Hockey is Life. In many ways, it rings true.

It’s not only a profound message found on colorful T-shirts and bumper stickers.

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Hockey is Life. It’s not only a profound message found on colorful T-shirts and bumper stickers. In many ways, it rings true. Many of the things young athletes learn in and around the game can make a tremendous impact on their lives down the road, and in a variety of ways, both personally and professionally.

“It’s absolutely true that what we teach kids as coaches can resonate later in life, though I think it’s different for every single person,” said USA Hockey Coach Developer Mike Schwartz, who has more than 30 years of experience teaching and coaching at all levels of the game. “When we’re training young hockey players, we don’t know which kid is going to figure it out or when. Sports can help you learn how to deal with all kinds of different situations or problems.”

Schwartz, who coached at Augsburg University, White Bear Lake High School, and a variety of other programs both in the U.S. and overseas, shared his thoughts on several hockey skills or traits and how they can transfer over to real life.  

Decision Making / Problem Solving
“We’re constantly putting kids in an environment on the ice where they have to make decisions. Eventually, they learn that those decisions are sometimes going to be successful and sometimes not successful. When you go out into the business world, it will be no different. When you’re driving your car down the street, and you have to make decisions about changing lanes, it’s the same thing. Decision-making and problem-solving work together in a lot of ways. They can’t really be separate, because the decisions we make are meant to solve problems.”

Mental Toughness
“Mental toughness has more to do with resiliency. You have to be resilient in sports because you will have to deal with things that don’t go your way and bounce back. Can you embrace the things that don’t go well and learn from them, put them into attainable goals? As adults, we know there’s a process. The kids don’t realize this. It takes time. You might say, ‘Oh, you’re not clicking with that coach, you think later in life your boss will be any different?’ You have to learn how to deal with it. Sports allow us to figure out how to use the difficulty to our advantage. You also have to be able to let things go. I find there are even some coaches who don’t get this.”

Sportsmanship
“Sportsmanship could be one of the most critical aspects. When you win, you have to win with grace, and when you lose, you have to lose with dignity. I think kids understand this better than coaches in a lot of cases. You can tell which parents do and which parents don’t.”

Handling Adversity
“If you can handle adversity, there’s nothing that will ever bother you. Just being calm in the moment. ‘Oh, so there’s another problem? Big deal, I got this.’ At the end of the season, when you look at the standings, there are just as many wins as there are losses. So, most people are dealing with adversity on a regular basis. When you get out into the workplace, there’s adversity every day. You have to be able to handle it. I think sports offer an opportunity to learn how to handle adversity. In hockey, where you have different people relying on each other at all times, you can recognize ‘what did we do right, what did we do wrong, and how do we fix it.’”

Discipline
“I think there are some words that sometimes get taken the wrong way. Discipline is one of those words. Everyone thinks it’s something bad. It’s not about being disciplined or being punished; it’s about doing something consistently, the right way, over the course of time. You find out that the majority of people who are doing very well or having the most success are really good at being disciplined and consistent. This is true in hockey, when it comes to how we practice, paying attention to details. And it’s true throughout life.”

Communication
“I think communication is very important. Players and coaches have to create their own language within their team, and everyone has to speak the same language. The challenge for coaches is to find ways to get the kids to talk to each other on the ice. This is definitely a critical skill that transfers to life. You’ll have to be able to talk to your co-workers. What if you’re out on a construction site and you’re the one who has to tell the crane to drop the load? How do you communicate that? Do you use hand signals? Do you have a walkie-talkie? Communication is a really important thing that can go from hockey to life in a short amount of time.

Many other hockey characteristics and scenarios can prepare kids for what’s to come in the future – from the value of teamwork, to understanding how to prepare and plan and take direction, to thinking outside of the box and being strategic, to learning how to adapt to rules and structures and different types of authority figures. Players also quickly learn there are consequences to actions or inactions. All of these things provide critical learning opportunities.

Schwartz advises hockey adults – parents or other coaches – to help remind the kids of the importance of what they’re doing, and how it can benefit them far beyond the rink.

“Coaches (and parents) have to think like teachers,” he said. “You get them for a few hours over the course of a week during the season. In practice, we make the drills age-appropriate, but as complicated as possible, sometimes without much instruction, so the kids have to figure out how to make it work. When kids are younger, you put them into a certain drill, you’re looking for them not be afraid of trying something new or failing. By the time they get to Bantam age, and they’re old enough to get jobs outside of hockey, you get to see how they take what they learned into life.”

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