One conditioning drill used by hockey coaches includes line sprints up and down the rink. This sort of sprinting drill is called “suicides” in basketball, soccer, and football. In hockey they are called Herbies, named after legendary national team coach Herb Brooks. Brooks used the sprints to “break” his players. […]
A friend of mine sent me an email last week with the subject header: “I Never Thought I’d Be That Crazy Hockey Parent”. I took a second glance at who wrote it, because I know a lot of hockey parents, and the running list I keep of people […]
My daughter and I leave tomorrow morning for a hockey trip to Duluth. The girls will be building friendships, learning about themselves as athletes and as teammates, and playing some good hockey. The parents will be partying. I am willing to roll our kids from rink to rink, […]
For many years I joked I was going to homeschool our kids through junior high. My plan was to keep them home during the maturation years and then put them back with their peers when they were high schoolers. I remember my own time in middle school as moderately uncomfortable, […]
Winning feels good. Scoring goals, having a shutout, and performing well feels good. Losing hurts, as does poor performance or lack of production. From the perspective of an athlete who has felt all of those emotions as a player, I still struggle with how to get rid of those feelings when I watch […]
Phew. My least favorite time of year is over. The evaluations are done, the teams are named, and although it was not a painless process in our house this year, it was a time for significant growth for all of us. Last week, as though perfectly timed with […]
I wasn’t sure I wanted to share this piece, but the more I sit with it, the more I know it is a reflection of what so many people experience at the beginning of a sports season. I wrote this Thursday morning: It’s 3:53 am. I am wide […]
“I’m not going to football today…actually, I’m not going to football anymore. I quit!” My husband and I sat stunned as we listened to our twelve-year-old rant, rave, and rebel against the instruction to get himself ready for practice. It took us a few minutes to formulate the response we wanted. I’m sure […]
Spring soccer started a couple weeks ago. In our house it looks like chaos…pretty much from start to finish. Both the girls are playing and, in what seems like a purposeful punishment for our family, their practices are scheduled on the same days…at the same time…and of course at two […]
I never thought I would play professional sports. My husband thought he might. I made the misstep last night of telling our 12-year-old that the chances of him becoming a professional hockey player are pretty miniscule. I struggled with the reaction of both my husband and my son as they told me I was […]
The Team Adult Playbook 