Practice Habits
Being an athlete does not mean you only compete in games. It involves dedicating time to practice, off-ice conditioning, mental training, and much more, as well as competing in games. Our goal as athletes is to perform at our best during competition. In an ideal world we would just go out and play at elite levels simply by deciding we were going to in that moment and not worry about practicing to refine those skills. The truth of the matter is it requires much preparation to play at our most capable level time after time. It takes hard work during practice to ensure that we are able to perform elite skills at elite speeds in moments that are filled with pressure. The optimal time to master skills is during practice, not during games. Games are the showcase of those skills. For this reason, practicing well with good habits is exponentially important to developing and realizing your potential.
Think of your day at school. You sit through classes listening to your teacher explain new material while you take notes and try to comprehend what is being explained. At the end of the day you return home with a task, or multiple, to complete before the next school day begins. This is homework. Homework is the repetition of the information and skills you learned in class during the day. At the end of the lesson more than likely you will have a test to see how well you were able to learn the information and the skills taught over that time period. Do you go to school to learn and work at it? Are you attentive to the teacher’s instruction? Or do you just go and fool around, not really caring about each day or what the teacher is trying to do? Do you ensure that you know all the material for the test coming up? Did you put in time with your homework to learn and practice everything?
Now think of your week at the rink. Every time you go to the rink is like going to school. Your time at the dry-erase board when the coach is explaining is your time in class. The time you spend doing the drills is the homework and the games on the weekend are the tests. Skills are engrained into your brain through repetition. If the skills are practiced properly they will be remembered properly. The same is true if they are practiced improperly. Do you “study” and “do your homework” properly, concentrating with the goal of doing well on the tests? Or do you just go to practice and goof around, not paying attention to the details of the drills or trying very hard to execute them with a purpose? How well do you think your effort and concentration in practice will prepare you for your games (tests)?
Hockey is not something that we can simply just perform at our highest ability whenever we choose to. As was stated before and like many other things in life we must sharpen our skills through repetition with proper technique if they are ever to improve. This begins with strong practice habits. Practice habits is a term used to describe the way in which a person or people manages themselves internally and externally throughout an entire practice. Some examples of strong
 practice habits are always hitting the net, stopping on pucks, following the drills as they are explained, making passes on the tape, and playing with game intensity all the time. Throughout all of the previously listed characteristics must be a focus to do everything at the highest level of capability without fear of failure. Perfect practice will result in perfect execution the same way that poor practice will result in poor execution. Players with poor practice habits often play in fear and do not extend themselves out of their comfort zone for fear of making a mistake and how they will look or what the consequence might be. Poor practice habits may also be a result of a lack of passion. In order to make gains and be committed to improvement you must be passionate about what you are doing, especially when you are practicing and developing.
The impact of practice habits on a team can’t be understated. Habits are contagious and will spread throughout a team depending on how a few players or coaches choose to execute during their time on the ice. Good practice habits can lead to great achievement and maximum growth while bad habits can lead to underachievement, minimal growth, and ultimately disappointment.
It will also to be easier to focus in games if you are accustomed to focusing during the week of practice. Remember that hockey practice is not just a physical thing. It is also to hone your mental ability. Physical action is driven by mental focus. Without a brain that can engage at a speed faster than the speed you are moving at, you will never be able to perform at your highest level.
Practice habits play a large part in your hockey experience and what type of player you will become. We hear the old adage “Practice makes perfect” when we are young and are told that if we practice enough we will become good. But don’t let this saying fool you. If you practice skills poorly or incorrectly you will either never master the skill or you will master the incorrect technique of a skill, rendering it useless. “Practice makes permanent” is the reality of how we handle repeatedly performing an action. The saying you should know and rely on every time you step on the ice is this, “Perfect makes perfect.” The amount of perfect work you put into being a complete player in practice will translate in how complete of a player you are in games. Strive to perfect every repetition of every drill you are a part of. Elite players train at elite levels every time they are presented the opportunity. No detail is too small, no skill unimportant or too refined to improve. For them excellence begins in practice with good habits, so when their next test comes they will have done all they can to ensure they ace it.
 John Daigneau Academy of Hockey Development Coach