“Meet Them at the Door”

“Meet Them At the Door”

Every teaching manual constantly reminds beginning teachers or the most seasoned veterans to meet their students at the door before every class. Obviously, you can’t be there every class it’s humanly impossible to be there to greet them every single day, but just a little thing like that can go a long way.

I haven’t coached in quite a long time, but thinking back to my last Head Coaching experience is always special. One of the things I miss the most which I made a concerted effort to do before every practice that year was to be at the door waiting for the kids to come out and just shoot the shit with them. For two to four minutes while the Zamboni was finishing up I would interact with the kids joking around, keeping things light, or having important one on one discussions or just to make sure they understood the expectations of practice, the plan and the first drills and its progression.

It was the first year I ever did that and what a difference it made. The kids were anxious to get on the ice, they were fired up, all had smiles on their faces and they were ready to go and in a great state of mind.

I’ve written a lot about communication between coach and player this year so far due in large to the buzz I’m hearing at every level that “communication” and the player/ coach dynamic these days is way off kilter.

Everyone asks me if I miss coaching, obviously I do miss it, but the one thing I miss the most is practice. I miss working with kids, seeing them finally acquire a new skill and master it. I miss seeing kids grow and develop as players and people, I miss the group being challenged and rising above and beyond. I miss a well run and executed systematic drill with tons of progression.

I miss battle drills and seeing kids push themselves, but I miss meeting them at the door and having those quick interactions with them.

Looking back at it now, those interactions were monumentally important and tremendously influential for me to get my mind and body ready to switch gears from a long day at school.

“Meet them at the door”

It’s cliche, it might be humanly impossible to do it every day, but it makes such a massive difference for the coach and player, just like the student and teacher.

Sometimes the smallest human interactions are the most meaningful.