Fun Ways to Motivate a Hockey Team

Playing hockey can be a fun way for adults and children to get exercise and spend their leisure time. Sometimes when individuals play on a hockey team they get bored and uninspired. Individuals also can reach a point where it is hard to find the motivation to keep playing. At this point, coaches need to find fun and exciting ways to get their team excited about playing hockey again.

  1. Success

    • Pointing out an individual's success is a great way to keep them motivated while playing hockey. Individuals perform at their best when they hear encouraging words and praise. Instead of just saying "good job," coaches should be more specific and tell the player he just made a great defensive block or great goal. To make it fun, coaches can think of rewards for when a player does something really well. This could be something as simple as a star on a chart or treating the team to a milkshake after practice or a game.

    Movie

    • Watching a motivational movie about hockey can inspire individuals to play better. Disney's "The Mighty Ducks" is a great movie for kids playing hockey, and "Miracle" is a great movie to motivate adults. After watching the movie together as a team, the team should discuss how the team in the movie worked together to win and what was their motivation. Watching a movie is a great distraction from practice and it can make the individuals think about what is important to them about hockey.

    Slogans

    • Creating posters, fliers and shirts with motivational sayings is another fun idea to motivate a hockey team. Time can be taken out of practice to sit around and think of inspirational words or phrases that can be put on these items. Then the individuals can hang their posters or fliers in the locker room or around the hockey rink. Each time the individuals look at their posters or fliers it will motivate them to work harder.

    Set Goals

    • Setting goals is a final way to motivate a hockey team. Deciding on goals should be something fun that a team can do together. Goals can either be for the individual or for the team as a whole. To make it fun, there can be a reward at the end if the goal is reached. For example, if the team wins five games they get a pizza party, and if they win the championship they can have any kind of party they want.