in the 2006 Coaching
Symposium!
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Coaching Symposium Success
By Allen Standlee

Twenty area coaches participated in the first annual Ice Hockey
Coaching Symposium held by Fundamental Hockey
(www.fundamentalhockey.com) on Saturday, July 15 at
CBC High School.

The symposium was the brain child of Fundamental Hockey’s
owner, Mark Diedrich, who told the coaches assembled on Saturday
morning, “The idea for this symposium first struck me 3 years ago
while serving as an evaluator for the Black Bear League.” The Black
Bear League was a one year experiment by Missouri Hockey to level
the playing field in the squirt age division. The idea was to balance
the skill level of the teams, so one or two teams would not dominate
and all of the players would have the opportunity to develop
fundamental skills. Mr. Diedrich said he believed it was a good idea,
from the standpoint of skill development.

“As I watched the first evaluation, however, I realized very quickly,
that out of the hundred or so kids I saw that day only 4 or 5 were
truly “AA” caliber players.” Diedrich said Saturday. It’s not that they
were really bad, it was just obvious to me that they hadn’t been
taught how to properly skate, there were very few kids in that
evaluation who had what I would call an efficient skating stride.”

Diedrich soon got to work putting together the symposium. “I knew
right away that the best way to reach the kids was through their
coaches, sort of a “train the trainer” program.” He set out contacting
many of his coaching friends in the community to serve as
presenters for the one day symposium. “I realized I don’t know
everything, honestly no one does, but there are some great coaches
in this community, great resources for the youth coaches who haven’
t yet been tapped. The USA Hockey clinics are great, I’ve always
learned from them both as a student and as a presenter. What I’m
trying to accomplish here is to augment that training – kind of a “off-
season” camp for coaches. My ultimate goal is to make this a Mid-
West version of the Roger Neilson Clinic. Somewhere for coaches all
around the Mid-West gather and hone their skills as coaches.”

While that may be a lofty goal, Diedrich said he just wanted as many
coaches as possible to learn as much as they could about the sport
that they are all so passionate about.

That passion was obvious with the first speaker, Titus Dare, who is
currently serving both the Chesterfield and Rocket’s Learn To Play
Programs. Mr. Dare spoke about developing the skating stride, tips
to teach children the correct motion and stance for proper skating
technique. The presentation was well received and promoted a
healthy discussion among the coaches on various facets of skating.

The second topic was lead by the Symposium Director, Mark
Diedrich, who spoke on the fundamentals of puck control. He began
his talk discussing the importance of proper stick selection and the
fact that many parents (who are not involved in the game) may not
understand how critical stick selection can be. He talked not only
about stick handling, but passing & receiving and shooting.

The St. Louis Jr. “B” Lightning’s new Head Coach Mike Jaros then
spoke on Checking. His talk centered on proper technique and
discussions on drills and methods for teaching players how to
check. An interesting part of his talk was the fact that checking skills
can and should be taught to players lower than the PeeWee age
division! He repeated many times how important the skill of angling
was to the checking game, and how if this skill is learned and
developed in the younger (squirt & mite) age divisions, players
would be better prepared to handle the skill of body checking.

After an hour lunch break, which consisted of a box lunch provided
by the St. Louis Bread Company, the symposium continued with a
terrific presentation by former St. Louis Blues Goalie, Bruce Racine.
“Bruce was a last minute replacement”, said Diedrich. “Tom Jost
wasn’t able to make it, and Tom Winkler put me in touch with Bruce,
who really saved us. The goaltending segment was key to the
success of this symposium. Most of us (coaches) haven’t played
goal, and we are somewhat mystified by the position, Bruce does a
great job of de-mystifying the position. He gave every coach in
attendance, myself included, some key teaching points to use with
our goaltenders this winter.

Bob Kearns, Head Coach of the Parkway West Longhorns, followed
Bruce with a presentation on the use of Small Area Games. Bob’s
presentation was highlighted with video clips of college practices
using the small area game concepts successfully. The key to small
area games, according to Kearns, is that every facet of the game is
practiced and reinforced at game tempo.

The final presenter of the day was Tom Winkler. Tom is the Director
of the Hockey Academy of St. Louis and Director of Player
Development & Assistant Coach with the 3 time National Champion
St. Louis Jr. “B” Blues. Winkler’s topic was “The Need for Skill
Development at the Youth Level”. Winkler drew on his past
experience as an assistant Jr. “A” coach in Bozeman, Montana the
last 5 years to show the coaches in attendance the importance Jr.
“A” coaches play on skill development. Almost every practice in
Bozeman utilized some time to focus on skill development; he even
showed some video of his team during a practice using skill
development “stations” on the ice. He opened a few eyes on the
critical need for St. Louis coaches to focus on skill development and
away from the win/loss column. “Winning is a by-product of skill
development,” Winkler told the coaches on Saturday.

The day ended with some attendance prizes, donated by the Hockey
Academy, given away to the participants. “Now that the framework is
in place, I see no reason why, if they wanted it, we couldn’t present
this information to entire associations and their coaches. It’s truly an
overlooked component of the coaching equation; we just assume
coaches know what to teach simply because they played. That’s like
saying the only qualification a teacher needs is to have been
through school.”

Diedrich said he hoped to offer the symposium again next year, and
if comments overheard at the end of the day are any indication, it
should be very well attended.

(For Speaker Bios, click here)
2006 COACHING SYMPOSIUM