In order to reach our goals, we need to have a plan… a ‘Personal Development Plan’.
Generally speaking, this newsletter reaches five main audiences: coaches, scouts, players, parents, and media. Let’s dive into examples of how all of us can go about planning our own development.
Own your development
Raising awareness and taking ownership are the two catalysts for any type of change people want to make in their life. Improving and developing as an athlete, coach, scout, parent, or media member is no different.
There are three key ingredients to a Personal Development Plan (PDP):
What?
How?
When?
This is about creating your own athletic process.
What are you going to work on?
A ship without a port has no correct heading. A goal and theme are required to set a course down your path. For example:
For players - Stickhandling. Mental toughness. Hockey IQ.
For coaches - Emotional control. Connecting deeper. Educating more.
For scouts - Understanding skills. Identifying what translates into future success.
For parents - Saying less. Supporting more.
For media - Expanding expertise. Larger reach.
How are you going to accomplish this?
After finding what we want to go after, there is the actual path that guides us on how to reach that goal.
For players - Additional pinpointed reps. Developing mental toughness. (Checking out Hockey’s Arsenal Daily Detail on Twitter or Instagram!)
For coaches - Taking a deep breath. Being specific. (Reading Hockey’s Arsenal!)
For scouts - Networking, self-reflection, watching film. (Listening to the Hockey IQ podcast!)
For parents - Staying in tune with a child’s feelings. Keeping a long-term view.
Multiple episodes of our Hockey IQ podcast touched on hockey parenting. Both former NHLer Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and NHL skills consultants Dwayne Blais and Darryl Belfry have great stories sharing their experiences as hockey parents.
For media - Experiment. Add skills (e.g. placing videos in articles). Develop a deeper understanding of a part of the game you’re not as familiar with (e.g. analytics).
When are you going to put in the work?
The final piece is finding the actual time. “I don’t have enough time” is the most common excuse on the planet.
Who has the time? But of course, if you don’t make time… how can you ever have time?
For players - Stickhandling before school or while watching TV. Shooting extra pucks. Gym time or stretching before bed. Watching game shifts instead of scrolling through social media.
For coaches - Time block to read, reflect, and learn. Collaborate with other coaches.
For scouts - When the kids and wife are sleeping or while riding the exercise bike. Listen to podcasts while exercising.
For parents - Being present when around kids. Taking a step back (or deep breath) when feeling blood pressure increasing.
For media - Deliberate self-study.
Stick taps to scout Justin Froese, who really dug into this topic during the lockdown and was an inspiration for this post from afar.
Further reading
Taking your plan and implementing it into a process is one this. Optimizing that process is a further step to best use your time to honest your talents
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