Teaching Hockey and Mussar Character Development

I have had the blessing of creating and teaching during summers at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, a unique experiential learning activity of hockey and mussar character development, as part of the sports staff.  I was inspired by mentor and coach Spencer Rockman who so beautifully shared with my children and countless others, including adults, both soccer and middot or character traits.  In a similar vein, I strive to incorporate different character traits into the actual hockey game, so as we are running around playing hockey at camp, I simultaneously call out the trait of “humility,” for example, and how always shooting the puck on net ourselves and ignoring our open teammate is too much ego, whereas always passing to others and giving up an clear shot on the net is too little ego.  We strive for the balanced combination of both shooting and passing.  Hopefully we are planting seeds that as we strive for balance of various character traits during the hockey game – these character traits illustrated in the context of a hockey game also represent a microcosm of the same practical skills and balancing of character traits necessary for life.