Author Archives: tjmanastersky

At the 2004 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Charlie Munger responded to a young shareholder who asked how to succeed in life. He quipped, “Don’t do cocaine. Don’t race trains”. Often the best path to success is to avoid beating yourself. Taking the time to consider the pitfalls and planning to avoid them is a soundContinue reading ““Don’t Race Trains” – Leverage the Basics for Big Time Results”

There’s a big difference between following a recipe and knowing how to cook. There’s a big difference between stealing a drill and understanding why you are doing the drill. We need to know the basic principles that make a skill, concept, or system work and how it applies in a game situation. When that isContinue reading “Teach Skills that Matter with First Principles”

I want to play games. But, within the constraints of COVID protocols, there is an exciting opportunity in front of hockey coaches and players everywhere. We get to invest time in individual player development. In college sports, we are typically constrained with time, giving us just a few weeks to prepare for early season gamesContinue reading “COVID Affordance: Playing Defense with a Great Stick”

Everyone wants to be at their best when it matters the most. Iconic performances are re-lived for decades and in some cases, generations. In Canada, we have Paul Henderson in the Summit Series and in the United States we have Mike Eruzione in the Miracle on Ice. These moments capture the imagination, emotion, and prideContinue reading “Coming Up Big Under Pressure”

When you reflect on the root of your love for hockey or any sport it will bring you down a magical road. For me, it’s playing in the living room with my grandmother chanting “Go Leafs Go”, mini-sticks in hotel hallways, and playing outdoors under the night sky and lights in outdoor rinks in Etobicoke,Continue reading “Why is Play a Motivator?”

Player development should always be at the forefront of coaching priorities. In many cases, it is helpful to use data to drive the process and shape the environment for your athletes. In Part 1: shooting, I showed an example of a practice from the 2019/20 Curry College hockey season. We created a station-based practice with the intentionContinue reading “Data Driven Player Development – Part 2: Goaltending”

Player development should always be at the forefront of coaching priorities. In many cases, it is helpful to use data to drive the process and shape the environment for your athletes. In the 2019/20 Curry College hockey season, we created a station-based practice with the intention to practice “game-like” shooting. The results were surprising andContinue reading “Data Driven Player Development – Part 1: Shooting”

In my last blog post, I wrote about evaluating and recruiting character. I suggest that it’s critical to be clear about the specific character skills that are important to your organization. By doing so, you can create a system for evaluating prospects for behavioral and cultural fit. To determine the intangibles that contribute to winsContinue reading “Hockey Character”

How many bad people do you know? I struggle to come up with anyone in my life who I would describe as a bad person. I believe people are basically good. I feel the same is true in recruiting, although players can be described as having bad character at times. Why are they bad? DidContinue reading “Evaluating and Recruiting Character”