Quotes from Bobby Orr

We're going to have more kids playing, and we're going to have a better chance of finding those players Minor sports in a community is for fun and recreation. For everyone.

The biggest thing we get out of it is seeing the kids smile. And hopefully we will also see that the lessons we're teaching - not only the fundamentals of hockey, but also the life values - are sinking in.

There are no environments where you're only going to win, because life just isn't like that.

Forget about style; worry about results.

Developing better people should be the number one goal for any coach when dealing with kids. In trying to develop better people, we are going to develop more and better pros.

Always remember that those who are closest to you will be affected by your dreams. Somewhere along the way, they will undoubtedly have to sacrifice something in order to help you realize your goals.

Firing pucks at your garage door is probably something that young hockey players have always done.

You never know how a single interaction with a person might affect their life, so you must constantly try to be at your best.

If you have any reason for coaching other than wanting to develop better people through minor sports, you should probably step aside. And

The most skilled coaches will always find a way for players to have fun, even if that trophy is nowhere in sight. Creating little victories within the bigger defeats is a mark of excellent coaching, and to those who follow that path, I applaud you. W

Every once in a while, tempers would flare, but we figured out how to settle those disputes as well—after all, there was no referee to decide the outcome. You would stand up for yourself on some occasions if you had to. One way or another, every kid who laces up a pair of skates in a shinny game learns that backing down almost never helps. But it also doesn't take long to figure out that if you play by the spirit of the rules, there is usually not much trouble.

Consistency in coaching styles is, I think, very important, and something I wish more coaches would consider, regardless of the level at which they find themselves coaching.

Call me old-fashioned, but when I was growing up, and especially playing sports, we learned that you don't throw someone under the bus. Mind you, I have no problem sharing the truth when it comes to a particular topic or event, as you are about to see. But telling the truth and piling on are two different things entirely.

Of course, the final piece of the puzzle is passion. Without it, the hard work is just too hard.

The years pass, and a lifetime seems to go by in an instant. I'm told that the young boy is a grandfather now. He has lived a life that should be an example for everyone who achieves greatness of how to be humble and unselfish and how to treat others. It was a joy to be able to coach him for that season and the next year as well, to get to know him as a person as well as player, and it is a great honor to be asked to reminisce about him now.

They all helped make me a more confident player, and with more confidence comes the desire to try different and more creative things on the ice. That lesson in building a player's confidence is something all coaches need to learn. It worked back then, and it still works for today's players.

I still have trouble imagining the coach of a group of eight- or nine-year-old players actually wasting time teaching systems. The greatest system any coach can pass along is allowing kids to create and refine skills. Systems need to come into play only much later, if ever.

I can't remember any of those coaches ever telling me to chip the puck off the boards when things got tough in our own end. We were allowed to try things, creative moves that could get us out of jams on the ice (or into them). That kind of coaching would show itself in the way I played as a professional years later. Without that background of guidance from my minor hockey coaches, I doubt I could ever have become the player I did.

Bucko allowed me to go with my first instinct on the ice: never get rid of the puck when you can control it. Hold on to it, and let the play open up in front of you. And again, it keeps coming back to those days on outdoor rinks or rivers or bays, where we simply skated and handled the puck for hours on end. That training allowed me to do the things I did as a player, and my coaches in turn allowed those skills to develop.

That was the way we learned how to play the game, and you develop your skills pretty quickly in a pitched battle on that scale. After all, if you wanted to spend any amount of time with the puck on your stick, you had to learn how to stickhandle through ten opponents. That's a great environment for kids to develop skills while at the same time having a ton of fun.

You hear peewee coaches teaching the 'trap'. What the heck are we doing teaching the 'trap'? Let the kids go, let them have fun; that's how you improve.

If a player is trying to intimidate a skilled player on your team, what do we want? We want our skilled players playing, so we shouldn't be doing that.

Once you turn pro and you're making the big money and kids are buying your sneakers and your skates and your gloves and so on, you are a member of that role model club.

So many of today's programs are about trophies and jackets, and we think that's a big mistake.