Evaluating talent and selecting the team are two of the more difficult tasks  in coaching. Who the better and poorer players  are is usually quite evident,but selecting from the middle group o f talent is where evaluation criteria are extremely important.

Evaluation of hockey players can be categorized in four areas:physical,techn ical,tactical and mental.

PHYSICAL,TECHNICAL AND TACTICAL  ATTRIBUTES

The physical attributes include size,strength, cardiovascular endurance, quickness and agility. Size is an important aspect in hockey, but quickness and agility are also extremely important. Don’t rule out a small player if that player has strength and quickness.

The technical skills include skating, passing, puck handling, shooting and chcecking. All these skills are important. The checking skill can be taught to all players, provided they have the basic skating skills.

The tactical skills lie in a player’s ability to read the play and react, to understand team systems and to adjust to different situations. Hockey sense and intelligence are important factors that some players seem to ha ve more of than others. The great hockey players have hockey sense and that great ability to read and react to different situations.

MENTAL ATTRIBUTES

The mental  attributes include work habits, general attidude  and character,leadership, coachability, mental toughness, self – confidence, team orientation , motivation and intensity. The mental attributes are sometimes more difficult to determine in a short period of time  and it is probably wise to get as much background information on player as possible before the selection process begins.

Psychological profiling can be a useful tool in the coach’s assessment of the mental attributes of athletes.