-
Counter
The real opponent of the game is not the player or team. In fact it is the ability of hockey player's to slow down the game and be ached of actions and above the game. This only can happen when you develop Elite Hockey Agility!
After the referee's whistle, the each team become mobile system in which players cover the whole ice surface, not just their half of the rink. This characteristic puts high demands on the hockey player's attention and eye concentration and ability to switch and divide attention during the game space and shift's time. To "read and react quickly and accurately" player's have to see the large number of moveable objects and not only rely on degree of physical power or good skating skills. We can see attitude of player's hearts but do we know what is in their heads? Even though, the majority of them are physically gifted, their maneuverability very primitive. The most critical factor is the quality of their visual-thinking ability during a given action. In hockey dominated by physical skills, the mental-tactical skills of the players are undefined. We finally understand that "big body with a slow mind" does not an important in today's hockey.
Mind speed controls the body during high-speed motions. The speed of the mind isn't speed that we can see or time with a stop watch. Mind speed is what goes on it the player's brain before he reacts. Mind speed is the essence of "future Gretzky" and a "Miracle on Ice".
Most hockey players spend enormous amounts of time and energy trying to improve technical - physical skills but neglect tactical - mental development. However, game thinking is still the most Important player fundamental skill. Many hockey players with good physical abilities get tired quickly at the game. Most of them believe that they need to focus more on their strength conditioning. The fact is, they wear out from visual-thinking tiredness, exhaustion and fatigue and not from lack of body shape or endurance. In short, it the muscles of eyes get tired and muscular system of whole body get tired too. The best of the best are those who passes the mind speed to complete one action while thinking of the next, and maybe even the one after that. In other words, there aren't fast effective legs without fast mine speed. Ask Wayne Gretzky!
Being a coach in gymnastic, figure skating in former Soviet Union and more than past 39 years working
with hockey players in North America and in Europe I see a different levels of competitiveness in
children who play hockey and children who perform to win individual sport title. In the first group I see
more immature and recreational players who are inclined to physical power and ignoring mental
development. In this group I see less "winners-losers with a competitive passion" and more "happy"
participants without passion to win. The second group show more competitiveness, aggressiveness,
ambitiousness and physical and mental approaches are taking equally.
In hockey two team forces
striving against other for the purpose of dominance to score the most goals. In order to win the game,
you need to "see ahead and think ahead where you have to be" and "react with body power and
accuracy" in fraction of 45 seconds shift. First two abilities belong to the mental control. If you ignore
mind development, you will be playing game, like pawn playing chess with limited quantity of skills. For
mental control of game situation you have to have dynamic vision {poly-vision} instead of stationary vision {mono vision}.
The benefit of dynamic vision have proven on any level of team's sport. In hockey, I found that the children who do on-line home training have significant improvement in the accuracy and quickness on their physical skills compared with children who ignore on-line visual training. I am sure that on-line home training will substantially improve your ability to quickly "read and react" in game actions.
