MENTAL SKILLS
Don’t be misled by the brevity of this middle section. Its meaning and
effect on an athlete’s season and a team’s success are almost impossible to
overstate.
Confidence
Every good player must have confidence to be successful. Confidence is
difficult to gain and easy to lose. Every coach must work constantly to build
confidence by putting players in positions in which they can be successful,
which in turns helps increase confidence levels.
The challenge for coaches and players alike is preventing confidence loss,
which happens when a player isn’t having success and the coach replaces
him in situations when the player thinks he should be on the ice. A good
teaching tool for players and coaches is to use video of successful situations
from the past. The only way for a player to regain confidence is to trust
himself, be patient, and work harder.
Every season presents many challenges, highs, and lows for each player.
Forwards come under scrutiny every game because so much public perception
regarding how good they are is directly related to scoring and
producing points. Not all forwards are scorers or are expected to score,
but they are judged in some way, if not by points, then by categories
such as hits or plus–minus. Today, everyone is expected to contribute
offensively.
Attitude
A critical component of every good team is that the players have a positive,
team-first attitude, and they share the joy and excitement of team success
over individual accolades. This is a trait that all coaches want in their players,
especially their best players.
If your best players have the best attitudes on the team, then your team’s
chances of being successful increase dramatically. Proper attitude can
include flexibility (as to where you play and whom you play with), adaptability
(as to when or how much you play), and work capacity. The more
diverse you are, the better you are.