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Your Total Guide To sport
The Aaron Nell Column: Entering The World Of Ice Hockey
Swindon Wildcats' head coach Aaron Nell writes exclusively, every week for Total Sport. This week, Nell examines the first steps youngsters take when entering the world of ice hockey, using anecdotes of his own beginnings along the way...
This week I wanted to talk about getting into the sport of ice hockey itself. It's not the most conventional of sports here in the UK, and it is one of those where it is perhaps not as easy as picking up a cricket bat or tennis raquet and just getting going.
Being from an ice hockey playing family, getting into the sport was, as you may expect, quite easy for me, and something I took to particularly quickly.
Some people take to it completely naturally, as though they were born on the ice. When I first started I found it came quite easily, though I wasn't a complete natural. But it is about working hard, putting in that time and effort and driving yourself to become better and better.
When it comes to our sport and starting off, skating is the most important thing. Fundamentally, that is what it comes down to.
People do the lessons, with things like the public sessions or other similar opportunities to skate, and that is where you get better. It is where you can improve your method, skill and technique, and with that improvement comes an element of confidence which can only aid your progression.
Time on the ice isn't that accessible for most people, so it's all about trying to put in those extra sessions if you really want to get into the sport and take it seriously.
When you're younger it's all about practice practice practice, and that really isn't a cliche.
I first started when I was around four or five years old. That's the age a lot of the ice hockey players you see playing today start but, that said, people are starting at all ages now so I wouldn't really say a certain starting point particularly matters - you just need to get stuck in and commit yourself to the sport and wanting to improve.
I would say I was lucky in that I started young, but ice hockey has been around me all my life.
When you look at young players today, young boys or girls who are getting into the sport, you can always get a feel for whether they will make a good player or not by the way they skate.
Then it comes down to how a player uses their team mates. Like other sports, I suppose it is easy for one player to really dominate and impose themselves on the field of play when they're younger. But, if they can do that and involve their team mates at the same time - making plays and also making other players perform better, then that shows they have got a level head on their shoulders and perhaps could be something special.
Nowadays it's all about speed and how quickly players can get about on the ice. I've noticed now that players are bigger and stronger than ever before, which shows a sign of the sport's development as a whole.
Looking at it on a technical level, everybody can skate nowadays. In the past you maybe had some who werent as good at skating as others, that is not as much the case any more.
There is a lot of focus in today's hockey on individual skills. In Swindon we always look at these individual areas, such as passing, stick handling and shooting - and from there you get more onto the team related attributes as the players get older. At around 13 or 14, this is when things like systems come into play and the concentration is getting teams moving as one.
In terms of knowng where you want to play, or perhaps where you are best suited to play on the ice, this can come about at lots of different times. Players switch positions all the time when they're coming through in ice hockey - sometimes you don't really know when you are best suited until you're around 15 or 16 years old.
Some people start their professional careers as forwards but then move back to D in their later years, when they're a bit smarter with the game and maybe want to prolong their careers.
It's different for everyone. For me, I always wanted to be a forward, that was it. I was always told to play whereever the better players don't want to play, and that's why you have to learn to play in as many positions as possible. In the long run though, this serves you well. It makes you a more well-rounded and valuable player to your team.
The biggest underlying principle though, which does sometimes get forgotten, is that it is all about having fun. Today, some people can forget that. Even when I was younger I recall parents on the side lines being so hard on their kids. You can still find that today, and it's important to avoid this.
When I was young my dad always said 'if you want to play, play - but if not, don't worry about it'. The kids have to enjoy it, and even at our level now that is still very important.
Before every game I still tell the boys to go out there and enjoy it. At the end of the day, if you can't go out on the ice and have fun, there's simply no point. Your performance level is going to go down, and that is just no use for anyone.
Enjoyment of the sport is paramount - we all need to remember that.
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