We are in our final weekend of our first annual New Zealand coaching adventure. We’ve had an incredible experience, met outstanding people, and have grown as both people and coaches. With adult men and women on the ice, in the classroom, and training their stickhandling and shooting skills off ice, the weekend has been great.
They always have great questions.
Tree Clinton and I started this mission of an adult clinic a few years ago in Whistler, BC. Neither of us guessed we’d be here together with nearly 20 other men and women from Scotland, Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Eastern Russia in these adult sessions. Never in a million years. We even have Coach Sofia, an Aussie now living in Dunedin, who played NCAA Div III College hockey at Williams College in Massachusetts. It’s unverified but I am guessing she’s the only Australian women to play NCAA hockey! Thanks to Sofia for bringing a van full of young women from the Dunedin Ice Hockey Association for the weekend. We look forward to seeing more from the Dunedin hockey community in the future.
As I write, the crew is trickling in for day 2 of the weekend. Although looking a little more exhausted than the kids last weekend, the adult group is so incredibly keen to learn, ask questions, and challenge their own skills. To see adults humbling attempting to learn new skills, sometimes with great success, sometimes needing a few more repetitions, it’s a reminder that a life spent learning is a life well spent. We have laughed throughout the weekend of the differences between coaching kids and adults: we have a surprisingly greater amount of energy left in the tank after a day with the adults. We teach, they ask a few great questions, and they go learn. Ahhhhh.
