Getting Coached

One benefit - nay, perk - of having worked in TV/Radio media for all of my career has been the unique opportunities (read, freebies) that have come along the way. From concerts to sporting events to free zoo passes and weekly pizza, there’s always something, including the occasional run in with a “celebrity.”

For the most part, local media leads to local celebrities. These I rarely get excited about, but it sounds good in conversation. Some people get really excited about local celebs, like news casters and radio DJs, but ever so often you’ll meet “real” celebrities - those people that even media people don’t get to meet all the time. I can count on one hand how many not-everyday-celebrities I’ve seen and/or met in person.

One of the first ones was when I worked at the TV station and met Dan Rather. I know, I know…oooo, Dan Rather, but nonetheless, he is a high name person that people all over the country recognize. Since I’ve been at the radio station (just shy of two years now), I’ve met several pop music people. None of them really impressed me since I don’t like that music, but one I did enjoy was meeting the Goo Goo Dolls. Who knows what person will show up next…although a little mouse said it might (might) be Gavin Rossdale.

Just last week I got to meet another celebrity, this time from the world of sports. OK, well, he’s not really a celebrity. Most people don’t know who he is or what he does outside of Columbus, but I still classify him as a person not everyone gets to meet. I got the opportunity to sit in on a Hockey 101 session led by Columbus Blue Jackets head coach, Ken Hitchcock.

Like I said, not a celebrity really (maybe a local celebrity?), but in that same stroke I’ll waste no time pointing out that this guy is a coach in the NHL - and that’s big time. This isn’t college or some arena league, this is a professional sports team. Despite the Jackets’ lack of performance over the past eight years, Ken Hitchcock makes millions of dollars a year running a hockey team. This man held the Stanley Cup. Nuf said.

Ken Hitchcock has a weekly show on the sports talk radio station I work for and this time he was coming in early to give a Hockey for Dummies lesson to anyone that wanted to learn. I like to consider myself a hockey fan, but I don’t really “know” hockey, so having the chance to learn from The Coach was pretty neat.

I was one of the first to get to the conference room and I went to sit in the back of the room. Since I was there for more entertainment than for my job, I figured I’d try to stay out of the way. But then Coach Hitchcock came in and does he sit at the front head of the room like a normal person? No, he sits at the back head of the table…right next to me. Oh well.

Dressed in comfy jeans and denim he looked like your neighbor. He dropped his keys on the table and I saw that he has his BP and Giant Eagle card just like the rest of us. It was one of those times where you realize that we’re all really the same - he just happens to make millions a year playing hockey.

One thing that surprised me the most - and for the better - was his attitude and personality. Typically when I think about a “coach” I picture someone that yells for a living and never settles for less than perfect. Someone who is strict on and off the court (or ice). Coach Hitchcock couldn’t be more the opposite. He is a really personable guy that exudes knowledge about hockey. His little clinic was great and really informing, not just about hockey about how he runs a hockey club. (And it really helped when we went to the Jackets game that Friday!)

I had a little piece of paper to jot things down in case I heard anything interesting. Some people in the room had pages of notes by the time he was done, but they were sports reporters and hosts, so the knowledge he shared gave them insight to the team. To me, however, some the things he mentioned were interesting because of how universal they were. Universal in that they are good “rules” to follow when you’re dealing with people and running an organization (team or business). And maybe some of these things are pure sports and I’ve just turned into business theories, who knows. I’m just a nerd like that. While everyone else was listening for juicy team tidbits, I was reading between the lines trying to learn how a hockey team is run. So as I write about the things I jotted down, think about how each relates to your own job and business.

Hitchcock started his class with the statement at that “hockey is 75% defense, and 25% offense.” Defense being anytime you don’t have the puck. A good hockey team is a good defensive team. A good defensive team can control the puck and essentially wears down their opponent, then strikes in the last few moments to win (like in Rocky III). It’s not about attacking, it’s about how to handle what comes your way and responding accordingly to put things at your advantage.

Then someone asked the coach what separates a NHL player from a non-NHL player (like AHL or IHL). Hitchcock first stated that a player is considered veteran in the NHL when he has been in the league at least three years, regardless of their actual age. Age does not define your seniority, your experience does. But the big difference between the two is consistency. Good players are consistent up to about 93% - that is they can make 75 out of every 80 plays successfully. So even if you’re an older player and a veteran by years, if you’re not consistent then you’re not a good player.

Although I don’t know the history of hockey coaches, Hitchcock seems a somewhat stoic coach, showing little emotion during a game. He says this is critical to being a good coach. Leaving your emotion at the door, as it were, lets you focus on what you’re there to do - run a hockey club and win a game. He gave an anecdote about how he watches all the players on the ice, his and his opponent. Some coaches get so wrapped up in what else is going on in the arena - the crowd, the refs, etc. - that at the end of the game if you ask them about a player from the opposing team he’ll have nothing to share. Accordingly to Hitch, knowing what your guys are doing and what the other guys are doing are the only things you need to know to win. Don’t worry yourself about everything else because you can’t control them anyway.

One on-ice strategy he shared was “The Trap,” which is apparently common in hockey. Essentially it is divide and conquer. When the other team has the puck, move your guys in a way that limits where the puck can move - he cuts the rink in half. Instead of having 85 feet to play, the other team now has 40 feet to work in. Break the problem down into a workable size and then try to solve the problem.

A few other things he mentioned really stood out to me, but these stood out because I married a teacher and hear about how to effectively handle people (even if they are kids) all the time. I’m convinced if you can teach unruly fourth graders you can handle any adult. Hitchcock mentioned the importance of how the coach cannot kill the spirit of the players. Spirit and morale are crucial to having happy players that will work hard. And to not kill the spirit, he talked about how to use positive reinforcement. Instead of constantly harping on his players to “not turn it over on the blue line,” he’ll say something like, “you need to make a stronger decision.” Beating the players down with what they shouldn’t be doing doesn’t help them learn what they should be doing done.

And related to that, he talked about how to manage people. Hockey is a sport that has a lot of diversity. Each team has players from all over the world with many different languages. Coach talked about how he doesn’t necessarily deal with all these different cliques himself. He talked about how all the nationalities band together - all the Swedes, all the Russians, all the Czechs - so he finds the leader of each clique and deals with them most directly. He doesn’t micro-manage all his players. He finds the ones he can work with and then lets them motivate and teach the others. As he said, “you can only do so much as a coach,” and at some point you have to pass on most of the responsibility. The result is a much happier club and one that will work harder towards a common goal. Then all you, as the leader, have to worry about is strategy…the men will manage themselves.

That’s not all he talked about. He spent a great deal of time drawing out plays for everyone to see and explaining the difference between a forecheck and a backcheck. The whole session only lasted about an hour but in that hour I think everyone learned something. Some learned about how Hitchcock manages the Columbus Blue Jackets. Some were there I’m sure just to say they met Coach Hitchcock. Some got the hot scoop on new players. What I took away is that running a hockey team is just like running any other business, only that some businesses need to be run more like a hockey team (and that Coach Hitchcock needs his Giant Eagle free gas points just as much as the rest of us).