Youth hockey coaches can improve their credibility, and their success at player development, by being...

• A Cooperative-Style coach.
• Knowledgeable about the game (or at least honest about what you know/don't know).
• Fair and Consistent with players
• Able to express warmth, friendliness, and acceptance.
• Dynamic, energetic, spontaneous, and open
• Positive, always positive, in dealing with players.

The USA Hockey Coaching Education Program presents this information in the hope that it will educate the reader, whether coach, parent, player, or other participant.  When children grow into adults, and reflect back on their childhood, they often recall the high and low points of that era in terms of the adult influences that were a part of the experience.  We expect and hope that our coaches will evoke many great memories in their players' minds, and will at the same time give to those players the skills and desire to continue on in the sport, at whatever level they try to attain.