Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

NZIHF Basic Coaching Course

The IIHF Basic Coaching Course and is the first degree of accreditation a coach can receive from the NZIHF. The course is a more practical course with the only assessment coming in the form of implementing a practice plan on ice with a group of players. In 2009 the Federation intends for all active Club coaches to have completed, at minimum, the Basic Coaching Course. In 2010, it will be required that all Regional Rep Team coaches in New Zealand will need to have completed, at minimum, the IIHF Level I course.

This Basic Coaching Course will run for about 8 hours over two days. That will mean three to five hours of practical activities in a classroom followed by a practice planning session. This will be followed by and on-ice session for the coaches to implement their plan for a group of players. After that a final meeting will be held to give feedback and feed forward to the coaches. There will then be some time to share other resources and drills to close out the course.

In the classroom, the course covers the very basics in coaching as far leadership responsibilities, learning & teaching and planning & organisation. This will include parts on teaching skills based trainings, progressing from simple to more complicated when teaching skills (in hockey terms- teaching from technical to tactical to game like in drill progression). We will focus on the idea of Small Area Games, as it is by far the best way to develop ‘hockey sense’ in our players. This will lead into how to actually plan a practice to meet the needs of their team.

On-ice coaches will deliver a training as a team of coaches focusing on a fundamental skill in the game of hockey. We will focus on instruction time, activity time vs non activity time, utilisation/usage of ice, ways to split the ice and teaching in stations, use of a ‘head coach’ for the day etc.

Coaches will walk away from the course with the first step in the NZIHF National Coaching Accreditation Program as well as a better understanding of how to plan a more effective practice session and a bank of resources to help them in the daily coaching.

This course will take place on Friday 15 (7-9pm) and Saturday 16 May (all day), and should be at no cost to participants. If you are interested please email Kyle at president@dunedinicehockey.hellyer.kiwi. Spaces are limited so preference will be given to current coaches and those that are regarded as being likely to contribute back to the club.