Communicating is a such a large piece of how we all interact in everyday life. There are many means to communicate from the obvious like talking, to the more subtle body language. Players often underestimate the importance of this part of playing the game. This post hopes to shed some light on the importance of this skill and thoughts on how to become a more effective communicator.
The game of hockey is played at such a high pace that players having timely and relevant information to aid in their decision making are far more likely to make successful choices. The previous comment should seem obvious, but how, you as a player, can provide this input, may not be so transparent. First off, you need to keep in mind that like all interaction between two people you are only as good as your word. i.e. Can you be trusted and are your comments helpful? To give you an example of breaking that trust, think of an immature player that is constantly hanging around the front of the net calling for passes, despite the fact that they're covered and passing to him or her would have little chance of creating a positive result. Pretty soon, that player's teammates, learn to tune that player out and opportunities to assist one another are lost.
The second part of quality communicating is developing a simple vocabulary that your teammates can understand and act on appropriately. Usually the smallest word that paints the biggest picture is most effective. Think of words like "back", "up", "boards", "middle" and my favorite "TIME". One of the benefits of using these simple words is that they can be quickly repeated to make sure your teammates are getting the info. The other piece of this is making sure all your teammates know what these words mean. On my teams we talked about "our playing words" and made sure our players used them in all our training.
Taking a look at my favorite term "time". Here's a great example of supporting your teammate when they are in a position that they might not have an opportunity to read the ice well enough to understand the room they have to get their head up and figure out their next option. This might occur when a player has to retrieve a puck along the boards and had to turn their back to the middle of the rink or where a player breaks loose from a one on one battle and is not sure if his opponent has another support defender closing in on them. Letting this player know they have the time to re-orientate themselves to the situation at hand can make a huge difference on what happens next.
On the opposite side of having time words like back, middle or boards assist players that are under heavy pressure and often don't have the chance to get their head up enough to read the best options. These times are where a quick command will bail not only that player out, but give you team a chance to maintain puck possession and continue to pressure your opponent in all areas of the ice. Naturally, the more the players not in possession of the puck and in close support can read the ice the better the directive calls will be. This reading of the ice will mature as the players game improve and this is a facet of the game players and coaches should constantly look to work on. At the younger ages where players are more likely to be limited on sensing what the options might be available it is a more challenging proposition, but starting out in small areas and have success there can be built on as their game grows.
Another piece of this skill is the ability to add subtleties to your messaging. There will be times where you must be very aggressive or loud with your communication, like when a player is about to be pressured in a dangerous area that would put your team or they themselves at a big disadvantage. Maybe a player not seeing a forechecker coming or a player receiving a breakout pass with their back to a pinching defenseman. Another example that is very critical is in the scoring zone. Here you need to be overly aggressive with your calls when you find yourself wide open in a scoring area in front of the goal. Nothing is more discouraging than losing a great scoring chance because a player either didn't communicate in this spot or did so in a manner that didn't send a message of urgency of getting that player the puck. Make sure you drive home the point when you find yourself that open in that area the people in the parking lot should hear you yelling.
Even more subtle is what I call the anti-communicate, communication. Maybe you find yourself in a great backdoor area that the defender between you and your teammate isn't aware of you and or the goalie hasn't noticed you either. A yell hear might be just the help either of these two opponents needs to select a better option for defending you. An option here might be a silent waving of your stick to your side with the hope your teammate can pick up your signal. Naturally the higher level of hockey being played demands the more subtle messaging to gain an advantage. However, even at the highest of levels a constant communication on even the most basic of plays is a must. I was blown away at a young age the first time I had a chance to sit down at ice level for an NHL game. The conversations that I had previously not noticed made me feel like I was in a control tower at an airport. Players were constantly directing traffic that it almost made you feel you were witnessing a pre-rehearsed stage play. These were the most skilled players in our game and they needed this direction. Seems to be a no-brainer that all the players at the levels below need them even more.
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