Coach Mentor Program
The AAGHA would like to see a greater emphasis on team building and stronger relationships being formed between coaches, teams and players within our hockey family. We should all feel that we have a vested interest in each other’s success’, for the greater good of the young ladies within the organization. We've seen this happening already, the sense of teamwork and relationship building, results in an environment that people want to be a part of for years to come. We want Ancaster girls’ hockey to be the example of what could be accomplished in a caring, nurturing, supportive, respectful and focused organization.
To help build on the great work already being done, we would like to introduce three new programs for the 2016/17 season that will help move us in a desired direction to accomplish our goals. We believe they will help improve many aspects of our organization, and in turn, the experience for our dedicated coaches and all our incredible young ladies.
The programs:
•Coach mentor program
•Forth line program
•Youth helper program
Coach Mentor Program"Coaches Helping Coaches"
What makes our association great is its people. This program will utilize the vast knowledge and experience of our exceptional coaching staff and offer it to our newer coaches. We hope that by investing in our coaches we can attract and retain them for years to come. We want newer coaches to feel that they are supported within the organization and have the resources they need to provide the best experience for our girls.
This program will pair one of our experienced coaches with a newer coach to provide guidance and advice to ensure they are successful in their new coaching role and that the process is educational and fun for the new coach.
We know our coaches already do this informally amongst the group, all great coaches do. We want this type of attitude to be engrained into how we as an organization operate and evolve. This will translate into a stronger, more cohesive and knowledgeable organization from which our girls will all benefit.
The main concept is that you are never alone; you have a team behind you to help in any situation that you may come across.
The goal of the program is to build in a self-sustaining developmental consistency into our association to benefit our girls.
Why coach mentors?Many people in hockey believe that you can improve hockey development with an active and multi-faceted approach to a coach mentorship program. Hockey Canada, the Coaching Association of Canada, the provincial and regional hockey associations all support promoting hockey development through coach mentoring. There is evidence to suggest that one of the better ways to improve coaching is by getting experienced coaches to mentor their colleagues and to assist those experiencing difficulties.
The mentorship program brings resources, formal courses, youth helpers and coach mentors together to provide multiple resources to assist the new and the experienced coach.
Coach mentors can help with: •Planning. They can give you guidance on developing a season and practice plan to best suit your teams needs and to help focus your goals.
•Setting goals and objectives for the season.
•Practice planning. They can help you design practices to address specific skills required to improve team and player performance
•Identifying and measuring success factors
•Identifying drills to improve performance
•Effective lines and rotations
•Staff duties on and off the bench
•Team discipline
•Communication and so much more……
Objectives for the season: Novice, Atom and Pee Wee House and DS coaches will follow OMHA and/or Hockey Canada developmental and IP guidelines to formulate their practice plans to ensure developmental benchmarks are obtained.
http://owha.pointstreaksites.com/view/owha/players/development-1http://www.omha.net/page/show/925317-age-specific-player-developmenthttp://www.omha.net/page/show/885485-coach-and-player-resourceshttp://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/Hockey-Programs/Players/Essentials/Downloadshttp://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0042/7047/OMHA_COACHES_DRILL_BOOK_-_V3.pdfAll House and DS coaches will submit their season's practice plans to the house league convenor, development director and their coach mentor prior to the start of the regular season. If practice time is shared between teams, it is expected that each coach provides an equal share of plans. We understand that the plans will change slightly throughout the course of the year. Normally, only small adjustments will need to be made.
The intent of the request is to ensure coaches are prepared and knowledgeable of the developmental needs of our girls and to ensure a graduated development plan is in place to meet the developmental bench marks set by Hockey Canada.
House and DS coaches will have an assigned mentor to consult with when/if needed. The mentor will review all practice plans submitted and offer comments or advice as needed. Coaches are encouraged to use the knowledge and experience of these mentors to ensure our girls are being given the tools they need to be successful in our association.
Coach mentors will periodically, if possible, attend on ice with their coaches to observe practices and offer suggestions if necessary. More likely, due to time demands on the mentors, house coaches will attend practices with their mentor’s team to enhance their skills and knowledge. Novice, Atom and Peewee house coaches will be expected to attend one practice per month with their mentor.
Please see the “coach resource database” on our website for helpful resources. Having a plan set out at the start of the year will make it much easier. The resources provided and your coach mentor will make these tasks much less daunting then they appear.
Please direct any questions or suggestions to:
Dan Starr
AAGHA Development Director
development@ancastergirlshockey.ca