Clash Tournament
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, karl(east)
Clash Tournament
Great tournament. It is really nice to see that many great kids play at a high level. La ringrazio tanto!
Re: Clash Tournament
Agreed. I have a bit of concern there are way too many AAA teams at the U10 level and it's watering down the product, but up the chain (U12, U14, U16, U19) there is really some good hockey being played.u12dad wrote:Great tournament. It is really nice to see that many great kids play at a high level. La ringrazio tanto!
What team did your daughter play on this weekend?
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Wow, has it been almost a year since somebody used the W-word? Most everyone buys into the 'build the base of the pyramid' philosophy, and yet we still describe the plethora of summer opportunities as 'watered down'. A different perspective might be in this case poor tournament selection decisions were made by the program directors/team coaches/parents/the tournament itself/or the fact that with 10U you just don't know what you're going to get yet. If there are 500 or 600 girls playing 10U hockey in the summer time, bully! Let's try to do a better job of matching them up.
To me the biggest problem isn't really that there are so many different opportunities. Of course, that is great. More girls playing is a good thing! The problem is that all these girls are thrown into one pool to swim and it can lead to worthless ice time in tournaments.InigoMontoya wrote:Wow, has it been almost a year since somebody used the W-word? Most everyone buys into the 'build the base of the pyramid' philosophy, and yet we still describe the plethora of summer opportunities as 'watered down'. A different perspective might be in this case poor tournament selection decisions were made by the program directors/team coaches/parents/the tournament itself/or the fact that with 10U you just don't know what you're going to get yet. If there are 500 or 600 girls playing 10U hockey in the summer time, bully! Let's try to do a better job of matching them up.
Perhaps it would be better to go the birth year route at the younger levels for girls, like the Machine and Miracle Gold do. Watching the 02 Machine Orange play most 03 teams (or most 02 teams for that matter) isn't going to be pretty, yet that happens at U12 this year. Same thing watching, for example, the 04 Miracle Gold play the 05 Machine Orange. That one year of physical growth or lack thereof can be very, very significant.
A tournament like the Independent could undoubtedly divide its teams into 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002 flights. Teams confident in their ability to play "up" (say, the 03 Machine Orange, the Miracle Gold), could go to 2002. Other teams could play teams that are of similar age.
This is how travel soccer works and for the most part it results in competitive matches. Compare to the Meltdown, where there was at least a plurality, if not an outright majority, of group play blowouts.
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That is also how it works on the boys' side. Looking at the Meltdown scores, I think it's an example of the unknown nature of the girls' summer environment - if the 10's had blowouts, the 12's may have been less so, and the 14's look like a bunch of pretty close games -they figure it out a little as they get older. Also, I think if you're going to consolidate all of the talent in one or two spots, there won't be anybody for those kids to play - if the Machine and Os have the top 50 02's, and the rest of the programs are each trying to scrabble together 2 or 3 of the kids 51-100, the rest of the programs will have a great time playing each other, but can't compete with the other two (the same issues the boys had with Machine and Blades for a few years - play up in the local tourneys, and travel great distances to find real competition your own age).This is how travel soccer works and for the most part it results in competitive matches. Compare to the Meltdown, where there was at least a plurality, if not an outright majority, of group play blowouts.
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Do you mean for tournaments, i.e., that the Clash should have 5th, 6th, 7th grade levels for competition?zambonidriver wrote:Why not go by grade like Os does with their teams like 01/02, 02/03,03/04
That way you all the kids that play at a level.
I like it. But that would require a complete overhaul of summer hockey. Maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing.
Plus, teams from out of state and country would have to do a lot of reconfiguring as well.
I do agree, it's the best option.
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